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The Bulletins are a constantly updated source of information, mainly from newspapers,
about environmental and cultural developments around the planet.
The Bulletins have been going
since the summer of 2001. I posted a few pages of them and gradually amassed
a backlog of four cardboard boxes of clips and snippets, mainly from the
Montréal Gazette, but also from the New York Times and various magazines and
books. I didn't have time to get to them. In the summer of 2005, Sam Solomon,
soon to enter his last year at Bishop's College in the eastern townships,
came to the rescue, posting chronologically and by category maybe a
three-inch stack of them. Sam was the editor of the college paper, and since graduating has gone on to a career in
journalism. He is now the managing editor of The National Review of Medicine,
a Montreal-based on-line news magazine for Canadian doctors.
There still
remained approximately 45 inches to go. In March of the following year, 2006,
I addressed the Protected Areas course of Dr. Karen Richardson at the
geography department of McGill
University, and I must
have been in good form, because three of the students volunteered to further
whittle down the towering stack. Alexandra Rainsford,
an exchange student from Australia,
immediately tackled a telephone-book-thick pile of them, and was soon
followed by Erin Duggan, a senior from Massachusetts.
These brave girls were immersed in their respective heaps until the end of
May, when they departed into the "real" world, Alexandra to join
her boyfriend in Hong Kong and to look for work as a teacher, and Erin to
work for a mining monitoring N.G.O. in Fairbanks,
Alaska. That summer, Nina
Berryman took on the remainder. Nina was assisting a professor who was
measuring the biosphere/atmosphere interface-- the gases being emitted and
absorbed by a bog that had pitcher plants-- and was going to be looking for
an environmental job in the fall.
There were
still hundreds of bulletins to be redacted, and another box had accumulated
by the time I returned to Karen Richardson’s class in March of 2007. This
time five students volunteered as interns. Marylise
Lefèvre, a thirty-year-old French woman from a
small village in the Val d’Oise, near Paris, had a lot of
hand-on experience in field biology and was finally getting around to getting
her academic credentials. She had been an intern with the wildlife services
of Kenya and Uganda in wildlife management in their national parks, then
helped habituate mountain gorillas to tourists in Bwindi
Impenetrable Forest in Uganda’s southwest corner, then helped with the
release of captive-bred California condor chicks in Big Sur,
California, then helped reintroduce to the wild chimps that had been poached
from the wild. Many were destined for zoos or pets stores in the West and
were confiscated at the airport in Brazzaville,
the capital of the Republic
of Congo. Then she went
to the Morocco to set up the protocol for
releasing Houbara bustards, the species used for
falconry, at the desert ecology field station in Irashidia.
Then she went to the State University of New Paltz
and studied with the legendary bird of prey expert, Heinz Meng,
and from there she transferred to McGill. This summer, after handing in
her bulletins, she is tracking migratory Atlantic Salmon for the Atlantic
Salmon Federation on the Rivière Saint Jean, in
remote eastern Quebec.
She is catching salmon returning to spawn (see the Dispatch on the Caspedia River on the Gaspé Peninsula) and estimating their
numbers and implanting “acoustic tags,” computer chips that will enable their
movements at sea to be monitored. A prize catch herself, Marylise
hopes to return to the Dispatches in the fall. Some of her bulletins are in
French, gleaned from Le Monde and other sources.
Jennie Creed and Terri Alderfer also did superb
jobs redacting their stacks. Jennie is trying to land a job in conservation
in Africa, and Terri is interning at Philadelphia
style magazine and planning to be a journalist.
Then Emilie Doran tackled a bunch more. Emilie tells she is
“French-American, a ‘third-culture kid’ of sorts, having lived in Europe, the
Middle East, Canada, and Central America. I am a recent McGill graduate, I
hold a BA Hon in Latin American/Caribbean Studies, and I am
currently pursuing a Diploma in Environment, also from McGill University.
My interests include wildlife conservation, sustainable development,
music, volleyball, snorkeling, and backpacking/travelling
adventures.” Here is a photo of her – which there will hopefully be of all
our interns from now on.
At the end of each bulletin,
the source and date, if available, appears, along with the initials of its
redactor, i.e. ED for Erin Duggan, AR for Alexandra Rainsford,
SS for Sam Solomon, NB for Nina Berryman, ML for Marylise
Lefèvre, JC for Jennie Creed, TA for Terri Alderfer, EmD for Emilie Doran,
and AS for moi.
To the reader: you can scroll the categories, and do a search for the
ones you're interested in, or just start reading.
Format for Bulletins is as follows:
Bulletin text
Redactor’s initials
Source
CATEGORY and subcategories as
needed
Categories:
Addiction
Animal Awareness
Animal Behaviour
Arachnids
Archeology
Arctic
Bactericide
Biodiversity
Biodiversity Conservation
Birds
Biodiesel
Burkina Faso
Canada
Cannabis
Carbon Footprint
Congo
Connections and disparities
Consumerism
Consumption
Corporations
Crime
Cults
Cultural Diversity
David Suzuki
Deforestation
Diabetes
Disparities
Ecoterrorists
Ecotourism
Ecomartyrs
Energy
Environmental Awareness
Ethnic conflict
Evolution
Extinction
Fiction
Fish
Food for thought/Musings
Foundations and Grants
Gender
Geology
Globalization
Global warming
Gore, Al
Human Personalities
Human Rights
Health
Hydroelectricity
Immigrants
Infectious diseases
Insects
Kinship
Languages
Literacy
Literature
Lives of the naturalists
Mammals
Media
Mineral Consumerism
Mining
Modern grid
Modern culture
Mushrooms
Music
Nature
Neuroscience
Nutrition
Oceans
Oil
Ozone
Paleoanthopology
Paleontology
Paper Industry
Pesticides
Poaching
Pollution
Pope
Population
Quebec
Religion
Rainforest
Sexual Slavery
Slavery
Somalia
Solutions
Survival tips for the traveler
Tourism
Traditional Culture
Traditional People
Trees
Uganda
USA
Waste
Water
Women's Rights
Addiction
China opened a clinic for
internet addiction in Beijing.
One psychiatrist there estimates that “up to 2.5 million Chinese suffer from
internet addiction,” but one Renmin
University (Beijing) professor claims that those people
had addictive personalities and thus would otherwise have been addicted to
something else if they had not become addicted to the internet.
SS
Audra Ang, Associated Press – July 4, 2005
ADDICTION
Modern Culture
Internet
The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry published a report revealing details
about internet addiction, its causes, and its consequences. The internet may
serve as a “tonic for people with inner conflicts …[and]
psychological distress rooted in their personality.” Some significant
consequence of internet addiction appears to be a worsening of social
relationships, and greater rates of “paranoia, depression, irritability,
impulsiveness, anxiety, phobias,” and more.
SS
Ian MacLeod, Canwest – June 15, 2005
ADDICTION
Modern Culture
Internet
Researchers have developed a possible agent to block addictions to drugs
such as nicotine and marijuana: a synthetic peptide that interacts with the
receptors that excite the cells responsible for signaling pleasure. The
effects have only been tested on rats thus far and researchers are concerned
that the peptide could block natural highs as well. No side effects
have been noted yet.
ED
Janet French, The Gazette, Montreal.
ADDICTION – cannabis, tobacco
Animal Awareness
Philosophers and biologists share views on the origins of morality. Humans
inherited their moral rules from social animals like monkeys. More
controversially, these moral rules have had to be shaped by emotional
patterns also visible in non-human primates. For instance, consolation (which
requires empathy) is a common trait of great apes and humans but is absent in
monkeys. Social animals practice a certain social order with rules in which hostilities
within the group is managed to keep the community stronger when facing danger
or attacks by other groups. These traits are the common precursors of human
moralities.
ML
The Gazette, Montréal – j10 –24 March 2007 – Nicholas Wade
ANIMAL AWARENESS
Animal Behaviour
Contrary to the popular belief that a genetic bound links moms to their
offspring, the reality is not so evident in the natural world. A mom will
defend her kids to death, yes-- but not all of
her kids. It has been observed in pandas, emperor penguins, hens and eagles:
mothers often give birth to two but she really meant to spend the energy on
one, the other is a spare just in case something bad happens to the ‘chosen
one’.
ML
The Gazette, Montréal – j10 –13 May 2006 – Natalie Angier
ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR
Parenting
Arachnids
Males and females jumping spiders need UV light to be “turned on,” according
to a study published in Science. UV lights make the markings on the spider’s
body glow, which stimulates courtship.
ML
The Gazette, Montréal – A20 – 26 January 2007
ARACHNIDS
Archaeology
Radiocarbon dating suggests that the dispersal of modern Homo Sapiens was
more rapid than previously thought. This means that there was less
contact with Neanderthals, about 6,000 years. These changes in theory
can lead to a breakthrough in our understanding of this time period in
prehistory.
ED
John Nobel Wilford, The Gazette, Montreal, February 23, 2006, p. A4
ARCHAEOLOGY – Paleontology
The oldest moccasin to date was found in a forested area inhabited by the Athapaskan people. It is from circa AD 560.
Most clothing and footwear discovered are not more than a couple centuries
old.
