Sandra Finley

2019-02-14 For your selection, emphasis on role of the universities in “Plummeting insect numbers ‘threaten collapse of nature’”

 For your selection (summary list recent postings), Orwell, Propaganda  No Responses »
Feb 142019
 

INVALID, but not!   some links in the postings may show as invalid, a line drawn through them.  They work just fine.  /Sandra

 

FOR YOUR SELECTION,  FEBRUARY 14, 2019

If you read nothing else, please have time for:

2019-02-13    Dalhousie University and interim President. Dissent arises when there are conflicting interests.

Can you really expect “novel” or “creative” after years of protesting? . . . 

whether denouncing a war, or denouncing the poisoning of life forms, to the point of mass extinctions?

GMO, BAYER-MONSANTO AGRICULTURE, “Plummeting insect numbers . . “, 

THE ROLE OF THE UNIVERSITY IN ‘THREATEN COLLAPSE OF NATURE’

 

2019-01-24 Concerns on transparency and sustainability raised at University Council. From student newspaper, The Sheaf. University of Sask.

“Another incentive for council to inform themselves about this matter comes in the form of an impending public disclosure by the CBC Radio Canada investigative team on the influence wielded by Monsanto on Canadian university campuses — and guess who’ll be starring in that piece.”

2019-02-10 Plummeting insect numbers ‘threaten collapse of nature’, The Guardian

2019-02-06 French, German farmers destroy crops after GMOs found in Bayer seeds, Reuters

2019-01-16 Health Canada, No independent review of Roundup Herbicide (Monsanto now Bayer), from Canadian Cancer Survivor Network and Prevent Cancer NOW  

 

WATER

 

2018-2019 On-line Petition (Change.org) STOP water bottlers from taking up to 9 million litres per year from aquifer. New Zealand. Chinese-owned Cloud Ocean Water

2019-02-04 Federal Court overturns controversial salmon farm policy, StarMetro Vancouver

2019-01-30 The Timber West trial, TheTyee.ca . Sappers. Role of Pension funds in corruption. And of contributions to political parties.

I am very happy to see an all-out assault on corruption,  by a wide array of organizations and individuals.   Awareness – –

2018-01-22 TimberWest and Professional Reliance, Great Bear Rainforest. EBM, corruption through de-regulation and Orwellian new speak.

2019-02-01 From APLUC: “… with respect to the Water Sustainability Act it is unclear who establishes and monitors “Critical Environmental Flows”. Can you clarify this for us? Can you also identify what streams and rivers have had critical environmental flows established?” etc.

An excellent letter.  Maybe you want to ask the same questions of your Government?

2019-01-24 The Strathcona Resolution   (updated)

2019-02-05 From APLUC Strathcona Resolution, letter of support sent to . . . for use as a Template

 

MISCELLANEOUS

2019-02-06 Rethinking Watergate in the Trump Age With a New Documentary

By the same doc-filmmaker as made “Inside Job” on the 2007-08 meltdown on Wall Street.

While the name of Donald Trump isn’t once mentioned in Watergate‘s 260 minutes (although the film’s subtitle, Or How We Learned to Stop an Out-of-Control President, offers a certain hat-tip), it’s nearly impossible to watch it without comparing Nixon’s grandiose, multilayered self-destruction with the current situation in the White House.

2018-10-26 Cameco Appeal – Success! (Canadians for Tax Fairness)

2019-02-13 (r. 02-16) Dalhousie University and interim President. Dissent arises when there are conflicting interests.

 Corruption, Genetically Modified, Take back the University  3 Responses »
Feb 142019
 

To:  Persons who spoke out concerning Peter MacKinnon’s appointment to presidency of Dal,

  • There’s more to the background of Dalhousie presidents Peter MacKinnon and before him, Richard Florizone, than told in the news report.
  • Dissent arises when there are conflicting interests,  inimical to the public interest. 
  • If anyone should understand and uphold the tenets of democracy, it is a university president.
  • Don’t let Mackinnon get away with shifting the blame for dissent on campus to students and academics.

The “more to the story” is documented below.

It leads to an issue more troubling than “shifting the blame”.

 

A FUNDAMENTAL ISSUE NOT ADDRESSED IN EVALUATION OF SUITABILITY FOR THE ROLE OF PRESIDENT

Peter MacKinnon was president of the U of Saskatchewan for 13 years.   How much responsibility does he, and the University (built around its Agricultural College) have for the situation today?:

Yesterday, Feb 10, 2019,   the Guardian reported on newly-published research:  insects are on their way to extinction.  Worldwide decline of the entomofauna: A review of its drivers. 

2019-02-10 Plummeting insect numbers ‘threaten collapse of nature’, The Guardian

 “Unless we change our ways of producing food, insects as a whole will go down the path of extinction in a few decades,” they write. “The repercussions this will have for the planet’s ecosystems are catastrophic to say the least.”

The poisoning effects of the agriculture (“crop science”) embraced and promulgated by the University of Saskatchewan have been challenged over and over again for decades.   There has been ample science, the die-off of insects and songbirds is long-known,  disease relationships are not doubted,  the corruption of the chemical-biotech corporations is well documented, the story of Percy Schmeiser, a documentary investigation of the experience of Saskatchewan with bioteched crops was used by Germany in its decision whether or not to lift the moratorium on GMO crops, and so on and on.  

The University remains intransigent in the face of it all.  They continue to train students to a ruinous method of producing food.   The University and its leaders bear a significant degree of responsibility for today’s situation – – – the path of extinction.

The following is lengthy;  it is a serious matter.

  

= = = = = = = =  = = = =  = = = =

 

Thank-you to those who challenged the appointment of Peter MacKinnon to the presidency of Dalhousie University.  Universities and therefore democracy, are in trouble.

I was an elected member of the University of Saskatchewan Senate for 6 years during the tenure of MacKinnon (president) and Florizone (vp finance).

The Feb 1st, 2019 media coverage of the dissent over MacKinnon’s appointment to the presidency of Dalhousie University tells only part of the story.

