The Week That Was

It’s a beautiful sunny Friday here in northern Ontario, and I’m in the middle of processing some juicy and delicious organic Okanagan fruit that was delivered by fellow local foodies who just returned from a BC trip. The peaches are now either frozen or eaten, there’s still scrumptious cherries that I expect will disappear this weekend while we enjoy the music and the atmosphere at the Trout Forest Music Festival without leaving any for the freezer.

All that to say, I’m going to disconnect from the computer and spend time outside enjoying this delightful August day. In case you are interested in hanging around online, here’s some recent postings from some of my favourite blogs, along with some headlines worth noting.  Have a great weekend!

Of course, we now know that July was the hottest month ever recorded in the United States, as drought reached two thirds of the country. Joe Romm over at Climate Progress put it this way:

July’s average temperature was the hottest on record for the contiguous United States, according to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration. The last 12 months have been the hottest ever for the U.S., with over 27,000 high temperature records broken or tied so far this year. The hot weather has only worsened dry conditions, as nearly two-thirds of the U.S. faces a drought. NASA scientist James Hansen recently connected the extreme heat to climate change, writing “there is virtually no explanation other than climate change.”

It remains to be seen whether the mainstream media will begin to cover this issue as its urgency demands. Their record is certainly terrible, as Bill Nye pointed out recently:

*

• JP Greenwood over at The Green Word recently discussed the Harper government’s quiet (sly?) opening up of the Gulf of St Lawrence to increased oil and gas drilling in the June budget:

Buried within the more than 400 pages of this spring’s federal omnibus budget bill is an invitation for resource companies to open a new frontier in Canadian oil: the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

The gulf, which touches the coastlines of Canada’s five easternmost provinces, is the world’s largest estuary. It’s home to more than 2,000 species of marine wildlife — an ecosystem integral to the health of our Atlantic and Great Lakes fisheries.

Now, due to measures deep in the federal budget, that ecosystem may be under threat. The bill explicitly highlights the region’s potential for petroleum extraction and includes amendments to the Coasting Trade Act that give oil companies greater access to exploration vessels. Click here to read the full posting.

• Paul over at Learning From Dogs reminds us that coming soon to our night sky is the annual meteor show:

Raise your eyes in wonder at the most wonderful annual show from space.

• In Yes – In Close To The Edge (are we?) Martin reflects on the classic British rock band YES, and the artwork that graced their album covers, including Close To The Edge, which seems more appropriately named than ever today. Check out the incredible video on this post.
• And back to Canadian politics for a bit, Beth over at BorealCitizen.wordpress.com is taking a summer break, but you might want to check out her blog while she’s away. Beth blends a perceptive and progressive look at Canadian politics with the articles on the lifestyle of a “radical homemaker”, and best of all she’s from my neck of the woods!  Beth posted this great graphic in June, and unfortunately nothing has changed in the last two months to make it any less appropriate or true: