What’s it like for a Regina cyclist to go see a movie?
Besides homicidal/comical drivers (from Alberta),
there are flooded Multi Use Pathways,
and underpasses that are creeks.
Persist past those hazards, and there are gravelly “Shared” bike lanes with parked cars ready to give you the “door-prize”.
Can you see drivers being as patient and persistent as Regina’s cyclists? Despite the flooded dead-ends without detour signs, I made the 11km bike ride from the south west, to the north east in under an hour, so I could catch the latest “Star Trek Into Darkness” [10/10]. I’d highly recommend trying it. The film was great fun too. *rim shot*
The last remnants of a unique ecosystem on Earth are entering what is potentially their last years of natural existence. This will lead to the extinctions of some plants and animals that exist only on the Canadian prairies. Extinctions destabilize an ecosystem, and it’s an ecosystem where humans cannot be assured of long-term survival if it becomes destabilized.
The Conservatives removed protection for the community pastures in an apparent effort to privatize the land. The Sask Party, instead of putting the land under provincial management, has opted to sell off the land, following in the Conservative Party’s wishes. This is against the interest of Canadians, and of most of the ranchers and farmers who’ve used the pasture land over the decades they’ve been in the public trust.
Trevor Harriot in the Globe and Mail:
As for the program having achieved its goals [according to Ritz], the need for soil conservation and managing ecosystems in the public interest does not simply go away.
Press release sent my way today:
For Immediate Release:
April 17, 2013
Public Pastures – Public Interest
Uniting to Save Saskatchewan’s Community Pastures
Joint Venture Video Release
In April of 2012 the federal government announced it was divesting itself of 2.3 million acres of PFRA community pastures, 1.78 million of which are located in Saskatchewan. The control for these pastures has now reverted back to the prairie provinces and in response the Saskatchewan government has announced they will be seeking to sell or lease these lands to the current pasture patrons. With rising land values putting the purchase of these lands far beyond the reach of most patrons, exceeding their ability to run a financially viable operation, patrons are looking to find an alternative solution. Other stakeholders affected by this decision are looking to ensure a sustainable environmental action plan for the land is continued, safeguarding the continued health of the ecosystem and the 32 species at risk that reside there.
To help communicate this message, the various stakeholders (Patrons, First Nations, Academic and Wildlife/Environmental groups) have been meeting over the past several months to discuss their common concerns and encourage the two levels of government to reconsider their position on the importance of preserving and sustaining our community pastures. The result is a collaborative and inclusive video showcasing stakeholder concerns and their belief that, in order to ensure a positive outcome for all, they must work together to find a viable solution.
It is their hope this video will also help communicate the message to stakeholders not yet involved and encourage them to join the collaborative effort towards protecting out public interests, and maintaining current and long term sustainable management of our Community Pastures.
For more information on this video and the joint initiative please contact any of the following:
* Trevor Herriot, Public Pastures – Public Interest, Regina, trevorherriot@gmail.com , home 306-585-1674
* Senator Roland Crowe – First Nations representative, 306-539-9200
* Joanne Brochu – Patrons representative, jbrochu@sasktel.net , cell 306-255-7602
Oww, my sides would be hurting from laughing at the irony of this situation, if it weren’t a deadly serious joke that the Conservatives are playing on Canadians.
On a public relations mission to convince the public that the BC coast will be safe from oil spills, the clean-up vessel ran aground on a sandbar, and was delayed by hours.
British Columbia’s largest oil spill response vessel got stuck on a sandbar en route to a federal news conference where Monday about strengthening Canada’s oil spill defences.
This was only a test. If this had been a real emergency, your coastline would be covered in oil.Joe Oliver would be cackling.
You really have to love it when a press conference fails so badly for any politician hell bent on pitching a catastrophic idea destined to ruin lives and our environment.
Thinking is not hard to do, but some people treat it like others should do it for them. Clicking that link may be painful, as it has details of a state representative saying cyclists pollute worse than car drivers because they are exercising and breathing out more CO(2) in doing so. I guess the worst thing you could do is get in a car, go to the gym, and get on a stationary bike, eh?
Idiots are all around us, and sometimes they are elected as government representatives. Because this story casts cyclists in a negative light, I suppose you’ll be hearing about it on Gormley’s radio show later on. You can then expect the usual cast of zombie callers recounting the last time they were irritated by a cyclist on a street they owned.
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There’s nothing more polluting, in every sense of the word, than a Republican on a high horse.
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Yesterday I noted on Twitter that there are many easy changes someone can make in their weekly routine, to make a dent in how much climate change (air pollution) they directly and indirectly create. For instance, someone can cut meat out of one of their days in the week, to have at least a 1/7th impact immediately on their demand for meat. If the demand falls enough, fewer animals will need to be raised to make farmers the same amount of money. More importantly, meat requires much more water and energy input for the same amount of food energy plants can directly provide to humans.
Some (intentionally) hard of understanding trolls came by to mock the information. It’s hard not to laugh at someone who thinks its hard to point out a time when Saskatchewan has faced a water crisis. Although the title is worded in a clumsy way, Forbes helps explain why basing so much of the world’s food supply on meat, is a folly.
This information didn’t slow down the trolls though, who went on to suggest that I’m a damned dirty easterner, never grew up on a farm, and couldn’t have the faintest idea of what it takes to understand the food system. Besides all that, I apparently want all people to stop eating all meat, and starve. It’s hard to argue with iron-clad logic like that, eh?
Some of these comments come from people who earlier chided me for thinking of solutions to our oil dependence. When did conservatives start subscribing to pre-Copernicus thinking? There are centuries of tradition after that sort of anti-science, anti-discovery thinking to “conserve” with their defence of the status quo. There’s no need to be so anti-intellectual and anti-solution.
The Duck and Cover propaganda has worked maybe. There’s an entire generation prone to thinking they can protect themselves from massive danger by covering their head with their arms until they feel safe again.
Here’s Percy, a climate change denier, responding to Purple Library Guy’s comment in 2011 about ocean acidification.
PLG: “researchers have found using tanks with sea water only acidified to levels we’re predicted to reach in 20 years or so if current emission trends continue,”
Percy: Predicted by secretive computer models which fail to predict the past. I think it’s time for everyone to panic. I’ll tell you what. Let’s not worry about this impending doom which we are facing and, in twenty years, you can tell me that you told me so. Get a grip. The sky is not falling, Chicken Little. The apocalypse is not nigh. I’ve lived long enough to have heard a great deal of caterwauling about one crisis or another and I know enough about politics to recognize that this is just the latest attempt at a power grab.
Ocean acidification, as scientists call this pickling of the seas, is, like climate change, a result of the enormous amount of carbon dioxide humans have pumped into the atmosphere. Oceans have absorbed about a quarter of that output, and ocean chemistry has changed as a result. Surface water pH has long been an alkaline 8.2, not far from the pH of baking soda, but it now averages about 8.1. That doesn’t look like much, but since pH is a logarithmic scale, that means a 30 percent increase in the acidity.
The industry finally pulled out of its tailspin in 2010, when NOAA scientists determined that what was killing the oyster larvae was corrosive water that entered the hatchery at certain times of the year — usually in summer, and specifically on days when winds from the northwest caused upwelling of deeper water, which is more acidic than surface water. With federal money, hatcheries were able to install sophisticated pH monitors and CO2 monitors. When waters are becoming too corrosive, hatchery operators can now close off the seawater intake, and, Dewey says, “pray that the winds change soon.”
Here’s what’s important to remember also:
Unlike other problems caused by CO2, ocean acidification is spurring some action, possibly because the effects are so visibly tied to the cause. “With climate change there’s often a schism between scientists and those who flat out don’t want to believe it,” says Green. “It’s hard to get a man to believe something if his job depends on not believing it.”But in this case, he says, it’s the people in the industry who are leading awareness. “Talk to shellfish clammers — the guys who dig — and every one of them is on board, especially the old timers. They have seen over the years the populations go from incredibly productive to virtually disappearing in many cases.” One bit of anecdotal evidence diggers have reported is clams with thinner shells — so thin, they say, that sometimes it’s not possible to fill bushel baskets to the top because the fragile shells at the bottom will be crushed.
Meat fraud is taking place all around us. Most people probably can’t tell the difference between similar looking meats sold in stores, were it not for the labeling.
Safeway recalled big and juicy E.coli burgers. “Must be cooked” is right on the box, and they weren’t kidding, were they?
I’m not above eating horse meat. I’ve never done it, however. At least, I don’t think I have. Many French and Italians didn’t have a choice if they bought from a mega-meat distributor who decided for them.
What all this brings to our attention, is how vital it is to cut down on overall meat consumption. You don’t have to eliminate meat from your diet to make a huge difference. Have it at half as many meals as you typically do today if you’ve not made a previous effort to cut back.
“Unless action is taken, increases in pollution and per capita consumption of energy and animal products will exacerbate nutrient losses, pollution levels and land degradation, further threatening the quality of our water, air and soils, affecting climate and biodiversity.”
