GreenWatch

Click to view this email in a browser Dear Barbara, When the federal review panel gave the New Prosperity mine proposal a 2nd thumbs-down, it looked like the “dead mine walking” would finally be laid to rest. Except the project keeps popping up again and again like the villain in a bad horror movie. Take action . The scathing federal review found that the proposed gold/copper mine at pristine Fish Lake in the heart of Tsilhqot’in traditional territory would cause significant adverse effects on water quality, fish and wetland ecosystems. It also warned of impacts on the South Chilcotin grizzly bear population. It should have been a slam dunk for the federal minister in charge, Leona Aglukkaq, to reject the mine. But now the proponent, Taseko Mines Ltd, is putting pressure on the federal government with disingenuous claims of technical mistakes in the review process, and threats of lawsuits – bullying tactics unprecedented in the history of the Canadia...

Comparison of natural apple vs Arctic apple(GMO) over 24 hours B. McPherson Granny Smith has been tinkered with. The fine folks at Okanagan Specialty Fruits Inc . have developed a genetically altered apple that cannot turn brown when exposed to air. The BC company, located in Summerland has managed to turn off a gene that allows the apple’s normally white flesh to turn brown when it is damaged. They have dubbed their altered version of Granny Smith and Golden Delicious apples Arctic Apples.  While the trees have been grown, the GM apples have not yet received approval from either Canada’s   food protection agency or the US, but they are definitely in the pipeline. If they receive approval for commercial plantings, the “silenced gene” trait may spread to other apple varieties as apples are pollinated by flying insects. One of the ways that a shopper can judge the quality and freshness of fruit is visually. If apples have brown spots and ugly bruising, they...

B. McPherson Greenpeace defenders of the Arctic kept in cold, stark conditions The 30 environmental activists were detained September 18 th . They were attempting to hang a banner on the Russian oil drill rig in the Arctic Ocean. The Greenpeace members were protesting the exploiting of the Arctic for petroleum extraction. Their ship was also impounded. The Arctic Sunrise was in international waters when it was boarded by Russian troops according to the Greenpeace organization. The 30 people have been held in remand cells in Murmansk, a Russian city above the Arctic Circle. They were originally charged with piracy, a charge that even President Putin scoffed at. Now they are informed that the charges will be hooliganism. While that sounds like a misdemeanor in the west, in Russia it carries a maximum sentence of seven years. (You may remember the Pussy Riot young women who were sentenced to years of hard labour under the same charge.) There is now some confusion as to...

B. McPherson Fukushima cleanup workers exploited by contractors The sorry saga of Fukushima continues as the Japanese government continues to dither. Since the devastating earthquake and tsunami wrecked the nuclear power plant owned by TEPCO, the world has been subjected to radioactive poison spewing from the facility. For over two years the world has listened to excuses and tales of incompetence and outright cover ups. Now some workers hired to help in the clean-up have come forward to allege corruption. TEPCO does not hire workers directly, to help with the salvage and clean up at the Daiichi Fukushima plant, but relies on a network of contractors and sub-contractors to recruit workers from wherever they can. There have been rumblings of difficulties in attracting enough manpower to get the job done, in part due to the low wages being offered. A twist on that story was revealed, October 30 th , in Japan Today, in which a worker hired to do a relatively safe job monitoring ...