food, wages, Kyoto, carbon tax, tankers

[angela bischoff]

Airing Sat. March 22 on Global Television at 7 p.m. (check local
listings), Hijacked Future warns that our current agricultural system is
unsustainable - one that will be unable to support us and our
grandchildren in the future. It's an increasingly fragile system that
literally runs on oil - from fertilizers and pesticides, to the trucks and
planes that transport food - and is vulnerable to the effects of climate
change. And the source of our food - seeds - is being hijacked by a
handful of corporations from the farmers who have for millennia, grown and
saved them.

Should anybody, the film asks, own seeds? Hijacked Future takes us from
the grain fields of Saskatchewan, to farmers and seed banks in Ethiopia,
to north of the Arctic Circle in Norway, where the "Doomsday" vault is
stockpiling seeds for use in the event of a global crisis.

As the film says, "It all starts with the seed, and the stakes are high.
because who controls the seed, controls the food. Who will control the
seeds we plant, and the food we put on our tables?" Will our future be.
Hijacked?

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The average compensation of a CEO in 1980 was about 42 times that of the
average worker in the company; in 2006, it was more than 364 times.

Source: Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy.
"Executive Excess 2007: The Staggering Social Cost of U.S. Business
Leadership." August 29, 2007. Page 5.
 <http://www.faireconomy.org/files/ExecutiveExcess2007.pdf>http://www.faireconomy.org/files/ExecutiveExcess2007.pdf

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Canada Has No Kyoto Commitments 

The answer to how the government intends to remain in the Kyoto Protocol
without even trying to meet its commitments is contained in its response
in a court case against Friends of the Earth Canada.  FoE has asked the
court to decide if the Minister of the Environment is in compliance with
provisions of the Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act.  And the answer?  The
Government of Canada does not have to comply, having no obligations under
Kyoto until the compliance mechanisms are adopted as an amendment to the
Protocol.  And if that doesn’t work, the government says the court should
mind its own business.

<http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080314.wkyoto14/BNStory/National/home>http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080314.wkyoto14/BNStory/National/home

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Carbon Tax Debate Goes National

With election speculation mounting, Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion took
advantage of the GLOBE conference in Vancouver last week to commit his
government to following BC’s lead with some form of revenue neutral carbon
tax or cap and trade system. "I am telling you it will be done
” said
Dion.

<http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080315.QUADRA15/TPStory/National>http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080315.QUADRA15/TPStory/National

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No Tankers in BC

An oil tanker is an accident waiting to happen. Our dependence on oil
makes accidents a certainty.

For over 35 years the coastal waters of BC have been protected from oil
tanker traffic. This ban on tankers is now under threat. Plans to build
pipelines and a supertanker port in Kitimat by Enbridge are moving forward
with support from the BC and Canadian governments. But there is still time
to save our coast.

Join the successive generations that have successfully kept oil tankers
out of BC waters for over thirty years. The first step is signing the
petition at No Tankers website.
http://www.notankers.ca/

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