The green new decade is underway!

The EcoFair’s 4-day online event showcases environmental non-profits and environmentally-friendly businesses, film screenings and discussions, webinars, games night, mix ‘n mingles and more. All for free!

• Don’t miss the EcoFair Launch Event Webinar.
• Enjoy a fun Eco-Games Night!
• Join exhibitor Facebook livestreams and eco-Humber bike ride
• At the EcoFair Finale meet exhibitors and learn more in interactive workshops.

Visit the EcoFair website to sign up for the EcoFair newsletter to get updates and event details  direct to your inbox. While there, enjoy family-friendly activities at the Fun & Games tab, explore EcoTour Maps that highlight sustainable features in neighbourhoods across Toronto, and learn about this year’s environmental non-profits and eco-businesses at the Exhibitor Showcase.

Together let’s celebrate the wonderful people, environmental groups, and eco-businesses that are helping create a greener and healthier City for us all. Everyone can share and learn tips on ways to live more sustainably, and be inspired to make a difference. The green new decade is underway!

As always, the EcoFair is organized 100% by volunteers. This event is the 13th Annual EcoFair at the Barns – now online!

Co-hosted by Green Neighbours Network of Toronto and Transition Toronto.

Start Date: November 4 2021 & Start Time: 7:00 PM

End Date: November 7 2021 & End Time: 4:00 PM

email: ecofairtoronto@gmail.com

twitter and instagram: @EcoFairToronto

MailChimp subscription: 

https://us13.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=3530d69eb9e3c548dfc46f70c&id=fa7904884c

The post 2021 EcoFair Toronto Nov 4-7 appeared first on A\J.

Source: UNICEF

UNICEF released a report this week titled The Climate Crisis is a Child Rights Crisis. This report generated new evidence on the potential risk of climate and environmental hazards (including shocks and stressors caused by such events). This report was created with youth climate activists in mind and was launched on the third anniversary of Friday’s for Future (Greta Thunberg’s organization).

The report found that over 1 billion children are already at extreme risk of being impacted by the current climate crisis. This is especially the case when looking at natural disasters such as floods, heatwaves, natural fires, and drought, which have impacted developing nations’ disproportionality—it is within these developing nations (which hosts 1 billion children cumulatively) that natural disasters are most prominent.  Moreover, the study found that children were more likely to suffer the brunt of these disasters due to their developing state and other external factors (water and food scarcity, disease, etc.).

The message of the report was clear: our generation and all upcoming ones must focus on protecting those sensitive to the now prevalent climate crisis.

Exxon’s Ambitious Destruction of the Environment

Source: CNBC

An article published by the Guardian has reported on ExxonMobil’s new Guyana project which has experts worried about a potential oil-related environmental disaster. The largest worry both citizens and climatic researchers have had about the project is the potential further degradation of the sensitive marine ecosystem. The company has chosen this specific ecosystem to extract what is expected to be 9 billion barrels of oil.

The article details the company’s ambitious goal to produce 800 000 barrels of oil a day by 2025; Exxon hopes to increase its production of oil exponentially, disregarding the parallel of its increase with the environment’s decline. Such a pursuit is not inherently unique, as other oil industries are producing similar goals in hopes to keep up in the race within the fossil fuel industry.

However, Exxon has more intentional harm as the company has prioritized picking production locations without acknowledging its ecological sensitivity and overall importance to the global climate in its planning process. The article describes Guyana as a “rich” ecosystem that has 80% of its land dominated by biodiverse rainforests. This fact suggests that exploitation of natural resources (such as oil) in this nation not only results in natural spills in extraction and other damage to local biodiversity but also the massive release of carbon into the global atmosphere from rainforests (known to be carbon sinks)  that have been utilized in due process.

In the search for progress, Exxon has forgotten its most important stakeholder, the environment where it extracts its product, and our publication (and many others) will closely monitor its next steps.

