from Haaretz
"Israel is the world's largest exporter of unmanned aircraft, in terms of the number of systems sold, a study has found.
"Over the last eight years Israel has exported $4.6 billion worth of unmanned aerial vehicles, according to a study by the business consulting firm Frost & Sullivan.
"UAVs, or drones, constitute nearly 10 percent of Israel's total military exports. …"
That's because, if you take the Green party out of Tuesday's election and assume that every vote cast for the Greens would have gone instead to the NDP, you're looking at a hefty NDP majority government.
Pending absentee ballots and possible recounts, Tuesday's results were: 50 seats for the BC Liberals, 33 NDP, one Green and one independent.
The NDP lost in 13 ridings where the combined NDP and Green vote was greater than the BC Liberal vote. Switch all those seats to the NDP and you get 46 NDP, 37 Liberals, no Greens and one independent.
However, on a riding by riding basis, the assumption underlying this fantasy Greenless world is a bit iffy….
from The Guardian
"Major international oil companies are buying off governments, according to the world's most prominent climate scientist, Prof James Hansen. During a visit to London, he accused the Canadian government of acting as the industry's tar sands salesman and 'holding a club' over the UK and European nations to accept its 'dirty' oil. …"
"'Oil from tar sands makes sense only for a small number of people who are making a lot of money from that product,' he said in an interview with the Guardian. 'It doesn't make sense for the rest of the people on the planet. We are getting close to the dangerous level of carbon in the atmosphere and if we add on to that unconventional fossil fuels, which have a tremendous amount of carbon, then the climate problem becomes unsolvable.'
"Hansen met ministers in the UK government, which the Guardian previously revealed has secretly supported Canada's position at the highest level. …"
Sunday, May 19, 2013 08:38 AM
Statement from Nigel Wright:
"In light of the controversy surrounding my handling of matters involving Senator Duffy, the Prime Minister has accepted my resignation as Chief of Staff.
"My actions were intended solely to secure the repayment of funds, which I considered to be in the public interest, and I accept sole responsibility. I did not advise the Prime Minister of the means by which Sen. Duffy's expenses were repaid, either before or after the fact.
"I regret the impact of this matter on the Government, our Caucus, and all of my colleagues, for whom I have the highest regard. I came to Ottawa to do my part in providing good government for Canada, and that is all that I ever wanted and worked for in this role."
from the University of British Columbia
Climate change has been impacting global fisheries for the past four decades by driving species towards cooler, deeper waters, according to University of British Columbia scientists.
In a Nature study published this week, UBC researchers used temperature preferences of fish and other marine species as a sort of “thermometer” to assess effects of climate change on the worlds oceans between 1970 and 2006.
They found that global fisheries catches were increasingly dominated by warm-water species as a result of fish migrating towards the poles in response to rising ocean temperatures.
NB: An infographic illustrating fish distribution worldwide as a result of climate change is available at http://www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/?p=91009. Members of the media may download a copy of the graphic at http://ow.ly/kL4NN.
“One way for marine animals to respond to ocean warming is by moving to cooler regions,” says the study’s lead author William Cheung, an assistant professor at UBC’s Fisheries Centre. “As a result, places like New England on the northeast coast of the U.S. saw new species typically found in warmer waters, closer to the tropics.
“Meanwhile in the tropics, climate change meant fewer marine species and reduced catches, with serious implications for food security.”
“We’ve been talking about climate change as if it’s something that’s going to happen in the distant future – our study shows that it has been affecting our fisheries and oceans for decades,” says Daniel Pauly, principal investigator with UBC’s Sea Around Us Project and the study’s co-author. “These global changes have implications for everyone in every part of the planet.”
A summary of the study is available here.
from ThinkProgress
"Two events this morning strike at the heart of whether workers have the right to organize. The first is a brand new decision by two Republican judges on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit striking down President Obama’s recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The second is a confirmation hearing, coincidentally being held this morning, on five nominees to that same Board. If the Third Circuit’s opinion stands, and the five nominees are not confirmed, the practical result will be a blank check for union-busting employers.
