BP oil spill: if you can't see it, it doesn't exist

The Obama administration merrily announced this week that most of the BP oil spill has been cleaned up, saying 75 percent of the oil had been captured, burned off, evaporated or broken down. (Evaporated?)

Phew. I was getting worried there.

But read Joseph and Amanda Boyden's recent piece in Maclean's for a very different - and scary - view. They walked a Pensacola Beach with experts using ultra -violet lights to see oil that couldn't be seen by the naked eye, or with infrared light. Moreover, whenever they dug a small hole in sand that looked okay,  oil flooded into the hole. Not only is it a beautifully written piece, it chronicles the extraordinary efforts to which BP has gone to keep journalists away from dirty beaches, as well as sugarcoating the facts.

Seems like BP has succeeded and we can all breathe easier. Comforting.

Who wants to think that all that unseen oil could be deep in the marshes and on the bottom of the Gulf?

For sale: Daisies, water, air . . .

Interesting to see Clorox Co. is using legal muscle to get the San-Francisco based company, Method Home Products, from using the daisy in its product branding. The first step is a cease-and-desist order. I always thought the Clorox symbol was a marigold but, okay, it's a daisy.

It's not because I like Method products but isn't this getting a bit extreme. The daisy? First it was grain in Mexico, then water in Bolivia, what's next? The air we breathe? I'll bet the marketing campaigns are ready to roll out.

Canadian Indigenous groups protest at UN climate summit in Copenhagen

 
While government officials appeared to go to ground, non-governmental organizations have had a high profile - or at least as high as Danish authorities would allow. One website worth tracking for Canadian grassroots participation at the Copenhagen summit is pitchengine. Several organizations joined indigenous groups earlier this week in a day of protest against Canada's record at the Alberta tar sands. Among comments at their rally outside the Canadian embassy:

Fossil fuel extraction from the tar sands are killing our people with cancer, killing our culture by destroying our traditional lands, and killing our planet with CO2,” said Eriel Tchekwie Deranger, member of the Athbasca Chipewyan First Nation and Tar Sands Campaigner for the Rainforest Action Network. “It seems that Canada is more committed to fossil fuels than human rights or real action for the climate. Mr. Harper – We welcome you to Copenhagen because we want real action on climate, and that means shutting down the tar sands and a moratorium on new fossil fuel development.”

"The tar sands are a key reason why Canada has failed to take climate action. In the same timeframe that Harper promises to cut Canada's emissions a paltry 3 per cent, tar sands emissions are expected to triple,” said Maude Barlow, national chairperson of the Council of Canadians.

 

 

Happy Earth Day! Y mas!

No point alerting readers to an upcoming speech yesterday without delivering. Here's a webcast link to Council of Canadians chair Maude Barlow's speech today to the UN on water resources. She's also senior adviser to the UN General Assembly president on issues of global water conservation.  Also, a link to a text of the water resources speech.

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If you've ever struggled to release a computer power cord from its plastic prison, despaired about food packaging or wondered why restaurants can't use cardboard takeout, take a look at the outstanding Star series, "Beating the Wrap." It's running all week.

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This has nothing particularly to do with Earth Day: Mexican singer Chavela Vargas is simply one of my favorite artists and I love her version of "Macorina." Also, "Volver, volver," but you can search it out yourself if you want to hear more Vargas. 

Canadian Maude Barlow battles for water rights at the United Nations

Canadians can be remiss in praising their own, but Council of Canadians chair Maude Barlow deserves applause for her international crusade to protect the world's water resources. It's not a sexy subject in the developed world; we focus more often on flooding than scarcity, especially with the kind of spring the mid-west is enduring this year. Canadians living in a land of lakes, rivers and underground reservoirs often can't imagine scarcity. 

Moreover, it's not really an issue that can be explained in a tweet, except perhaps, "No water, no more."

The longterm threat is two-fold: climate change that threatens water resources and the growing trend in trade agreements to treat water as a commodity. Guaranteed, water will be a sexy subject when we're lined up for it or paying exorbitant prices for clean water from private corporations. In Bolivia, it took mass protests that shut down the country to wrest water from corporate hands - and that was merely a first volley. Canada doesn't even have a national strategy for water conservation. That's a serious problem, given recent treaties that threaten to deplete water reserves, including the Great Lakes.