The Montreal Protocol Has Saved Our Planet from A Climate Catastrophe

Source: BBC

A journal article published this week suggested that the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer first passed in 1987, has allowed the world to avoid an extreme climate crisis.

In doing so, it has stopped an additional 115-225 parts per million accumulation in atmospheric carbon dioxide—the call for action has allowed for the world to have at most a 1.0 degree cooler global temperature. Additionally, the protocol has also mitigated the growth of land carbon sinks. The report actually suggests that 580 billion tonnes of carbon stored in forests have been stopped because of the lack of growth!

Conclusion This study has found conclusive proof that harsh criticism from unified protests (through international agencies) has caused an immensely positive change and protected the global biosphere.

The post The WTF: The Week This Friday Vol. 62 appeared first on A\J.

In light of the new climate change report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a working group of the United Nations (UN), this week’s WTF will be focused on the most interesting and alarming aspects of the published study.

The Origins of the Evolution and the Ascent of Humanity, Part One

On Monday, the United Nations issued their 2021 Climate Report in advance of November’s COP26, and the headlines were shocking:

UN climate report is our ‘final wake-up call,’ say environmental experts

Island nations react to devastating U.N. climate change report: “We are on the edge of extinction”

ALARMING NEW UN CLIMATE REPORT SAYS HUMANITY HAS REALLY SCREWED ITSELF

The news cycles and social feeds were full of stories, explainers, and what-next articles and posts that exploded in the days following, although they’ve slowed to a relative trickle as I type this on a Thursday. Perhaps we’re all taking time to digest the devastating nature of the findings, that we humans have had a MASSIVE negative impact on the quality of life for all species on this planet. Perhaps we’re wrestling with the guilt of our individual and collective contributions to the negative impacts that manifest as life-stealing wildfires, droughts, famines, and extreme weather events. And perhaps, we’re all taking this time to prepare ourselves to follow the natural course of evolution: preserve your species by doing the things and taking the actions that will allow your species to perpetuate itself into the future.

Revolutions, the few insisting upon massive change for the many, are generally very painful and frequently pyrrhic exercises. Evolutions, when the mass of change(s) forces all to follow suit, can also be painful but generally prove to have longer-lasting consequences. For us humans, some simian ancestor developed an opposable thumb, learned to use it for benefit and betterment, and, voila, it gave our family tree members an advantage to climb to the top of the food chain. 

But how does this connect to our publication and global climate change in general? Read on to find out!

Climate Change – Undeniably Our Fault

Source: Reuters

“It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean, and land. Widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere, and biosphere have occurred.”

When reading the newly published Sixth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) these are the first words you are greeted by – stark and to the point. This is a fact we have long known; however, the IPCC uses facts that even the most avid climate change denier may have a hard time arguing. For example, it is often argued that the earth is warming due to natural processes, and this is all part of a climate cycle. Well, the IPCC report shows through extensive data modeling that with only natural processes (such as a solar and volcanic activity), the earth would have warmed by a mere 0.2°C while in actuality due to human processes, it has warmed closer to 1.2°C. The same IPCC has of course warned us of the dangers of reaching an increase in temperature by 1.5°C only a few years ago (Spoiler: It’s very bad).

Thankfully, while the report is full of alarming facts, it also shows that we can still negate some of the future impacts of climate change. On our current trajectory, it is predicted that global temperature will rise by 3°C, however, if we can decrease our fossil fuel usage completely by 2050, and begin using carbon sequestration methods, it is predicted that the rise will level off at around 1.5°C.

But just how bad is the difference between a rise in 1.5°C, and that of 3, or even 4°C? For example, the report shows that if there is a 2°C rise, extreme temperature events that used to occur once every 50 years will instead occur 14 times in a 50-year span. Even more alarmingly, with an increase of 4°C, extreme temperature events occur 39 times over the same period. The difference in extreme droughts between the two is just about double as well. These, of course, will bring massive interruptions to agricultural systems and put a strain on water supplies.

