BCLocalNews.com – Viewpoint – Eating locally is a radical act.

It’s hardly surprising, but the Conservative Party is again playing games with the future of the human race in order to score cheap political points. Check out this advertisement. (more…)

One of the biggest problems that people face when they are involved in an issue like trying to avoid climate catastrophe is the the natural human tendency to surround themselves with people who think the same way they do. (more…)

Dan Gardner
The Ottawa Citizen

Friday, May 02, 2008

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there were a simple test that would allow us to distinguish between principled politicians and those who will say anything for a bump in the polls? Well now there is.

First step: Listen to what the politician says about climate change. Second step: Listen to what the politician says about high gas prices.

If the politician says he or she is passionately committed to the fight against climate change and he or she wants the government to do something to reduce gas prices, you can be sure that politician is a pandering jackass.

The reason why this test works is Economics 101.
(more…)

Another letter by a local Green— April 23, 2008

Dear Editor -

Health Minister Tony Clement’s prudent comment that it is better to be safe than sorry in prohibiting various uses of bisphenol A (Guelph Mercury, April 19) has important implications for Guelph in relation to the upcoming council decision on the pesticide bylaw.

The human fetus is fragile and under the exquisite control of hormones (endocrines) that are programmed to act at critical periods of development.

Exposure of the fetus to extremely low doses of estrogenic compounds like bisphenol A cause a large number of irreversible effects, manifest at birth, during puberty, at maturity or in aging.

These effects include changes in development and differentiation of the reproductive tract, various cancers, neurodevelopment, immune function, diabetes and obesity.

Many registered pesticides are endocrine disrupters and have estrogenic, anti-estrogenic, anti-androgenic or thyroid active properties. The exposures are generally imperceptible and the effect is manifest only after a long latency period.Thus it is difficult to prove the effect was caused by the exposure.

Effects can occur in the grandchildren of the person exposed.

Health Canada and the international scientific community do not have any validated protocols for testing chemicals, including pesticides, for endocrine disruption. The chemical industry has repeatedly shown that it is unable or unwilling to find these effects in replicating the research studies that have found effects.

All pesticides registered in Canada have therefore never been evaluated for their endocrine disrupting potential on fetal development.

Epidemiological evidence indicates that the incidences of many diseases and developmental abnormalities are increasing.

These cannot be accounted for by traditional risk factors, but are not inconsistent with perinatal exposures to endocrine disrupters.

Clement’s decision to ban bisphenol A is a model of the precautionary approach that city council should take next Monday on pesticide use in Guelph, to effectively confront this growing public health emergency.

– Michael Gilbertson, Guelph

I came across a rather sad story about how air pollution bonds with the scent of flowers and dramatically restricts the distance that the smell carries.  Of course, this has got to have an impact on bees.  And here’s a story from the Guelph Mercury that indicates that our native bumble bees are going extinct.  Finally, here’s a letter to the editor that pretty much explains why all of this is happening.

One of the things that bothers me about all the governments of Canada is the way none of them are willing to use their resources to educate and mobilize the public to fight and win the war against climate change. Just to illustrate the point, I took a few World War Two propaganda posters and used my KolourPaint program to make some changes. (more…)

Joeshort.net

I stumbled upon this and couldn’t help adding it to the blog.

An artist by the name of Chris Jordan has created a series of monumental computer-generated images that attempt to create a visual representation of the hard-to-comprehend statistics of waste in our modern society. The result are some staggering pictures. Take a look.

I read the latest entry in Elizabeth May’s blog and was fascinated by what she saw when she was invited to be the Speaker at a student model parliament in Ottawa. It is held in the actual parliamentary building, and she was flabbergasted at the way the walls have been plastered with endless photos of Stephen Harper. I’m amazed that the Conservative party has fallen so far in to a personality cult, but the more I thought about it, the more it makes some sort of sense.

I’m beginning to think that Stephen Harper suffers from a clinical disorder that is described as Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD). Now I’m not suggesting that he is some sort of clinically-deranged person who is about to enter into a spree of crazed killing. And I am quite willing to admit that no really well-balanced person would ever be silly enough to enter into politics on that level—the aggravation simply isn’t worth it. But I do think that these psychological terms are useful in understanding a person. And the list of attributes for a person with these tendencies does seem to fit quite well. These include:

• has a grandiose sense of self-importance

• is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love

• believes that he or she is “special” and unique and can only be understood by other special people

• requires excessive admiration

• strong sense of entitlement

• takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends

• lacks empathy

• is often envious or believes others are envious of him or her

• arrogant behavior

The clinical definition of NPD is that someone needs to exhibit at least 5 of the above qualities. I cannot help but think that from what little I have seen of the prime minister that he might very well be a candidate.