The appearance of avian flu in the Fraser Valley — the fourth such outbreak in 10 years — is just one symptom of the inexorable rise of factory farming, with its attendant risks to animal welfare, human health and the environment.
Thousands of chickens and turkeys are again wiped out by a virulent disease, and thousands more must be destroyed to prevent its spread. Public health officials again must closely monitor a deadly virus affecting poultry to ensure it doesn’t pose a threat to humans.
The letter to the Environmental Protection Agency from Attorney General Scott Pruitt of Oklahoma carried a blunt accusation: Federal regulators were grossly overestimating the amount of air pollution caused by energy companies drilling new natural gas wells in his state.
But Mr. Pruitt left out one critical point. The three-page letter was written by lawyers for Devon Energy, one of Oklahoma’s biggest oil and gas companies, and was delivered to him by Devon’s chief of lobbying.
The Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, a First Nation whose leadership has spoken out for years against oil sands pollution in northern Alberta, is among six First Nations being taken to court by the federal government for not complying with a new law requiring bands to post audited financial statements online.
The First Nation's spokesperson, Eriel Deranger, called the lawsuit "a kind of bullying" in retaliation for fighting the oil industry, although the government said this is not the case.
It would be hard to invent a more destructive ritual of national self-punishment. Year after year, we hand oil companies gigantic tracts of pristine land. They skin them of entire ecosystems. They vacuum billions of dollars out of the country. Their oversized power, sunk into lobbying and litigation, upends government law-making.
‘We can’t sit this one out, not because we have too much to lose, but because we have too much to gain’ … for a great many people, climate action is their best hope for a better present, and a future far more exciting than anything else currently on offer.” — Naomi Klein, quoting Miya Yoshitani of the Asian-Pacific Environmental Network
In short, so long as we live under capitalism, today, tomorrow, next year and every year thereafter, economic growth will always be the overriding priority till we barrel right off the cliff to collapse..... Given the multiple existential threats to our very survival, you might expect that our leading environmental thinkers and activists would be looking into those "radical" solutions, and especially be thinking "beyond capitalism." Don't hold your breath.
The debate has led to the coining of the term “extractivism”. While almost non-existent in leftist discourse only a few years ago, extractivism has become a central focus for many progressives.
In recent years, a number of important discussions have emerged among and between environmentalists and solidarity activists.
None has generated quite as much heat as the debate over extractive industries, particularly in South America.
LISLE-SUR-TARN, France — The protests began a year ago in this quiet corner of southwestern France, as a small and peaceful gathering of hippies, environmental activists and utopians of all types set up tents to oppose the construction of a nearby dam.
In August, after local authorities sent diggers and then crushing machines to level the soil and destroy trees, clashes erupted between protesters and the police, turning this vast stretch of woodland into what many here called a war zone.
Despite endless conferences, treaties and solemn promises, greenhouse gas emissions have risen 61% since 1990, and the rate of increase is accelerating. As Naomi Klein tells us in her new book, This Changes Everything, we are now experiencing an “early twenty-first century emissions explosion.”
On September 8, a Texas state regulatory agency sent a letter to United States Secretary of State John Kerry, suggesting that U.S. anti-fracking activists are receiving funding from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“It is reasonable to assume,” Texas Railroad Commissioner David Porter wrote, “that their intention is to increase their market share of natural gas production and distribution as Russia is the second largest producer of natural gas in the world.”