For readers in Canada these climate changes will bring about warmer temperatures with higher levels of precipitation, this precipitation will not be useful for agriculture, however, as the moisture in the soil column is expected to evaporate rapidly due to higher temperatures. I am from Barbados, as such, for readers like myself who are from areas that climate change will disproportionately impact, such as the Caribbean, these changes will be seen through increased hurricane frequency and severity increased instances of extreme drought, and of course, rising sea levels. These effects can already be seen with a record-breaking fifth named storm by July 1^st. If this doesn’t sound impressive (or scary!) – there aren’t usually five named storms until the end of August.

I don’t know about you, but I agree with this IPCC report – the time to act is now.

Limiting Future Climate Change

Source: Giving Compass

The report provided specific solutions to limit future climate change while being cognisant of the fact (as we have mentioned above) that much damage has already been done to the Earth by it. It is important to note, that the suggested solutions were provided in the hopes that nations all over the world would begin working on them immediately—as is a running theme in this report, climate change is very much an urgent and pressing matter in which we are running out of time to effectively combat it.

The main solution suggested that we must limit human-induced global warming by targeting/limiting cumulative CO₂ or any other carbon-based emissions. The hope of the report is that nations look toward reaching net-zero carbon dioxide emissions, as a first start in limiting the production of other greenhouse gases. Additionally, the report suggests “sustained reductions” in CH₄ (commonly known as methane), would aid not only in decreasing the effect of global warming but also would improve global air quality.

Furthermore, the report concluded that scenarios with low or very low GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions lead within the next 20 years might dramatically restore climate impact drives to manageable states. However, it will take collaborative work from all nations in order to make these scenarios a reality.

Can you imagine, if we play our cards right, in 2040 we might have a utopia free from climatic disasters?

UN CLIMATE REPORT 2021: The Origins of the Evolution and the Ascent of Humanity, Part Two

Here at A\J, we’re working on a print issue this summer that aims to use the device of ‘climate fiction’ to project what the future will look like in 2071, the year A\J (hopefully) turns 100. And the head-space required to bridge space and time has proved helpful to this writer as he wrestles with understanding if this report will be the actual tipping point (or part thereof) that moves our species forward. The science and research and data presented in the 2021 report isn’t all that different from the 2001 report; we’ve simply lost 20 years trying to make our fellow humans understand the importance of what we’re studying, learning, and sharing. We had our then-editor, Megan Nourse, at COP21, supposedly the A-HA moment of global climate awakening and action-taking. We’re just now being shocked awake, judging by today’s headlines.

So how do we ensure that, finally, the message gets through to the mass of humanity (and, more importantly, the humans holding the power to make better decisions), allowing the natural evolution to a more sustainable future to occur in the most expedient (and least painful) way possible? Well, if we Canadians have learned anything through the Covid-19 era it’s that strong, clear, and simple public health messages repeated FREQUENTLY do hold the power to help the average citizen to comprehend and make better decisions individually and collectively. 

HERE IS THE THREAT. IT IS A CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER. WE’RE NOT SUGAR-COATING ANYTHING. IT IS REAL AND YOU SHOULD BE CONCERNED, HOWEVER, WE CAN ALL DO THINGS TO MINIMIZE THAT THREAT AND YOU CAN MITIGATE THAT DANGER FOR YOU AND YOUR FELLOW CITIZENS BY (wearing a mask, social distancing, getting vaccinated, etc.). AND DOING SO WILL ALLOW US TO GET THROUGH THIS AS QUICKLY AND PAINLESSLY AS POSSIBLE.

And that message has been repeated, in iteration, consistently for the past 18 months and will likely be a presence for at least another year longer. We Canadians were confused by this novel coronavirus, we needed to be educated, informed, and alerted, and then we needed to be guided through the process to minimize the risk and to flatten the curve. And, as a whole, we did a pretty good job, at least compared to our G20 peers.

