GRASSLANDS GET SQUEEZED AS ANOTHER 1.6 MILLION ACRES GO INTO CROPS

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As the year winds down, NPR is looking at a few key numbers that explain the big trends of 2013. Today's number: 1.6 million. That's 1.6 million acres – about the area of the state of Delaware. That's how much land was removed this year from the federal Conservation Reserve Program, or CRP, which pays farmers to keep land... (read more)

SOLAR OUTSTRIPPING WIND AS ALTERNATE POWER SOURCE

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Source: Troy Media

When you pass from one geologic age to another there is very little fanfare. There is no commemorative ceremony and no plaque. When you're talking millions of years you're not going sweat the exact year the Neolithic age began. But it was on the roof of a new office building, hardhat on my head and camera around... (read more)

CANADA’S ENVIRONMENTAL RECORD DEFIES CRITICS’ OVERHEATED RHETORIC

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Source: Epoch Times

Back in April 2013, NDP leader Thomas Mulcair went down to Washington to rubbish Canada’s environmental reputation before its greatest trading partner. Now, the stomp-Canada shoe is on a different wearer: Marc Jaccard, a professor at Simon Fraser University, has gone down to the States to sing... (read more)

STEALTH MANOEUVRE ALLOWS NECTAR BATS TO TARGET INSECT PREY

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Source: Queen Mary University of London 

A nectar-feeding bat that was thought to eat insects in passing has been discovered to target its moving prey with stealth precision, according to new research by scientists at Queen Mary University of London. The researchers uncovered for the first time that the Pallas long-tongued bat use echolocation – a complex physical... (read more)

INDUSTRIAL MEAT BAD, SMALL FARM GOOD? IT’S NOT SO SIMPLE

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Source: NPR

To feed all seven billion of us, address climate change, and live longer, we all need to eat less meat. From Al Gore to the Meatless Monday movement to Harvard epidemiologists, that's been the resounding advice offered to consumers lately. But hold up a minute, says the chief research scientist at Australia's... (read more)

NATURAL RESOURCES STAFF STOP USING LEAD BULLETS

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Source: NSDNR

Every year, many animals and birds risk being poisoned by ammunition that contains lead.  Starting Dec. 20, Natural Resources staff will stop using lead ammunition when they put an animal down. The ammunition will be collected and turned over to the RCMP for disposal.  “This is the right thing to do; there is enough... (read more)

NFU CALLS FOR PRECAUTION AND INDEPENDENT RESEARCH IN NEONICOTINOID REVIEW

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Source: NFU

The National Farmers Union (NFU) is calling for a precautionary five-year moratorium on the use of the neonicotinoid seed treatments for field crops and for independent research to be done. Such a moratorium would provide time to study the impacts of neonicotinoid insecticides on pollinators and the broader... (read more)