Barlow is a pioneer in the fight for water resources, touring endlessly to give speeches (as shown in videos) and take part in seminars. As the first senior advisor on water to the president of the UN General Assembly, she gives her first address on water rights to the UN tomorrow. Says Barlow: "Water must be seen as a commodity that belongs to the Earth and all species alike."

Those are fighting words to the corporations knee-deep in lawyers and  paid academics who champion their interests. 

Saving China's "Farmed" Moon Bears

This is a tough post and - so be warned! - and some of the video on the rescue of Moon Bears in China is difficult to watch. The first below, for example, doesn't show particularly graphic images of the bears but you see their arrival at night to the rescue centre, the cages and the concern of Jill Robinson, founder of Animals Asia Foundation. It's impossible to fathom how human beings can do the damage they do to other human beings, and to animals. In China and Vietnam, Moon Bears - great lumbering black beasts named for the white crescents on their chests - are held in small cages, where they are "farmed" for their bile. Among practices, the animals have permanent shunts in their abdomens to drain bile used in Chinese medicine. Like I said, it's pretty rough stuff.

I'd read about this before and, last night, caught a good report on Global TV's national news about on the Animals Asia Foundation's Moon Bear Rescue Centre in Chengdu, China  (with HQ in Hong Kong). They're part of the Animals Asia Foundation, committed to both trying to rescue an estimated 9,000-10,000 bears being "farmed" in China and to publicize what's going on. (Chengdu is in southwestern China, the capital of Sichuan province.) Through the efforts of the Animals Asia Foundation (and that's a different link), 41 farms have been closed down and an estimated 360 bears rescued and taken to the Moon Bear centre, although staffers report more than 70 haven't survived. The bears end up with tumours inside and outside their bodies, liver disease, blindness and all manner of physical atrocities, which is why veterinarians can't always save and rehabilitate them.  At the Moon Bear centre, British veterinarians, Dr. Claudia Hartley and Dr. David Donaldson from the Animal Health Trust recently performed eye surgery on many of the bears, in an attempt to restore sight or partial sight . (At Global's website - it looks like you can pull down a podcast to their full March 31 broadcast, but there's no separate link to video of the Moon Bear story I watched.)

Through the Moon Bear rescue site, you can access other links and great staff blogs, including Jill's, written by Robinson. Again, take care. There are heartbreaking stories, unhappy endings and some tough photographs, along with good news. Another interesting site is the Ursa Freedom Project, with the same goal of liberating the caged Moon Bears.

It's easy to research what's happening to these bears and find sites inviting public support. Other ways to make your views on bear farming known might include linking to the Chinese embassy in Canada - or in any country where you live - as well as the Vietnamese embasy. Contact info is available at the sites.

There's also a Moon Bear Rescue Centre in Vietnam, where, according to the above video, about 4,000 bears are currently being farmed for their bile, although it is illegal to take it or use it in products in that country. 

And, finally, here is a video taken by a visitor to the Shengdu Moon Bear Rescue Centre (in Sichuan province) showing a bear that appears to have been nursed back to health. As the video says, Enjoy!

Let's assume the Seal Cove dolphins are free, shall we?

Would the experts put a sock in it:

No sooner had the townsfolk of Seal Cove, Newfoundland, cut a path through ice Thursday to free three white-beaked dolphins trapped by ice since the weekend, a marine mammal expert threw cold water on the story. Provincial government whale expert Wayne Ledwell told reporters: "In my opinion, the chances for survival would be slim."

Mr. Ledwell may be right; the stress may have been too much for the dolphins. Still, the townsfolk who were out in that ice in that small boat cutting the ice with the propeller blades saw the dolphins swim off in open water. Others later saw three dolphins swimming in ice-free waters at the mouth of the cove. Mr. Ledwell didn't mean any harm, I'm sure. But he didn't risk life and limb like those rescuers. He sat in Seal Cove last week while his bosses in the provincial government, as well as Canadian officials, said there was nothing to be done. 

I am hardly an expert like Mr. Ledwell. But I have spent my entire career as a journalist listening to the "experts" telling people, like those in Seal Cove, what could and couldn't be done. In my career, they have been wrong more times than they were right and, coincidentally, often about marine issues, such as where East Coast lobster go to spawn.