Newspaper article,   2019-02-01   Dalhousie’s interim president stirs controversy with book on campus dissent

The Canadian Press,  Feb 01, 2019.

the same article appeared in the Victoria BC Times Colonist, the Saskatoon Star Phoenix, the Halifax Chronicle Herald, the PEI Guardian . . .   maybe in all the CP newsrooms?  https://www.thecanadianpress.com/contact/our-newsrooms/

You may get a sense of the depth of the problem with MacKinnon-Florizone from the following.  Unique in universities?  I don’t know.  

(There is brief mention below of the group of “U15”  Canadian Research Universities, http://u15.ca/.   Dalhousie and the U of Sask are members. The U of New Brunswick is not a member.)

CONTEXT:   the category “Knowledge base”  (of the society),  under sub-category “Take back the University”.

– – – – – – –

If anyone should understand and uphold the tenets of democracy, it is a university president, whose background is Dean of Law.  

 

STUDENT, quoted in the article: 

However, Hayley Zacks, a fourth-year student studying at Dalhousie, says MacKinnon only appears to value freedom of expression and open debate when it supports his own views.

“He doesn’t like dissent when it’s not in his favour, he calls that uncivilized and divisive,” Zacks says.

MacKinnon characterizes student dissent (quoted in the article)  “. . . highly rhetorical and denunciatory responses“.

 

MACKINNON’S USE OF THE LEGAL SYSTEM TO INTIMIDATE, TO SILENCE DISSENT:

2011-10-15   My response to Letter from Lawyer, University threatens legal action.

EXCERPT:

Let me say, regarding your letter and prior to addressing the legal issue you raise: 

the justice system is a well-known tool of intimidation and coercion used by large corporate interests   . . .

I am acquainted with the practice.   It is a disturbing trend, along with the use of the police (RCMP) to protect unregulated corporate interests (Monsanto sending the RCMP to the homes of organic farmers, Encana pipeline incidents bring out the RCMP anti-terrorist squad when unregulated, very poisonous sour gas is causing still-births and miscarriages in women and in livestock.  People are trying to defend the health and lives of their family and environment.  They exhaust legal remedies, are left to their wits and then characterized as terrorists.  . . . 

MacKinnon is good at dissension (in this case “University threatens legal action”), perhaps it is his legal training.  I think of all the court cases on the spreadsheet (above link).   Cost the university millions and millions of dollars.  Settlement with (one professor) alone was $1 million.  Doesn’t include the cost of the (expensive) lawyers to do the negotiations.  Settlements with gag orders.  Not unlike what SNC Lavalin has been lobbying for?  – – keep information out of the public domain?

– – – –  – – –

REAGAN SEIDLER, quoted in the article: 

a former student at the U of S, and currently a law student at Dalhousie.  He describes Peter MacKinnon as   “arguably the most well-respected university leader in the country.” And in other glowing terms.

Before going on to “There is more . . .”  than is addressed in the CP article, I was curious about MacKinnon’s cheerleader.  

A quick background search on Seidler:

The article says:  A former student president at one of the University of Saskatchewan’s colleges during MacKinnon’s tenure . . .  

It’s poor journalism that is not specific.   Why is it not specific?  What was Seidler president of?  (A former student president at one of the University of Saskatchewan’s colleges.)  Please correct me if I’m wrong:  He was a student in the U of S Economics Dept.  Was Seidler the student president of the “Economics Students’ Society”?    https://artsandscience.usask.ca/economics/people/studentsociety.php? 

Some of the “student presidents” are not presidents of much.  (I remember the Econ Student Society.  I contacted them regarding their lessons in faulty and archaic economic indicators.)  Anyhow, the title “President” looks good on a resume.  And some ingratiate themselves in the university structure.  Not saying this is Seidler’s case.  A quick look at the current EcSS executive: EcSS Website.  Nothing is current.  The last Executive listed is for 2011-2012,  7 years ago.    As I say, What was Seidler president of?  And why was it not reported?

(The full text of what Seidler said, as quoted in the CP article,  is at bottom.)

 

There was an incident:  in the face of student protesters,  president MacKinnon, U of S,  called in fully-equipped Police.  Senate Meetings start at 9:00 AM on a Saturday morning.  I arrived to find doorways and hallways inside the University, outside the Senate meeting room, adorned with this intimidating and baffling array of policemen at the ready.  The students outside were not a threat.  Their concerns should have been aired and addressed by the Administration?  Maybe I got things wrong – – the Police were in attendance to control / intimidate the members of Senate?

 

HISTORICAL CONTEXT, PARALLELS:

The squelching of dissent on university campuses takes me back to the Viet Nam War years.  Students were protesting the War in large numbers, on many different campuses, including in Canada.  EVERYONE should have been protesting that war, all 20 years’ worth. 

Kent State University in Ohio, May 4, 1970 – – – the National Guard was called in to quell demonstrations that were turning violent.  In the end, the Guard shot four students dead.  Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young memorialized the shooting, “Four dead in Ohio”.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IohvCEdKan0  

MacKinnon would know that history; he is of that age.   We are reminded, and younger people are introduced to the story through the 2017 movie with Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks.  (Wikipedia)

The Post is a 2017 American historical political thriller film[7][8] directed and produced by Steven Spielberg, and written by Liz Hannah and Josh Singer. It stars Meryl Streep as Katharine Graham, the first female publisher of a major American newspaper, and Tom Hanks as Ben Bradlee, the executive editor of The Washington Post, . . .  . Set in 1971, The Post depicts the true story of attempts by journalists at The Washington Post to publish the Pentagon Papers, classified documents regarding the 20-year involvement of the United States government in the Vietnam War.

 

 

WHAT IS THE WHY OF MACKINNON?  

But MacKinnon says he’s concerned that issues of high sensitivity are increasingly met with “ritualistic denunciation” on campuses, rather than respectful discussion. 

I don’t know the answer to the “why” of MacKinnon, but the Viet Nam War was an issue of “high sensitivity”.  And voices that are not heard, after years of speaking up, become “ritualistic denunciation”.  Can you really expect “novel” or “creative” after years of protesting? . . .  whether denouncing a war, or denouncing the poisoning of life forms, to the point of mass extinctions?