ED
Tom Spears, The Gazette, Montreal,
February 22, 2006 – p. A9
ARCHAEOLOGY – Athabaskans
A Vancouver Island sea cave may support a new theory of human migration to
the Americas.
Discoveries of an ancient mountain goat’s bones inside the raised sea cave
have added weight to the theory that the first human migration to the Americas happened
more than 16,000 years ago, at least 40 centuries earlier than most textbooks
teach. Researcher Majid Al-Suwaidi says that until you actually find your arrowhead
or human skull, there’s always going to be people who say you aren’t proving
anything. You’re just showing that the environment was OK, but that
doesn’t mean humans traveled down there.
AR
The Gazette, Montreal.
October 17, 2003
Randy Boswell
ARCHAEOLOGY
Paleo Migration
During the 1991 Gulf War, U.S.
bombs destroyed or damaged some of the 10,000 archeological sites throughout Iraq. U.S. and
Iraqi archeologists are concerned that another assault will ruin yet more of
humanity’s treasures. Archaeological sites are scattered throughout Iraq, many
unmarked or unexcavated.
AR
The Gazette, Montreal.
January 27, 2003
Elizabeth Neuffer
ARCHAEOLOGY
Destruction of cultural heritage
A Russian discovery of a 30,000 year old encampment in Siberia
is being hailed as ironclad proof Stone Age humans were living in Arctic
environments at least 10,000 years earlier than previously believed.
The latest evidence seriously bolsters the case humans crossed the Bering
land bridge, which once connected Asia and North America,
well before the end of the last ice age.
AR
The Gazette, Montreal.
Randy Boswell, Canwest News Service
ARCHAEOLOGY
Paleo Migration
The remains of those taken from the northern end of the Queen Charlotte
Islands, native peoples known as Haida Gwaii, were reburied in Old Massett
on Graham Island. The repatriation brings
to an end, almost, an eight-year campaign by the Haida
to have their ancestors brought home. The bones had spent 100
years packed away in the Field Museum of Natural History, where they were
taken after anthropologists scooped them up many years ago.
AR
The Gazette, Montreal.
ARCHAEOLOGY
Native People
A Toronto architect has found distinctly
man made structures in Nova Scotia
that archeologists world wide are agreeing could be
an ancient Chinese fortress.
ED
Randy Boswell, The Gazette, Montreal,
p. A14
ARCHAEOLOGY
Arctic
A warming Arctic Ocean and melting polar ice caps are
changing the conditions in Inuit lands. These delicate and interconnected
ecosystems of the Arctic are showing signs
of unbalance. Sea ice is becoming dangerously thin, and migration patterns
are changing, introducing never-before seen creatures in the north, such as
dolphins, finches, and robins.
EmD
The Gazette. Beth Duff-Brown (Associated Press). April 16,
2007.
ARCTIC
Global Warming
90 percent of lead accumulated in Devon Island
snow and ice in the past decade was generated by human activities. This
pristine Arctic island is subjected to a massive lead burden, a potent
neurotoxin. This shows that lead contamination is not yet over.
ED
Margaret Munro, The Gazette, Montreal,
February 6, 2006 – p. A11
ARCTIC – air pollution
Lead
A federal permafrost specialist says methane, one of the most potent gases
associated with global warming, is bubbling out of mud volcanoes on the floor
of the Beaufort Sea. Scientists do not
know how much is being released, if the rate of release is increasing, or
what the impact will be on the atmosphere. Polar ice has been shrinking
at a rate of about 74,000 square kilometers annually for the past 30 years,
and Arctic ice is withdrawing so fast that some scientists predict that by
2050 it may be non-existent in summer. There is little anyone can do
for the animals and other life forms that will be stranded as Arctic
temperatures climb.
TA
Margaret Munro, Canwest News Service, The Gazette, Montreal, March 8, 2006
ARCTIC – Global Warming
A University
of Calgary geology
professor discovered a sulphur-spewing spring in
the High Arctic. The secrets to its existence could help scientists
searching for proof of life on other planets because there is life within the
ice and beneath the ice, which could lead to uncovering what rests below the
ice-covered surface of Jupiter’s second moon, Europa.
TA
Renata D’Aliesio, Canwest News Service, The Gazette, Montreal, June 14, 2006
ARCTIC – Extraterrestrial Life
Bactericide
Triclocarbon is an antibacterial compound that
has been used in soaps and cosmetics for years. Half a million kilograms of
it are produced each year. John Hopkins scientists have detected it in sludge
at a wastewater treatment plant. This sludge is often spread on agricultural
land and Triclocarban might persist in the soil and
accumulate in crops. Little is known about its effects but it is
inadvertently being spread on fields and no one knows the impacts it might
have.
JC
The Montreal
Gazette, May 27, 2006
BACTERICIDE
Waste
Biodiesel
If Quebec Environment Minister Thomas Muclair has
his way, Montreal city buses will be running in 2004 on an environmentally
friendly mixture of conventional diesel fuel and biodiesel
made of vegetable oil, recycled cooking oil and animal fat. MTC buses
do not have to be adjusted in any way to burn biodiesel.
AR
The Gazette, Montreal.
May 28, 2003
Levon Sevunts
BIODIESEL
The sustainability of EU green fuel targets has been
called into question. The EU agreement to use 10% biofuel
for transport by 2020, which aims to cut CO2 emissions, may have the
unintended consequences of accelerating rainforest destruction in South East Asia. Plant-based fuel use is expected to
increase by at least 10 times before 2010, increasing pressure on tropical
forests and peat lands.
EmD
The Gazette. Bruno Waterfield (London Daily Telegraph).
April 27, 2007. A3.
BIODIESEL
Rainforests
Biodiversity
Israeli scientists have discovered an ancient ecosystem containing eight
previously unknown species in a lake inside a cave near the city of Ramallah,
where they were sheltered from the outside world for millions of years.
The species discovered were of the crustacean and invertebrate variety and
were found 100 metres below ground in a limestone
quarry, where some similar to scorpions and shrimp inhabit an underground
lake. Unlike most animals, the newly discovered species live in a
small, independent, self-sustaining ecosystem.
TA
Aron Heller, Associated Press, The Gazette, Montreal, June 2, 2006
BIODIVERSITY – New Species
A new species thought to have vanished 60 million years ago was found 400
meters below in the Coral Sea off the Chesterfield
Island, near New Caledonia. This living fossil is 12 cm
long and is half shrimp half lobster with big eyes.
ML
The Gazette, Montréal – 20 May 2006
BIODIVERSITY
New species
Picobiliphyte. That’s the name of a new species
of algae discovered in the Arctic and Atlantic
Oceans and Greenland
Sea. Located at the bottom of the food chain, this new species
may be crucial for supporting life in the Arctic.
ML
The Gazette, Montréal – A9 –12 January 2007 – Charlie Fidelman
BIODIVERSITY
New species
Oceans
While researching the scalloped hammerhead shark, scientists discovered a
new species of shark. Referred to as the “cryptic species,” it is
only different from the scalloped hammerhead at the mitochondrial DNA
level. The new species is believed to be at risk of extinction as it is
only known to exist off the coast of South
Carolina.
NB
The Gazette, Montreal,
June 17, 2006, p. J11
BIODIVERSITY
New Species
Sharks
The WWF states that the Bluefin tuna is at risk
of extinction and calls for a ban on all catches of the fish. According
to WWF, catches are 40% larger than the legal quota, and fishing has expanded
to the western Mediterranean, which is one
of the last breeding areas for the species.
NB
The Gazette, Montreal,
July 5, 2006, p. A15
BIODIVERSITY
Extinction
Marine Life
Tuna Fish
The Mekong River
in Laos
has recently become more popular with foreign tourists. Kayaking down
the river reveals temples in an ancient town. Previously the area has
been difficult to travel to as a result of Chinese authorities. Such
areas are threatened by the construction of future damns upriver.
Unlike other touristic areas, the Mekong
has working markets that are not just tourist traps. The Mekong historically has evaded colonists’ attempts of
commercialization, but some people are worried today, especially as development upriver seem to be affected local species
diversity.
NB
Joshua Kurlantzick, The Gazette, Montreal, April 18, 2006, p. K1
BIODIVERSITY
Scientists discovered an untouched paradise full of previously undocumented
species in one of Indonesia’s most remote provinces. They saw mammals
hunted to near extinction, and new species of flora and fauna. The area
is protected because of small population in the area, national fighting, and
its remote access.
ED
Robin McDowell, The Gazette, Montreal,
February 8, 2006 – p. A19
BIODIVERSITY – New species
The snakehead fish, an introduced invader from Asia, has reappeared in Maryland. The
fish hasn’t been seen in the area since 2002 when the state of Maryland had to poison
a pond in Crofton to prevent snakeheads from wriggling away. The fish
has been known to breathe out of water and scoot short distances over
land. Authorities will drain the five-acre lake to ensure no more
snakeheads are there. Native fish will be captured first and
reintroduced when the lake fills again. Experts say that if released
into a pond, the snakehead instantly becomes the top of the food chain and
can clean out a pond of native fish.
