Greenspiration News: pop, CananBiz, Haiti

Tue Jan 26 10:46:38 EST 2010

Greenspiration News

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Bring Back Parliament

Stephen Harper has prorogued Parliament, meaning politicians won't get  
back to work for weeks! What about joblessness? The climate? The war?

Tell Mr. Harper to get back to work. Bring back Parliament.

Sign the petition:

http://www.bringbackparliament.ca/

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Ontario bans school pop

Ontario students will no longer be able to buy candy, pop or fries on  
school property starting in September 2011, the provincial government  
announced yesterday.

http://www.nationalpost.com/todays-paper/story.html?id=2465880

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Tell Chevron to Clean Up Its Toxic Mess in Ecuador

Over the course of twenty-six years of oil drilling in Ecuador's  
Amazon rainforest, U.S. oil giant Chevron deliberately dumped more  
than 18 billion gallons of toxic wastewater into the rainforest,  
leaving local people suffering a wave of cancers, miscarriages and  
birth defects.  The tragedy in Ecuador is so profound, it has been  
compared to the Exxon Valdez spill and called the "Amazon's Chernobyl."

In spite of the tremendous suffering caused by this toxic pollution,  
Chevron has refused to clean up the catastrophe.

Chevron has pledged that even if it is found guilty in court the  
company simply won’t pay to clean up the site or provide health care,  
potable water and compensation to affected communities.

Demand that Chevron take responsibility for its actions now. Watch the  
short video and sign the petition: http://www.change.org/actions/view/tell_chevron_to_clean_up_its_toxic_mess_in_ecuador?alert_id=SGAxUVzJPU

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How the US exports its mental illnesses

  I concentrate on two western forms of mental illness - depression  
and PTSD - which are spreading around the world with the speed of a  
contagious disease, bulldozing indigenous forms of mental illness as  
they go.

Two powerful but different forces are driving this. The diagnosis of  
PTSD is being spread by roving bands of western trauma counsellors who  
set up psychological first aid centres after wars and natural  
disasters. And our western conception of depression is being promoted  
by multinational drug companies who profit mightily when other  
cultures adopt the idea and then buy their antidepressants.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20527441.200-how-the-us-exports-its-mental-illnesses.html

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US Mercenaries Set Sights on Haiti

Private security companies are seeing big dollar signs in Haiti thanks  
in no small part to the media hype about "looters."

What is unfolding in Haiti seems to be part of what Naomi Klein has  
labeled the "Shock Doctrine."

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100201/scahill

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US Corporations, Private Mercenaries and the IMF Rush in to Profit  
from Haiti's Crisis

http://www.alternet.org/world/145279?page=1

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Journalist Kim Ives on How Western Domination Has Undermined Haiti’s  
Ability to Recover from Natural Devastation
Democracy Now, Jan. 20, 2010

Shortly after Haiti was hit by a 6.1 aftershock earlier today, Amy  
Goodman and Kim Ives of Haiti Liberté report from the Port-au-Prince  
airport. Amy and Kim discuss how centuries of Western domination of  
Haiti has worsened the impact of the devastating earthquake, from the  
harsh reaction to Haiti’s independence as a republic of free slaves in  
1804 to the US-backed overthrow of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in  
2004. Ives says, “This quake was precipitated by a political  
earthquake with an epicenter in Washington, DC.”

Watch: http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/20/journalist_kim_ives_on_how_decades

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The Real Looting in Haiti

Co-director of the Louisiana Justice Institute, Washington said today:  
"The real looting in Haiti is not the people trying to get food to  
survive. The real looting of Haiti is the economic policies of the  
U.S. and France, as well as institutions such as the IMF and World  
Bank, in addition to the disaster capitalism that is fast setting in.

http://accuracy.org/newsrelease.php?articleId=2157
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A Haiti Disaster Relief Scenario Was Envisaged by the US Military One  
Day Before the Earthquake

by Michel Chossudovsky
A Haiti disaster relief scenario had been envisaged at the  
headquarters of US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) in Miami one day prior  
to the earthquake.