VALUE

The killings of the students in 1970 focused public attention, lent resolve and paved the way for Daniel Ellsberg (whistle-blower) in 1971, to leak the Pentagon Papers.  Student protesters paid a big price.  Without the attention directed by protesters, Ellsberg could/would have landed in prison for the rest of his days. It was his good luck that Nixon over-stepped the bounds of the Law and was found out;  Citing gross governmental misconduct and illegal evidence gathering, the judge dismissed all charges against Ellsberg and Russo on May 11, 1973.  It had been nip and tuck, with Ellsberg prepared and expecting to go to jail.  The War was finally brought to an end in 1975.  The atrocities, agent orange (taking us back to the ag-chem corporations), massacres, the propaganda fed to its citizens . . . student protest paid a pivotal role in bringing an end, so far as there is an end – – people in Viet Nam, Cambodia, the U.S., not to mention the environment, continue to carry the deep scarring 45 years later. 

Democracy is fragile.   Re Presidents of Dal.

Dissent arises when there are conflicting interests.

Think of South America.   There is dissension when a small group of people want to control and run the show for their own personal and financial benefit.  Typically there are “resources” coveted by transnational corporations, in competing world powers.  They enrich collaborators in the country that has the resources.  Local people come to understand that if they want to assert their interest, “the public interest”, they have to “Dissent”.

Recently-resigned President of Dalhousie, Richard Florizone, played a role in the selection of MacKinnon as his successor.

MacKinnon had a very long tenure at the U of S, between being Dean of the Law School and then President for more terms than the limits set out in the University Act.   There is a cozy relationship between the Government and the University (Govt funding to the U that is earmarked for specific use, compromising the independence of the U)  – –   exceptions were made to accommodate the extensions of MacKinnon’s tenure.

Conflicts-of-interest were vociferously defended by MacKinnon while he was president (documented in my reply to the University when they threatened to sue me).

LETITIA MEYNELL, associate professor of philosophy at Dalhousie, in the CP article:

“It’s a kind of nostalgia for a time when white men were massively privileged and had control of the university debate,” she says. “He’s (MacKinnon’s) basically saying Make Campuses Great Again.”

The TIME WARP, a problem for “the once-venerable” today, described by Daniel Ellsberg:

Ellsberg remains resolute about his decision to leak the documents. “The Pentagon Papers definitely contributed to a delegitimation of the war, an impatience with its continuation, and a sense that it was wrong,” he told the Center for Investigative Reporting in 2016. “They made people understand that presidents lie all the time, not just occasionally, but all the time. Not everything they say is a lie, but anything they say could be a lie.”    (From  https://timeline.com/pentagon-papers-famous-leak-prison-9772ec594f73)

MacKinnon is not the President of the U.S., not Richard Nixon.  The point is the time warp:  just because the president of the University makes a proclamation does not mean it is true, or accepted, or that people will bow in deference.  Times change.

 

DISSENT IS NECESSARY IN A DEMOCRACY.  

WITHOUT IT, PLUTOCRACY, OR CORPORATOCRACY, OR FASCISM – YOUR CHOICE – is ushered in.

 

 = = = = = = = = = =

THE CORPORATOCRACY AT THE UNIVERSITY

There is also more to be learned about Richard Florizone, the departed president of Dalhousie.  Florizone was VP Finance at the U of S under MacKinnon, as mentioned.   The two are presidents for the corporatocracy, three of whose members (and more) are resident at the U of S:

–          Lockheed Martin Corp (the Pentagon, the NSA),

–          the uranium-nuclear industry, and

–          the gmo-chemical corporations.  

 

Viewing suitability to govern a University, using first the GMO-CHEMICAL example:

2019-02-10 Plummeting insect numbers ‘threaten collapse of nature’, The Guardian

Plummeting insect numbers . . .  attributable in significant part to the demagoguery of the university (the U of S is not alone).

“Unless we change our ways of producing food, insects as a whole will go down the path of extinction in a few decades,” they write. “The repercussions this will have for the planet’s ecosystems are catastrophic to say the least.”

Community and student protesters (disclosure: I was one of them) were on the U of S campus in 2013  to draw attention to the problem of the poisoning done by Monsanto, Bayer Crop Science, and other of the chem-biotech corporations that have been in, and heavily influence the College of Agriculture and the Johnson-Shoyama School of Public Policy at the U of S.  There was more than one March Against Monsanto at the U of S.

The March was a culmination of world-wide and long-standing protests.  A version of the Viet Nam War protests, with plentiful documentary films, moved onto the internet and out into the streets, in North America, Africa, India, South and Central America, Mexico, Europe, New Zealand, Australia . . .  As the Viet Nam war protesters discovered, the powers-that-be propagandize, stonewall, and lie. 

You may know about Monsanto and its demise; the international movement against it; the precipitous decline in Bayer’s share price after it purchased Monsanto’s assets (Roundup, etc.); the court case in California that found Monsanto guilty, the 8,000 pending lawsuits . . .  It strikes me that the students and other protesters at the U of S were on the right side of history, again.  MacKinnon and Florizone would have been wise to start listening and to change, to take care of the public interest, from the beginning of MacKinnon’s tenure.  

2018-08-25  Letter to the Minister Responsible for Neonic chemicals. Bayer CropScience, Monsanto, University of Saskatchewan.

Documentation was sent to the Minister Responsible for the “neonic” chemicals (death of bees).   Simultaneously, there was court action against the University:

(2018-08-18) SIGNIFICANCE EXPLAINED: U of Saskatchewan taken to Court, Refuses to disclose Right to Know symposium proceedings.

I hope you will find the  posting  brief and to-the-point – – what’s behind the lawsuit.  It explains the difficulty getting through the corruption to the actual banning of the neonic chemicals.

The University is in deep – – 

CBC, Radio Canada out of Montreal will be launching the results of months of investigation into the role of Monsanto at Canadian universities.  With thanks to the student newspaper at the U of S:

  2019-01-24 Concerns on transparency and sustainability raised at University Council. From student newspaper, The Sheaf. University of Sask.

“ . .  his concern of redacting transcripts for freedom in information requests. The university has acted in non-compliance with the privacy commissioner’s informal ruling. The information in question is an audio recording of a by-invitation-only symposium held at the University of Saskatchewan in 2015. 

Findlay asked for more information to be released. He says that the recording of the symposium might be relevant to an upcoming investigation into the alleged interference of agricultural giant Monsanto in university affairs.