Is climate change an emergency? ABSOLUTELY. Does it hold the potential to be a MUCH DEADLIER threat than Covid-19? ABSOLUTELY. Does it threaten the life and well-being of all Canadians, let alone all species on this planet? ABSOLUTELY. Can we come together and act together to minimize the pain that will accrue in the short term (paying yesterday’s climate bill) before the sunnier days ahead? ABSOLUTELY….if we are helped along the way. And if we truly want it to happen.

The evolution of the planet is happening, regardless of what we do. Can we humans leverage our humanity to make that evolution happen for the benefit and betterment of all species? 

That only time can tell!

The post The WTF: The Week This Friday Vol. 61 appeared first on A\J.

Source: The Limited Times

An article published today by National Geographic suggests that extreme heatwaves this summer and are becoming increasingly dangerous for pets over the last few decades. That’s right, your cats, dogs, and birds are all in danger of overheating, so it is important to recognize the signs of this phenomenon so that you can protect them from our over warming planet.

Firstly, it is important to identify how your pet cools down in warm temperatures. Interestingly, common house pets like rabbits and birds do not sweat at all. Dogs do sweat, but only do so from their paws and noses; they otherwise rely on panting to evaporate water from their body. Lastly, cats groom themselves to keep cool.

The article also suggests that fur is important to keep a pet cool during especially warm seasons, as it acts as an insulator of sorts (like shade) and keeps heat from direct sunlight from penetrating the skin, further preventing sunburn—don’t get a fancy cut for your dog/cat, because it won’t help them in the long run!

Moreover, you should identify if your pet is in the “high risk” category of suffering from heatstroke so that extra preventative measures might be taken; in this grouping, there are short-headed dogs, overweight pets, and extremely young or old pets. Furthermore, you should note during travel that your pet is likely acclimated to their home’s climate, so going great distances to climatically different locations might be a shock to your pet’s system. It is best to introduce them to different climatic situations as they are growing, so they are acclimated to all different types of weather.

The Future of Cars in the U.S.A is Electric

Source: ABC News

On Thursday the Biden administration announced their plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, in their overarching strategy to battle climate change. This strategy would primarily focus on creating an infrastructure of electric cars for all different types of industry in the country.

President Joe Biden demonstrated his support for this plan by scandalously driving a Ford F-150 Lightning pickup at a Ford testing site. He drove up to reporters and said, “this sucker is quick”. It seemed to be an excellent promotion strategy used to encourage the country’s private sectors to adopt similar heavy transport for their shipping and other product needs.

The Biden administration just recently signed an executive order to ensure that half of all new vehicles sold by 2030 in the country would be zero-emission-centric—including electric vehicles and hybrid-electric vehicles. This was just one of the ideas proposed to reduce the country’s overall greenhouse gas emissions.

It is important to note that electric vehicle production and distribution have fallen behind in the U.S. compared to other countries in the last few years—electric vehicles represent only 2% of all new cars sold in the country in the past three years, as suggested by the International Energy Agency.

However, the Biden administration and many other climate activist groups hope that the introduction and wide-scale distribution of these vehicles will help the warming globe in the process. Get ready to drive your favorite Prius model X America!

So THAT’S Where Our Money went!

Source: Motley Fool

It’s been a busy week with lots of news so this little item, first published in a report on CNN, leads with a wonderfully clear headline:

Oil companies are wooing skeptical investors with cash. Will it work?

The story looks at global players such as BP (the artist formerly known as British Petroleum) and such but it quickly reminded this writer of a report released by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). This report, released in early July, makes clear what is at stake for us Canadians as our federal government seeks to both create the conditions for battling our environmental relalities (‘we declare a climate emergency’) while simultaneously throwing hard-earned taxpayer dollars at the oil and gas sector (‘I know we declared a climate emergency yesterday but we’re going to spend $7 billion today on Trans-Mountain Pipeline…..because we’re operating like it’s 2015!’).

