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Climate change means even parts of Canada will need to prepare for stronger hurricanes, report suggests

CBC News Researchers say governments need to begin adapting now to the new reality. Story here.

A third of global farmland at 'high' pesticide pollution risk

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PHYS ORG A public domain photo. A third of the planet's agricultural land is at "high risk" of pesticide pollution from the lingering residue of chemical ingredients that can leach into water supplies and threaten biodiversity, according to research published Monday. Story here.

Ag-gag laws make matters worse for hogs

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By: Vicki Burns and Brittany Semeniuk Winnipeg Free Press - OPINION Sows confined to steel "gestation crates," a common practise in the industry. "Ag-gag" legislation is silently sweeping across the nation, and both Hog Watch Manitoba and the Winnipeg Humane Society have serious concerns. The term "ag-gag" refers to any piece of legislation which stifles the ability of concerned civilians to document and report animal cruelty and abuse inflicted upon farm animals. On March 10, the Manitoba government publicly released Bill 62 and Bill 63, which seek to make it illegal for Manitobans to not only document farm animals during transportation, but to bear witness to all livestock (including horses) in transport trucks, production facilities and slaughterhouses. Factory-style hog barns that are dominating the hog industry now are a far cry from the family farms that many of the public still envision. The pigs are never outside, but are constantly confined in lar

The Science world mourns the loss of David Schindler, the Scientific Giant Who Defended Fresh Water

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THE TYEE David Schindler. Photo credit - Science Magazine. Among the world’s greatest ecologists, his boreal research has touched all of our lives. Story here.

Do ethics matter? Apparently, in the murky world of industrial livestock, not so much...

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What makes our industrial livestock sector tick?  A sincere desire to feed a hungry world? A commitment to do so in a way that doesn't damage Earth's delicate life support systems? A devotion to the humane treatment of animals? An innate duty to produce a product that's safe for all of us to eat?  Or are there darker forces at play? by Larry Powell Photo credit - FAO Flying in the face of warnings from the world’s top medical authorities, intensive livestock producers, from Manitoba to Manchuria, continue to give enormous amounts of antibiotics to their herds. This overuse (sometimes in humans, but overwhelmingly in animals raised for food) is contributing to the growth of “antimicrobial resistance” or AMR. These are “superbugs” which can no longer be controlled by the best, front-line antibiotics we can throw at them.  Many of these “miracle drugs,” are critical in the treatment of deadly human infections. Few, if any alternatives are available. And, partly because hardly

WARMING AUTUMNS - FEWER BUTTERFLIES

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Science Magazine  Butterflies such as the great purple hairstreak, Atlides halesus, are in decline in the warming American West according to community surveys. PHOTO: JEFFREY GLASSBERG/NORTH AMERICAN BUTTERFLY ASSOCIATION Details here.

Gulf Oil Spill's long-lasting legacy for dolphins

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Science News Bottlenose dolphin. A NOAA photo. Health impacts from a 2010 spill are found even in dolphins born years later.  Story here.

WHAT'S IN A PROMISE? The end of gestation crates in Canada was scheduled for 2024. Now, it’s 2029.

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Factory Farm Collective    A sow in a steel crate. If pigs could talk. In 2014, the National Farm Animal Care Council (NFACC) updated their industry guidelines for pig welfare and recommended that the pork industry end the use of gestation crates (or sow stalls) by 2024. This statement is taken from NFACC’s website under the heading, What The Science Says: Here. RELATED: Manitoba hog farmers pledge sow stall phase-out. 

HUMANS HAVE COEXISTED WITH WILDFIRES FOR MILLENNIA, CLIMATE CHANGE AND INDUSTRIAL LOGGING ARE MAKING THINGS WORSE

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Sierra Club BC   Wildfires devastate Fort MacMurray, Alberta, CA. Satellite photo by NASA. Intact Forests Are Our Biggest Allies Against Worsening Wildfires, But We Are Logging Them To The Brink. Story here.

Nothing quite like blubber: Polar bears have few options as global heating makes seal-hunting more difficult.

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Journal of Experimental Biology   "Polar bear with seal kill, Baffin Island" by vtluvbug79 As Arctic sea ice disappears, polar bears will lose access to their preferred prey – highly caloric seals. The authors say that, on land, a polar bear would need to eat about 1.5 caribou, 37 Arctic char, 74 snow geese, 216 snow goose eggs, or 3 million crowberries to get the digestible energy they now get from the blubber of one adult ringed seal.  Read the full study here. READ another version of this story: Here. Can polar bears and narwhals cling on as the ice shrinks?

U.N. blueprint on climate emergencies reminds us of man's legacy of deadly pollution and destruction of wildlife.

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EcoWatch Ducks swim through an "algal soup" - a stream in Manitoba Canada probably  over-fertilized  by livestock and human waste. A PinP photo. The head of the world body sounds the alarm on what he calls humanity's "senseless and suicidal war on nature." Details here.