“Members of council may appear [to be] willing parties to a policy that masks the culture of secrecy within appeals to confidentiality,” Findlay said. “Another incentive for council to inform themselves about this matter comes in the form of an impending public disclosure by the CBC Radio Canada investigative team on the influence wielded by Monsanto on Canadian university campuses — and guess who’ll be starring in that piece.”

UPDATE, MAy 18:   Something happened at the CBC.  The programming scarcely got beyond Radio Canada (French CBC)  as far as I can tell.)

MacKinnon is no longer President, but in his 13 years as President, the role of the chem-biotech corporations at the University was shielded, thinly-disguised, through for example, a newly-established Global Institute for Food Security, Feb 2011. 

CropLife Canada is the lobbying machine for the chem-biotech companies, with a history of corrupting.  It is the Canadian branch of CropLife International:   Croplife Canada, President, CEO. Lorne Hepworth on the Board of Directors, University of Saskatchewan “Global Institute for Food Security” (Agriculture). & Privatization of public assets.

 

MacKinnon was president from 1999 to 2012.  Things only get worse – – conflicts-of-interest were routinely defended by the University.  The University papered over disease relationships;  the California court found in favour of the disease plaintiff.  Monsanto has been a fixture at the University, in what once was a preeminent College of Agriculture.  Other of the chem-biotech corporations moved in, too.

Where does MacKinnon’s legacy, responsibility start and end?  Thirteen years, haughtiness to the point that dissenting voices are held in disdain?  Only denunciation.  The vilified have the look of becoming the vindicated, at huge cost to the University. 

Dissension happens in conflict-of-interest situations, when the leadership at the University kowtows in service to, in this one example, the chemical-biotech industry that is taking the Planet to ruination (“Plummeting insect numbers ‘threaten collapse of nature’.)   We know about the “neonics” and the pollinators.  . . . a long list, all the “yesterday’s news” that hubris denied,  is coming home to roost.  

Our society cannot afford the high costs of universities that do not strive to find the truth of matters.  MacKinnon and Florizone are no longer at the University of Saskatchewan;  it is troubling that Dalhousie chose Peter MacKinnon to lead the students, and the University

 

(Less detail)  MOVING ON TO LOCKHEED MARTIN CORPORATION AT BOTH UNIVERSITIES:

A tag-team for Lockheed Martin and the nuclear industry:  well before Lockheed Martin surfaced at the U of S, there were protests at Dalhousie over a $2 million dollar grant by Lockheed Martin.  Conditions:  the money was earmarked for the Math Dept and for research in support of military.  (Hfx has the largest concentration of military in Canada.)    Then

Lockheed Martin came into the U of S under MacKinnon’s presidency.   What the Administration SAID Lockheed was doing at the U, was in direct conflict with the document that Lockheed Martin used to recruit professors to work with.   

Lockheed Martin’s Collaboration Topics (CT’s), as presented to the U of S in April 2012 are posted at Lockheed Martin Visit to Your Institution.    Excerpts:

to turn the sensed environment into information about the target (e.g., target recognition, speed, intent, etc. via Ladar, Radar, EO, and acoustic methods) 

Hardware, software, and architectures to enable uninhabited intelligent deployments of ground, sea, air or space capabilities (These are UAVs, unmanned aerial vehicles, also known as drones for military use)

Biometrics:

Architectures for detectors and associated hardware and software for personnel identification in a broad range of applications (e.g., authentication, surveillance, tracking)

to include methods to facilitate timely response (e.g., explosive vapor, biological agents)  more

 

At two meetings of Senate, Ernie Barber (then Acting Dean of Engineering) defended Lockheed Martin’s role at the University as one of “renewable technologies”.   Yes – Lockheed Martin is heavily dependent upon fossil fuels; supply lines are often targeted during invasions, renewable technologies are attractive – –  you have to spin Lockheed’s role someway.

I encourage Board Members to read the CT’s as presented by Lockheed Martin itself.   How you get to  “renewable technologies” is hard to fathom.

Lockheed Martin probably continues to be a funder of Dalhousie.  Florizone became President of Dalhousie, and MacKinnon succeeded him.  Was there any vetting of MacKinnon?  A selections committee or process?  

Will MacKinnon continue after the 6-month “interim” in the role of President of Dal?  With or without vetting?

You are dealing with two men, under whose leadership Lockheed Martin came to the U of S.  One after the other the two men went to Dalhousie, where Lockheed Martin is also.   I don’t know your thoughts,  but you might wish to be aware of:

2015-03-17, Updated 2017-12 The Minerva Initiative   

I will not take the time and space to detail progressions from University to U15 to Minerva, which is simultaneously a progression of the roll of the military into some of the U15 educational institutions.

Back to the corporatocracy at the U of S:  UDP (Uranium/Nuclear Development Partnership)  – – nuclear reactors for tar sands expansion,  a nuclear centre of excellence at the University.  Florizone the Chair of the UDP consultations.  Florizone’s manipulative work for the “Partnership”, while Vice-President of the U of S,  and as the Chair of the UDP, lacked integrity.  Abuse of his position of trust as a Vice-President of the University.  A reactor and deep geological repository  were rejected by the people of the Province, in spite of Florizone.  Citizens were told of 4 components of the Plan for the UDP during the “consultation” process.  They were not told the educational component was already established – – had been for a year:  the nuclear centre of excellence at the University.  The president vice would have known that.

Also regarding MacKinnon and Florizone:   2013-01-22  Big payouts to university admins aren’t right, Maclean’s Magazine

 

Don’t let Mackinnon get away with shifting the blame to students and academics.  And share information:  Canadians cannot afford the kind of leadership provided by Peter MacKinnon, as documented in the preceding.

PRESCIENT:  Teachers, I believe, are the most responsible and important members of society because their professional efforts affect the fate of the Earth.  (Helen Caldicott)

There is no doubt:  students at Dalhousie are right to be dissenting and denouncing and demonstrating.

Everyone should be up-in-arms – –   Plummeting insect numbers ‘threaten collapse of nature’   in large part thanks to the partnership between the University and the ag-chem-biotech corporations.

Best wishes,

Sandra Finley

= = = = = = = = = =

FULL TEXT RE SEIDLER,  FROM THE ARTICLE

Reagan Seidler, a second year student at Dal’s Schulich School of Law, says MacKinnon is “arguably the most well-respected university leader in the country.”

