By Jane Williams | Rabble.ca | A longitudinal study by the Rodale Institute shows that organic farming can produce yields as high as conventional and in fact does better in some conditions.

“The latest study, published Tuesday in the [open access] science journal PLoS ONE, points to the parasitic fly as the new threat to honey bees. It’s another step in ongoing research to find the cause of the disease. Researchers haven’t been able to pin down an exact cause of colony collapse or find a way to prevent it.”

The CBC Radio program – As It Happens – interviewed the lead researcher about this curiosity driven, accidental discovery. Skip forward to the 13:20 mark to have a listen.

“Dr. Fouchier’s research group had taken one of the most dangerous flu viruses ever known and made it even more dangerous — by tweaking it genetically to make it more contagious. … The discovery has led advisers to the United States government, which paid for the research, to urge that the details be kept secret and not published in scientific journals to prevent the work from being replicated by terrorists, hostile governments or rogue scientists. … Dr. Fouchier said it would be easier to weaponize other germs. Which ones? He would not answer.”

Canada will formally withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, the minister of the environment has said. | BBC

A lengthy article by Paul Street on climate change, U.S. inaction, and corporate denialism. | Znet

Turn their backs on Canadian government during opening speech

“[J]ust a few hours after talks began in the Durban conference hall, Canadian environment minister Peter Kent was confirming to reporters in the capital Ottawa that its involvement with Kyoto was over.”

by Larry Lohmann |The carbon market creates new asset classes (and opportunities for accumulation) at a time of profit crisis. It is part of a ‘new phase of accumulation’ that is also reflected in – to take two other prime examples – the trends in public service commodification described in Ursula Huws’ chapter in this year’s Socialist Register, and the growing global trade in ‘ecosystem services’ generally.

From Nauresistance.org

By Liam Flenady | Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal | Resolving the ecological crisis is incompatible with capitalism. We must build a movement that works against capitalist logic with the aim to overcoming it in favour of a properly sustainable and egalitarian form of society. This is the contention persuasively presented by Fred Magdoff and John Bellamy Foster in their recently published book What every environmentalist needs to know about capitalism.

Bobby Peek tells how the struggle for environmental rights is intertwined with the one over access to energy | Red Pepper

By Hamish Pritchard Science Reporter BBC | Scientists have shown how an enzyme from a microbe can produce hydrogen from water more quickly and cheaply.

by Frank Ackerman and Elizabeth A. Stanton | “Our research incorporates an up-to-date understanding of climate risk and uncertainty, and finds that the true cost of carbon emissions could be almost $900 per ton today, and more than $1,500 by 2050.”

Noam Chomsky speaking about how there has been a concerted (and successful) public relations campaign to convince the public that climate change is a liberal hoax

In his misleadingly titled essay “The Evils of Unregulated Capitalism,” Joseph Stiglitz critiques ongoing austerity measures for an incriminating reason: austerity will deprive the U.S. and the E.U. of the “robust growth” that is required for a healthy global economy. Yet, notably, Stiglitz never questions the ruinous consequences or sources of the growth he so heralds. | Joshua Sperber

–Sounds bad, eh?

By Noam Chmsky | International Socialist Review | It may be that intelligence is a kind of lethal mutation. Look at what we are doing to our environment.

–Some information on nuclear issues.

–The issues continue.

“Tim DeChristopher, who in 2008 was an undergraduate economics student at the University of Utah here in Salt Lake City, freely admitted putting in bids [for nearly $1.8 million worth of oil and gas leases with no intent to pay]… Mr. DeChristopher faces up to five years on each of the two counts — disrupting a federal auction and making false statements on federal forms to enter the auction — and up to $750,000 in total fines. Sentencing was set for June 23.”
-Free Tim DeChristopher!

By Cheryl McNamara | Rabble.ca | Ending these subsidies will create a truer market price for fossil fuel, encourage investment in clean energy development, free up money that can be much better spent elsewhere.