AR
David. A. Farenthold, The Gazette, Montreal, April 29 2004
BIODIVERSITY
Introduced Species
A new species of whale has been discovered, as long a
s a city bus in the Indian Ocean and Sea Of Japan.
Caught by whalers off the coast, the skeleton, blubber and various organs
were sent to biologist Tadasu Yamada at the
national Science museum in Tokyo
for analysis. Caught years ago, the cadavers have been examined by
scientists and have now gone public with the assertion that this is a whole
new species of whale. Estimates of the number of the
Earth’s species yet to be discovered vary widely but are all high.
AR
The Gazette, Montreal.
November 20, 2003
Tom Spears, Canwest News Service
BIODIVERSITY
New Species
Whales
Japanese scientists say a new species of whale is found, called Balenoptera omurai. The
scientists said the whale differed from other species in a jawbone, DNA and
baleen.
Japan
conducts research whaling, and the new findings result partly from that
pursuit.
AR
The New York Times, November 20, 2003.
James Gorman
BIODIVERSITY
New Species
Whale
McGill University PhD student Sara Lourie found
a new species of seahorse in the deep waters of the Flores
Sea off Indonesia. As
one of the world’s leading seahorse experts, Laurie proclaimed it the world’s
33rd species of seahorse, in an article published in the Taiwanese journal
Zoological Studies.
AR
The Gazette, Montreal.
May 10, 2003
John Mackie, Canwest News Service
BIODIVERSITY
New Species
Coral Reefs
The state of Maryland
has declared victory over its war on snakeheads. After a final round of
tests this month at a rural Maryland pond
found no trace of the fish, the Maryland
wildlife officials said they plan to ask the state to tighten standards and
scrutiny of snakeheads and other predators.
AR
The Gazette, Montreal
BIODIVERSITY
Introduced Species
Hunters journey to Kyrgyztan to pursue rare
mountain goats and so-called Marco Polo sheep, along with Siberian antelope,
wolves and pheasants
AR
(No date, author or source)
Hunting
BIODIVERSITY
Biodiversity Conservation
Conservationists are designing wildlife corridors in the Rockies
that allow animals to roam and reproduce. A highway running through Banff National Park and its associated
development could prove to be an environmental disaster. Zoologist Paul Paquet doesn’t want to remove the roads but to mitigate
their effects. He wants to create a sustainable environment from the Yukon to Yellowstone
Park (Y2Y). Participants of the Y2Y designed overpasses and underpasses to
help animals cross the roads safely. They are trying to achieve the goal of
functional connectivity between wildlife habitats.
JC
Cornelia Dean, The Montreal
Gazette, May 27, 2006
BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION
Wildlife Corridors
Maasai tribesmen have gained access to Amboseli
National Park to
provide their cattle grazing land and water. These domesticated animals
will now compete with the mega-fauna the park currently aims to
protect. Ongoing droughts already force wildlife into human settlements
in search of water, creating conflict. Allowing the Maasai
into the area could exacerbate tensions.
ED
Rodrique Ngowi, The
Gazette, Montreal,
February 15, 2006 – p. A16
BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION – protected areas
Maasai
Number of Spiny Softshell Turtles remaining in Quebec: less than 100.
Number of acres of Spiny Softshell Turtle habitat
protected by NCC-Quebec: 400. Number of baby turtles successfully
hatched through recovery program in 2003: 56.
SS
The Globe & Mail, Toronto
– June 24, 2005
BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION
Reptiles and amphibians
Endangered species
Percentage of Canada’s tall grass prairie remaining today: less than 0.5%.
Number of plant and animal species found in the tall grass prairie: more than
50%.
Number of acres of the tall grass prairie protected by NCC and partners:
15,000
SS
The Globe & Mail, Toronto
– June 24, 2005
BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION
Percentage of Canada’s threatened and endangered species found in
“Carolinian Canada,” in
the far south of Ontario:
33%. Number of species lost from this area since European
settlement: more than 45. Number of acres protected in this area by NCC: more
than 15,000.
SS
The Globe & Mail, Toronto
– June 24, 2005
BIODIVERSTIY CONSERVATION
Endangered species
Three rare pygmy elephants were decapitated in Malaysia in a seven-month
period. Herds of the elephants, whose habitat is being destroyed by
commercial farming, are sometimes responsible for destroying crops. The
killers face five years in jail and a fine, under wildlife protection
laws. The pygmy elephant lives only in the rainforests of Borneo Island.
SS
Associated Press, reproduced in The Gazette, Montreal - June 12, 2005
BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION
Endangered species
Agreement on protecting the Giant Sequoia National Monument in California has been
reached, but just how to do this is an ongoing question. The national
forest is home to a wide array of plant life and rare animal species.
Art Gaffrey is the supervisor of the 1.2 million
acres forest and his goal is to return the forest to something resembling its
condition before loggers and ranchers denuded much of the area, beginning in
the mid-19th century. Plans to have prescribed burns to remove
underbrush, small trees and downed logs that feed forest fires, are
accompanied by plans to permit the cutting of trees up to 30 inches in
diameter, to allow more light to reach the forest floor and provide breaks to
slow fires. Environmentalist groups oppose the removal of any trees,
maintaining that controlled fires, not logging, is the soundest and most
natural way to reclaim the forest.
AR
The New York Times, June 11, 2003.
John M. Broder
BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION
Forest Conservation
Sequoias
A global crisis meeting to save the great apes from extinction opens in Paris this week as conservationists warm that gorillas,
chimpanzees and orangutans are disappearing even from two dozen protected
areas in Africa and southeast Asia.
The gathering will see the United Nations launch a $25 million appeal, their
biggest ever to save the great apes, which
will be used to implement the Great Apes Survival Project in 23 countries
where apes survive. Under the greatest threat are orangutans of Sumatra
and Borneo. Their untouched habitat
will shrink by 99 percent by 2030 at the current pace of human expansion,
experts say.
AR
The Gazette, Montreal
Steven Edwards, Canwest News Service
BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION
Primates
Scientists have for the first time created a healthy clone of an
endangered species, offering powerful evidence that cloning technology can
play a role in preserving and even reconstituting threatened and endangered
species. The clone, a cattle-like creature known as a Javan banteng, native to Asian
jungles was grown from a single skin cell taken from a captive banteng before it died in 1980.
AR
The Gazette, Montreal.
Rick Weiss
BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION
Genetic Engineering
Cloning
London’s Darwin Centre houses a collection of over 22 million creatures
from all over the world. Rich in historical material dating back to the
15th century, it contains Darwin’s collection as well as others such as Carl
Linnaeus, Sir Charles Lyell, Alfred Russel Wallace and Captain James Cook. The
so-called ‘Spirit Collection’ houses samples of all these creatures so that
scientists can classify them and understand evolutionary relationships among
them. The centre opened as part of a long term plan to make Natural
History Museum’s entire collection of over 70 million species accessible to
the public
AR
Bijal. P. Trivedi.
National Geographic
BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION
Inventory of Species
Thousands of tadpoles raised in the Toronto Zoo
and other faraway locations have been released in Puerto Rico in hopes of
saving a critically endangered species of toad unique to the Caribbean island. Their new home is a man-made
pond in a forest on the island’s south coast where the only known wild colony
of 300 to 400 toads remains.
AR
The Gazette, Montreal
BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION
Amphibians
Puerto Rico
Birds
In an effort to reconnect with their ancestors, Kazakh hunters gather in
the shadow of the Tien Shan
mountains each year for the winter hunt. A fox is released from a
wooden crate in the valley, is spotted, and the hunters huddled on a hill
release the golden eagles they have been holding on their leather-gloved
forearms. The eagles chase the animals, and eventually most foxes are
hunted down and killed. Kazakhs say the eagle is a symbol of statehood
and independence and are happy to know that this rare bird has survived
millennia.
TA
Maria Golovnina, Reuters, The Gazette, Montreal, March 19,
2006, p. A11
BIRDS – Eagles
There is indeed an advantage in having a bigger brain. Scientists Louis
Lefebvre and Daniel Sol studied 236 birds for which they measured of body
mass, mortality rates and brain size. They found that birds with bigger
brains have greater survival chances. Interestingly, big brains cost a lot in
evolutionary terms because they take longer to develop and only allow shorter
reproducing times compared with those of smaller birdbrains. The advantage
though, is greater adaptability to a changing environment. At the top are corvids and parrots, the smartest birds in the class,
while pheasants and pigeons score the lowest in brain size proportionately to
their body. Now researchers need to find what advantage there is in having
smaller brains. There must be one, otherwise only
big brains would be present on earth.
ML
The Gazette, Montréal – A6 – 22 January 2007 – Kazi
Stastna
BIRDS
From 15 individuals left in 1938, whooping cranes are now numbering 237 in
their wintering grounds of Texas Costal Bend. This recovery success is due to
legislation measures and public education.
ML
The Gazette, Montréal – A3 – 6 January 2007 – Lynn Brezosky
BIRDS
Conservation
Bird feeders are helping whole bird communities to survive winter and
birdwatchers are helping scientists to notice changes in bird
populations. Nearly 2,000 Canadians take part in the feeder watch
program over the winter. Their observations contributed to document bird
range expansion as a result of global warming.
