In my last post, I highlighted Canada's problem of environmental inaction. Basically we are falling behind the rest of the world. We may think that we are an environmentally friendly country, but in fact we have become one of the worst polluters. Things like the oil sands are making it worse, but really the fact is we are the only country that signed the Kyoto Protocol and has not even made an effort to try and meet our emission reduction obligations.
The biggest problems we face are these: the agenda of the Conservative Government, that of Stephen Harper, which has consistently rejected any sort of environmental concern, and the overall passivity of Canadians today. Most Canadians care about the environment, and know that it's a matter of necessity.
It's a matter of necessity because all of life is interdependent. The oxygen we breathe and the CO2 we emit is then cycled by plants; soils are made fertile by worms, insects, bacteria, and fungi breaking down dead organic material; the food we eat requires sunlight, water, nitrogen, or else food for itself; basically all life in the oceans begins with phytoplankton. The Earth's ecosystems are created by biodiversity, in a giant network of life sustaining life. We used to be able to just throw away our waste, and though we maybe didn't know it 100 years ago, we were counting on the capacity of nature to recycle it.
Now, that cannot happen. Of all the material we put in the recycling, a small fraction of that is actually recycled. Alot of it is now in the Pacific Ocean, and is known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It's a scientifically proven fact that we all depend on the natural environment, and it's a fact that we are in the greatest environmental crisis we have ever really faced.
So what to do? The vast majority of people are rightly overwhelmed when they take all of this in, but as a result they tune out and resign themselves to trying not to think about it. Really though, they should be doing just the opposite.
There's a huge amount of things everyone can do to help the environment. Because we in North America consume more of the World's resources than anywhere else, the first step is simple lifestyle changes. Try and be fuel/energy efficient. Replace lightbulbs with energy saving lightbulbs; get a water fan instead of an air conditioner; install storm windows to save heat in the winter (some great green home heating tips are here ); try biking instead of driving; try and eat local foods from a farmers market (produce AND meat) - the meat industry has an unbelievable ecological footprint, which is why its greenest to go vegetarian - and if its organic then even better; buy green cleaning products and detergents, and see about washing your clothes in cold water; try and buy fair trade tea and coffee; the best place to get clothes is second hand and vintage stores; grow houseplants, and if possible grow some of your own food in your garden. These are all good options, and if you want you can do even more. These days there's no end to info on going green. And you'll not only save money, you can get rebates for being more efficient. Any of this is available on the internet.
Here's some good sites:
http://planetgreen.discovery.com/
http://www.treehugger.com/
http://www.theenvironmentalblog.org/
http://www.worldwatch.org/resources/go_green_save_green
Greening cars and driving: http://autos.canada.com/green/index.html
http://www.thrall.org/special/goinggreen.html
If you'd like more info on the importance of going green, or the state of the natural environment, here's some good places to check out:
http://earthpulse.nationalgeographic.com/earthpulse/index.html
http://www.theglobaleducationproject.org/earth/index.php
http://earthtrends.wri.org/
http://www.enn.com/
http://faostat.fao.org/default.aspx
http://www.fao.org/nr/nr-home/en/
http://www.realclimate.org/
For you Americans out there: http://forestcouncil.org/
And there are plenty more out there.
The other thing you can do is write letters and emails to politicians and policy makers to get them to ACT!
So just realize that these things DO make a difference, and the more people who are proactive about it, the bigger a difference we can make, and the better things will get.
Also, educate yourself - don't just believe me, check the facts. But don't just believe crazy theories either. The Earth is not hollow, for example.
(This is a very incorrect theory that holds sway along with a whole plethora of extremely wrong theories about the nature of the Earth, such as the Growing Earth. I'm just using it as an example.
We know the Earth's internal structure. Geologists have been studying it in detail for a long time. The reason we know that the Earth's interior is composed of 5 main layers (the crust, upper mantle, lower mantle, outer core, and inner core) is because of seismic studies, using the time of travel of refracted and reflected seismic waves created by earthquakes. The core does not allow shear waves to pass through it, while the speed of travel (seismic velocity) is different in the other layers. The changes in the seismic velocity between the different layers causes refraction, owing to Snell's law. Reflections are caused by a large increase in seismic velocity and are similar to light reflecting from a mirror.
This was discovered in 1909 by the seismologist Andrija Mohorovičić.
