Another study has come out that the media is taking beyond it's context, this time about oils.

What fats and oils do you use in your cooking?

Okay we can stop talking about Frankenstorm now.  Its over.  It has served well, though as a distraction from the more important news that you aren't hearing about and which will affect all Canadians for most of our natural lives.

Oil to China? Free trade with China? What's this all about?

Historically, Canada has always played second fiddle to its most important trade partner - first Britain, and now the US. Canadian business has always pressed for Canada to ape the foreign policy of the nation they depend on , and to fight its wars. And that is what we have done since at least the late nineteenth century.

A friend of mine sent me this:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/79228736/Whistleblower-s-Open-Letter-to-Canadians

He's a bit too 'close' to the current government, and his livelyhood depends on their goodwill; he did want to share it on WonderCafe.

So: for your perusal and discussion, folks.

We all know, some resources once consumed are gone forever.  This applies most famously to fossil fuels, especially oil (coal is more abundant).   Mined metals are not quite in the same category as with some effort, they can be recycled, once the price gets high enough.

I will lead off with a story about phosphorus, essential for fertilizers.  The Times (London).

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/industries/naturalresources/artic...

On another thread Graeme commented

Have you any disapproval of the destruction of Iraq and Libya to get their oil? Would you rank that as better or worse than camping on a public square?

I am not going to revive the original Iraq invasion arguments, that would be ridiculous.  

On the subject of Libya, NATO was keen to help, but almost all of Libya's oil goes to Europe, not the US.

Starting on August 20 in Washington, D.C., “we, the people” launched a protest to raise our citizen voices against TransCanada / Cononco Keystone XL pipeline project. People are sitting in front of the gates of the White House to bring attention to this issue. The Park Police are slapping plastic handcuffs on them and keeping them under custody.

This is a two-week campaign (Aug. 20-Sept. 3) in which leading environmentalists including Wendell Berry, Naomi Klein, and Bill McKibben will join a peaceful campaign of civil disobedience to block the approval of a dirty oil pipeline that will cross the United States. As one Canadian wrote, “This [pipeline] will make the Great Wall of China look like Tom Sawyer’s picket fence.”

Remember the enthusiasm for Obama? Remember how he was going to introduce medicare, stop torture, get out of wars, Close Guantanamo,?

in fact, h e has followed Bush in just about every respect. He has massively stepped up the war in Afghanistan and exttended it into pakistan. Guantanamo is still a prison. And there are over a dozen such camps, mostly in Africa that our press never mentions. Congress just passed a blll authorizing torture - and obama will sign it.