Mississauga Freethought Association

Celebrate Water Awareness Week at UTM

creaume — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:49:02 +0000

We have teamed up with the UTM Green Team (Facebook Link) and the Ministry of Environment to bring two more engaging events to the UTM community as part of Water Awareness Week 2010.

1. Public Lecture
“Freshwater - Challenges Facing Mexico in the 21st Century”
Dr. Harvey Shear

Thursday, February 11, 2010
11:45 am
North Building, Room 134
Free Admission

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Mexico presently has an uneven distribution of freshwater across time and
space. Per capita water availability has been declining since 1900 and is
predicted to become worse due to climate change and population growth.

This talk by Dr. Harvey Shear will explore some of the major freshwater issues facing Mexico in the 21st Century, and will include a case study of a small lake in western Mexico.

2. Documentary Screening
“Flow: For The Love of Water” (2008)
Irena Salina

Thursday, February 11, 2010
3-5 pm
Student Centre, Presentation Room
Free Admission

Join the Green Team as well as the co-hosts Mississauga Freethought Association for a viewing and discussion of Irena Salina's award-winning documentary investigation into what experts label the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st Century - The World Water Crisis.

Salina builds a case against the growing privatization of the world's dwindling fresh water supply with an unflinching focus on politics, pollution, human rights, and the emergence of a domineering world water cartel.

Interviews with scientists and activists intelligently reveal the rapidly building crisis, at both the global and human scale, and the film introduces many of the governmental and corporate culprits behind the water grab, while begging the question "CAN ANYONE REALLY OWN WATER?"

Is Al Gore Worthy of the Nobel Prize?

creaume — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 23:54:45 +0000

It has been a week of contrasts for Al Gore. No doubt he has spent much of it wondering if he should prepare champagne for breakfast on Friday, with rumors running wild over whether or not he should and would win the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. On Friday, the announcement was made: the prize is his - or at least half of it. The other half goes to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Meanwhile, over in the UK, a judge criticised Al Gore’s Oscar-winning movie An Inconvenient Truth for a series of inaccuracies. The ruling concludes a case brought to the UK High Court by Stuart Dimmock, a parent of two who was concerned to find that the UK Department for Education and Skills

had distributed a copy of Gore’s film to every state secondary school in the UK.

Read an analysis of the trial, as per Catherine Brahic, NewScientist.com blogger.

Ancient Plant May Become New Source of Biofuel

Derek — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 17:31:04 +0000

Researchers are all abuzz over a promising new source of biofuel that flourished almost 3,500 years ago in Europe. Camelina, if planted on a large scale on marginal farmland from eastern Washington to North Dakota, could provide a significant source of clean energy.”This is the most exciting crop I have seen in my 30 some years in this field,” said Steven Guy, a crop-management specialist and professor at the University of Idaho. While early results from test plantings have been encouraging, the only farmers who have shown interest in it are from Montana, where over 50,000 acres of camelina have already been planted.

Full Article at treehugger.com

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Do you think we should continue our dependence on hydrocarbons, and use edible plants as fuel? Post your comments, and voice your opinion!