climate, toxic toys, plastic, birth ratio, Lubicon, water, war, drugs

Wed Feb 6 14:31:19 EST 2008

“Global warming and the environment has emerged in the minds of Canadians
as the world's most pressing issue” –  Canada’s World Poll

Environics conducted a major poll January 9-28, 2008 on our attitudes and
opinions about international issues and what Canada’s role should be. 
When asked, unprompted, what issue concerns them most, more Canadians said
“climate change” than any other issue, including war and poverty.

<http://www.cbc.ca/news/polls/canada-world/findings.html>http://www.cbc.ca/news/polls/canada-world/findings.html

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UK Uncouples GHG Pollution from Economic Growth

Proving again this year that emissions can be controlled in a growing
economy, the UK reduced its total GHG emissions .5% in 2006 over 2005
while the economy grew by 2.9%.  UK emissions are now 16.4% below 1990
levels.
<http://www.defra.gov.uk/news/2008/080131c.htm>http://www.defra.gov.uk/news/2008/080131c.htm

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Following overwhelming response to the holiday shopping guide to toxic
chemicals in toys (www.HealthyToys.org) we launched Safe Start for Kids
(http://www.SafeStartForKids.org) today; a guide to choosing children’s
products free of harmful chemicals.

Safe Start for Kids provides easy-to-use tips on choosing everyday
products for children and gives parents quick answers on questions, such
as which baby bottle to choose and how to find a safe mattress. Other
products include bibs, lunch boxes, art supplies, and personal care items
like lotions, shampoos, and sunscreen. The guide also contains tips to
help parents create a healthy nursery and to know what to look for when
choosing day care facilities.

http://www.watoxics.org/safer-products

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Battle of the Bag - watch online

Are we seeing the end of plastic bags?

Billions of the handy throwaway items are used around the world every
year. They take hundreds of years to biodegrade and have sparked heated
debates in cities from San Francisco to Mumbai. Half a dozen Canadian
cities are now trying to ban them, replacing them with biodegradable
disposable bags. But it's time to go one step further -- let's make it
fashionable to carry a reusable cotton bag, as is the case in most
European countries. http://reusablebags.com/

Check out CBC's page of documentaries, quizzes and info on the notorious
plastic bag:
http://www.cbc.ca/doczone/battleofthebag/video.html

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A World Without Men
Gender-bending industrial chemicals are skewing the birth ratio in favor
of baby girls. Could a world without men be a few short generations away?

By Elizabeth Barker, Healthy Living, Feb. 2008

Last summer a team of Scandinavian scientists announced that twice as many
girls as boys are being born in the Arctic, a region said to serve as a
“pollution sink” for the rest of the planet. Earlier in the year a report
from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences determined
that the ratio of male-to-female births has substantially dropped in the
United States and Japan, yielding about 250,000 fewer boys than would have
been born had the sex ratio circa 1970 endured. In both cases, researchers
pegged environmental exposures as a probable factor in the shortage of boy
births.

As more and more research reveals a decline in the number of bouncing baby
boys born each year, scientists are zeroing in on a class of synthetic
chemicals known as endocrine disruptors. Including plastic ingredients
like phthalates and bisphenol-A, these commonplace compounds are known to
mimic female hormones and thwart the production of testosterone...

Full article: http://wholelifetimes.com/2008/02/healthyliving0802.html

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ACTION ALERT!

TransCanada Pipelines has decided to go ahead with its application for
approval of a jumbo 42" gas pipeline (to fuel the tar sands) cut right
through the middle of Lubicon land, without consultation and despite
Lubicon objections. They have refused to answer even the most basic safety
questions.

The Lubicon Nation needs help now! TransCanada is taking actions that not
only open unceded Lubicon territory to even more ruthless and destructive
"development", but enable the huge expansion of toxic tar sands operations
and so affect all of us. Click
<http://fola.ecope.ca/main/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=72&Itemid=1>link
to lubicon org for more information on how to write an email/make a phone
call that will make a difference. Thank you.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Protect our Drinking Water at its Source!
http://www.stopthequarry.ca

We must hold the McGuinty government (ON) accountable for its commitments
under the Clean Water Act to protect our drinking water at its source now.

Friends of Rural Communities and the Environment (FORCE) and Environmental
Defence have launched an online-Postcard Campaign to Premier McGuinty on
behalf of our Communities. The postcard message stresses that we want the
Premier to honour his stated commitment to protect our drinking water and
to stop the quarry. Everyone in Canada is invited to send an e-postcard:
http://www.stopthequarry.ca/Feedback/PostcardCampaign.php

Thanks!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Canada is contributing to the weaponization of space -- which we
officially oppose! -- with its sale of RADARSAT-2 to a major American arms
company. The sad fact is that RADARSAT is already fully integrated into US
military operations. NDP Industry critic Peggy Nash is demanding that the
conservative gov't halt the sale to avoid "an ethical, foreign policy and
national security nightmare". For more info see:
http://activistmagazine.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=824&Itemid=143

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://canadiandimension.com/articles/2008/01/31/1571/

