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  • CETA Trade Deal and Jumbo Resort Proposal
    Feature, Mining, Sep-Oct-2012-Vol22-No4, Parks

    Photo by Lucas Jmieffby Joyce Nelson

    Ever since the BC Liberal government surprised residents of BC’s Kootenays with its March 20, 2012 approval for the controversial Jumbo Glacier Resort, people have been asking: Why now? After all, the Jumbo Resort proposal has been around since 1989 and has been successfully opposed by local people for

  • Protecting Children from Pesticides - the Neglected Legacy of Rachel Carson
    Feature, Children, Pesticides, Sep-Oct-2012-Vol22-No4

    Creative Commonsby Bruce Lanphear

    At the turn of the 20th century, the greatest threat to the health of children was infectious diseases, like cholera, tuberculosis and typhoid.
    The development of vaccines and antibiotics played an important role in reducing deaths from infections, but the single greatest factor in reducing death rates and improving life expectancy was altering the environment to make it inhospitable to infectious agents: providing

  • Pesticide Residues in Our Food - What Does It Really Mean?
    Feature, Food, Pesticides, Sep-Oct-2012-Vol22-No4

    Photo by Paula Rodriguezby Miranda Holmes

    For the past eight years, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has been analysing the pesticide testing done by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
    EWG’s annual Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce ranks pesticide contamination for 45 popular fruits and vegetables, measuring the contamination in six

  • Sacred Economics and Simplicity Exercises Recommended Books
    Alternative economy, Capitalism

    Here are couple of important and interesting new books, both free for downloading.  They complement each other very nicely.  

    The first one is Sacred Economics by Charles Eisenstein, a brilliant young writer.  In this book, he traces the history of money from ancient gift economies to modern capitalism, revealing how and the money system is not working and presenting how it must change for the benefit of all.  The link is here:

  • BC Tribal Parks Protect Against Forest Ecosystem Destruction
    BC, First Nations, Forests, Land use, Parks, Jan-Feb-2012-Vol22-No1

    by Joe Foy

    Wild nature and human cultures that spring from wild nature are under assault over the entire planet. Large scale urban expansion, logging, indus­trial agriculture, mining, and petro-chemical developments are disappear­ing nature’s landscapes and peoples from Guatamala to the Philippines.

    Here amongst the wild mountains and inlets of the North Pacific coast we suffer the same kinds of destruction. But over the years a new form of land designation has given some hope.

    Tribal parks in British Columbia were designated for the first time in the 1980s on Meares Island in Clayoquot Sound by the Tla-o-qui-aht Nation, and on Gwaii Hanaas off the northwest coast by the Haida Nation.

    Although typically grounded in environmental concerns

  • Endangered Forest Ecosystem Destruction in BC
    BC, BC Forests, Canada, Ecosystem, Forests, Land use, Logging, Mar-Apr-2012-Vol22-No2

    The most endangered ecosystem in Canada – the Coastal Douglas Fir Ecosystem – has less than 2% remaining in a wild condition. But despite a constant stream of people coming to see the rare plants and animals found there, Premier Clark’s government still OK’d the logging destruction.

    by Joe Foy

    Everybody loves a cute baby. As our bus wound up the steep mountain road I found myself eye to eye with a beautiful little girl who was looking intently at me from the safety of her mother’s arms. Something was bugging her and she would alternate between smiles and spates of crying as we bumped and swerved ever higher into the mountains.  

    We were headed for the town of Dalat, which is in the central highlands of Vietnam.

  • Raven Mine Quiz - Test Yourself!
    Mining

    QUIZ ON THE PROPOSED RAVEN UNDERGROUND COAL MINE PROJECT

    1. The mine site is _______ kilometres uphill from Baynes Sound.
       a. 2 km    b. 5 km    c. 7 km        d. 10 km

    2. The mine would be in operation for  _______ years.
       a. 6 years    b. 16 years    c. 26 years    d. 36 years

    3. Of the 1.9 metric tonnes/year of ore mined, _____ % will be waste rock left on site.

  • A Perfect Trifecta for Pulp Mills
    BC, Bioenergy, Carbon trading, pulp mills

    Re: Carbon boondoggle robs poor to fuel rich, Brian Kieran, Monday Magazine, August 16 2012

    Last fall, in the September-October issue of Watershed Sentinel, a year before Brian Kieran wrote his "boondoggle" column for Monday, we wrote BC's Bio Boondoggle, a far-ranging article looking at government schemes which would use more of our forests for energy generation, under the guise of renewable energy, and the heavy subsidies available to companies wishing to take advantage of the opportunities.

  • Hard to Believe Enbridge is Serious
    Enbridge, Northern Gateway Pipeline, Oil spills

    The more it piles up, the harder it is to believe Enbridge is serious about building that pipeline - running away from Indians with eagle down, airbrushing out islands, running ads in movie theatres that the audience not only boos, but laughs at? Come on guys! NOBODY could be that inept on purpose!

  • Enbridge Panel Hears "Oh Canada" During Security Shutdown in Comox BC
    Dilbit, Enbridge Pipelines, Oil spill

    The Joint Panel Review Oral testimony hearings on the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines in Comox BC August 10th showed an outstanding quality of presentations from the assembled speakers. Meanwhile, outside the hall, some Valley folks played “Let’s spill some oil,” complete with tanker and tug.

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"This is it. It's done!" was the message in Alaska in 2008, 19 years after the Exxon Valdes oil spill.  Dave Janka, who runs Auklet Charters in Prince William Sound, ran his boat over to Smith Island to snap this photo.  Dave says, "It's far from done!"

W.L.M. (Bill) Wilson writes: 'Attached is my rewrite of Anne Feeney’s “Have You Been To Jail for Justice”. Anne granted permission to do non-profit performances of this Enbridge version.' Video by Ester Strijbos.