A former student president at one of the University of Saskatchewan’s colleges during MacKinnon’s tenure, he says it’s difficult to witness his legacy reduced to one passage in his book.

“One reason Peter was so celebrated in Saskatoon is for his leadership on behalf of racialized students, particularly Indigenous students. He has a real track record the protesters surely know nothing about.”

Seidler added: “We’ve asked him to put off retirement for a temporary job across the country at a school in constant turmoil. He’s here because he cares.”

 

 

 

 

2019-02-10 Plummeting insect numbers ‘threaten collapse of nature’, The Guardian

 Chemical poisoning, Genetically Modified, Sustainability  2 Responses »
Feb 142019
 
Exclusive: Insects could vanish within a century at current rate of decline, says global review
The rate of insect extinction is eight times faster than that of mammals, birds and reptiles.
The rate of insect extinction is eight times faster than that of mammals, birds and reptiles. Photograph: Courtesy of Entomologisher Verein Krefeld

The world’s insects are hurtling down the path to extinction, threatening a “catastrophic collapse of nature’s ecosystems”, according to the first global scientific review.

More than 40% of insect species are declining and a third are endangered, the analysis found. The rate of extinction is eight times faster than that of mammals, birds and reptiles. The total mass of insects is falling by a precipitous 2.5% a year, according to the best data available, suggesting they could vanish within a century.

The planet is at the start of a sixth mass extinction in its history, with huge losses already reported in larger animals that are easier to study. But insects are by far the most varied and abundant animals, outweighing humanity by 17 times. They are “essential” for the proper functioning of all ecosystems, the researchers say, as food for other creatures, pollinators and recyclers of nutrients.

Insect population collapses have recently been reported in Germany and Puerto Rico, but the review strongly indicates the crisis is global. The researchers set out their conclusions in unusually forceful terms for a peer-reviewed scientific paper: “The [insect] trends confirm that the sixth major extinction event is profoundly impacting [on] life forms on our planet.

“Unless we change our ways of producing food, insects as a whole will go down the path of extinction in a few decades,” they write. “The repercussions this will have for the planet’s ecosystems are catastrophic to say the least.”

Scarce copper butterflies.
Scarce copper butterflies. Photograph: Marlene Finlayson/Alamy Stock Photo/Alamy
Quick guide

Insect collapse: the red flags

The analysis, published in the journal Biological Conservation, says intensive agriculture is the main driver of the declines, particularly the heavy use of pesticides. Urbanisation and climate change are also significant factors.

“If insect species losses cannot be halted, this will have catastrophic consequences for both the planet’s ecosystems and for the survival of mankind,” said Francisco Sánchez-Bayo, at the University of Sydney, Australia, who wrote the review with Kris Wyckhuys at the China Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Beijing.

The 2.5% rate of annual loss over the last 25-30 years is “shocking”, Sánchez-Bayo told the Guardian: “It is very rapid. In 10 years you will have a quarter less, in 50 years only half left and in 100 years you will have none.”

One of the biggest impacts of insect loss is on the many birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish that eat insects. “If this food source is taken away, all these animals starve to death,” he said. Such cascading effects have already been seen in Puerto Rico, where a recent study revealed a 98% fall in ground insects over 35 years.

The new analysis selected the 73 best studies done to date to assess the insect decline. Butterflies and moths are among the worst hit. For example, the number of widespread butterfly species fell by 58% on farmed land in England between 2000 and 2009. The UK has suffered the biggest recorded insect falls overall, though that is probably a result of being more intensely studied than most places.

Surveying butterflies in Maine, US.
Surveying butterflies in Maine, US. Photograph: Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Getty Images

Bees have also been seriously affected, with only half of the bumblebee species found in Oklahoma in the US in 1949 being present in 2013. The number of honeybee colonies in the US was 6 million in 1947, but 3.5 million have been lost since.

There are more than 350,000 species of beetle and many are thought to have declined, especially dung beetles. But there are also big gaps in knowledge, with very little known about many flies, ants, aphids, shield bugs and crickets. Experts say there is no reason to think they are faring any better than the studied species.

A small number of adaptable species are increasing in number, but not nearly enough to outweigh the big losses. “There are always some species that take advantage of vacuum left by the extinction of other species,” said Sanchez-Bayo. In the US, the common eastern bumblebee is increasing due to its tolerance of pesticides.

Most of the studies analysed were done in western Europe and the US, with a few ranging from Australia to China and Brazil to South Africa, but very few exist elsewhere.

“The main cause of the decline is agricultural intensification,” Sánchez-Bayo said. “That means the elimination of all trees and shrubs that normally surround the fields, so there are plain, bare fields that are treated with synthetic fertilisers and pesticides.” He said the demise of insects appears to have started at the dawn of the 20th century, accelerated during the 1950s and 1960s and reached “alarming proportions” over the last two decades.

He thinks new classes of insecticides introduced in the last 20 years, including neonicotinoids and fipronil, have been particularly damaging as they are used routinely and persist in the environment: “They sterilise the soil, killing all the grubs.” This has effects even in nature reserves nearby; the 75% insect losses recorded in Germany were in protected areas.

German conservation workers inspect an urban garden for insects.
German conservation workers inspect an urban garden for insects. Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

The world must change the way it produces food, Sánchez-Bayo said, noting that organic farms had more insects and that occasional pesticide use in the past did not cause the level of decline seen in recent decades. “Industrial-scale, intensive agriculture is the one that is killing the ecosystems,” he said.

In the tropics, where industrial agriculture is often not yet present, the rising temperatures due to climate change are thought to be a significant factor in the decline. The species there have adapted to very stable conditions and have little ability to change, as seen in Puerto Rico.

Sánchez-Bayo said the unusually strong language used in the review was not alarmist. “We wanted to really wake people up” and the reviewers and editor agreed, he said. “When you consider 80% of biomass of insects has disappeared in 25-30 years, it is a big concern.”

Other scientists agree that it is becoming clear that insect losses are now a serious global problem. “The evidence all points in the same direction,” said Prof Dave Goulson at the University of Sussex in the UK. “It should be of huge concern to all of us, for insects are at the heart of every food web, they pollinate the large majority of plant species, keep the soil healthy, recycle nutrients, control pests, and much more. Love them or loathe them, we humans cannot survive without insects.”