From the precis:

“Over the past three years, oil and gas pipelines received more than CAD 23 billion in support from Canadian federal and provincial governments, including CAD 10 billion since the COVID-19 pandemic started, reveals a new study released today by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), titled Pipelines or Progress: Government support for oil and gas pipelines in Canada.”

Now back to the financial machinations/bribery. From CNN:

“Wall Street isn’t convinced that the world’s biggest oil firms can successfully overhaul their businesses as the climate crisis accelerates.

The industry response? To dangle more cash.

What’s happening: BP (BP), which announced results that beat expectations on Tuesday, upped its dividend by 4% to 5.46 cents per share and said it would buy back $1.4 billion in shares over the next quarter. Its stock jumped more than 5% in London in early trading.

In the past week, competitors Chevron (CVX) and Total (TOT) also announced share buyback plans, while Shell (RDSA) boosted its dividend and said it would repurchase $2 billion in stock by the end of the year.”

There’s nothing untoward about this strategy, a tried and true method among the Wall Street crowd and Ponzi schemers worldwide. However, at a time when we are trying desperately to justify the investments necessary to future-proof our economy from the worst impacts of the climate emergency, our government is giving our money away to a sector that is simply and singularly focused on squeezing more profits from their inventories of GHG-causing, climate-emergency-exacerbating ‘dead dinosaur juice’. Use that money to provide job and skills retraining for the hard-working workers? Use that money to create a pool to pay for the costs of cleaning up abandoned wells? How about billions to clean up the uber-toxic tailing ponds in the tar sands?

Nope. They’ll use the money to bribe investors. And those short-term investors don’t really care about long-term environmental impacts. They care about short-term returns. And our collective investment made by our current government?

Short-term thinking, more like it!

Slow But Steady Progress

Source: WWF

There may be no more iconic species for deep-green naturalists than the Galapagos Islands Tortoise, an ancient species who, due to their longevity, might have an individual member who actually met Charles Darwin as he was researching DESCENT OF MAN AND THE ORIGIN OF THE SPECIES in the 1860s!

Unfortunately, the intervening years haven’t been kind to the tortoises, as their interactions with humans proved deadly. From overconsumption as a food source to the creeping (and devastating) impacts of human-caused, anthropogenic climate change such as habitat loss and food scarcity, the Galapagos tortoises have seen their numbers plummet. Until recently.

A report released this year by the Galapagos Conservancy shares some hopeful news:

“According to park rangers and scientists from the Giant Tortoise Restoration Initiative (GTRI), the results of the recent expedition to Alcedo Volcano in the northern part of Isabela Island to conduct a census of the tortoise population there (Chelonoidis vandenburghi) exceeded all expectations, with 4,723 individual tortoises located and marked.

Data suggest that this is a healthy population: in nature, a population of such a large size, with many older as well as younger individuals, and that has one male for each female — as is the case of the Alcedo volcano tortoises — is considered a completely viable population

Danny Rueda, director of the Galapagos National Park Directorate (GNPD), indicated that the expedition revealed that this is the population of giant tortoises that is in the best condition in Galapagos, but it is not free of threats; invasive species such as rats and feral cats were also found.

“Finding such a large number of tortoises on Alcedo Volcano confirms that the management programs implemented in that environment have been successful. The eradication of goats and donkeys in 2006 has allowed the giant tortoise population here to flourish. In addition, abundant vegetation was found, which guarantees a permanent source of food for this species,” added Rueda.

This is wonderful news. But the program director reminded:

As a result of the management actions implemented by the GNPD and its collaborators during the last six decades, Galapagos is likely home to around 60,000 giant tortoises including the populations of the different species — a number that is still low considering that more than 200,000 tortoises were removed from the Archipelago in previous centuries.”

Two takeaways: 1) we CAN make a difference tomorrow with the work we are doing today; and 2) we have a LOT of work to do to make good for all the messes we’ve made when we weren’t paying attention.

