By Noam Chomsky - October 26, 2012

In the late 1940s, there’s an event that’s known here as "the loss of China." China became independent...And it became a major issue in American domestic policy...[T]he phrase "loss of China" kind of presupposes a deeply held principle of kind of American elite consciousness: we own the world, and if some piece of it becomes independent, we’ve lost it. And that’s a terrible loss; we’ve got to do something about it. It’s never questioned, which is interesting in itself.

Video by the Center for American Progress courtesy of Counterpunch.

Fifty-one years and counting! On August 10, 1961, America began spraying Agent Orange in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Operation Ranch Hand waged herbicidal warfare for 10 years.

By Dr. John O'connor - Znet Commentary

So the [Canadian Federal government has] decided to launch an investigation into potential health effects of ... windmills!...However, what about Fort Chipewyan, the community downstream from the tar sands? The oldest settlement in Alberta, and a very traditional Indigenous community...The residents there had spent years trying to bring attention to the changes they'd noticed in the staples of their subsistence...and in the water of the Athabasca River and Lake...These changes were dramatic...

By David Bacon - July 26, 2012

For over two decades in many parts of Mexico, large corporations -- mostly foreign owned but usually with wealthy Mexican partners -- have developed huge projects in rural areas. Called mega-projects, the mines and resource extraction efforts take advantage of economic reforms and trade treaties like the North American Free Trade Agreement.

It’s mid-July 2012, and each month of the year so far has broken the record for heat and dryness. In Southern Ontario, climate change is increasingly a present reality. It is the context in which we act, and its effects will only get more pronounced as time passes.

Back in the Spring of 2011, we shifted our focus from writing to holding workshops, and since then, we’ve done more than two dozen in cities and towns across Southern Ontario. We are almost too excited to share with you the culmination of this work, the Learning from the Land guide.

By Frances Beinecke and Rick J. Smith - June 1, 2012

Big Oil and the Canadian government are showing their true colors these days, and what an ugly spectacle it is. Not content to squeeze tar sands oil profits from Canada's boreal forest, the industry and the Harper regime are working overtime to squelch free speech in this once-vibrant democracy...Their main target is nonprofit groups that oppose the Keystone XL and other tar sands pipeline projects.

By Jay Taber - May 31, 2012

Part of the attraction of green greed as a solution to all our woes is that for privileged first world consumer societies it appears painless, fostering the illusion that we can still live in five thousand square foot mansions and drive hybrid SUVs and take exotic cruise ship vacations, as long as we use biofuel. It’s magical thinking, of course, but to an infantile audience, it’s very appealing.

By Heidi Mitton - Halifax Media Co-op

I was eight years old on May 9, 1992, when my father was summoned to the rescue team at the Westray mine...All day long, it seemed, the television was broadcasting the mine's damaged entrance and wreckage. I remember trying to see if we could catch a glimpse of my Dad. As children, we didn't understand the risk our father was facing. And we certainly didn't understand why, though my Dad would eventually make it home to his family, the twenty six men who had been underground when the methane gas explosion went off would not be going home to theirs.

By Krystalline Kraus - May 11, 2012

Regardless of the money to be made, the climate change in the circumpolar region has had and will continue to have devastating effects on the Indigenous peoples and their traditional territories. This is as true as climate change's potential for destruction to Caribbean, African and Pacific island nations. In all cases, the negative impacts will be felt the hardest by populations that are Indigenous, non-white or from developing nations.

by Louise Koster
PotentNews.com
May 6, 2012

Potent News Blast #7

By Zoe Blunt - Vancouver Media Co-op

Deep Green Resistance (DGR) made me a better strategist. If you’re an activist, then this book is for you...DGR dares environmental groups to focus on decisive tactics rather than mindless lobbying and silly stunts...“This book is about fighting back. And this book is about winning...The only measure of success is the health of the planet.”

By Krystalline Kraus - rabble.ca

When Canadians consider the impact of climate change...we think the effects of global warming will mostly affect the northern part of our country, which is home to many isolated First Nation communities...[T]he refrain is that the land "up there" is barren and uninhabitable, that there is no one important or influential enough to care about anyway, so who cares if global warming impacts them as long it doesn't affect the micro climates around Vancouver, Ottawa or Toronto?

By Miles Howe - Halifax Media Co-op

...[O]n a spit of land his family has inhabited for three generations, Peter Boyles...stares pensively out his south-facing kitchen window. Through a thicket of spindly trees...his gaze comes to a rest on the neighbouring Trenton Generating Station...Since it opened in 1969, this coal-fired power plant...has come to define and shape Boyles' life. This used to be a nice place, until the neighbours from hell moved in.