Category Archives: environment

Aboriginal rights a threat to Canada’s resource development

by

Warrior Publications has this up on what we already knew, but yeah, putting it in writing that Harper and the rest see the land rights of the First Nations folks being problematic.

See…it’s so much harder to get the oil out when you have to ask permission by folks who see it as violating the Earth.  They aren’t as easily swayed by $$ because the Earth is sacred to them.

It’s even more of a problem when those folks have the law on their side.

Honor the Treaties, Canada.

 

 

No Confirmed Link with Pig Feed and virus

by

Okay….I’ve been casually reading on this story and find it reeeaaally hard to believe they “can’t find” a link between the dreaded virus in the feed and the pigs contracting the virus.  It just seems a no brainer that if the virus is in the feed…and the pigs come down with the virus…yeah, it’s the feed…and here we have the evidence that the virus can survive not only in feed, but feces and water.

From the article:

While dry ground feed only allowed PEDV to survive for seven days, wet ground feed provided a more hospitable environment, allowing PEDV to survive at least 28 days. Again, the duration could be longer, but Goyal’s study ended. Storing infected feed at room temperature for two weeks should kill the virus.

~~~~~~~~~

The next question is why is blood plasma in the feed to begin with?  Can you say unhealthy, inhumane factory farms?  I knew that you could.

It’s Cloud Illusions I Recall…

by

I really don’t know clouds at all…

(from Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now)

City Jackdaw inspired this with his post.

You can still see with the imagination…as long as those aren’t chemtrail clouds**, which invariably are shapeless flat expanses… that you really should not be under after sprayed…your health depends on it.

**brought to you buy Bill Gates and his two, count that, two, scientists who have all knowledge of all the universe to control weather and kill us in the meantime….

 

Removing the Dust

by

Warrior Publications has this up from John Kane on relearning what our ancestors knew…

Some folks are so far removed from nature that they don’t have even the very basic knowledge of…living.  Living in harmony, that is…

We’ve been fed this false belief that technology is superior to nature…when nothing trumps nature.  Just look at the powerful force of nature during any storm…and how technology takes a hit every time.

Technology has put up a wall between us and nature.  We lose that connection.  We lose the talent of our senses without engaging them daily. (Think of folks walking into water fountains or walking into traffic while talking on cell phones.)

…and when we lose that connection, we lose the ability to value nature–to understand nature.  And as the post says–we lose the ability to know our place within nature and our time here.

Being poor helps with that–washing clothes by scrubbing them on a washboard gave me a sense of accomplishment–I knew that I could do a decent job of it; learning how to manage on so little helps one really learn how to prioritize on what is important–you learn what is fluff and what is substance;  and the biggest re-connect with nature is your own sense of self-worth and pride in that you made it.  You survived.  And nature is better for it because the balance of give-and-take is restored.  You no longer take and take, but realize you must give, too.  Not easy…but ohhh so worth it, in the end.  You gain something so much more valuable.

 

 

Keystone Pipeline Exposed **updated

by

PRESS RELEASE: Tuesday, February 25, 2014
CONTACT: Nick Surgey, nick@prwatch.org, (608) 260-9713

KEYSTONE PIPELINES EXPOSED: NEW FILM REFUTES JOBS, SECURITY, GAS PRICE, TAX, SAFETY, AND CLIMATE CLAIMS

MADISON — Today, the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) released a new short film and launched a series of major investigative reports debunking key claims of proponents of the Keystone XL Pipeline, as the State Department solicits comments from the public on its controversial environmental impact assessment.

Over the past seven months, CMD has interviewed experts and activists in Port Arthur, Texas; Detroit; and Washington, DC; and examined detailed tax, safety, economic, environmental, and campaign finance studies in assessing the claims made by proponents of the pipeline, which would carry more than 3/4 million barrels of tar sands oil a day from Canada to Gulf Coast refineries.

“We made this film and investigated the public relations campaign for the Keystone XL pipeline because the fake ‘facts’ about jobs and energy security peddled by industry-funded politicians and uncritical pundits has left too many Americans deeply misinformed,” said Lisa Graves, the Executive Director of the Center for Media and Democracy. CMD is the publisher of the award-winning “ALEC Exposed” investigative reporting project about the American Legislative Exchange Council.

The film, “Keystone PipeLIES Exposed,” highlights little known facts about the KXL pipeline project such as the corporate exemption for tar sands oil from the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund and the limits on taxes due for foreign oil imported to foreign trade zones like Port Arthur. The film also includes footage from major tar sands oil spills in the U.S. and Canada that were only briefly in the headlines despite the enormous damages they caused. A short excerpt of the film is available at: https://vimeo.com/87520545

CMD’s short film documents that, despite the claims of politicians and others backing KXL:

—  KXL will not directly create 100,000+ jobs but 3,900 short-term and 50 long-term ones.

— KXL will not produce billions in corporate tax revenues, due to tax loopholes most Americans have never heard of.

— KXL will not be safe from disastrous leaks, but it will be exempt from corporations paying into a key disaster insurance fund because it is “unconventional oil,” which puts taxpayers on the hook for billions.

— KXL will not make America energy independent; and, in fact, most of the tar sands oil is planned for export from the Gulf of Mexico via tankers to foreign countries.

— KXL will not be climate neutral — in spite of that suggestion made in an assessment prepared by an industry-linked group — but it will speed climate change and global instability.

Dave Saldana, the Emmy Award-winning writer, director, and producer of the film, commented: “The Keystone XL pipeline is a phenomenally bad idea. I looked at the claims as a lawyer; what did the evidence show me? The evidence shows that its job creation claims are grossly inflated; that better, greener alternatives would aid America’s energy independence and put more Americans to work for a longer time than the pipeline; and that the pumping of tar sands oil across the U.S. primarily for export to foreign countries poses enormous risks to America’s water supply, food supply, and air quality. And that’s before you even get to what it does to climate change.”

CMD’s film and related documentation are being released in advance of the March 7 deadline the State Department has set for public comments on the government’s recently released environmental impact assessment, which critics believe signals that the State Department is poised to give a green light to the pipeline’s expansion across the U.S.-Canadian border and to the Texas shores. On March 2, activists are preparing for KXL protests across the nation.

NEW RESOURCES FOR THE PRESS AND PUBLIC ON KXL

The production package for “Keystone PipeLIES Exposed” includes a 22-minute film, a fact sheet debunking the main myths about the KXL, seven 3-minute short videos for easy sharing, and other materials about the the experts cited in the film, which you can find at our new website http://www.pipeLIESexposed.org. Follow the conversation at #pipelies.

In addition, five in-depth investigative pieces will be published — each day this week — at CMD’s original reporting site, http://www.prwatch.org. Follow us on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/CenterforMediaandDemocracy and Twitter https://twitter.com/PRWatch

