The ancient Great Bear Rainforest is one of the largest tracts of temperate rainforest left in the world (2 million hectares), and is home to thousands of species of plants, birds and animals. In this lush rainforest stand 1,000-year-old cedar trees and 90-metre tall Sitka spruce trees. Rich salmon streams weave through valley bottoms that provide food for magnificent creatures such as orcas (killer whales), eagles, wolves, black bears, grizzlies, and the rare and mysterious white Kermode (Spirit) bear.

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..Location: The Great Bear Rainforest is located on the west coast of the British Columbia mainland, stretching from just north of Knight Inlet (off north central Vancouver Island) to Princess Royal Island and all the way north to the Alaskan border.

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The wonders and beauty of the Great Bear Rainforest are detailed in the post “SPOIL” below – the story of the White Spirit Bear.

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WINONA LADUKE has been a big part in raising awareness amongst First Nation groups and the 1 agreement than Enbridge had with an Indian Nation has now disintegrated. ALL FIRST NATIONS NOW OPPOSE THE PIPELINE TO KITIMAT,

Radio Ecoshock’s Alex Smith went to Vancouver to record a public Tar Sands meeting called “Oil Free Coast, Tankers and Pipelines”, a really engaging discussion with information from Coastal First Nations and lone political voice Nathan Cullen. One point it mentions is the danger from increased shipping with heavy oil tankers. It should be noted that shipping emissions produce a large portion of Sulphur Dioxide particles which are extremely poisonous. Shipping contributes almost 5% to global emissions with sulphur dioxide being contributing to the 60,000 deaths attributed to shipping emissions along coastal routes. (More on shipping on this blog soon)

Radio Ecoshock’s webpage on the talk is here There is also a very interesting update on Occupy San Francisco in the second half of the programme.

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A young 10 year old girl, Ta ‘Kaiya has written and recorded a song to mark the protest against the pipeline.

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This is a good visual summary of the destructiveness of Canadian Tar Sands

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And Naomi Klein shares a thought bubble

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The Canadian Government are open CLIMATE CRIMINALS basing ALL assessment of the Tar Sands on purely economic criteria, they abandoned the Kyoto Protoco; because of it, and are now prepared to abandon the hopes of environmentalists all over the globe to export their sad prize to China.

Sign up to a group fighting Tar Sands Here ;

350.0rg – Bill Mckibben and Naomi Klein joined for a brilliant campaign v Keystone XL

PACIFIC WILD – who have an extensive range of articles and film on Great Bear

OIL SANDS TRUTH – a Canadian website with up to the minute news

AND HERE IS THE TWITTER FEED ON TAR SANDS.

Beautiful article in National Geographic

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