ML
The Gazette, Montréal – A3 –29 January 2007 – Cheryl Cornacchia
BIRDS
Global warming
The Royal Ontario
Museum put on a display of over 2000
birds that have died as a result of lights left on in Toronto city buildings. Birds are
attracted to the lights inside the buildings and either die of exhaustion
from circling them, or simply crash into them. The display included 89
species, some of which are threatened. Fatal Light Awareness Program
(FLAP) is a group of volunteers who have collected over 32,000 dead or
injured birds in Toronto
since 1993. The group estimates between 940,000 and 9.4 million birds
die every year from flying into buildings. These numbers could easily
be reduced if lights were turned off at night.
NB
The Gazette, Montreal,
Thursday, March 9, 2006
Tara Brautigam
BIRDS
Brazil
has 228 species of birds that do not live in any other country, the highest
record world wide. Brazil
has 1,752 species, which is the third largest number of any country.
120 of these species are threatened with extinction. According to
Brazilian Veja magazine, the number of bird
watchers in the US has
grown 150% in the last 10 years, and tourism continues to grow in Brazil.
NB
December 2005/January 2006
BIRDS
Canus, the 39 year old whooping crane who died
last year, is returning home to Fort
Smith, N.W. T. Canus,
named after the two countries, Canada
and the Unites States, is regarded by scientists and
environmentalists on both sides of the border as a symbol of international
co-operation on conservation. Canus is
responsible for the production of many offspring, and was involved in a
captive breeding program which has now produced over 180 of the rare bird
species.
AR
The Gazette, Montreal.
April 15, 2004
Ed Struzik
BIRDS
Cranes
Moves to protect Canada’s vast boreal forests will be the topic of
discussion at the 12th World Forestry Congress. Conservationists hope
to reach agreement with industry on how to set aside some parts of the forest
and agree on management policies for other areas. Threats to Canada’s
boreal forest come from mining, logging and farming. The 2 million
square miles of woodland and wetland are home to many species of birds and
animals, not
AR
The New York Times, September 23, 2003
James Gorman
BIRDS
A tug of war is going on over the final resting place of a 39 year-old
whooping crane between the United States
and Canada.
When he was just a few months old the injured crane, Canus,
was rescued by two Canadian Wildlife Service scientists. At that
time just 42 whooping cranes like him were left in the world. Described
as a remarkable bird by both countries, Canus sired, grandsired and
great-grandsired 186 whooping cranes.
AR
The Gazette, Montreal.
February 10, 2003
BIRDS
Cranes
Peter Matthiessen’s book, The Birds of Heaven,
tells of his journeys to five continents in search of the planet’s 15 species
of cranes, 11 of them endangered.
AR
New York Times, Book Review. April 20
BIRDS
Cranes
The loon has changed very little from hespoeronis,
“an aquatic bird that existed 100 million years ago,” according to The Spokseman Review (Spokane,
Washington).
SS
Michael Kesterton, The Globe & Mail, Toronto
BIRDS
An international tussle over the carcass of a legendary whooping crane
that helped bring the endangered species back from the brink of extinction
has ended with a decision to send it home to Canada. Canus,
the 39 year old crane will be in a tiny museum in the North West Territories
not far from where he was born. Canus
produced 186 descendants. The agreement made in 1993 by the
International Whooping Crane Recovery team gave the museum the rights to
bring him home after he died.
AR
The Gazette, Montreal
Canwest News Service
BIRDS
Cranes
United States
authorities want to give individual states more flexibility in dealing with
Canadian geese. The bottom line is to reduce their numbers by a third
over the next 10 years. The populations of resident geese have been
climbing four to six percent per year. To cull their numbers by up to
800,000 birds a year will mean everything from gassing, poisoning and
shooting to shaking eggs and destroying nests.
AR
The Gazette, Montreal
BIRDS
Canadian Geese
Research into chickadee flocks shows that they have developed a complex
social hierarchy, which tend to be made up of mated pairs and having a
dominant male.
AR
The Gazette, Montreal
BIRDS
Chickadees
Huge flightless birds living in the rain forests of New Guinea
emit a penetrating, booming noise at a lower frequency than any other bird,
so low humans at times cannot hear it say researchers at the New York-based
Wildlife Conservation Society. The New Guinea cassowaries can grow
to 1.5 meters tall and weigh as much as 57 kilograms.
AR
The Gazette, Montreal.
Guy Gugliotta
BIRDS
Vocalizations
After twenty years of study, scientists have discovered the bar-tailed
godwit holds nature’s record for endurance flying. The bird migrates
from Alaska to New Zealand each year without
stopping, a 12,400km journey completed in six days and six nights.
Maori folklore states that it was the godwit flying over the Pacific that
made them take to their war canoes to find land, journeying from Polynesia to
the shores of New Zealand
1,000 years ago.
AR
The Gazette, Montreal.
Tom Peterkin
BIRDS
Godwit
Burkina Faso
Norbert Zongo était un
journaliste au Burkina Faso, le pays des hommes intègres, dit-on. Pourtant il
a été assassiné dans sa voiture en 1998 alors qu’il enquêtait sur un meurtre
compromettant le frère cadet du chef d’Etat. Le chauffeur du premier aurait
été torturé, puis assassiné dans les bureaux même de la sécurité
présidentielle. Norbert Zongo a collaboré dans la création de plusieurs
journaux mais il a aussi écrit un livre, « le Parachutage » où il dénonce les
dirigeants corrompus de l’Afrique. La réédition de son livre cette année va
sans doute aider la veuve de Norbert, Geneviève, qui a perdu son emploi
auprès du syndicat libre des cheminots. Un journaliste, dit-elle, doit
critiquer et ne pas défendre le pouvoir.
ML
Le Monde – France – pages 34-35 – 17 Mars 2007
BURKINA FASO
Literature
Canada
There are dual claims to Hans Island, a tiny, barren rock between Canada’s
Ellesmere Island and Greenland, a self-governing
territory under the Danish crown. This issue is highlighted as the most
tangible and odd sovereignty challenge facing Canada in the far North.
The United States and the
European Union differ with Canada
on the status of the Northwest Passage through the Arctic
Archipelago. Canada considers it part of its
internal waters, while others see it as an international strait open to
all. Canada’s role in the North may come down to one question: How much
oil and gas lies beneath the ice?
TA
Adrian Humphreys, Canwest News Service, National
Post, date unknown
CANADA – Northwest
Passage
Cannabis
A Montreal
facility is manufacturing Cesamet, a drug that
replicates the active ingredient in marijuana. Cesamet
was approved for sale in the US
last week, 25 years after it was first authorized in Canada.
Cesamet is primarily used for nausea and vomiting
in cancer treatment, it is also effective at treating acute pain. Valent Pharmaceuticals International of Costa Mesa,
California produces the drug almost exclusively in Ville St. Laurent.
JC
Peter Hadekel, The Montreal Gazette May 26, 2006
CANNABIS
Carbon Footprint
Quebec Premier Jean Charest participated in the annual World Economic Forum
whose theme was “the shifting power equation” in reference to the rise of the
BRIC economies: Brazil, Russia, India
and China.
At the same time, the United Nations is trying to get organized on the issue
of environment. On this Charest admits that his personal carbon footprint is
important but he is proud to say that Québec has had a leadership role on the
issue of greenhouse gases reduction and sustainable development.
ML
The Gazette, Montréal – A16 – 24 January 2007 – Kevin Dougherty
CARBON FOOTPRINT
Congo
In December 2006, Joseph Kabila was elected during
the first democratic election in more than 40 years in DCR. In spite of this
and nearly a year of peace, riots exploded in Kinshasa resulting in the evacuation of
1000 people and the shutting down of schools.
ML
The Gazette, Montréal – A16 - 23 March 2007
CONGO
Connections and
Disparities
Even if the life span difference between black and white Americans has
decreased from 7.1 years in 1993 to 5.3 years in 2003, the gap disfavouring the black Americans is still troubling. A
study using the U.S. National Vital Statistics System data found that
homicide, HIV, perinatal death along with kidney
disease and bloodstream infections are all factors reducing the life
expectancy of black to 72.7 years compared to 78 years for whites. This
inequality is a direct result of social inequalities and access to health
care.
ML
The Gazette, Montréal – A23 -22 March 2007
DISPARITIES
Connections and Disparities
Population
Echoing a common complaint about the G8’s 2005 summit, the Canadian
Council on Africa has declared that Africa needs more than just money.
The Canadian private sector must become equally involved in establishing
links in Africa, in training the African private sector, and in providing
expertise, investment, and contracts to Africa.
CONNECTIONS AND DISPARITIES
SS
Aileen McCabe, Canwest – June 15, 2005
Africa
As the wealth of stockholders plummets and corporate controversy derails
companies, CEOs barely notice the backlash – their salaries remain very
high. The median compensation of USA’s largest 100 companies was $33.4
million. Poor boardroom performance, overall substandard earnings of
the companies, and employee layoffs did not deter directors from awarding
large bonuses to the top ranking employees.