"The background here stretches back to a 2010 decision by the Supreme Court holding that the NLRB is powerless to act unless it has a quorum of at least three members. The NLRB has exclusive jurisdiction over what are known as 'unfair labor practices,' meaning that it is the only body of government permitted to enforce much of federal labour law. If the NLRB is powerless to act, there will be no one to enforce workers’ rights to join a union without intimidation from their employer. No one to enforce workers’ rights to join together to oppose abusive work conditions. And no one to make an employer actually bargain with a union. Without an NLRB to enforce the law, it may be possible for an employer to round up all of their pro-union workers, fire them, and then replace them with anti-union scabs who will immediately call a vote to decertify the union. …"
from The Nation
"At an 11 am.press conference outside a Brooklyn KFC restaurant, fast food workers and activists will release a new report alleging rampant wage theft in their industry, one of the fastest-growing in the United States. The report includes results from an Anzalone Liszt Grove research survey of 500 of the city’s fast food workers, in which 84 percent reported that their employer had committed some form of wage theft over the previous year.
"Today’s press conference follows strikes by fast food workers in five major cities within six weeks, all demanding raises to $15 an hour and the chance to form unions without intimidation. The report, 'New York’s Hidden Crime Wave: Wage Theft and NYC’s Fast Food Workers,' is being published by Fast Food Forward, the campaign behind the strikes in New York. It lands on the same day as a New York Times article reporting that New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman 'is investigating whether the owners of several fast-food restaurants and a fast-food parent corporation have cheated their workers out of wages, according to a person familiar with the cases.' …"
from The Tyee
"Emboldened on her first day as Premier-elect, Christy Clark deftly navigated around questions about oil tanker and pipeline safety at her first post-election press conference this afternoon.
"Clark told reporters in her downtown Vancouver office that the BC Liberals' 50-seat surprise victory last night — shutting out the NDP by 17 seats — demonstrates that voters have given her government a "clear mandate" in its fourth term, particularly on economic and resource development.
"'Now that we have a clear mandate from the people of British Columbia, we are going to get down to the business of governing immediately," Clark told reporters. "People were concerned about the economy, and the people of British Columbia made their voice heard.'
"Surveying an election result map, however, reveals a nearly unbroken orange belt descended upon the coast like a line of driftwood washed ashore, in a province otherwise mostly Liberal.Could this stark chart of the NDP's coastal backing — with only two exceptions on eastern Vancouver Island — say anything about the Official Opposition's anti-tanker stance and fears of an oil spill disaster if the Enbridge and Kinder Morgan pipelines go ahead? …"
from ThinkProgress
"Major news outlets often mislead readers by failing to report the fossil fuel funding of the conservative think tanks they cite and quote, according to a new study from the Union of Concerned Scientists.
"Journalists commonly cited eight groups with known oil, gas, and coal funding: The American Enterprise Institute, Americans for Prosperity, Cato Institute, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Heartland Institute, Heritage Foundation, Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, and Institute for Energy Research (and its arm American Energy Alliance).
"In total, they were cited 357 times, but outlets identified their funding from the Koch brothers, American Petroleum Institute, ExxonMobil, or General Motors a mere one-third of the time: …
from FFWD
"A Calgary company is set to be the first to mine oilsands in the U.S., but that won’t happen if a coalition of American environmental activists has its way.
"US Oil Sands Inc. has been working since 2003 to begin extracting bitumen from its 80-square-kilometre lease in the forested Uintah Basin region of northeast Utah. The company expects to be producing 2,000 barrels of oil per day by early 2014.
"However, since it began the first field tests of its unique production methods in Utah, US Oil Sands has been monitored and opposed by grassroots environmental groups such as Western Resource Advocates, Riverkeepers, Rising Tide, Utah Tarsands Resistance and Before It Starts. Western Resource Advocates led a 2011 appeal to the Utah government’s Oil, Gas and Mining Division against the oil company’s bitumen licence on the basis the lease violates the U.S. Clean Water Act and the state had not considered the impact the mining operation would have on groundwater in the area. Water networks in the oil lease are connected to the Colorado River, which provides drinking water to nearly 30 million people. …"
