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Systemchange.ca is a free, public, interactive website – a multi-media tool for climate justice. Multiple videos are available. These can be viewed with your friends or family, or within your organization, union or group. The interactive website also supports Canadians making lifestyle choices that help reduce environmental impacts and contribute to a more equitable future.

Teach-Ins, a took kit, and ongoing interactive content with a focus on real solutions for both environmental and social justice are planned. Speakers featured in the videos include First Nation, union, media, and environmental leaders from Canada.

Jurisdictions around the world are halting fracking operations, and reviewing the technology and environmental effects, including New York State, State of New Jersey, Quebec, France, South Africa, and Finland.

The EPA in the US is also studying potential impacts of the fracking process on drinking water and groundwater.

'Fracking' is defined in the Oxford online dictionary as a verb that is a synonym for hydraulic fracturing. This is a form of natural gas extraction that consistently pollutes drinking water around drilling sites. This method was featured in the 2011 Oscar-nominated documentary "Gasland".

Hydraulic fracturing involves injecting water often mixed with sand and chemicals under high pressure, typically through horizontal wells, to break up tight rock formations thousands of metres underground.

Each Manitoba political party sent a speaker: Jennifer Howard for Manitoba New Democrats, Heather Stephanson for PC Party of Manitoba, Paul Hesse for Manitoba Liberal Party, and James Beddome for Manitoba Green Party.

Prepared questions for all parties and party statements included a range of environmental issues like :

• Manitoba's second highest in Canada ranking for materials going to landfill
• Manitoba's slow pace reducing green house gas emissions
• Ban on cosmetic pesticides like other provinces and some Canadians cities
• Wetlands loss, the need for restoration and retention and health of Lake Winnipeg
• Flood adaptation and compensation to avoid a repeat of 2011 losses
• Consultation standards to listen better to Manitobans' concerns
• Current peat mine dispositions banned by the Save Lake Winnipeg Act June 2011
• Removal of mining from Manitoba parks
• Manitoba Hydro development intentions (both dams and transmission)

Questions from the packed house were aimed at all parties and ended the evening on a note of common concern for Manitoba's environment.

In 2008 Wilderness Committee director Eric Reder identified the logging road proposal as a contradiction to Manitoba's new 'no logging' zones under the Parks Act. Appeals regarding the licence were rejected. With documentation and affidavits from Gaile Whelan Enns, manager of Manitoba Wildlands, the Wilderness Committee requested a rule review by a Queens Bench judge concerning the road and changes in the Act that for logging zones in Manitoba parks.

A court date of October 11, 2011 has been set. Manitoba Conservation has not filed any response to Wilderness Committee lawyers in the three months since statements and affidavits were filed with the court. It is likely Tolko resumed building the 'logging’ road recently.

"Manitobans love their parks," said Eric Reder, Campaign Director for the Manitoba Wilderness Committee. "This legal action is a respectful, responsible way to resolve the dispute between the government and the thousands of Manitobans who want their parks protected from logging."

The Moving Planet global day of climate action September 24 will feature community events for a worldwide rally to demand solutions to the climate crisis. Each Moving Planet event will emphasize action and solutions to the increasing climate change crisis. The aim is for people to stand up for reality and share truth about the climate crisis. 350.org is sponsor for The Moving Planet day of action, with the Climate Reality Project.

Over forty diverse civil society organizations from across Canada signed a letter during summer 2011 calling on federal Environment Minister Peter Kent to protect the integrity of Canada's forthcoming coal regulations. They asked the minister to ensure that no proposal evades Ottawa's coal rules.

"Coal is the worst offender among fossil fuels when it comes to producing the pollution that cause global warming," says Steven Guilbeault of Équiterre. "Studies have shown that Alberta can meet its future electricity needs without building new coal plants."

Recently Minister Kent has said he never intended to create a loophole that would prompt companies to build rule-breaking plants quickly.

"I'm sending a strong message that Canadians don't want that to happen, and these regs weren't designed to allow it to happen," Minister Kent said in a media interview.

Both US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and President Obama have to sign off for the pipeline to be built. During the 2008 election campaign Obama said he would stop the pipeline. Property owners and citizens in many of the eight US states affected are objecting.

Canadians were among the first arrests in Washington. Church and faith groups, unions, environmental organizations, First Nations affected by the tar sands, academics, and communities all see risk from the pipeline, based on several recent pipeline leaks and the huge carbon and water footprint of bitumen mined in Alberta moved by pipeline to Texas refineries. Six leaks and an explosion have already occurred on the North Dakota section of the Keystone pipeline.

September 26, on The Hill in Ottawa, Canada, is a day of protest to stop the Keystone XL pipeline, and subsidies for oil projects. Over 150 Canadians have signed up to be arrested.

