In what may be the coldest peace march ever, more than 100 people in Regina, Sask. braved dangerously low temperatures to call for peace in the Middle East. Environment Canada issued a weather warning for the city on Saturday, as temperatures remained stuck at –28 C and the wind chill reached – 43C. Nonetheless, peace supporters and their families gathered in Victoria Park at 1:00 p.m. before marching through the city’s frigid downtown streets, waving placards denouncing the world’s inaction as violence escalates between Israel and the Gaza Strip. Many remarked that the fierce wind, capable of freezing exposed flesh within minutes, was nothing compared to the suffering in Gaza, where 1.5 million people are trapped between Israel and the sea. Surrounding borders are sealed, giving civilians little hope of refuge from the rain of rockets. By Saturday afternoon, more than 450 had been killed in the Strip, including several children. During the demonstration organizers announced the ground invasion of Gaza had begun, prompting cries of “Shame!” from the crowd. The event, organized by Muslims for Peace and Justice, called for international pressure to end the violence.

If anyone’s camera batteries managed to stay operational during this event, please email photos to the webmaster.

Recent reports states that since Nkunda's army have been pushed out of areas of Virunga National Park in Democratic Republic of Congo, the moutain gorilla has been seen again by park rangers.

The government park rangers and their families were forced out of the park fifteen months ago when the rebel armies under Nkunda began to take control over parts of the park.  Since September 2007, there has been no one in there to monitor the gorillas.

“We were very worried about the mountain gorillas as we had no contact with them for over a year but ICCN rangers have already seen many of the mountain gorilla families and we are happy to report that most of them seem to be doing well,” said Virunga National Park director, Emmanuel de Merode. “We are continuing our census of the gorillas and are reinstating our antipoaching operations.”

Write Comment (0 Comments)

by John W. Warnock
December 21, 2008

“The world is suffering from a fever due to climate change, and the disease is the capitalist development model.” Evo Morales, President of Bolivia.

    A new world ecosocialist organization has been formed, and they will be making a presentation at the World Social Forum in Belem, Brazil in January 2009. Representatives from a number of countries met in Paris in 2007 and produced a Declaration to present in Brazil. A number of Canadians played a key role in this development and will send a delegation to the Forum.

We have heard a lot of action being considered around the banning of plastic bags given away so freely from the grocery and department stores.  In the United States, Americans throw away about 100 billion plastic bags a year.  If one speculates about Canada, that would mean that we dispose of 10 billion bags a year.  But less than 1 percent of these are recycled.

Plastic bags come from petroleum, and the manufacturing of just fourteen of those plastic bags uses the same amount of oil that it would take to drive a car one mile.

Paper bags are even worse. Producing paper bags uses four times the energy as making plastic ones, as reported by the Environmental Protection Agency. Right now, only about 20 percent of the paper bags in use are recycled.

And most of that plastic and paper ends up in landfills, which — you guessed it — incures more greenhouse gases as that plastic has to be transported to that landfill.

So what to do?

In an interview with the BBC, the senior economist of the International Energy Agency admitted that prior to 2008 it had not conducted its own assessment of the state of global oil supplies and the possibility that one day they might peak and then go into decline.   Most countries use the assessment of the IEA as gospel and do no individual assessments for their own emergency preparation.

In a report on peak oil for the United States Department of Energy, the analyst Robert Hursch concluded that "without timely mitigation, the economic, social and political costs" of world oil supplies peaking "will be unprecedented". He went on to explain what "timely mitigation" meant.

In response to plans by Syncrude and other oil companies to release tailings into the Athabasca River, New Democrat Environment Critic Linda Duncan is expressing grave concerns over the health and environmental repercussions.

“The federal government has a responsibility to protect the Athabasca and the people and wildlife who rely on it,” says Duncan, MP for Edmonton-Strathcona.  Dumping of contaminated wastes into these rivers clearly triggers federal responsibilities, such as fisheries, transborder waters and Aboriginal lands and peoples.  By law, affected First Nations must be notified and consulted prior to the adoption of such policies or the issuing of any permits.

Write Comment (0 Comments)

The Canadian Press reports December 11 that, "An aboriginal band has threatened the very basis of Alberta's oilsands industry by filing a court challenge to the province's system of granting land tenure. A notice filed Wednesday in Edmonton Court of Queen's Bench by the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation claims that a series of oilsands permits the provincial government sold to Shell Canada and other companies are invalid. Selling off rights to explore the land without consulting area aboriginals breached the Crown's duty to consult, say legal documents prepared by the First Nation."