CONNECTIONS AND DISPARITIES
ED
Gary Strauss and Barbara Hansen, USA Today, March 31, 2003 – p. B1
Consumer capitalism – corporations
The World Economic Forum held in Davos
included world politicians, business types, and human rights activists.
The diverse groups productively discussed the business case for human rights,
putting forward ideas that would benefit human rights causes and developing
countries while protecting the interest of ‘wicked’ multinationals and
politicians.
CONNECTIONS AND DISPARITIES
ED
Payam Akhavan, The
Gazette, Montreal – p. A11
Globalization
The average annual salary of the US baseball player is 5.3 million dollars
(in the lead is A. Rodriguez with a $25.2 million annual paycheck). On the
other end of the spectrum, the average annual salary of the Cuban national
team is 240 dollars.
CONNECTIONS AND DISPARITIES
EmD
Consumerism
Consumerism in the U.S. increased. Americans increased their credit card use.
Despite warnings for the need for energy reduction people took out more car
loans. Congruently, debts increased.
ML
The Gazette, Montréal – 8 May 2007
CONSUMERISM
Average prices for mink, beaver, and other furs jumped by 30 to 40 percent
as fur regained popularity among younger generations. The boom is also
caused by the expansion of fur markets, a hot economy, and a re-imaging of
fur as the “ultimate eco-fabric”.
ED
Lynn Moore, The Gazette, Montreal,
February 21, 2006 – B1
CONSUMERISM
Capitalism – fur
Children are migrating to electronic toys quickly, parents willingly
purchase these pricey items, and toy makers struggle to keep up with
demand. Nonetheless, over seventy-five percent of the toys at the
American International Toy Fair will have microchips. As the cost of
microchips decreases, toys are more affordable, but some hot items still
remain over $200.
ED
Anne D’Innocenzio, The Gazette, Montreal, February 9, 2006, p. B7
CONSUMERISM – capitalism
Electronics
All purchases are discretionary after the procurement of essentials –
food, shelter, and clothing. Yet Canadians have a burn rate of $100
cash in three to four days. And by 2005, the Canadian saving rate
dropped to negative numbers, people are unconsciously spending money that
could pay off debt or put into their RRSP on frivolous purchases and brand
names.
ED
Stephanie Whittaker, The Gazette, Montreal,
February 6, 2006 – p. B1
CONSUMERISM
Capitalism
An e-mail describes the medical benefits of drinking water, such as
decreasing joint pain and reducing risk of colon and breast cancer.
Also, it elaborates on Coca-Cola’s properties that make it both a hazardous
material and an excellent cleaner of metal objects.
ED
Chase Twichell, e-mail care of
www.ausablepress.com, September 27, 2003
CONSUMERISM
Capitalism – Coca Cola
Children and sexuality are no longer taboo, images only seen by child
pornographers. Ad campaigns feature children sexually clad and adults
shaved to look like children. Sexualizing pre-pubescence is not new,
but its mainstream imagery is.
ED
Lorrayne Anthony, The Gazette, Montreal, January 27, 2003 – p. D3
CONSUMERISM
Capitalism
Advertising
Dix Mille Villages collaborate with village artisans in India to
offer fair trade goods to the middle class and combat poverty in developing
countries. The organization appeals to bourgeois overcoming shopper
guilt and it generates income for women artisans worldwide.
ED
Mike Boon, The Gazette, Montreal,
p.A7
CONSUMERISM
Capitalism
Coffee
Consumption
By 2010, half of the kids in North and South America
will be overweight, a study warns. But it’s not too late. The number of
overweight children worldwide will increase significantly by the end of the
decade. Obesity has become a global epidemic. British surgeon Phillip Thomas
said the obesity levels in children are so severe that this generation will
be the first to have a lower life expectancy than their parents.
JC
Associated Press, The Montreal
Gazette, March 7, 2006
CONSUMPTION
Obesity
The Vatican
has sided on the political and scientific issue of genetically modified
foods. They say they hold the answer to world starvation and
malnutrition.
ED
Richard Owen, The Statesman, Siliguri, August 2,
2003 – p. 2
CONSUMPTION– GM food
Split
tomatoes, dirty salad, and tough beans made Equiterre’s
organic produce baskets disappointing. More satisfying and with better
variety are the baskets prepared by Les Jardin des Anges. They are delivered year round, have a assortment of normal and exotic produce, and the baskets
are delivered to your front door.
www.jardindesanges.com
ED
Lesley Chesterman, The Gazette, Montreal
CONSUMPTION – organic food
The classic watermelon, an American summer ritual, is
becoming extinct, replaced by a seedless, tasteless variety. Most farm
stands and grocery stores sell varieties engineered to eliminate the seeds
because people want to eat faster and more attractively.
ED
David Margolick
CONSUMPTION
Food plant breeding
Budgeting, splurging, and secret spending habits… A 2005 poll shower that 25
percent of adults had severe disagreements with their partners about
finances. People have different ideas about finances and spending, and money.
These different types of attitudes about money often depend on upbringing,
personality, and relationships.
EmD
Susan Schwartz. The Gazette. April 30, 2006. A16.
CONSUMPTION
Corporations
Automated telephone services deter human – human customer service contact
much to our chagrin. We dislike these automated services because we
rarely have black and white, questions to be answered or simple tasks to
complete. Humans, we find, are more reliable. An organization, Get
Human, fights back by posting the codes to get through large companies’
automated services and speak to an operator.
ED
Josh Freed, The Gazette, Montreal,
March 4, 2006 – p. A7
CORPORATIONS
Modern communication
Crime
Wilburt Coffin was convicted and executed for the
deaths of three hunters in the Gaspé in 1956.
He maintained his innocence until death and doubt still exists about his
conviction. Controversy over Coffin’s hanging galvanized opposition to
capital punishment, resulting in the banning of the death penalty in Canada.
Coffin’s case has received a lot of attention and has been the topic of song
lyrics and books.
ED
Marian Scott, The Gazette, Montreal,
February 11, 2006 – p. A3
CRIME – Gaspé
Cults
Self-declared prophet and cult leader Claude Vorhilon
has brought the newspaper Le Droit to court for a
libel suit. He has convinced 60,000 followers of the Raëlian he is the son of a French mother and an alien
father. The defamation lawsuit is part of a greater legal quest by the Raëlians for legitimacy. They want a ban on future
negative reports and a declaration by the court that their faith is a true
religion.
ED
Allison Hanes, The Gazette, Montreal,
September 27, 2005 – p. A8
CULTS
Cultural Diversity
Richard Desjardins, famous for his documentary L’Erreur
Boréal, in which he exposed and denounced the
destructive forestry practices of Québec, performed at the sixth Montréal’s
annual spoken words Festival “Voix d’Amériques”. Desjardins is a renowned singer and
songwriter, but he will be presenting and commenting on his new film: Le Peuple Invisible. This time, Desjardins tackles the
situation of the Algonquin nation of Québec. The Algonquins
number only 8,000 people and depend on the forest.
ML
The Gazette, Montréal – j3 – 27 January 2007 – Pat Donnelly
CULTURAL DIVERSITY
Music
Québec
Molefa Moleja, a
priest of the South African Edumisweni Apostolic
Church of Christ, leads his people through the principles of the bible. His
congregation of followers resembles the conventional Pentecostal movement
within Christianity, which emphasises the authority
of the bible and the direct experience and healing with God through baptism
and prayers. However, the South African members of this church also venerate
their ancestors and believe in witchcraft and magic. Despite the biblical
injunction, they still perform animal sacrifice to increase their chance of
physical healing and cast away bad luck. Such beliefs may be an alternative
to absent or failing health care institutions.
ML
The Gazette, Montréal – h8 – 27 January 2007 – Terry Leonard
CULTURAL DIVERSITY
Ancestor worship
Kinship
Syncretism
In his new novel, the Virgin of Flames, Chris Abani,
the Nigerian-American writer narrates about search for cultural identity in Los Angeles city. He
offers a reflection on how people fight to maintain their own individuality
in the fast pace of a city that constantly reshapes itself.
ML
The Gazette, Montréal – J3 -3 February 2007 – Ian McGillis
CULTURAL DIVERSITY
Nigeria
Larger-than-life roadside renderings of everything from sausages to
enormous muskies transform what would otherwise be
a sense of non-place along stretches of highway in Canada. These “Big Things”
often correspond with local industry and help travelers discern meaning from
the local landscape.
TA
Anne Marie Owens, Canwest News Service, The
Gazette, Montreal,
June 5, 2006
CULTURAL DIVERSITY
In honor of the anniversary of Genghis Khan’s unification of Mongolia in
1206, the Mongolian capital is covered in images of Genghis Khan. Such
attention may seem shocking to westerners who affiliate the man with
bloodshed and terror. In the West, it is often overlooked that Genghis
Khan outlawed the kidnapping of women, guaranteed diplomatic immunity to
ambassadors, granted religious freedom to all people, and his empire
introduced gunpowder and paper to the West. DNA testing has revealed
that 16 million men living in Eurasia are
descended from a single person who lived in the 1200’s, presumed to be
Genghis.