The post The WTF: The Week This Friday Vol. 60 appeared first on A\J.

By the time I started working in publishing as an adult, the industry was at an inflection point; in both the technology that drove the work and the relative importance of the medium in comparison with the burgeoning television industry. What once required a room full of typesetters, layout artists, and hand-cut editing – along with full-size negatives that would be ‘dropped in at the last moment – had been replaced by a desktop computer. Granted they ran $5000 each back in the day while possessing the computing capacity of today’s average smartphone. The on-site photoshoots had been replaced by the first iteration of digitized imagery, and anything that wasn’t tangible could soon be replicated digitally with the release of Photoshop 1.0. The back-end of the publishing process – the printing – was also adapting at this time, reducing the costs and speeding the process.

And that’s the point to keep in mind: the process was being streamlined because the earlier generation of profits-for-all had become curtailed as revenues shifted from print to visual (television). The philosophy of ‘’do more with less” was the mandate from the magazine’s financial officer and, if that advice wasn’t heeded, ‘efficiencies’ could be found, starting with your job! Like many great industry-based technological great leaps, the changes in the publishing industry, many of which are still present as challenges today, were conceived initially in times of plenty – then put on the shelf until the times of ‘less’ came upon us. And those “times of less” started to bite into the profitability of every publishing entity and especially for magazine publications like A\J that were (and still are) non-traditional, niche content serving a small but committed audience both of readers and a less defined audience of potential advertisers.

Don’t get me wrong: the revolution that is digital publishing truly opened the door for knowledge mobilization on a grand scale. 

And well before the internet created the conditions of ‘information for all, small, niche publishers in the 1990s began addressing topics and subjects that held appeal to them but might not have caught the attention of any of the existing (and conservative) publishers. Think ADBUSTERS – and the zeitgeist that underpinned its creation (capitalistic cannibalism is bad for us!) – with its pages packed with satire and parody ads of the largest corporate culprits. Which provided the home for the like-minded that helped to inspire the original ‘OCCUPY WALL STREET’ movement.

At A\J, we got with the program…eventually. We started including color, images, and more expansive illustrations in the magazine in the 1990s and really started to kick it up as we rolled into the aughts. Oh sure, we might have looked a bit different as we redesigned the magazine’s visual face (primarily cover) from time to time as the 1990s rolled forward, but the core work that we delivered – demystifying the academically dense study area of environmental science – continued unabated.

As we come into the 2010s, many things in our world and how we do our work changed….again. The explosion of digital media – online news sites and social media feeds – challenged us to our very core, and in many ways the HOW forced us to look at the WHY. And it couldn’t have come at a better time.

We, the organization, had been ensconced in academia since our founding in 1971. We were very good at speaking to those ‘inside the deep green tent’, the people with the same training as our editors and writers (professors and grad students). And while that was still important, it was less critical than helping to mobilize that knowledge to build allies with those who might be of a lighter-green persuasion. We needed to understand how to support the corporate community as they dipped their toes in the sustainability waters. We needed to know how to continue to share stories from the environmental community and the academic community, but to reach more and more eyeballs, and especially those younger readers frustrated with the slow pace of vitally-needed change.

A quarterly or bi-monthly publication works at its own pace, has its own culture, and tells stories in its own way. And yet, there was this huge need to serve content on a more frequent basis, to share lighter-green stories that could resonate with the average reader – and maybe even inspire them to take their first eco-steps. But what is a website? Is it the past content? The future? How does it get supported? And how do you promote it?

These were all vital questions and team A\J has spent many of the intervening years reflecting, reshaping, and, hopefully, improving our holistic abilities to publish environmental media stories in the manner (and via the medium) most appropriate for achieving the outcome. 

That is moving the needle of public environmental literacy. 

