Archive for News

For anyone who is still not terrified enough about global warming, here’s another scary possibility about how the Earth can revolt to our tampering.

Here’s a charming story (complete with video) about bacteria which thrive in warm oceans in low-oxygen conditions and produce sewer gas (hydrogen sulfide).  Enormous blooms of this gas are thought to be responsible for 4 mass extinctions and a dozen smaller ones, and are associated with warmer oceans caused by rising levels of carbon dioxide.  The warming trends of these past extinctions are thought to have been brought on by volcanic activity.  This time, we’re just doing it to ourselves.

Well, when the first five polls were in, Elizabeth had the lead.  Now, with a quarter of the results in, she’s in second place, trailing the Liberal candidate.  And now, with 90% of the the polls reporting, she’s still second place, but the Conservatives are close behind.  You can watch the results as they come in on the Elections Canada website.

It’s all over.  And the (rounded) results are:

The rounding makes it easier to conceptualize the numbers, but it exaggerates the spread between the Green Party and the Conservatives.  It was only 1.5% (25.9% – 24.4%), not a full 2%. And of course each of the “other” parties got more than zero percent (though less than half a percent).

Garth Turner isn’t a Green himself, but he knows we need a Green voice in Parliament, and so he’s canvassing with Elizabeth May in London North Centre.

If he can do it so can you.

On Wednesday, October 11, there was a second public consultation on what is being called a pipeline “reinforcement” for the line feeding the Portlands power plant (in reality a massive expansion, with a substantially larger pipe and increased pressure).  This meeting generated a far smaller crowd than the first and the following day, we learned why.  Most local residents received their notices regarding the event the day after it happened, including a number of Green supporters who contacted me.

Because of the number of public complaints, Stantec, the consulting company which is organizing these consultations, arranged for a third public consultation, and has just announced the date.     Read more »

The Green Party of Canada just won a battle over the threshold for receiving federal funding for political activities.  This was a courtcase initiated by former leader Jim Harris, and he writes about it in his blog.  This will result in a significant one-time payment to the Green Party of Canada for past discrimination, and will open the way for other small parties to grow.