NB
Richard Spencer, The Gazette, Montreal,
July 12, 2006, p. A13
CULTURAL DIVERSITY
Kinship
Diners have been part of American cultural identity and here are few for
which it is worth making a detour: The Moody’s Diner in Waldoboro, Maine
has exquisite walnut pie. The Miss Port Diner in Port Henry, New York was so
popular it had a band a baseball team named after it. The Blue Benn in Bennington, Vermont
is a vegetarian-friendly diner with “better than sex” chocolate
brownies. To fine more amazing diners, go to www.roadfood.com.
NB
The Gazette, Montreal, Saturday, June 17,
2006, p. K7
CULTURAL DIVERSITY
USA
Kenneth Briggs, author of “Double Crossed: Uncovering the Catholic
Church’s Betrayal of American Nuns,” write that the total number of nuns has declined
from 179,954 to 68,634 from the years 1965 to 2005. He states that the
reason for this decline has to do with the backlash of repression towards
liberated nuns in the 1960’s from the church hierarchy. Briggs does not
think there is much weight in the argument that the number of nuns has
declined as a result of growing feminism and secularism. Another
problem he notes, is that nuns are not necessarily
promised the retirement security they would need to be comfortable committing
themselves to the church.
NB
Richard Ostling, The Gazette, Montreal, Saturday, June 17, 2006, p. K7
CULTURAL DIVERSITY
Extinction
When Boris visited China,
he was not expecting to find the attitude towards communism that he did among
the Chinese people with whom he conversed. It was not so much a defense
of Chinese communism that he found, but more a “patient refusal to accept my
glib assumptions of the superiority of western pluralism, “which was a
“defense not so much of the system but of China itself.” He experienced
the impressive extent to which most Chinese people have respect for authority
and fear of disorder. Boris admits that China is proving that
free-market capitalism and democracy do not have to go hand in hand, but also
states that there are two things China lacks that the US has which make it
such a powerful country: hard power (military) and soft power (cultural
protection abroad).
NB
Boris Johnson, The Gazette, Montreal, May 6,
2006, p. B5
CULTURAL DIVERSITY
China
Olga Alexandrovna Romanov
was the last grand duchess of Russia,
but passed the last chapter in her life in a humble home in southern Ontario before she
died in 1960. A glass bowl that she received for her duties as a nurse
in the battlefield during the First World War is expected to be sold for
$200,000 Canadian. Locals remember her as unassuming and ordinary,
wearing rubber boots and buying canned food at the grocery stores; a woman
who cared more about her freedom than her finances.
NB
Randy Boswell, The Gazette, Montreal,
March 29, 2006, p. A15
CULTURAL DIVERSITY
Russian Aristocracy
David Suzuki
The journalist Dan Gardner accused David Suzuki of going too far in his quest
aiming to alarm people about the terrifying consequences of global warming.
David Suzuki has distorted, he said, some critical nuances of the Stern
report that forecasts the economic effects of climate change. The revered
Canadian ecologist uses the most dramatic figure stating that global warming
will generate 20% loss for the global economy,
while ignoring to mention in his discourse that lesser economic impacts of 5%
are also possible.
ML
The Gazette, Montréal – A23 -3 May 2007 – Dan Gardner
DAVID SUZUKI
Deforestation
A satellite-assisted survey of Quebec’s northern forests revealed that an
area of almost one million square kilometers, or about 60 percent of Quebec, has been
logged. The data can help to provide information to the government in
the implementation of forestry recommendations. 30 Quebec-based
companies were invited to asses the data, but all declined.
ED
Lynn Moore, The Gazette, Montreal,
February 10, 2006 – p. B1
DEFORESTATION – boreal
BBC News reports that the Amazonian rainforest deforestation rate has been
halved, and the amount of illegal logging reduced.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4189792.stm, August 2005
SS
DEFORESTATION
Amazon rainforest
Diabetes
The Kahnawake First Nation, in collaboration with
Health Canada,
has successfully implemented the Diabetes Prevention Project in their
schools. The Type 2 diabetes rate has not increased in 21 years as a
result. The success occurs even though increased incomes lead to more
eating out and sedentary lifestyles in front of electronics.
ED
Michelle MacAfee, The Gazette, Montreal
– p. A9
DIABETES
Native Americans
Ecoterrorists
A fugitive US radical
environmentalist, charged with setting fire to logging and cement trucks in
2001, has been arrested in Vancouver
by the FBI.
AR
The Gazette
ECOTERRORISTS
Ecotourism
Peter Phillips, the former head of Newmount Gold
Corp., operates a 9,400-acre game farm called Makulu
Makete in South
Africa by the Botswana border. The reserve’s
goals include the rehabilitation of the savannah ecology of the area and the
conservation of indigenous plant and animal life.
AS
www.makulumakete.com
ECOTOURISM
Conservationism
Ecomartyrs
Two new ecomartyrs have given their lives in
the effort to save tropical rainforest, joining the roll of honor that
includes Dian Fossey and Chico Mendes (for whom I
coined the term ecomartyr—a deliberating grating
hack-journalism artifact designed to heighten the reader’s indignation: not
only were these people murdered, now they’re being called ecomartyrs).
But their deaths have attracted very little notice. The vogue for saving the
rainforest has come and gone, but the destruction continues. Bruno Manser, a 47-year-old Swiss activist who devoted 12 years
to trying to save the Penan tribe, a small tribe of
nomadic hunter-gatherers who live in the rainforest of Sarawak, in
northeastern Borneo, was last seen on May 22nd, 2000 and presumed to be dead.
He was setting out to climb a 7,000-foot limestone pinnacle called Batu Lawi to dramatize the
plight of the Penan, whose way of life is being
extinguished by commercial logging, the cash economy, Coca Cola, television--
the usual Western toxins. Or he may have gone to the mountain in despair, to
commit suicide because he realized that the Penan
were history, his efforts useless. In l990, Manser
wrote: “Each morning at dawn the gibbons howl and their voices carry great
distances, riding the thermal boundary created by the cool of the forest and
the warm air above as the sun strikes the canopy. Penan never eat the eyes
of the gibbons. They are afraid of losing themselves in the horizon. They
lack an inner horizon. They don’t separate dreams from reality. If someone
dreams that a tree limb falls on a camp, they will move with the dawn.”
AS
To learn more, read Simon Elegant’s September 3,
2001 cover story in Time Asia. Also see
http://www.earthisland.org/borneo/news_bruno.html for further information.
ECOMARTYRS
The other ecomartyr is a 36-year-old Brazilian
activist named Ademir Alfeu
Federicci and
nicknamed Dema. He was shot in the head by an
unknown assailant in front of his wife and children on August 21st, 2001,
apparently because he vociferously opposed a hydroelectric dam that the
Brazilian government plans to build on the Xingu
River, in southern Amazonia, and because he had
been making a huge stink about the illegal logging that is going on in the
region. Like Chico Mendes, who was the president of the rubber-tappers’ union, Dema was the
president of a union of small agricultural workers.
AS
For more information, contact Tonya Hennessey at Greenpeace, tonyah "at" bb.sfo.us.gl3
ECOMARTYRS
Energy
Nigerian rebels pledge to choke off oil. Easing supply fears have pushed
oil prices lower. Armed militants vowed to cut daily oil exports from the
West African nation’s troubled delta region by another million barrels by the
end of March because OPEC will keep output levels intact.
JC
Montreal Gazette, March 7, 2006
ENERGY
Oil
Nigeria
The Charest government decides to go ahead with the Rupert
River diversion project. The project will flood 400 km² and
greatly affect the local Cree people. The project will create a maximum of
4000 employments for 6 years and generate an estimated 532$ million in
Québec. However, for the first time in history, an aboriginal group will
financially truly benefit from such a project. For the next 50 years the Cree
communities will receive from the government an annual $70 million plus a
portion of the benefit from electricity sales. Part of this money will be
invested in a Cree heritage fund ensuring long-term financial benefits. In
spite of these financial incentives, the three Cree communities the most affected
by the project will loose spiritual connection to their land. Money can’t buy
everything.
ML
The Gazette, Montréal – A1 – 12 January 2007 - Mike King
ENERGY
Cree
Hydroelectricity
Native people
Rupert River
Fidel Castro denounced U.S. President Bush for encouraging the use of biofuels and in particular ethanol derived from corn or
sugar cane. The Cuban leader forecast that over 3 billion people in the world
would starve to death if Bush goes on with his policy. Biofuels
are now considered as the best alternative to dwindling oil reserves, but
they have a negative side. Brazil
and the U.S.
together produce 70% of the world’s biofuels and
Bush is now planning for mandatory biofuel content
five times greater than the present amount. In order to achieve this plan,
Castro points out that 320 million tonnes of corn
would be needed. This would take away space to grow food for people. He finds
it obscene that corn should be grown to fuel cars in the rich countries, when
people are starving in Africa.
ML
The Gazette, Montréal – B7 – 30 March 2007 - Isabel Sanchez
ENERGY
Biodiesel
Castro
Jathopha curcas, a
shrub-like woody plant, was used for generations as fencing for protecting
crops of poor villagers in Zimbabwe.