Unfortunately, I have seen dolphins put under enormous stress from human beings motivated by profit - and survive. Sadly. I covered the story in 2001 of seven dolphins who were caught in the Pacific, transported across the Baja Penisula and kept in shallow ocean pens in the tourist town of La Paz, Mexico. They arrived in La Paz bloodied and battered from the trip in crates in the back of pick-up trucks like fish for market. One died soon after arrival, however the rest lived to be battered around in the La Paz enclosure during a 2003 hurricane. Then, three more died. The "experts" looking after them left them in shallow pens in a hurricane zone. The remaining three were, presumably, sent to "swim with dolphins" programs, despite huge efforts to rehabilitate them to the sea, beginning as soon as they were captured. This story still bothers me terribly. It would have been better had the original seven died before reaching La Paz. However, it does show these mammals can endure stress.

There's enough bad news these days and, in this case, every reason to believe these dolphins survived. Better that Mr. Ledwell keep his grim prognosis to himself. Let's leave the story with the image of free dolphins, courageous townsfolk and lessons learned in Seal Cove. Perhaps next time, people won't wait for the experts to fiddle around for four or five days before taking matters into their own hands.

Good news from Seal Cove

THE CANADIAN PRESS

White-beaked Dolphins, shown on Feb. 18, finally swim free.

No free trade, no politics, not even a tidbit on President Barak Obama's visit to Canada yesterday. But this is a national story, and a very happy one. Finally, it's freedom for at least three - and possibly more - of the white-beaked dolphins trapped in ice in Seal Harbour, Newfoundland.  They had been there since the weekend, with local residents, who heard their cries and felt helpless, trying in vain to have the Canadian Coast Guard send an icebreaker. The story was carried by media around the world. Finally, Thursday, a group of townsfolk, including Brandon Banks, 16, went out in a 17-foot fibreglass boat and cleared a route to more open water, using the boat's own propeller blades. Two of the dolphins followed easily; a third had to be towed in harness with young Banks keeping the mammal's head above water with his legs. Reports on the other two have been varied, with some suggesting at least one made it to open water alone. The dolphins aren't completely out of the harbour, but it's expected the winds will soon clear most of the spring ice packs out of their way.

With bad news seeming to close in on us every day, financial shock waves, stories of human torture and abuse of animals, it's heartening to read such a good-news story. Dolphins are fascinating creatures, living in groups that range hundreds of kilometres and have sophisticated patterns of communication and tight family units. That's why it's tough to witness the burgeoning of "swim-with-dolphins" programs, with animals often captured with brutality and transported around the world. Yes, dolphins are easily trained and, with those unfortunate grins of theirs, they appear so gay as tourists ride their backs. But they are prisoners.

Richard O'Barry, the man who trained Flipper for the TV show of the same name, is a leading activist against the capture of dolphins and has his own rescue centre.

Here's a great site for checking out some of the research on dolphins.

Swim free.

When Elephants Weep/The Dog Hill poisonings

Part of my title comes from the book about the emotional lives of animals by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson and Susan McCarthy. The authors of "When Elephants Weep" explore what anyone who knows and loves animals already understands about their capacity to feel, what even Charles Darwin recognized when he said: "The Indian elephant is said sometimes to weep."

It's hard not to think about the suffering of animals today as developments continue in the Dog Hill poisonings. Since June 16, six dogs have been poisoned in the off-leash area of High Park by ingesting antifreeze-spiked water and, possibly, bread. Two died, as reported in the Star.  Now, we  learn from  Det. Suzanne Pinto, lead Toronto police investigator on the case, an unusual number of raccoon and squirrel deaths in High Park could be linked to these poisonings. Somebody practising perhaps. One raccoon was posed with flowers in his paws, another with dead squirrels.

I don't know whether the deaths are linked; it seems a fair supposition, at least for further study. But I do respect a police officer like Det. Pinto who was quick to call the dog poisonings "monstrous" and say she's investigating whether they are linked to the debate over reducing the boundaries of the off-leash area. The raccoon and squirrel deaths are now part of that investigation.

Isn't the resulting fallout just so typical of human beings? Here we have a police officer who clearly takes the lives of animals seriously and isn't afraid to show it. No, that doesn't mean she doesn't care about human beings. It's a good bet that, among other things, she recognizes well-documented studies relating abuse of animals to abuse of people.

Instead of appreciating the good detective, people start squabbling, They start being people. (God, I miss George Carlin.) First, Robin Sorys, chair of the park advisory council that recommended reducing the off-leash area, seems to believe Det. Pinto is accusing individuals actually associated with her committee of heading up the dog trails to lay poison. I didn't take that meaning. Who else did? And now she and others insist the "posed" animals were found in late 2007.

