So apparently this is the Day of Action to Stop GM Alfalfa. Well, the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network says it is, anyway. Not quite an event on par with, say, World Health Day (April 7) or National Tartan Day (April 6) in terms of official endorsement, though probably about the same in terms of impact.
Archive for the ‘Environment’ Category
Round, glassy eyes
You know the saying that if you’re inside the fishbowl the outside world looks distorted? Someone needs to mention it to whoever wrote the press release saying:
Mr. Gord Brown, Member of Parliament for Leeds-Grenville, will take part in a photo-opportunity to celebrate the naming of Thousand Islands National Park. This Thursday, Parks Canada is giving members of the media an opportunity to take pictures of Mr. Brown unveiling the new sign.
Be still, my beating heart.
Oh, by the way, all those round glassy-looking objects you think you see out there? It’s not the result of you looking through fishbowl glass. It really is how our eyes get when we hear that you thought this was so noteworthy you spent public money preparing and distributing it.
It wood be
Oh darn, I missed that Thursday was the first ever International Day of Forests, courtesy of the UN General Assembly (which to be fair is rarely more innocently employed than when just being silly). Apparently our Minister of Natural Resources Joe Oliver “celebrated” it. I’m not sure with what; maybe a party hat not made from a cut down tree. I wasn’t there.
If you missed it too, go apologize to some international trees.
Swiny river
Authorities have now pulled more than 13,000 dead pigs out of the Huangpu river which supplies over a fifth of Shanghai’s drinking water. But as usual in Communist countries, there’s no problem at all. The People’s Daily observes cheerfully that both the number and size of dead pigs in the daily haul is now declining while an official with the Shanghai Information Office says water quality in the Huangpu river is “normal”.
Sadly, given China’s pollution problems it probably is.
Where the grass is greener
Just possibly it’s a sign of greater openness that city officials in Chengdu, one of China’s vast number of horribly polluted cities, were caught spraying green dye on withered grass beside the roads and the press reported it. The makers of the dye deny absolutely that it’s more pollution and note that they have many public sector clients (two unrelated propositions). Chengdu’s landscaping department initially claimed it was a “nutrient fluid” to help the grass survive the winter before deciding refusal to comment was their least embarrassing strategy; meanwhile a spokesman for the dye maker said as manufactured it contained no nutrients before adding “Maybe they added some.”
Given China’s ecological and governmental problems, my advice is, stay off the grass. Especially if it’s this weird fluorescent green that sticks to your shoes.