Public figures asking President Obama to stop the pipeline include: Dr. James Hansen, Leonardo Dipaprio, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Tantoo Cardinal, Margot Kidder, several Nobel Laureates, and the Dalai Lama.

In spring 2011 Manitoba Wildlands began posting a series of over twenty 'reality checks' regarding Manitoba's environment, resources, and the public interest. These 'reality checks' cover a wider range of topics than the surveys, and point to public policy standards and actions or lack of action for Manitoba's environment.

Manitoba Wildlands has issued surveys for each Manitoba election since 1999. Past election surveys and results are posted on the ManitobaWildlands.org website. The 2011 election surveys were posted on the Manitoba Wildlands government web page as soon as they went to political parties. Answers from the PC Party of Manitoba, The Manitoba Liberal Party, and The Green Party of Manitoba are now posted.

The Manitoba New Democratic party has been Manitoba's government since 1999. The 2011 surveys cover a range of existing programs, commitments, and gaps in protecting Manitoba's environment and resources. Seeking commitments from all political parties at election time puts a spotlight on Manitoba's environment and natural systems.

"Three opposition parties with fewer resources, and less access to information about Manitoba's environment, made the effort to answer these election surveys. But the NDP is not bothering. Manitobans might conclude that the opposition is more concerned about our environment than the NDP," said Gaile Whelan Enns, director Manitoba Wildlands.

The Manitoba New Democratic Party answered election surveys from Manitoba Wildlands, and WWF Canada for the 1999, 2003, and 2007 elections, and have indicated their survey responses will be forwarded.

Steps to arrive at a national recovery strategy for woodland caribou, including steps to correct the lack of consultations with Aboriginal Peoples, had already spanned several years. Judge Crampton, of the Federal Court, included in his decision:

"..the Minister clearly erred in reaching his decision by failing to take into account the First Nations Applicants' Treaty Rights and the honour of the Crown in interpreting his mandate ..... The Decision ( Minister Kent's ) therefore warrants being set aside on that basis alone."

Woodland Caribou, Boreal population was listed on Schedule 1 of the Species at Risk Act (SARA) as Threatened in 2003. Under the Species at Risk Act, the federal government is required to prepare a Recovery Strategy. The Recovery Strategy for boreal woodland caribou was due in June 2008, but had been delayed with a revised release date promised for June 2011. Environment Canada has now posted its Recovery Strategy for woodland caribou, with the a comments period until October 25, 2011.

The State department's Kerri-Ann Jones said Friday there's no evidence the pipeline will significantly impact the six U.S. states in its path as it carries crude from northern Alberta to Gulf Coast refineries in Texas. The Obama administration now has 90 days to determine whether the controversial project is in the national interest of the United States. Leading environmentalists say the State Department has refused to fully assess the risks.

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) said the State Department failed to study pipeline safety measures or examine alternate routes that would avoid the Ogallala aquifer in Nebraska, a crucial source of water.

Jim Lyon, senior vice-president of the National Wildlife Federation, said the analysis was "strike 3 for the State Department" after two "failed rounds" of environmental review and warned of legal woes ahead.

More than 300 people, including Canadian actresses Margot Kidder and Tantoo Cardinal, have been arrested as they demonstrate in front of the White House. The multi week non violent demonstration aims to convince U.S. President Barack Obama to block the pipeline. People from across North America are arriving and being arrested each day.

September 26 and 27 are target dates for Canadians to participate at the White House.

"A door to door survey of 769 adults found that the cancer rate was twice as high in a community exposed to mountaintop removal mining compared to a non-mining control community," said Dr. Michael Hendryx, lead author of the study and Associate Professor at Department of Community Medicine, and Director of West Virginia Rural Health Research Center at West Virginia University.

"The study adds to the growing evidence that mountaintop mining environments are harmful to human health," added Hendryx.

Among the 1.2 million American citizens living in mountaintop removal mining counties in central Appalachia, an additional 60,000 cases of cancer are directly linked to the federally sanctioned strip-mining practice.

Appalachian leaders went to Washington, DC to deliver the new study and call on President Obama, EPA administrator Lisa Jackson, and Attorney General Eric Holder to put an immediate moratorium on mountaintop removal in West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia. The moratorium would be until federal regulatory agencies make a complete assessment of the spiraling health crisis related to mountaintop removal mining.

Democracy Week is about participating, celebrating, understanding, and improving our Canadian democracy.

We are inviting organizations with diverse goals and membership, from all points on the political spectrum, from local community groups to national organizations, to participate by holding their own event during the week. These events could range from a speaker or forum on a political issue of interest to their group members or the community, to an artistic contribution such as a dance or film," states United Nations International Day of Democracy website.