RACHEL CARSON

RACHEL CARSON

SPACESHIP EARTH

"We travel together, passengers on a little spaceship, dependent upon its vulnerable reserves of air and soil, all committed for our safety to its security and peace; preserved from annihilation only by the care, the work, and, I will say, the love we give our fragile craft. We cannot maintain it half fortunate, half miserable, half confident, half despairing, half slave to the ancient enemies of man, half free in a liberation of resources undreamed of until this day. No craft, no crew can travel safely with such vast contradictions. On their resolution depends the survival of us all."

ADLAI STEVENSON, 1964

Saturday, May 26, 2012

"CANADIAN GOVERNMENT AXES NATIONAL OCEAN CONTAMINATION PROGRAM"

 DR. PETER ROSS
 DR. GARY STERN
DR. MICHAEL IKONOMOU
 DR. MICHEL LEBEUF
 MARLA CONE, EHN
 ORCAS AT RISK
 RAMPANT OFF-SHORE OIL DRILLING
 TSUNAMI DEBRIS WASHING UP
DRIVING = SUPPORTING OIL COMPANIES
 = CETACEAN GENOCIDE

NOTE FROM JEFF:  More casualties in the on-going war on nature and truth.  Who gave this order to Ottawa...BP or Chevron?  Anadarko maybe?  Or was it the Queen?  What does it really say when a country like Canada suddenly takes out its entire national program for monitoring ocean contaminants, just as offshore oil exploration is sky-rocketing, Fukushima radiation is spreading like wildfire, and debris from the tsunami is already washing up?  I knew from Fish & Wildlife people in America that the EPA was being systematically dismantled as of about three years ago.  The EPA mysteriously shut down their entire national network of radiation-monitoring stations in the early weeks of the Fukushima catastrophe.  What does THIS tell us?  Mussolini's definition of 'fascism' is 'a complete merger of state and corporate power.'  

THIS is what we are witnessing:  all forms of what used to be public and independent research and information are being systematically de-constructed/re-configured to prevent humanity as a whole from knowing what is REALLY going on in the world around us and to plug us into centrally-controlled and homogeneously sterilized channels of a pre-medicated psychic menu served up by globalization and technocracy.  Unlike the legion of marine biologists who have sold out to work for the U.S. Navy or 'big oil' in one way or another, these DFO researchers who got the sack are bound to be scientists with far too much personal integrity and love of life ever to succumb to such necrophilous disambition.  What will their next move be?


SINCE THE GLOBAL MILITARY APPARATUS FUNCTIONS AS 'MECHANICS' FOR THE MINING AND OIL INDUSTRIES, OWNED BY THE INTERNATIONAL BANKING CARTEL...WOULDN'T IT BE LOGICAL THAT THE SINGLE BIGGEST THING WE COULD ALL DO IN ORDER TO PROTECT THE WHALES, DOLPHINS AND MARINE LIFE IN GENERAL IS TO STOP DRIVING, STOP OUR ADDICTION TO THEIR HYDRO-CARBON SMACK?

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=68c288a0-7594-4259-a040-336dbc69eab0

Ottawa axes ocean pollution monitoring program

Canada's only marine mammal toxicologist at the Institute of Ocean Sciences on Vancouver Island is losing his job as the federal government cuts almost all employees who monitor ocean pollution across Canada.


Canada's only marine mammal toxicologist at the Institute of Ocean Sciences on Vancouver Island is losing his job as the federal government cuts almost all employees who monitor ocean pollution across Canada.
Peter Ross, an expert on killer whales and other marine mammals, was the lead author of a report 10 years ago that demonstrated Canada's killer whales are the most contaminated marine mammals on the planet. He has more than 100 published reports.
Now, he's a casualty of federal budget cuts, one of 75 people across Canada told Thurs-day his services will no longer be needed because the Department of Fisheries and Oceans is closing the nation's contaminants program.

The entire Department of Fisheries and Oceans contaminants program is being shut down effective April 1, 2013. Official letters are expected to be delivered in June, and Ross has been told he'll have a few months to wrap up his files.
"The entire pollution file for the government of Canada, and marine environment in Canada's three oceans, will be over-seen by five junior biologists scattered across the country - one of which will be stationed in B.C.," said environmental toxicologist Ross.
"I cannot think of another industrialized nation that has completely excised marine pollution from its radar," said Ross, who was informed in a letter Thursday that his position will be "affected."