 

Matt Shardlow, at the conservation charity Buglife, said: “It is gravely sobering to see this collation of evidence that demonstrates the pitiful state of the world’s insect populations. It is increasingly obvious that the planet’s ecology is breaking and there is a need for an intense and global effort to halt and reverse these dreadful trends.” In his opinion, the review slightly overemphasises the role of pesticides and underplays global warming, though other unstudied factors such as light pollution might prove to be significant.

Prof Paul Ehrlich, at Stanford Universityin the US, has seen insects vanish first-hand, through his work on checkerspot butterflies on Stanford’s Jasper Ridge reserve. He first studied them in 1960 but they had all gone by 2000, largely due to climate change.

Ehrlich praised the review, saying: “It is extraordinary to have gone through all those studies and analysed them as well as they have.” He said the particularly large declines in aquatic insects were striking. “But they don’t mention that it is human overpopulation and overconsumption that is driving all the things [eradicating insects], including climate change,” he said.

Sánchez-Bayo said he had recently witnessed an insect crash himself. A recent family holiday involved a 400-mile (700km) drive across rural Australia, but he had not once had to clean the windscreen, he said. “Years ago you had to do this constantly.”

2019-01-30 Applies also to Water. The Timber West trial, TheTyee.ca Role of Pension funds in corruption. And of contributions to political parties.

 Bottled, For-Profit Extraction, Export, Commodification, Corruption  No Responses »
Feb 132019
 

Rich Coleman Fighting Order to Testify in TimberWest Trial

Coleman.jpg

Legislature ‘technically’ in session, so ex-minister can ignore subpoena, lawyer argues.

By Andrew MacLeod

 Excerpts:

TimberWest’s donations to the BC Liberals included $44,685 in 2007, $14,738 in 2008 and $60,988 in 2009. . . .

TimberWest was eventually sold to two funds that manage pension money for public sector employees.

One was the B.C. Investment Management Corp., a provincial government agency that manages $136 billion for some 569,000 current and former public sector employees. . . .  (BCI)

The other buyer was the Public Sector Pension Investment Board, now known as PSP Investments, which manages pension money for members of the federal public service, the RCMP and the Canadian Armed Forces. . . .

Nor would they (the Govt) clarify whether Suntjens (a Govt lawyer) is acting on behalf of Coleman or the government.

In June, over objections from provincial government lawyer Suntjens, a judge ruled the plaintiffs had the right to examine Coleman under oath as part of their preparation for the trial.     (full article at Rich Coleman Fighting Order to Testify)

 

The article says to me:   NO WONDER stuff is happening  – – alarming destruction of forest (which others are working on), destruction of land and water.  All connected.

To my way of thinking, citizens can do all the petitioning, protesting, letters-to-editor, educating, they can muster.  On the surface, you will see some progress.  But it’s not real and will never be,  if the corruption runs deep.   Which it does.

Sappers facilitate the movement of the troops by clearing the way, removing obstacles that will prevent the troops from reaching their destination.  (Lack of information is an obstacle.  Corruption is an obstacle.)

= =   Corruption has to be addressed (but not necessarily by everyone),  along with everything else.

The Tyee article is a reminder that the big pension funds (including CPP) are vehicles sometimes used by Governments to direct money (capital) inappropriately.  The “Boards” that run the pension funds have people who come from large corporations, or who are connected with some industry.  They represent the interests of a corporation in the allocation of investment capital.  The people on “the Boards” are from a relatively small group of “influential”s.  You rub my back, I’ll rub yours.  It’s a “win-win” relationship.  Strategically, it was a smart move for monied interests to move onto these Boards.  There are hundreds of billions of dollars calling to their itchy fingers.

In the TimberWest case,  which is all too common – –  it was the same in the Fanny Bay water export and the Vander Zalm Government in the early nineties – – corruption is through contributions to Political Parties.  Not that you didn’t know that!   It’s a concrete reminder of how close to home and long-lived is corruption.

In Vancouver the vehicles for the corruption (casinos, housing market) are being outed.  What are the vehicles for the corruption in water (and forests)?

The problem is, we can’t go toe to toe with the particular industry unless we also tackle political corruption.

/Sandra

2019-02-06 French, German farmers destroy crops after GMOs found in Bayer seeds, Reuters

 Genetically Modified  No Responses »
Feb 132019
 
Sybille de La Hamaide

3 Min Read

 

PARIS (Reuters) – Bayer said on Wednesday that farmers in France and Germany were digging up thousands of hectares of rapeseed fields after traces of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) banned for cultivation were found in seeds sold by the company.

GMO crops are widely grown across the world, but they remain controversial in Europe, where very few varieties are authorized for growing and some countries like France have completely outlawed their cultivation, citing environmental risks.

Checks by the French authorities during the autumn showed minute quantities of GMO seeds, estimated at less than 0.005 percent of the volume, in three batches of rapeseed seeds sold under the Dekalb brand, Catherine Lamboley, Bayer’s chief operating officer for France, said.

Dekalb was previously a Monsanto brand before the U.S. company was taken over by Bayer last year.

The GMO found, which is a rapeseed variety grown in Canada, is not authorized for cultivation in Europe, although it is allowed in imports destined for food and animal feed, Lamboley said.

Bayer issued a product recall but some of the seed had already been sown, representing about 8,000 hectares in France and 2,500-3,000 hectares in Germany, which are in the process of being dug up, Bayer said.

It was not yet known what caused the contamination of the rapeseed seeds, produced in Argentina in a GMO-free area, Lamboley said.

“We decided to immediately stop all rapeseed seed production in Argentina,” she told Reuters in a phone interview.

Bayer’s Argentine rapeseed seeds were destined for the European market and represent 12 percent of its rapeseed supply for France, the company added.

Bayer declined to estimate the overall cost of the GMO contamination but said it will offer compensation of 2,000 euros ($2,277.80) per hectare to affected farmers, suggesting a payout of around 20 million euros in France and Germany.

The compensation reflected the loss of rapeseed fields this season and the fact farmers would not be able to grow the crop next either as a precaution to avoid re-emergence of the GMO strain, Lamboley added.