Not to worry, then. Det. Pinto says whatever is happening is pretty bizarre. What does she know?

What I know, and the reason I am blogging on this topic again today, is how much Star readers care about animals. Of all the stories I've written, probably the biggest reaction came after a series from Mexico about the savage trapping of seven dolphins destined for Mexican amusement parks. "Swim-with-dolphins" is big everywhere these days, never mind that these animals roam over huge tracts of ocean and live within a sophisticated social structure that includes complex communication and long-term care of young.

Readers responded with letters of concern. Then, other letters began arriving, criticizing people who supposedly care only about animals. I won't forget one reader who retaliated by pointing out the same people who campaign for animals, or simply enjoy them in their lives, also donate their change at supermarkets for food banks, volunteer their time on the weekends and read to children in hospitals.

I agree with that reader. I didn't interpret the reaction to the dolphin story (which did not have a happy ending) or another about Toronto raccoons a couple of years ago, as a denial of care for our own species. I've seen Star readers raise money for a little boy in Mexico whose arm was badly damaged in the Acteal Massacre and teachers organize campaigns to help rescued household slaves in Haiti, children known as "reste-avecs," get an education. (Sadly, this barbaric practice continues in Haiti.) These very positive actions by our readers occur all the time.

It's just that when people read about animal abuse, it drives home how completely our species believes itself to be master of the universe. It comes with that sinking feeling of the awful ending for all species such thinking surely will deliver in the end.

First Iraq and oil, now Afghanistan and natural gas

Before U.S. President George W. Bush ordered the bombing of Iraq in 2003, some analysts were saying the war was really about oil. At the time, it had been 23 years since former president Jimmy Carter revealed the heartbeat of Washington policy by linking U.S. security - "the vital interests of the United States" - to the control of oil in the Persian Gulf. In March, 2003, Michael Klare, professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College, told me in an interview for the Star that Washington was convinced the combination of its control of Gulf oil and military technology decades ahead of anyone else "would guarantee American supremacy for the next 50 to 100 years."

Now, moving east from the Gulf states, we recognize a familiar theme, this time in a report suggesting Canadian troops could find themselves guarding a U.S.-backed natural gas pipeline through Afghanistan.  Once again, what's really at stake appears to be control over energy resources. That's the view of international energy economist John Foster, who believes Canadian troops face another danger in Afghanistan: that of being played in what he calls the new "Great Energy Game."

Foster outlines the searing scenario in a report, released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, that says Canadian troops could find themselves under orders to protect the natural gas pipeline in the most dangerous region of Afghanistan. That would be an extremely risky proposition, even by the standards of the ongoing war. To date, 85 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have been killed in that country, by every lethal means from suicide bombers to insurgent attacks and landmine explosions.

Educated at Cambridge University, with experience in the oil business, including Petro-Canada as lead economist, and at the World Bank, Foster writes that the pipeline could turn Afghanistan into "an energy bridge" between Central and South Asia. His report - A Pipeline Through a Troubled Land - documents how the proposed Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline is slated to transport natural gas 1,680 kilometers from southeast Turkmenistan through southern Afghanistan, to Pakistan and India. Construction is set to begin in 2010, with natural gas flowing through the $7.6 billion (U.S.) pipeline by 2015. (Construction costs are almost certainly expected to soar.)

On April 25, 2008, the four nations involved signed a "Gas Pipeline Framework Agreement," committing themselves to construction deadlines.

Still, it's in the proposal stage, which is why Foster decries the absence of debate over how its construction would affect the lives and efforts of Canadian soldiers. The absence of such discussion - indeed, even a mention in speeches or media releases, despite the presence of MPs and officials at regional energy meetings - could explain the Conservative government's single-minded goal of having Canadian troops stay beyond the original 2009 date for withdrawal. According to the report, it's as if no meetings have ever taken place. Have promises been made to the U.S. Administration for reasons we don't know about?

Bruce, Campbell, executive director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives, an independent think-tank based in Ottawa, also criticizes the lack of debate on the proposed pipeline. Campbell wants to know if Canadian Forces will become "guardians of this pipeline."

Says Foster in his report:

The U.S. is our ally and it clearly asserts the geopolitical importance of the region. But the quest for energy security risks drawing Canada unwittingly into a new Great Energy Game."