~~~~~~~~~~~~

**UPDATED:  Please sign the petition against XL here.

Eye Candy

by

This week’s pics of beautiful Canada.  I was thinking about Neil Young’s song and the video of the Earth before the energy companies move in, and how much is lost that cannot be regained after they’re done stripping the land…

We are all connected

by

WordPress had a general country count of visitors for the blog.  I have to say that I was tickled the first time I saw someone from another country visit the blog.

But I was blown away by a visitor from…Russia.

First, I want to say “Hello!” and welcome.

Second, I want to say don’t believe what they say about all Americans.   For the most part, we are probably a lot like you–we want to take care of our families, keep food on the table, be healthy,  and have a purpose in life.  We’re all connected and more alike than not.

Most of us want peace and are sick of wars.

We’re also very concerned about the environment.

The XL pipeline is a terrible venture, as is the Enbridge pipeline going in my state of Indiana.  We’re also home to BP petcoke refining operation in Whiting, Indiana, a very toxic venture, as well.

I think Indiana has been as close to living in Russia as it ever has for this winter has been really rough.  We’re thinking of adopting the penguin as the new state bird (a little Hoosier humor sent on the dreaded f_cebook.)  Ha.

So…have a look around and comment if you like–would love to hear from you.

You’ll have to translate it, though, the only Russian word I know is “nyet”.  Ha.

 

Video segments of Kochs Exposed

by

Here are snippets of the documentary on the grip the Kochs have on policy.  It’s truly heartening what happened in Wake County, a southern area, and how they were not willing to go backward.

Also, this documentary leaves out the Gates Foundation and Eli Broad and the Walton family’s influence on destroying public education…just wanted to note that important piece of this pie.