Now, thanks to the Mudzi Jatropha
and Cassava project, funded by CIDA, the Canadian International Development
Agency and implemented by Edit trust, a Zimbabwean NGO, the seeds of the
shrub are put to good use. Jatropha seeds are
processed to make oil, soap and fuel, and cassava, another drought resistant
plant, provides nutritious food and allows local people to make enough
profits fromn growing it to send their kids to
school.
ML
The Gazette, Montréal – A13 – 29 May 2006 - Ian Jones
ENERGY
Biodiesel
Zimbabwe
The two countries U.S.
and Brazil, which happen
to be the two biggest producers of ethanol, signed an accord to share
technology for alternative fuel production and reduce their respective
reliance on oil imports from Venezuela.
However, Brazil is leading
the example: thanks to its ethanol production, Brazil has replaced 40% of
gasoline consumption. Moreover, 70% of Brazilian vehicles can run on both
gasoline and ethanol.
ML
The Gazette, Montréal – C6 – 10 March 2007 - Roger Runningen
and Catherine Dodge
ENERGY
Hydro-Quebec is planning on investing $25 billion in new dams to generate
4500 megawatts of electricity, with 1000 megawatts as export sales to Ontario and the US. The dams will create
70,000 person-years of construction jobs. It is said the project would
save Quebecers money and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Environmentalists
are skeptical about both of these points. Potential rivers for damming
include La Romaine on the lower north shore and rivers in Nunavik.
NB
Kevin Dougherty, The Gazette, Montreal,
May 5, 2006, p. A1
ENERGY
Hydropower
The Co-founded of Greenpeace states that nuclear power is the only
large-scale, cost-effective energy source that can reduce greenhouse gas
emissions, given the growing demand for energy. Wind and solar energy
have their place in reducing greenhouse gases, but they are simply too
intermittent to act as a substitute for coal. He states that nuclear
energy is actually one of the least expensive energy sources, and is actually
safe (Chernobyl
did not have a containment vessel). He also states that nuclear energy
does not actually produce that much dangerous waste, as used fuel has less
than one-thousandth its radioactivity after 40 years and 95% of the potential
energy in the waste can actually be used again as fuel. Moore also states that
many other types of facilities are much more vulnerable to terrorist attach
than nuclear plants (which have two-meter thick reinforced concrete
containment vessels). Lastly, he concludes by saying that the 103
operating plants in the US
currently avoid the release of 700 million tons of carbon-dioxide
annually.
NB
Patrick Moore, The Gazette, Montreal,
April 29, 2006, p. B5
ENERGY
Nuclear Power
After a copper mine and smelter closed in Murdochville
in 2002, new life was brought to the town with the construction of 60
turbines to produce wind power. Murdochville
is 1,000 kilometers east of Montreal
and is currently Canada’s largest winder power project, generating enough
electricity to power 12,000 homes. New jobs have been created and new
families are moving to the area. Currently HydroQuebec
will pay 6.5 cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity produced by wind, and in
the past 20 years, the cost of producing wind has dropped by 80% in real
dollars. Quebec is the second largest
producers of wind energy in Canada
and soon it is predicted is will soon surpass the number one producer, Alberta.
Worldwide, Canada
is the 14th largest wind energy producer, with less than one half percent of
its energy coming from wind. Some concerns about wind farms include
that fact that local communities may not receive their fair share of the
economic benefits, and after initial construction they are limited
employment.
NB
The Gazette, Montreal,
Saturday, April 1, 2006, B1
ENERGY
Windmills
More than 1 million people have been displaced for the Chinese Yangtze
River Three Gorges Dam. The world’s longest dam (2.3km) also flooded 1,000
archaeological sites and over 24 hectares of agricultural land. The 660km
long lake that will form behind the dam will further threatened Yangtze
dolphin, Chinese sturgeon and finless porpoise. The energy derived from the
gigantic structure is expected to reach 85 billion kilowatt per hour by 2009,
which represents only 2% of China’s electricity need by 2010. However,
project managers say the dam will help control the Yangtze’s deadly floods
that have killed hundred of thousands in the past. Environmentalists fear
that the huge lake forming behind the dam will become a waste pool for
China’s largest urban centre of Chongqing despite newly build
sewage treatment plants.
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The Gazette, Montréal – B7 – 19 May 2006 - Edward Cody
ENERGY
Hydropower
Dams
Change your light bulbs for the compact fluorescent lights (CFLs). They’ll make your energy bill almost 4 times cheaper
and help reduce our dependence on coal and fossil fuel. For those still
nostalgic of the incandescent rays, the famous bright and coiled CFLs are now coming in various shapes and colours to give an old-fashioned feel. The only problem,
when the long-lived energy-efficient bulb is retired,
it is considered hazardous waste containing phosphorous powder and
mercury. Thus, you can’t just trash it or recycle it.
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The Gazette, Montréal – B3 – 24 March 2006 - Cheryl Cornacchia
ENERGY
Light bulbs
Expansion of the Eastmain powerhouse and the
diversion of the Rupert River into the Eastmain
pose serious threats to the environment, the health of the Rupert and the Eastmain and the Cree who
depend on its fish, but the controversy
surrounding the projects is dampened down by the context of high-energy
prices and global warming. The dam will negatively affect Cree communities’
livelihood, but the power it will generate will sell at the cheap rate of
five cents a kilowatt- hour, which is two cent less than the current
electricity market price.
ML
The Gazette, Montréal – B1 - 31 January 2007 - Peter Hadekel
ENERGY
Hydropower
Rupert River
Will a 62km² wind farm, 130 turbines strong, ever rise on the shores of
the Nantucket Sound ? The project idea was born
in 2002 and $325,000 has been spent in lobbying while politicians with vested
interests in the oil business are trying to get the project nixed.
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The Gazette, Montréal - Juliet Eilperin
ENERGY
Wind power
Zenn electric minicars
are to be produced in St. Jerome, 60 km north
of Montreal.
Although the Zenn (Zero Emission No Noise) meets
all federal highway regulations, British
Columbia is the only province so far where the
vehicle can be legally licensed. Feel Good Cars, the Toronto-based company that
manufactures the cars, has not yet sold any Zenns
in Canada, although they
have orders from France
and the United States.
TA
Mike King, The Gazette, Montreal,
April 14, 2006, p. A1
ENERGY
Electric Cars
Environmental Awareness
The Canadian largest survey on the subject of climate change reveals that
Québec has surpassed British
Columbia as the most environmentally conscious
province. Quebecers, regardless of their age class, wealth and education
levels, are the most environmentally aware and the most determined to make
changes in order to reverse the effects of global warming.
ML
The Gazette, Montréal – A4 – 23 March 2007 – Michelle Lalonde
ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS
Québec
Ethnic Conflict
Australian-led forces, who came to East Timor in the midst of a bloody
transition from Indonesian rule in 1999, are back to keep the peace in the
capital of Dili. It’s a sad departure from
2002, when East Timor declared independence
after a period of UN oversight and a generous infusion of international
aid. East Timor is an extreme case, a
neglected territory where violence and deprivation became routine for many
people during 24 years of harsh Indonesian occupation. Some observers
believe the UN left East Timor too soon and
retained too much authority for too long. The tensions between old
independence fighters and those perceived to be sympathetic to Indonesia
were never resolved, and they have flared up in the recent violence.
TA
Christopher Torchia, Associated Press, The Gazette,
Montreal, June 1, 2006
ETHNIC CONFLICT – East Timor
An Israeli couple used a stroller to bring firecrackers and small
explosives into one of Christianity’s holiest sites in Nazareth. The explosions started
riots in the street and six people were injured. The attack was not
nationalistic but did underline the tensions between Jews and Palestinians.
ED
Associated Press, The Gazette, Montreal,
March 4, 2006 – p. A27
ETHNIC CONFLICT
Over 35,000 children were abducted by rebel militia in the Congo during
Africa’s First World War. Since 2003, the country has demobilized about
11,000 youths and made it illegal for rebels to have children soldiers.
The boys, changed by their experiences, are put into interim camps to help
ease their transition back into childhood and family life.
ED
Edmund Sanders, The Gazette, Montreal,
December 18, 2005 – p. IN4
ETHNIC CONFLICT – Congo
Evolution
Humans have transformed the archipelago of the Galapagos
Islands through the introduction of alien species. Scientists
have tried to eradicate the invasive species such as goats, donkeys, cats and
pigs. Scientists are making progress in the protection of threatened species
in this region on uninhabited islands but are losing ground in inhabited
areas. Alien species have driven native species into extinction because
native species have never faced competition before.
JC
Juliet Eilperin, The Montreal Gazette, March 4, 2006
EVOLUTION
Galapagos
Introduced Species
Extinction
The survival of the human race depends on its ability to find new homes
elsewhere in the universe because there’s an increasing risk of disaster
destroying the earth, the visionary particle physicist Stephan Hawking said.
He said life on earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a
disaster such as global warming, nuclear war, or dangers not yet thought of.
