Ecology/Environment

21/11/17
Author: 
Ian Angus

As the great American labor organizer and socialist Mary Harris ‘Mother’ Jones said: “Sit down and read.

17/11/17
Author: 
Nia Williams and Kevin O'Hanlon
An aerial view shows the darkened ground of an oil spill which shut down the Keystone pipeline between Canada and the United States, located in an agricultural area near Amherst, South Dakota, U.S., in this photo provided Nov. 17, 2017.  HANDOUT/TRANSCANADA

The crude oil spill on the Keystone pipeline in South Dakota will take months to clean up, a state official said on Friday, just days before Nebraska was due to decide on another pipeline project by the owner, TransCanada Corp.

Canadian heavy crude prices and TransCanada Corp shares slid on Friday, the day after the 5,000 barrel spill, tied for this year's largest pipeline leak in the United States.

No date has been set for reopening Keystone, TransCanada said, adding that a media report that had stated a restart date was incorrect.

17/11/17
Author: 
David P. Ball
BEN PARFITT/CCPA / METRO WEB UPLOAD  A photo of a dam used by Progress Energy in its operations in British Columbia.

British Columbia's gas industry regulator launched a string of enforcement orders this fall against fracking dams in the province's gas-rich northeast.

The crackdown comes amidst questions being raised about the independence of the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission from the whims of industry, raised by a researcher with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives who documented at least 50 illegally built dams.

17/11/17
Author: 
Gloria Galloway
Wood Buffalo National Park was created in 1922 to protect one of the last remaining free-roaming northern bison herds in the world.  WOOD BUFFALO NATIONAL PARK

Canada's largest national park – established 95 years ago to protect the last herds of northern bison – is deteriorating and faces significant threats from climate change and industrial development, says an international agency that monitors world heritage sites.

The International Union on the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which is based in Switzerland and was established in 1948 to encourage conservation and natural diversity, released a World Heritage Outlook report this week that examines the condition of ecologically important sites around the globe.

15/11/17
Author: 
Michael Safi
 People cover their faces from the dust and smog in Delhi. Photograph: Harish Tyagi/EPA

Measures aimed at slashing vehicle emissions will be introduced two years early, the Indian government has announced in its first major policy response to the Delhi smog crisis.

As the haze improved slightly on Wednesday – albeit to levels still considered “very poor” – the Indian petroleum ministry said it would introduce Bharat VI fuels from April next year, instead of April 2020 as originally planned.

13/11/17
Author: 
Nicole Mortillaro
Over 15,000 scientists signed an open letter published in BioScience warning humanity that we need to change our behaviours in order to protect the planet. (NOAA)

A similar warning was first issued by scientists in 1992

Nov 13, 2017

More than 15,000 scientists around the world have issued a global warning: there needs to be change in order to save Earth.

It comes 25 years after the first notice in 1992 when a mere 1,500 scientists issued a similar warning. 

This new cautioning — which gained popularity on Twitter with #ScientistsWarningToHumanity — garnered more than 15,000 signatures. 

12/11/17
Author: 
Dr. Warren Bell , Amy Lubik
Darryl Penner, an employee of TRICAN Well Service, takes a break outside of fracking operation at a site near Rosebud, Alberta. TIM FRASER / CALGARY HERALD

Published on: November 10, 2017

Prior to last spring’s provincial election, the B.C. NDP promised to appoint a panel to examine the impacts of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in B.C., a review that would include an investigation into the natural gas industry’s impacts on water, earthquakes and greenhouse gas emissions.

12/11/17
Author: 
Staff Torstar News Service
TORSTAR NEWS SERVICE  Residents of Grassy Narrows First Nation called news of a secret 2016 report about mercury contamination "sickening" and "a deception." Mercury has sickened generations of residents who fish in the Wabigoon River system.

A confidential 2016 report says provincial officials were told in the 1990s that the site of a paper mill near Grassy Narrows was contaminated with mercury.

 Nov 11 2017

Government officials knew in the 1990s that mercury was visible in soil under the paper mill upstream from Grassy Narrows First Nation, but the people there did not find out until this week, Torstar News Service has learned.

25/10/17
Author: 
George Monbiot
‘Flying insects are the pollinators without which a vast tract of the plant kingdom, both wild and cultivated, cannot survive.’ Photograph: Paul J Richards/AFP/Getty Images

The shocking collapse of insect populations hints at a global ecological meltdown

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