The holding of pre-disaster simulations pertained to the impacts of a  
hurricane in Haiti. They were held on January 11.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=CHO20100120&articleId=17122

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Chavez says US 'weapon' caused Haiti quake

Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez Wednesday accused the United States of  
causing the destruction in Haiti by testing a 'tectonic weapon' to  
induce the
catastrophic earthquake that hit the country last week.

The outspoken leader had earlier accused the US of occupying Haiti  
"under the guise of the natural disaster."

Venezuelan media have reported that the earthquake "may be associated  
with the project called HAARP, a system that can generate violent and  
unexpected
changes in climate."

HAARP, the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, is a study  
run in Alaska directed at the occasional reconfiguration of the  
properties of the
Earth's ionosphere to improve satellite communications.

Former US Secretary of Defense William Cohen in 1997 expressed  
concerned over countries engaging "in eco-type of terrorism whereby  
they can alter the
climate, set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely through the use of  
electromagnetic waves."

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116688&sectionid=351020704

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Non-stick coating linked to thyroid disease
A U.K. study suggests people with elevated levels of a group of  
chemicals used in the manufacture of "non-stick" surfaces had an  
increased rate of thyroid disease.http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2010/01/21/pfoa-coating-thyroid.html
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Top ten bicycle-friendly cities in the world - Montreal #5
Amsterdam. Netherlands
Copenhagen, Denmark
Bogata, Columbia
Curitiba, Brazil
Montreal, Canada
Portland, OR, USA
Basil, Switzerland
Barcelona, Spain
Beijing, China
Trondheim, Norway
Two years ago, Montreal embarked on a $134 million plan to revamp the  
city's bike trails and create a more bicycle-friendly atmosphere. The  
plan included incorporating bicycle-friendly lock points into standard  
parking meters. The city currently boasts 2,400 miles of trails with  
plans to expand. Montreal also has the first urban bike-share  
infrastructure in North America, the Bixi program.
http://www.canoe.ca/Travel/Activities/Adventure/2010/01/15/12478291-reuters.html
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CannaBiz
Thursday January 28, at 9 pm on CBC-TV
Repeating: Friday January 29, 2010 at 10 pm ET/PT on CBC News Network

Canada's $20 billion-dollar marijuana industry is now at a violent  
crossroads between crime and commerce. Impossible to police, yet  
steadily gaining public acceptance, the cannabis industry is now so  
vast and vital to Canada's national economy that it can no longer be  
ignored.

http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/doczone/2010/cannabiz/index.html
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WAR is BUSINESS
A new ONLINE RESOURCE for Canadian activists, researchers and the media
Read it now ---
http://coat.ncf.ca/our_magazine/links/64/64.htm
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Cancer Risks Debated for Type of X-Ray Scan
The plan for broad use of X-ray body scanners to detect bombs or  
weapons under airline passengers’ clothes has rekindled a debate about  
the safety of delivering small doses of radiation to millions of  
people — a process some experts say is certain to result in a few  
additional cancer deaths.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/09/health/09scanner.html

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Antidepressants Tied To Preterm Births: Study
Among nearly 3,000 women who gave birth in Washington State, those who  
started taking SSRI antidepressants in the second or third trimester  
had a higher risk of preterm birth, according to Reuters, which cites  
a study in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology. Compared  
with others not given the meds, the women were nearly five times more  
likely to deliver prematurely. The same risk was not seen, however,  
among women who started on an SSRI before pregnancy or during the  
first trimester.
The study also found a higher risk of preterm delivery among women who  
took anti-anxiety drugs known as benzodiazepines, regardless of when  
they began treatment, Reuters continues.
http://www.pharmalot.com/2010/01/antidepressants-tied-to-preterm-births-study/
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One quarter of US grain crops fed to cars - not people, new figures show
One-quarter of all the maize and other grain crops grown in the US now  
ends up as biofuel in cars rather than being used to feed people,  
according to new analysis which suggests that the biofuel revolution  
launched by former President George Bush in 2007 is impacting on world  
food supplies.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jan/22/quarter-us-grain-biofuels-food/print

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Pesticide Use Linked to Die-Offs

A report, Behind Mass Die-Offs, Pesticides Lurk as Culprit, issued  
through Yale University Environment 360 has linked pesticides to the  
high-profile die-offs among amphibians, bees, and bats.

http://www.manitobawildlands.org/news_item.asp?number=1366

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