Greenspiration News: tar sands, meds, nukes

Sat Nov 29 21:48:08 EST 2008

Greenspiration News
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"The best things in life -- aren't things."

John in Philly

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'Tis the Season to Buy Nothing

Buy Nothing Day (Nov. 28) is an annual event to protest our  
consumerist culture. Consumers are encouraged across the world to  
stay out of malls and put their wallets back in their pockets for  
just one day.

So why celebrate Buy Nothing Day at a time when so many politicians,  
business leaders and economists are literally pleading for consumers  
to return to their dutiful spending sprees?

What this year’s Buy Nothing Day represents is a clash between two  
divergent ideologies. The idea that Buy Nothing Day is putting  
forward is that maybe the planet’s ecology and our own health are not  
as dependent on exponentially increased consumption as we think they  
are.

Full article:
http://www.theecologist.org/pages/archive_detail.asp?content_id=2005

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Tar Sands: The Selling of Alberta

Airing: Sunday November 30 at 12:30 pm on CBC-TV

Examines the impact of Alberta's tar sands project - environmentally,  
economically and socially.
http://www.cbc.ca/doczone/tarsands/

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Check out this short You-Tube clip of Andrew Nikiforuk explaining the  
first law of Petro Politics - When the price of oil goes up the  
quality of the democracy goes down.

Find out why: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SpfWo3QF-Q&feature=related

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The Athabasca Tar Sands: threats & opportunities

Mike Hudema, Alberta's Greenpeace Climate Change Coordinator,  
recently spoke at Edmonton's Westwood Unitarian Congregation's Sunday  
service. An audio recording of his presentation is online here:  
<http://www.westwoodunitarian.ca/audiotest.htm>http:// 
www.westwoodunitarian.ca/audiotest.htm

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The Gospel of Green

As the world confronts the reality of global warming and the  
inevitable end of oil, the questions of what to do and how to sustain  
energy without oil or fossil fuels becomes more urgent. Bob McKeown  
and a fifth estate team travel to Germany to meet Hermann Scheer,  
called "Europe's Al Gore," a parliamentarian who is leading the way  
to increase Germany's reliance on renewable energy sources such as  
wind power and solar power. To date, 15% of Germany's energy comes  
from renewable sources. Scheer estimates that if Germany continues on  
this course, by 2030 that will be 100%. So, if one of the world major  
industrialized nations can achieve this, why can't a country like  
Canada? The answer may lie in the fifth estate's investigation of the  
influence, in this country, of conventional energy industry on  
politicians.

Watch the 42 minute doc here:
http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/2008-2009/the_gospel_of_green/video.html

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Panel: Gulf War Illness Confirmed

Nov. 18, 2008, Truthout

A US federal health panel released conclusions Monday that evidence  
strongly and consistently indicates hundreds of thousands of US  
troops in the first Gulf War contracted long-term illnesses from use  
of pills, given by their own military to protect them from effects of  
chemical weaponized nerve agents, and from their military's pesticide  
use during deployment.

http://www.truthout.org/111808A

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Is your bank a carbon bigfoot?

Your bank account may be funding global warming. Want to know how  
much your bank accounts are adding to your carbon emissions? Find out  
with the Rainforest Action Network’s (RAN) new carbon calculator:  
http://climatefriendlybanking.com/

For more information visit RAN’s new report, Financing Global  
Warming: Canadian Banks and Fossil Fuels, that quantifies for the  
first time the carbon footprints of the seven leading Canadian banks  
due to their financing of dirty fossil fuels.

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Earlier this year, Health Canada issued a warning that Champix may be  
linked to an increased risk of depressed mood, agitation and even  
suicide after receiving more than 220 reports of "neuropsychiatric"  
problems linked to the drug from the time it was put on the market,  
April, 2007, to April, 2008.

Zyban, which has been on the market for several years, has been  
associated with an increased risk of high blood pressure, seizures  
and other problems.
...

Pharmacists shouldn't prescribe smoking drugs: critics

Globe and Mail
November 25, 2008

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081125.wldrug25/ 
BNStory/specialScienceandHealth/home

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Canada is the Major Supplier of Uranium for Nuclear Weapons

While the U.S. appears to be on the verge of attacking Iran just for  
having a nuclear reactor, Washington and its allies continue to be  
the biggest nuclear proliferators in the world. Chief among these  
nuclear allies is Canada, which provides up to 40% of the world’s  
uranium, the largest amount. Eighty percent of Canadian uranium is  
exported, with 76% going to the U.S.

Canada has long been the main source of uranium for the U.S. nuclear  
arsenal, globally the largest and deadliest at 10,000 warheads and  
bombs. Washington has a first-strike nuclear policy and is actively  
preparing for nuclear war. It is also the only country that has  
actually used nuclear weapons--not once, but twice, on Japan in 1945.

Read an interview with Professor Jim Harding:
http://www.policyalternatives.ca/MonitorIssues/2008/10/MonitorIssue1975/

or listen to the interview here:
http://www.ncra.ca/exchange/dspProgramDetail.cfm?programID=78031

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VIDEO:  Nuclear Power:  Promoting a Myth

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbe5p_UGqHg

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WATCH:  Dr. Helen Caldicott speaking in Edm. - October 2008 -

Series of 8 videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trtbmf76WtA&feature=related

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What Lies Beneath - Port Hope, ON - Parts One and Two:

http://watch.ctv.ca/news/w-five/what-lies-beneath/#clip110518

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The Brain that Changes Itself
Thursday December 4, 2008 at 10 pm ET/PT on CBC Newsworld
or watch it online.
http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/natureofthings/2008/brainchangesitself/

Join us as we explore the revolutionary science of "neuroplasticity"  
- a concept that expands not just our knowledge of how our brains  
work, but how we use them.

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Bailout costs $8.5 trillion! But who pays?

US Federal Government has pledged $8.56 trillion in economic bailout  
for financial institutions so far. But who pays?

Read:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/26/ 
MNVN14C8QR.DTL

Watch:
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php? 
option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=2860

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Bailouts Dwarf Spending on Climate and Poverty Crises

U.S., European Governments Set to Spend 40 Times More to Rescue  
Financial Firms than to Fight Climate and Poverty Crises in the  
Developing World

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2008/11/24-0

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