Canadian General Takes Senior Command Role in Iraq

Jon Elmer with Anthony Fenton
Inter Press Service January 24, 2008

VANCOUVER - Despite the government’s official position abstaining from
combat in Iraq, Canada has dispatched yet another top general to the
command group overseeing day-to-day operations for the US-led occupation
and counterinsurgency war. <snip>

There are also economic interests in Iraq itself. The April 2007 Iraq
Reconstruction Report lists Canada as the fourth largest importer of
Iraqi oil. Industry Canada records that total Canadian imports from Iraq
have risen from 1.06 billion dollars in 2002 to 1.61 billion dollars in
2006, making Iraq second only to Saudi Arabia as a Middle Eastern source
for Canadian imports. <snip>

Canada was an active participant in the 1991 Gulf War and helped enforce
the crippling blockade on Iraq throughout the 1990s, but declined to join
the so-called “coalition of the willing” in March of 2003 when the US
launched the invasion to overthrow Saddam Hussein without a final UN
resolution authorizing the war.

Nevertheless, Canada’s contribution to the mission is notable. In 2003,
Canada pledged 300 million dollars in aid and reconstruction in Iraq.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police has helped train more than 30,000
Iraqi security forces in neighboring Jordan, and has had top level
advisors operating within the Iraqi interior ministry. As well, Canadian
frigates continue to operate alongside the US aircraft carriers in the
Arabian Gulf that are a primary staging platform for bombing raids in Iraq.

Indeed, during the first week of the war in 2003, then-US Ambassador to
Canada, Paul Cellucci, said that Canada had provided “more support
indirectly to this war in Iraq than most of the 46 countries that are
fully supporting our efforts there.”

Around the same time that Canada opted out of combat in Iraq, it
increased its combat role in Afghanistan, ultimately taking command of the
counterinsurgency war in southern Afghanistan.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have just read and signed the online petition: "The Paxil Protest "
 hosted on the web by PetitionOnline.com, the free online petition
service, at: 
<http://www.petitiononline.com/R14z935a/>http://www.PetitionOnline.com/R14z935a/

I personally agree with what this petition says, and I think you might
agree, too.  If you can spare a moment, please take a look, and consider
signing yourself.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What better way to show your love for the Climate?  

Kyoto and Beyond:
A Candlelight Vigil Against Global Warming
Commemorate the Third Anniversary of the Kyoto Protocol

Thursday February 14, 2008, 6:30 p.m. - Valentines Day
Centennial Flame, Parliament Hill, Ottawa
Sponsor: Canada
Info: <mailto:angela.woodcock at yto.greenpeace.org>
angela.woodcock at yto.greenpeace.org  
Tel: 416-597-8408 X 3048

Background

The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in December 1997, but came into force on
February 16, 2005, making it legally binding on the signatory nations to
reduce their collective greenhouse gas emissions 5 per cent below their
1990 emission levels.

As of December 2007, 176 countries and the European Union, including
Canada, have supported the Kyoto Protocol, which requires the prevention
of “dangerous interference” with the planet’s climate system.

When Canada ratified the Kyoto Protocol in December 2002, it agreed to
reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions six per cent below 1990 levels
between 2008 and 2012. However, emissions were not reduced. By the end of
2005, they had increased 25 per cent above the 1990 level, and 33 per cent
above our Kyoto target, placing Canada among the worst countries in the
world for reducing emissions.

Greenpeace is calling for Canada to honour its Kyoto commitment and then
move on to further deep emission reductions -- at least 25 per cent from
1990 levels by 2020 and 80 per cent by 2050.

The Road to Copenhagen

The United Nations 13th conference on climate change, held in December
2007 in Bali, Indonesia, agreed to arrive at a post-Kyoto agreement on
greenhouse emission reductions by December 2009 at the time of the 15th
climate change conference to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark. For the sake
of the planet, and for the sake of our children, we must ensure that
Canada agrees at that time to deep reductions of greenhouse gas emissions
that will prevent dangerous climate change.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Heath Ledger Cause of Death Confirmed: Prescription Drug Toxicity
Wed. Feb. 6, 2008

http://www.naturalnews.com/022602.html

(NaturalNews) Toxicology tests have now confirmed the cause of Heath
Ledger's death. He was killed by a deadly combination of FDA-approved
medications prescribed to him by his doctors. The drugs found in Ledger's
system were OxyContin (a painkiller), Valium, Xanax (an antidepressant),
Restoril, Unisom and Vicodin. This toxicology report ends any speculation
that Ledger might have been killed by taking recreational drugs. The cause
of death is now clearly FDA-approved pharmaceuticals.

As NaturalNews previously reported, FDA-approved pharmaceuticals kill at
least 100,000 Americans each year. <snip>

In reality, most prescription drugs cause severe liver toxicity. And when
used in combination, this toxicity can be multiplied by thousands of
times, creating a chemical cocktail of deadly medicine. This is apparently
what killed Heath Ledger.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- 
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Eulogies for Tooker and Stories for a
healthy mind, body and planet
http://www.greenspiration.org
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Join our email list by emailing us at:
greenspiration at web.ca
Write "subscribe" in the subject line
and tell us what city/country you live in
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<