The order to destroy some crops is another blow for European rapeseed growers who had already cut sowings sharply due to dry weather.

However, the area is small compared to the total French winter rapeseed area, which the farm ministry in December forecast at 1.23 million hectares. The corresponding German crop area is seen at close to 1 million hectares.

 

($1 = 0.8780 euros)

Reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide; Additional reporting by Gus Trompiz and Valerie Parent; Editing by Jan Harvey

2019-01-24 Concerns on transparency and sustainability raised at University Council. From student newspaper, The Sheaf. University of Sask.

 Take back the University  No Responses »
Feb 122019
 

By Ana Cristina Camacho

https://thesheaf.com/2019/01/24/concerns-on-transparency-and-sustainability-raised-at-university-council/

U of S President and Vice-Chancellor Peter Stoicheff asks council a question during a University Council Meeting in Room 241 of the Arts Building on Jan. 17, 2019.

 

Beginning by continuing a discussion from a meeting held on Dec. 20, 2018, retired English professor Len Findlay spoke to the council about his concern of redacting transcripts for freedom in information requests. The university has acted in non-compliance with the privacy commissioner’s informal ruling. The information in question is an audio recording of a by-invitation-only symposium held at the University of Saskatchewan in 2015. 

Findlay asked for more information to be released. He says that the recording of the symposium might be relevant to an upcoming investigation into the alleged interference of agricultural giant Monsanto in university affairs.

“Members of council may appear [to be] willing parties to a policy that masks the culture of secrecy within appeals to confidentiality,” Findlay said. “Another incentive for council to inform themselves about this matter comes in the form of an impending public disclosure by the CBC Radio Canada investigative team on the influence wielded by Monsanto on Canadian university campuses — and guess who’ll be starring in that piece.”

Findlay left after speaking. University President Peter Stoicheff speaks to Findlay’s concerns, reiterating the importance of freedom of discussion as a principle. 

“We do need to separate out the rather emotional aspects and important aspects of the Monsanto piece in all of this,” Stoicheff said. “I would encourage all of us to … move towards a position based on principles, not based on the circumstantial specifics of that particular meeting, so as to safeguard all of us in the future when we have all kinds of discussions, formal and informal.”

– – – – – – – – – – –  – –

Mike wrote:

Perhaps any of you who were in attendance could provide context to President Stoicheff’s response.  To me it is almost unintelligible.

2019-02-01 From APLUC: “… with respect to the Water Sustainability Act it is unclear who establishes and monitors “Critical Environmental Flows” in BC waters. Can you clarify this for us? Can you also identify what streams and rivers have had critical environmental flows established?” etc.

 Water  No Responses »
Feb 082019
 

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apluc response

Larry Barr                                                                                                             Feb. 1, 2019

Acting Regional Executive Director

West Coast Natural Resource Region

Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations

and Rural Development

 

Mr. Barr;

 

Re: French Creek Watershed Protection.

 

Thank you for your letter of Dec. 27, 2018 in response to our letter Dec. 6th, 2018.

 

We are concerned that the acts and regulations you have cited will not offer sufficient guarantees of ecological or drinking water protection for French Creek.

 

For example, with respect to the Water Sustainability Act it is unclear who establishes and monitors “Critical Environmental Flows” in BC waters. Can you clarify this for us? Can you also identify what streams and rivers have had critical environmental flows established? We are aware that a critical environmental flow had been set for French Creek some years ago (as described in a provincial document titled: “French Creek Watershed Study”), and that summer flows are typically below what has been set as a critical environmental flow volume. Although this environmental flow was established by an outdated method, we are nonetheless alarmed by this and we fear that logging in the upper watershed could exacerbate the low flow problem.

 

Suggestion:  French Creek flow monitoring should be implemented at a site immediately below the logging property so that specific effects of logging and other land altering activities can be identified. The installation of an automatic flow data logger at this location would make this task a relatively simple one. However, this activity is outside the scope and authority of APLUC and we seek your assistance in making this happen.

 

It seems that the Water Sustainability Act is concerned only with flows, and not water quality. Is this correct? Are there other provincial acts that deal with water quality for ecological protection? We’re certain that your ministry would agree that water quality is equally important as flows in ensuring the health of aquatic ecosystems.

 

We are aware of the work of the RDN’s Drinking Water and Watershed Protection Program in monitoring water quality in various rivers and streams in this part of Vancouver Island. Indeed, two of our affiliate organizations currently participate in this program by taking measurements and collecting water samples. However, this monitoring program may not be thorough enough to measure the specific effects of logging and other land altering activities in the upper watershed.

 

Suggestion: We ask the provincial government to work with the RDN in establishing a water quality monitoring station immediately downstream of the logging property, to measure logging effects on French Creek water quality. Monitoring should include a base-line condition (although some logging has already occurred), and frequent sampling for those parameters usually associated with logging. This would extend the scope of the DWWP Program.

 

We agree that ever-increasing demand for domestic and probably agricultural uses has decreased ground water aquifer levels within the French Creek watershed. This only heightens our concern that the French Creek flow regime may be altered by logging activities and thereby exacerbating this ground water problem for both domestic well uses and ultimately aquatic ecosystems.

 

Although the French Creek watershed has been designated as a “Community Watershed”, we are uncertain what particular protection measures are accorded to such watersheds. For example, does this designation provide for community input to resource extraction planning, such as logging? Should it? From a provincial regulation perspective, does this designation require a particular degree of caution in government decisions regarding the watersheds? For example, does it promote an enhanced interministerial exchange or referral of resource applications? Should it?

 

We are aware of the 2007 BC Supreme Court judgement against the Sunshine Coast Regional District which had sought a logging moratorium in its “Community Watershed” – Chapman Creek. We have made a similar suggestion for French Creek (see our earlier letter). But, if moratoria are not acceptable to the provincial government or the courts, what other avenues are open to communities or citizens who wish to protect their drinking water and ecosystems other than the Acts and regulations cited in your letter?

 

We note that the Sunshine Coast Regional District used measures in the provincial Health Act in their argument; which to the average citizen should be a strong enough instrument to use in advocating for watershed protection. Apparently not, although it seems an appeal to this ruling may be underway by the Regional District.

