Michael Riordon

April 2, 2014
by Michael Riordon Leave a comment

Good news: The ELA is saved!

In April 2012, the government of Canada announced that it would close the world-renowned Experimental Lakes Area (ELA) in northwest Ontario. Since 1968 the world-renowned research station has hosted a unique whole-ecosystem approach to studying how lake ecosystems and fish respond to human and natural disturbances. The resulting data, unattainable anywhere else, is essential for objective, evidence-based decision-making.

Within hours of the closure announcement, marine biology PhD candidate Diane Orihel launched an international campaign to save the ELA.

Two years later, victory! Today the grassroots Canadian organization Evidence for Democracy announced that a final agreement has just been reached to transfer operation of the ELA to the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), based in Manitoba. It will be backed by the governments of Ontario and Manitoba, which appear to be less hostile to evidence-based decisions and policies.

For more on the vital connections between science, evidence and democracy, Evidence for Democracy offers two public events:

5 pm, Thursday April 3, Dr. Munir Sheikh, former Chief Statistician of Canada, on why public policy needs to be informed by evidence. The event will be live streamed. Details here.

Governing in the Dark, a recent public talk by Canadian biologist Scott Findlay can be seen or read online, here.

In dark times, signs of hope.

Follow the Save ELA story in Bold Scientists: dispatches from the battle for honest science, coming from Between the Lines, autumn 2014.

March 30, 2014
by Michael Riordon Leave a comment

Good news from Chile!

From the newly elected government of Chile, an inspiring initiative on the genetic manipulation front:

Chile Derails ‘Monsanto Law’ That Would Privatize Seeds.

Photo: International Business Times

The bold move followed years of public protest against GMOs throughout Chile.

Alicia Muñoz, of the National Association of Rural and Indigenous Women (Anamuri) explains: “All of the resistance that rural organizations, principally indigenous communities, led during these past years was a success. We were able to convey to the parliament how harmful the law would be for the indigenous communities and farmers who feed us all. Big agriculture, or agro-business, is just that, a business. It doesn’t feed our country.”

Meanwhile in Canada, the US and the EU, governments beholden to the agri-corps rush to do their profit-driven bidding.

The new government in Chile sets an example of what responsible governments can do when they attend to the needs of their people, rather than serve the grey ghosts that stalk the corridors of power.

Follow the international GMO battle in Bold Scientists: dispatches from the battle for honest science, coming from Between the Lines, autumn 2014.

March 27, 2014
by Michael Riordon 3 Comments

Stop Mekorot

March 22 (World Water Day) to March 30 (Palestinian Land Day) marks the first International Boycott Week Against Mekorot.

Israel’s national water company, Mekorot oversees the water apartheid policies of the Israeli state, stealing water from under Palestine to supply the needs of Israeli communities and illegal settlements, then selling the dregs at inflated rates to Palestinians. Palestinians are forbidden to drill wells, and the Israeli army regularly destroys water tanks that gather rain-water.

Mekorot also profits from exporting its water privatization methods to other countries, turning water from a life-essential into a luxury commodity.

But recently, due to an escalating international boycott campaign, Mekorot has lost multi-million dollar contracts in Argentina and the Netherlands.

The Stop Mekorot campaign has just released a biting two-minute satirical video, Mekorot: An Apartheid Adventure.

More on the Palestine water story in Our Way to Fight: peace-work under siege in Israel-Palestine.

March 21, 2014
by Michael Riordon Leave a comment

Climate Threshold: 2036?

Marshall Islands, going under. Photo: Agence-France Press

Unafraid to make his findings public, US climate scientist Michael E. Mann has become a favourite target of climate change deniers. For anyone interested in a livable future, he’s worth reading.

In the March 2014 issue of Scientific American he analyses the latest reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and counters predictably comforting distortions in the mainstream US media.

Michael Mann concludes that the situation is not without hope, but argues that hope is rapidly fading. “Destructive change has already arrived in some regions. In the Arctic, loss of sea ice and thawing permafrost are wreaking havoc on indigenous peoples and ecosystems. In low-lying island nations, land and freshwater are disappearing because of rising sea levels and erosion.”

Read the full article here.

For an inside look at science and climate disruption, see Bold Scientists: dispatches from the battle for honest science, coming from Between the Lines, autumn 2014.

February 23, 2014
by Michael Riordon Leave a comment

“Is the Internet good or bad? Yes.”

So says Turkish social media analyst Zeynep Tufekci in the online magazine Matter.

Photo: Nurphoto

“It’s time to rethink our nightmares about surveillance.”

Writing from Istanbul’s huge Gezi Park protests, and from his investigations in social media, Tufekci looks provocatively at the paradox of Twitter as a medium for connection and resistance, but also a powerful tool for state-corporate surveillance and control.

A good read, with stunning black & white images, here: https://medium.com/matter/76d9913c6011.

More on surveillance and social media in Pesky Facts: unspun science for dangerous times, coming from Between the Lines, autumn 2014.