JC
Sylvia Hui, Associated Press
EXTINCTION
Human Race
North Atlantic right whales were nearly driven extinct by whaling, but
they don’ t have to be concerned about hunters
anymore, they are threatened by ship strikes which are hindering their
ability to recover in numbers since whaling days. Scientists at the
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts have discovered that
whales don’t respond to recorded ship noises, but when the alert signal was
sounded, the whales responded by heading towards the surface, straight into
oncoming ships.
AR
The Gazette, Montreal.
December 21, 2003
EXTINCTION
Whales
A lone turtle living in a lake in Hanoi
could be the last of its kind, wildlife experts
fear. The Asian giant softshell turtle is
extremely rare and is presumably at the risk of extinction.
The Times, October 13, 2003
EXTINCTION
Turtles
Harvard researchers say that habitat destruction by illegal loggers could
mean the extinction of orangutans within 10 to 20 years. Orangutans
live only in Indonesia and
Malaysia.
While the government of Indonesia
has a commitment to protect the orangutans, the loggers return when the
police leave.
AR
The Gazette, Montreal.
September 30, 2003
EXTINCTION
Primates
Indonesia
In the past 80 years, two thirds of the 91 known forest-dependent species
of birds in Singapore
have become extinct. Researchers predict 42 percent of animals species in Southeast Asia
could become extinct by the end of this century. Stronger enforcement
against illegal logging and poaching and economic incentives are needed to
retard the rate of extinction.
ED
Kristin Kovner – p. 4
EXTINCTION
Southern Alberta’s Ord’s Kangaroo rat population
is under threat. A two year study beginning will try to determine why
the population dips perilously close to extermination every winter, from an
estimated 3,000-5,000 each summer to around 500 the following spring. University of Calgary biologist Darren Bender
believes that it is the loss of the rat’s habitat in the Middle Sand hills
that is responsible for the declining numbers. The Ord’s
Kangaroo is one of six endangered animal species in Alberta.
AR
Grady Semmens, Canwest
News Service
EXTINCTION
Rodents
Fiction
In his latest novel “Returning to Earth”, Jim Harrison, often referred as the
Mozart of the plains for the quality of his writing, reflects on the world of
death and mourners. In his fiction, a 45-years-old man diagnosed with an
incurable degenerative disease chooses to die before the illness consumes
him. Then, Harrison describe the feelings and memories of the wife who tries
to let go of her husband at the same time she realizes she needs to
relinquish her grown up children. In spite of these sad events, the novel is
full of happiness. The characters facing either side of death are remembering
the times of their life that made it all worthwhile and unforgettable.
ML
The Gazette, Montréal – J7 - 10 March 2007 – Omar Majeed
FICTION
Fish
Banned chemicals found in the Potomac River (West Virginia) are suspected to cause
sexual mutation in smallmouth bass. The pesticides and banned fungicides
found in the water can stimulate oestrogen
production in male fish as well as the production of immature eggs in fish
testes.
ML
The Gazette, Montréal –A25 - 20 January 2007 – David Ochami
FISH
Pollution
Food for Thought/Musings
“I don’t think you can live with the flat, metallic lakes, the brooding firs
and pines, and the great expanses of grey rock that stretch all the way from
Yellowknife to Labrador, with the naked birches and the rattling aspens, with
the ghostly call of the loon and the haunting cry of the wolf, without being
a very special person.”
SS
Pierre Berton, Quoted by Michael Kesterton, The Globe & Mail, Toronto
FOOD FOR THOUGHT/MUSINGS
When fascism comes to America
it will be in the form of Americanism. Take, as an example, former Louisiana
Governor, U.S. Senator, and noted radical Huey Long.
AS
FOOD FOR THOUGHT/MUSINGS
The ecologist’s apologist creed: I have desecrated my right to be here and
that of others.
AS
FOOD FOR THOUGHT/MUSINGS
“History is the passion of sons who wish to understand their fathers.”
Late Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini
AS
FOOD FOR THOUGHT/MUSINGS
“Where do you go if you’re young and the world comes to an end? Do
you go into history?”
AS
Isabelle, a Montreal
first-grade student, Montreal Gazette
FOOD FOR THOUGHT/MUSINGS
Foundations and Grants
Just got a call from Mervin Roberts, who is pushing eighty and works as a
consultant for a philanthropic institution called Maine Coastal Resources,
which was thinking of making a grant to a leper colony in the Amazon where
some Franciscan monks had reported that 4000 destitute lepers were “eating
garbage.” Roberts went down to check it out before the grant was finalized.
It turns out that I visited the colony, which is seven miles from the city of
Manaus,
in l976 and devoted a few paragraphs of my book, The Rivers Amazon, to it.
Roberts had read the book before going down and had called me to see if I had
any contacts or suggestions. Everything was as I had described it, he
reported, except that the Franciscans who were running the colony had left,
and so had all the lepers except for three. It was, as he described it,
a “depressed leper colony.” With the advent of the new sulfa drugs, he
explained, most lepers can be treated so that within six months they are no
longer contagious and can return to the general population, which is what the
other 3997 lepers had apparently done. Other healthy Amazonians had moved
into the abandoned compound with their families because there was electric
power “to run their boob tubes,” Roberts went on. “This place doesn’t need
American help. The people are better off than they are in many parts of
America.” So this is good news for Maine Coastal Resources, I said to
Roberts. It doesn’t have to make the grant. “I suppose,” he said, “but I’m
furious with the Franciscans. It didn’t pan out. That’s why these benevolent
organizations have to be so careful before they send out the cheques.”
AS
FOUNDATIONS AND GRANTS
Gender
One in every 2000 babies is born an intersexual,
with genitalia that are neither male nor female. Mrs. Hartman of Hackensack, NJ
gave birth to such a child. The doctors did not know at birth
whether her child was a boy or a girl. Deciding to raise the child as a
girl, the child underwent feminizing surgeries. By age 4 the child, Kelli, began to tell her mother that she was actually a
boy named Max. In the near future the mother and child are going to
have to decide whether to take hormones to either shape Kelli
into a woman, or turn her into a man.
AR
The Gazette, Montréal - 31 July 2004 Ruth Padavuar
GENDER
Intersexual
Prince Manvendrasinh Gohil
is the only son and heir to the fortunes of the former Rajpipla
principality, in Gujarat state.
However, he learned through a newspaper ad, which his parents placed, that he
was disowned from his parents. The motivation for this was that he
recently came out to his parents. Homosexual relationships are illegal
in India.
NB
Peter Foster, The Gazette, Montreal,
June 28, 2006, p. A18
GENDER
Homosexuality
Aida Melly Tan Abdullah was abused by her
husband who secretly took a second wife but refused to give her a
divorce. After countless unsuccessful court rulings, she was so
frustrated with the legal system in Malaysia that she studied Islamic
law, known as Shariah to fight for her own
rights. After attracting nation-wide attention she obtained a divorce
in 2002. While Malaysia
was once considered the most progressive Muslim country in regards to family
law, it has since digressed and is getting worse according to some
critics. Women are discriminated against in legal issues regarding
family, inheritance as well as their fundamental liberties. Law are getting stricter against women’s favor as political
parties fight for the support of conservative Muslims. Under Islamic
law, Muslim men can have up to four wives, can divorce their wives simply by
stating the words (or texting them via cell phone),
“I divorce you,” three times, can avoid child support simply by moving to
another state, and two states allow men to marry off their daughters without their
consent. Wives on the other hand, have to prove their divorce case in
court if their husbands do not want a divorce. Sisters of Islam is a
women’s group that campaigns for Shariah reforms
and deals with an average of 700 Shariah court
cases a year from women who want divorces or child support.
NB
Eileen Ng, The Gazette, Montreal,
June 23, 2006, p. h10
GENDER
Women’s Rights
One in every 2000 babies is born an intersexual,
with genitalia that are neither male nor female. Mrs. Hartman of Hackensack, NJ
gave birth to such a child. The doctors did not know at birth
whether her child was a boy or a girl. Deciding to raise the child as a
girl, the child underwent feminizing surgeries. By age 4 the child, Kelli, began to tell her mother that she was actually a
boy named Max. In the near future the mother and child are going to
have to decide whether to take hormones to either shape Kelli
into a woman, or turn her into a man.
AR
Ruth Padavuar, The Gazette, Montréal, July 31, 2004
GENDER
Intersexual
“Busted” is an all-women private detective agency in Atlanta. The intention of its
founder, Jeanene Weiner, was not to limit it to
women, but then she found how helpful it was to have women detectives.
She finds that clients are more comfortable talking to women (especially male
clients), and she believes women are more curious and observant than men,
important qualities in the trade. The agency is three years old and is
the only all-female private eye agency in the US.
NB
Harry Mount, The Gazette, Montreal,
June 18, 2006, p. A9
GENDER
Marriage
Geology
Avalonia is the name of the rock that was driven
away by tectonic forces from the super continent Gondwana
480 million years ago. Researches found that this rock forms part of Nova
Scotia, New Brunswick, New England, Carolina, the British Isles and even
France and Spain. When Avalonia split again, it
allowed the formation of the Atlantic Ocean.
ML
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