Over consumption of meat, leading to higher than optimal demand in the food supply chain, leads to suffering in even rich countries:
Suzanne Salami, a single mother of three, subsists on just £30 a week and is angered by the way the horsemeat scandal is hitting the poorest hardest. “When you can’t afford to buy anything to eat, [or] ask where meat comes from and if it’s sustainable, it is not fair,” she said. “I am being made to eat stuff I don’t know about and I am being let down. It’s like we’re being told to eat and shut up.” She was particularly worried about the potential health impacts of traces of equine painkillers found in horsemeat in the food chain by the Food Standards Agency this week.
When I buy meat, I prefer it come from a source I know, such as a farmer near Wood Mountain or Ormiston; if I’m in the city, then a local meat shop like Fellinger’s. I’ll still take chances and buy meat from elsewhere, but I don’t feel comfortable with doing that.
Another exciting day of protest in Regina, and across the country, as Canadians rise up against the Harper regime and their undemocratic ominbus bills. This was at least the second march down Regina’s main street, Albert St. in the past weeks, and the second appearance of a crowd of hundreds in front of the Legislature too.
I estimated more than 300 people were packed onto one lane of Albert St. for the entire Green Mile (and then some). A few minutes were taken on the Albert St. Bridge (longest bridge over shortest span of water, in the world) to do a round dance.
Today, Warren McCall reminded people that it’s not just First Nations this undemocratic bill harms. Chief Spence in Ottawa, starving for justice, is leading the way. Harper has time for Bieber, but not for Chief Spence or other Chiefs?
-Goodale makes an announcement that draws a roar from the crowd.
In First Nations culture, a round dance is common – it symbolizes peace and friendship. But Friday afternoon what wasn’t common was where an Idle No More round dance was held .
Hundreds of supporters stopped traffic on Regina’s busy Albert Street bridge. The rally was peaceful. It coincided with dozens of other such events across the nation. First nations elder Mike Pinay told CTV News “ we have to sit down and work together and save this land, this country and these waters”.
Idle No More supporters oppose federal bill c-45 which impacts many aspects of Canadian life – from the treaties of First Nations people to protection of lakes and rivers.
Regina Liberal MP Ralph Goodale argues the bill was “not advanced in a way that was proper and consistent with the democratic process of Canada.”
Organizers vow Friday’s event will not be the last.
SaskAdapt.ca feels like waving the white flag, but it is an important website, and a project at the UofR. It’s also the closest we’ll get to an admission from the Sask Party government that climate change is real, and is a grave threat to our people (and every living thing today).
Several presentations at the UofR make a point of offering their guest speakers tap water. The Design Regina forum last night had bottles of Coke brand water under each guest’s chair.
Most Canadians will tell you that Canada is a democracy, and that they think democracies are the best political systems in the world. What I suspect 1/3 or more of the population cannot tell you, is WHY they think democracies are good, and link their points with their support of certain politicians and parties. Politics has come to be perceived as a professional sport to Canadians — optional to play in and to watch.
Pick a favourite team, or ignore it altogether, and vote only if you feel like it, as if it’s as important as tuning into the Grey Cup game or Canadian Idol. Non-voters and some voters alike admit they stopped caring about democracy, long ago. They simultaneously admit that the system directly hurts them, and their friends. How can you treat apathy on that level, where painful stimulus can’t elicit a response (anymore)? What can empower these people who feel let down by democracy; failed by their neighbours and politicians?
Well, politics isn’t a sport, no matter the number of analogies linking them. Politics is closer to a soap opera, or pro-wrestling — scripted and influencing, with good people, bad guys, and really bad guys. The major differences are that soap operas can’t turn you into a criminal overnight by changing a copyright law, or destroy your job by legalizing marijuana, or send you to die in a war, or make you pay taxes, or cut you off from social assistance. Sports don’t decide if you’ll have clean water to drink, and clean air to breathe, or if you’ll go bankrupt if you get cancer, or if you’ll even get medicine for treatment. Anything that really matters in your world is not decided by sports or soap operas, it’s decided by politics. Who is supposed to control politics in a democracy? The Queen. Harper? Wait, the People are!
In this loveless marriage we call Canadian democracy, is there hope for people who want to remain free? Can we reach peoples’ minds and get them to question what it takes to maintain a democracy, before desperate people make the Toronto G20 look like a walk in the park? Without a legal means to criticize the government, only criminal means are an option, logically. So what’s the big deal with Free Speech Zones, and unconstitutional mass arrests? Figure it out – the people in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya sure did!
Try explaining to people that the fundamental difference between democracies and totalitarian regimes is who is in charge. It seems complicated for some reason. It shouldn’t be, and it should be understood by every person in Canada that politicians and media who do away with dissenters’ voices, have stopped acting as forces to maintain a democracy, and have thus become almost as great a threat to democracy as terrorists. Democracy cannot survive without active participation of citizens, so people that suppress or prevent participation, are anti-democratic.