 

In a special investigation of community watersheds by the Forest Practices Board in 2014, deficiencies were found in both the management and assessment of these watersheds. Recommendations were made to, among other things, establish guidelines for an appropriate hydrologic assessment. We discovered a few weeks ago that the Association of BC Forest Professionals  and the Engineers and Geoscientists of BC have prepared a draft set of guidelines titled: “Draft Professional Practice Guidelines: Watershed Assessment and Management of Hydrologic and Geomorphic Risk in the Forest Sector”, which we understand is in its final review.  As far as we are aware the last hydrologic assessment of French Creek was done 18 years ago and may no longer be valid, given the number of changes in the watershed, global warming effects, etc. We have been advised that at least the larger forest companies commonly conduct hydrologic assessments, as has the company carrying out logging in the upper French Creek watershed, but this may be oriented more towards engineering requirements for such things as designing culvert sizes, than for an understanding of potential ecological effects or impacts on drinking water supply.

 

We would welcome your comments on our suggestions and views.

 

Respectfully,

 

Ross Peterson, on behalf of APLUC

 

  1. Honourable Doug Donaldson, Minister of Forest, Lands, Natural Resource Operationsapluc response and Rural Development.

Honourable John Horgan, Premier of B.C.

2018-2019 On-line Petition (Change.org) STOP water bottlers from taking up to 9 million litres per year from aquifer. New Zealand. Chinese-owned Cloud Ocean Water

 Bottled, For-Profit Extraction, Export, Commodification  No Responses »
Feb 082019
 

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https://www.change.org/p/stop-belfast-water-bottling

Cloud Ocean Water has bought land for a proposed second bottling plant, close to its current operations in Belfast.

The China-owned company could be eyeing up billions more litres of water from beneath Christchurch to bottle and sell overseas as part of a major expansion of its operations in Belfast, The Press reported.

At least eight bores with permission to take drinking water are on or next to the new site, and If the bottling company gains consent to use them, it could have access to another 7.5 billion litres of the city’s water – five times what it can already take – for export each year.

Cloud Ocean already has permission to take 1.57 billion litres annually from two bores at the old Kaputone wool scour site on Station Road, Belfast.

Whether water bottling actually occurs is uncertain, because the issue is at the centre of a High Court action over the ability of firms to rely on old industrial use consents.

Representatives of Cloud Ocean confirmed it had bought the new site at 55 Belfast Rd and has applied to the council for permission to build a neq facility.

The community of Christchurch has had no say in the decision-making process, which could in future, affect the City Council’s ability to supply drinking water to the public.

Cloud Ocean bought the land for its second site from Belfast Business Park and submitted a resource consent application to the city council to develop it just before Christmas.

The firm wants to build a 22,000-square-metre bottling plant and distribution centre, where it would also produce plastic bottles.

Cloud Ocean already owns a resource consent, currently inactive, for a 27m bore on the site, allowing it to extract 200 million litres a year.

One, which is active, allows almost 2.1 billion litres of water to be taken annually from three 120m bores. A second inactive consent allows 5.1 billion litres to be taken from four bores between 26m and 34m deep.

Cloud Ocean is currently turning the former wool scour on its current site, into a 22,000sqm bottling and production plant, with warehousing alongside it.

Aside from the cost of the Station Rd scour property and an adjacent old tannery, Cloud Ocean paid $2277 for its 1.57 billion litre annual water take.

Using a 20-year-old permit originally granted to the land’s former owner, Kaputone, Cloud Ocean is currently consented to take massive quantities of water, for next to no cost.

Rapaki Natural Resources, which owns the adjacent property, also plans to bottle water on its site.

Combined, these companies are set to uptake more than 24 million litres of water per day – every day, for bottling. And this is without taking into account, any expansions to operations.

Aquifer water is a precious resource.

Bottliing aquifer water is also a gross waste of such a vital resource – water is already limited within the Canterbury area.

As a nation, we need to care for, and conserve our water supplies as much as we can, not give it away. And with our oceans becoming more choked in plastic, aquifers are one of our remaining, reliable water resources.

This petition is to urge this government, to revoke these historic permits from the current land-occupiers, and alter the law accordingly.

Upholding these permits would not be acting in the best interest of the land, assets, or our people.

Water permits should be non-transferable.

New permits should only be granted as a strict case-by-case basis, with peer reviews in place to protect these resources, and should be publicly notifiable – with room for open, public debate.

Aotearoa Water Action is currently challenging these consents by High Court hearing.

Please help by donating to their costs.

Aotearoa Water Action Inc: 38 9019 053 0141 00

2019-02-05 From APLUC Strathcona Resolution, letter of support sent to . . . for use as a Template

 Bottled, For-Profit Extraction, Export, Commodification, Climate  No Responses »
Feb 062019
 

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Excellent letter!  A request to support the Strathcona Resolution

Offered for use as a Template.

AVICC-Qualicum

Many thanks to Julie:

Here is the letter that has gone out to QB, Parksville council and the RDN (Regional District Nanaimo) board.

If it can be passed onto other jurisdictions encouraging their local government to vote in favour of this resolution, that would be great.

Thanks,

Julie

Letter on behalf of APLUC  (Arrowsmith Parks & Land Use Council).

= = = = = = = =

UPDATE    Feb. 6/19:

JULIE WRITES:

I am getting feedback from some of the councillors/directors that the letter has been sent to.  So far, folks seem supportive.  I think from their perspective they want to know if this is a preventive measure motion or how it might affect operators in their jurisdictions.

I have been emphasizing that this motion speaks solely to operators that export their water internationally ie China, States and would not affect commercial operators that deliver bulk water to mostly local rural customers.  I have also stressed that local agri operators are very interested to see this motion approved.

If other folks send this out to their local reps they could add the above concepts to the letter  or put it in the body of the email that introduces the letter.

Thanks, Julie

– – – – –  – – –

CONVERSATION WITH BRENDA LEIGH:  

  • “Local Haulers” deliver bulk water to local people.   The water is from a tap, the municipal water supply.  The Resolution does not apply to local haulers.
  • The BACKGROUND for the Resolution, as submitted to AVICC is changed.  (The Resolution and supporting info is at (no password)  2019-01-24 The Strathcona Resolution.  The posting has the changed BACKGROUND.)

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