Winnipeg Free Press April 2

OTTAWA — Gasoline-powered cars are driving humanity to the end of the oil age, leaving electric vehicles as the best weapon against global warming. (Keep reading…)

The Economist Updated: March 17

There is no exaggerating China’s hunger for commodities. The country accounts for about a fifth of the world’s population, yet it gobbles up more than half of the world’s pork, half of its cement, a third of its steel and over a quarter of its aluminum. It is spending 35 times as much on imports of soybeans and crude oil as it did in 1999, and 23 times as much importing copper — indeed, China has swallowed over four-fifths of the increase in the world’s copper supply since 2000. (Keep reading…)

Z-Net March 12, 2008
Source: TomDispatch

On Monday March 3, the price of crude oil reached $103.95 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, surpassing the record set nearly 30 years ago during another moment of chaos in the Middle East. Will that new mark prove distinctive in the annals of world history or will it be forgotten as energy prices drop, just as they did following their April 1980 peak? (Keep reading…)

March 5, 2008 Nationhttp://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41469

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, Mar 5 (IPS) - Algonquin community leader Robert Lovelace had never been charged with an offence, but when a uranium company began prospecting for radioactive ore on unceded native land without engaging in consultation, he decided to take action, organising a non-violent blockade. (Keep reading…)

A Socialist Project e-bulletin …. No. 86 …. March 4, 2008 ______________________________________________________ (Keep reading…)

Canadian Dimension magazine, March/April 2008

The application of treaty rights as a legal strategy implemented by the First Nations themselves must be the key focus in efforts to challenge Big Oil in Alberta. Resources and effort must be placed into building the knowledge and capacity amongst First Nations and Métis leadership, including grassroots, elders and youth, to engage in both an indigenous-led corporate-finance campaign and in decision-making processes on environment, energy, climate and economic policies related to halting the tar-sands expansion. Canadian policy makers need to understand that there is an inextricable link between indigenous rights and energy and climate impacts. (Keep reading…)

Canadian Dimension magazine, March/April 2008

Plans are afoot for the wholesale ecological reconfiguration of vast parts of the northern hemisphere. The planners are suggesting that infrastructure is required to facilitate far-reaching change: the second-largest dam in the world, a possible nuclear-power station at Peace River, and pipelines across Alberta to the west coast, across the prairies, and down the Mackenzie River. These changes are being drawn up primarily to satisfy the insatiable needs of our neighbours to the immediate south. This current Harper/Stelmach energy sell-out is Phase Two of the selling of Canada initiated by their true predecessor, Brian Mulroney. (Keep reading…)

Globe & Mail March 3, 2008

Just one day after B.C. announced its new carbon tax, world oil prices closed at more than $100 (U.S.) a barrel for the first time. So, is it the B.C. government or OPEC that is doing more to fight global warming? This question may sound like heresy to motorists who vilify OPEC and “Big Oil” as they fill their SUVs, but let’s look at the facts. (Keep reading…)

TheTyee.ca Feb 26, 2008

There are plenty of things society could do to avert a full-blown ecological crisis but we don’t do them and what we do do doesn’t work. It seems that the ecologically necessary is politically unfeasible but the politically feasible is ecologically irrelevant. (Keep reading…)

The Progressive Economics Forum February 19th, 2008

Since the provincial Liberals came to power in 2001 I have seen a lot of BC Budgets and not been too happy with any of them. Until now. Today’s 2008 model is a very interesting budget, and while I have a number of quibbles, I support the overall direction. And as in the recent past on climate change I find myself siding with the government against business – which is, well, pretty weird. (Keep reading…)