Opinion: Canada's mass firing of ocean scientists brings 'silent summer'

Editor’s Note: Canada is dismantling the nation's entire ocean contaminants program as part of massive layoffs at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Among the scientists terminated are ones who have conducted landmark research about global pollutants for decades: Peter Ross, who is among the world’s leading experts on marine mammals and contaminants, Gary Stern, a mercury expert whose work focuses on the Arctic, Michel Lebeuf, who studies the highly contaminated St. Lawrence belugas and Michael Ikonomou, who researches flame retardants and other endocrine-disrupting contaminants in salmon and other ocean life. Ross told EHN that his main concern is the "wholesale axing of pollution research" that will leave Canada, and much of the world, without the scientific knowledge to protect whales, seals, fish and other marine life -- as well as the indigenous peoples who rely on them for their traditional foods. Many scientists say the purpose of the move by the Canadian government is not just cost-cutting but to eliminate environmental rules and protect the oil and gas industry. The following is an essay that Ross wrote Thursday for EHN. -- Marla Cone, Editor in Chief

2012-0525rossandseal
L. Mos/Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Peter Ross with young harbour seal.
Silent Summer
By Peter Ross
Since being hired 13 years ago as a Research Scientist at Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), I have been fortunate to conduct research on such magnificent creatures as killer whales, beluga whales, harbour seals and sea otters. I have visited some of the wildest parts of coastal British Columbia, Arctic Canada and further afield. I have been humbled by the power of Mother Nature as we deployed teams to explore and better understand the lives of creatures beneath the surface of the ocean. I have marveled at the evolutionary adaptations of marine mammals to an existence at the interface of land, sea and atmosphere. And as a scientist, I have come to learn that I possess but rudimentary powers of observation when it comes to the mystery and beauty of a vast ocean. For all of this, I remain eternally grateful.
A blend of challenging field work and cutting-edge laboratories has helped me to look into the lives of fish and marine mammals, and the ways in which some of the 25,000 contaminants on the domestic market affect their health. Our research has drawn on the combined expertise of dedicated technicians, biologists, vessel operators and aboriginal colleagues, ultimately leading to scientific publications now available around the world. This is knowledge that informs policies, regulations, and practices that enable us to protect the ocean and its resources, both for today’s users, and for future generations.

It is with apprehension that I ponder a Canada without any research or monitoring capacity for pollution in our three oceans... I am thankful for the rich array of opportunities aboard Canadian Coast Guard ships and small craft, alongside Fisheries Officers, chemists, habitat biologists and managers, together with colleagues, technicians, students and members of aboriginal communities. I have enjoyed weaving stories of wonder on such issues as the health of killer whales, effects of flame retardants on beluga whales, hydrocarbons in sea otter habitat, trends in priority pollutants in harbour seals, impacts of current use of pesticides on the health of salmon, the identification of emerging contaminants in endangered species and risk-benefit evaluation of traditional sea foods of First Nations and Inuit peoples.

...or any ability to manage its impacts on commercial fish stocks, traditional foods for over 300,000 aboriginal people and marine wildlife. Past scientific discoveries such as high levels of PCBs in Inuit foods, dioxins in pulp and paper mill effluent, and DDT-associated eggshell thinning in seabirds formed the basis for national regulations and an international treaty (the Stockholm Convention) that have led to cleaner oceans and safer aquatic foods for fish, wildlife and humans. Canada was a world leader in spearheading this profoundly important treaty, drawing on ground-breaking scientific research in tandem with the knowledge of aboriginal communities.
 
I am thankful to my friends, family, supporters and colleagues, who have always been there to converse, share, learn and teach – in the laboratory, in the field, in the cafeteria, in the hallway. These people have made it all worthwhile.
2012-0525orcas
Ingrid Visser/Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Orcas swim past an oil refinery.
It is with deep regret that I relay news of my termination of employment at Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the loss of my dream job. It is with even greater sadness that I learn of the demise of DFO’s entire contaminants research program – regionally and nationally. It is with apprehension that I ponder a Canada without any research or monitoring capacity for pollution in our three oceans, or any ability to manage its impacts on commercial fish stocks, traditional foods for over 300,000 aboriginal people and marine wildlife.
 
Canada's silence on these issues will be deafening this summer and beyond.
For more information about Ross' work:

Silent Snow: The Slow Poisoning of the Arctic, by Marla Cone, published by Grove/Atlantic 







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