The problem with the internet today is that there's so much information available to everyone, along with all of the misinformation. So if you think I'm full of shit, find out for yourself, but make sure you understand the facts that support the theories.)
The biggest problems we face are these: the agenda of the Conservative Government, that of Stephen Harper, which has consistently rejected any sort of environmental concern, and the overall passivity of Canadians today. Most Canadians care about the environment, and know that it's a matter of necessity.
It's a matter of necessity because all of life is interdependent. The oxygen we breathe and the CO2 we emit is then cycled by plants; soils are made fertile by worms, insects, bacteria, and fungi breaking down dead organic material; the food we eat requires sunlight, water, nitrogen, or else food for itself; basically all life in the oceans begins with phytoplankton. The Earth's ecosystems are created by biodiversity, in a giant network of life sustaining life. We used to be able to just throw away our waste, and though we maybe didn't know it 100 years ago, we were counting on the capacity of nature to recycle it.
Now, that cannot happen. Of all the material we put in the recycling, a small fraction of that is actually recycled. Alot of it is now in the Pacific Ocean, and is known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It's a scientifically proven fact that we all depend on the natural environment, and it's a fact that we are in the greatest environmental crisis we have ever really faced.
So what to do? The vast majority of people are rightly overwhelmed when they take all of this in, but as a result they tune out and resign themselves to trying not to think about it. Really though, they should be doing just the opposite.
There's a huge amount of things everyone can do to help the environment. Because we in North America consume more of the World's resources than anywhere else, the first step is simple lifestyle changes. Try and be fuel/energy efficient. Replace lightbulbs with energy saving lightbulbs; get a water fan instead of an air conditioner; install storm windows to save heat in the winter (some great green home heating tips are here ); try biking instead of driving; try and eat local foods from a farmers market (produce AND meat) - the meat industry has an unbelievable ecological footprint, which is why its greenest to go vegetarian - and if its organic then even better; buy green cleaning products and detergents, and see about washing your clothes in cold water; try and buy fair trade tea and coffee; the best place to get clothes is second hand and vintage stores; grow houseplants, and if possible grow some of your own food in your garden. These are all good options, and if you want you can do even more. These days there's no end to info on going green. And you'll not only save money, you can get rebates for being more efficient. Any of this is available on the internet.
Here's some good sites:
http://planetgreen.discovery.com/
http://www.treehugger.com/
http://www.theenvironmentalblog.org/
http://www.worldwatch.org/resources/go_green_save_green
Greening cars and driving: http://autos.canada.com/green/index.html
http://www.thrall.org/special/goinggreen.html
If you'd like more info on the importance of going green, or the state of the natural environment, here's some good places to check out:
http://earthpulse.nationalgeographic.com/earthpulse/index.html
http://www.theglobaleducationproject.org/earth/index.php
http://earthtrends.wri.org/
http://www.enn.com/
http://faostat.fao.org/default.aspx
http://www.fao.org/nr/nr-home/en/
http://www.realclimate.org/
For you Americans out there: http://forestcouncil.org/
And there are plenty more out there.
The other thing you can do is write letters and emails to politicians and policy makers to get them to ACT!
So just realize that these things DO make a difference, and the more people who are proactive about it, the bigger a difference we can make, and the better things will get.
Also, educate yourself - don't just believe me, check the facts. But don't just believe crazy theories either. The Earth is not hollow, for example.
(This is a very incorrect theory that holds sway along with a whole plethora of extremely wrong theories about the nature of the Earth, such as the Growing Earth. I'm just using it as an example.
We know the Earth's internal structure. Geologists have been studying it in detail for a long time. The reason we know that the Earth's interior is composed of 5 main layers (the crust, upper mantle, lower mantle, outer core, and inner core) is because of seismic studies, using the time of travel of refracted and reflected seismic waves created by earthquakes. The core does not allow shear waves to pass through it, while the speed of travel (seismic velocity) is different in the other layers. The changes in the seismic velocity between the different layers causes refraction, owing to Snell's law. Reflections are caused by a large increase in seismic velocity and are similar to light reflecting from a mirror.
This was discovered in 1909 by the seismologist Andrija Mohorovičić.
The problem with the internet today is that there's so much information available to everyone, along with all of the misinformation. So if you think I'm full of shit, find out for yourself, but make sure you understand the facts that support the theories.)
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