All the while trying to understand how to sustain a print magazine in a time when the ‘print is dead’ echoes continue to wash over our industry. The IN MEMORIAM (PUBLICATIONS) segment of our industry’s OSCARS keeps expanding.

And yet, despite all this change, the core reason why we do our work remains the same:

1. To support environmental education, in all its flowerings;
2. To support environmental journalism and to help provide a training ground for the next generation of environmental journalists;
3. And, in doing so, to provide the critically-needed media/communications canvas for the Canadian environmental community to share stories that capture attention, create interest, motivate desire and spark action.

That’s never changed. When Bob Paehlke stayed up late nights in the 1970s, these were the guiding missions that helped him to sustain his work. And they keep me up at night too. 

We’re 50 years old this year and theoretically, we should be readying for our happy retirement, knowing that our work is done and there’s no more left to be written. But that isn’t the case. We have all the science, data, and existing solutions (upon which improved versions will emanate) that we need to make the quick and relatively painless leap to a zero-carbon world. But between the distractions of living (which isn’t getting easier for many), the distractions that are foisted upon us to keep us from living, and the vested interests holding us back, the FACTS don’t seem to be followed by urgent and meaningful ACTION.

So we persevere. And we strive to stay true to our founding missions, even though every other aspect of our work has changed since 1971, some for the worst but mostly for the better. After all, it may have taken us 50 years to make the case for environmentalism to the taste of public appetite and industry interest suggests that the vaunted ‘big, green tipping point’ is just around the corner, probably prodded along (with a taser) by the worsening impacts of the climate crisis (before we get on the right side of it). In many ways, you could say that “we’re an overnight success….50 years in the making!”

So read on… and shine on you crazy diamonds!

The post How We Work Has Changed. Why Work Has Not: A/J Pilot Issue Revisited appeared first on A\J.

Source: Schulich Medicine and Dentistry 

Bats are an incredible and complex species. 

They are adept at adapting. They can eat like 1000 bugs an hour. They are winged mammals capable of night flight, radar navigation, and occasional luminescence. Bats, as beings of the nighttime, have wondered deeply into the human psyche, supposed harbingers of both doom-and-gloom and better-times-ahead. A seminal modern popular cultural reference point – the vampire bat – remains as powerfully evocative of our inner fears of the winged night creatures today as when Bram Stoker was writing Dracula. In today’s era of superheroes, a GIANT in that world is the Batman, possessing the same nocturnal habits as the animal, with Bruce Wayne doing his own impersonation of a bat cleaning the night sky of mosquitos by corralling the Riddler, the Joker, and the like. And let’s not forget the planet’s recent experience with the coronavirus pandemic, when a bat-to-human interaction helped spark the global catastrophe.

So while bats are incredible and complex that calls out for our admiration and attention, it is true, there are also a lot of reasons both rational and irrational for humans to fear bats and treat them accordingly as pests and vermin, threats to our lives (although we’d be hard-pressed to say how). For this writer, I have a unique experience of having a bat fly into my hair during summer in High Park in Toronto. I have also had the experience of escorting bats out of my apartment. In those cases – and for whatever reason – I didn’t experience fear but rather curiosity.

Thus I was curious when I came across new research – early stage, to be truthful – that indicates some of the colonies of bats in Nova Scotia hardest-hit by the uber-deadly ‘white-nose syndrome’ (a fungal growth that interrupts the hibernation patterns of bats, resulting in the awakening too early to secure food, and thus starving to death) were marking a strong and noted comeback. According to a report on the CBC:

White-nose syndrome killed more than 90 percent of Nova Scotia’s bats between 2011 and 2013. It has killed millions across North America.

But a local conservation group based in southwest Nova Scotia has found larger bat colonies in their most recent ‘census’ that holds positive portends for the future. From the CBC report:

Lori Phinney, a wildlife biologist with the Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute, said researchers were pleasantly surprised to find the province’s largest known colony has grown to about 600 bats.

Phinney followed up with a call for citizen-conservationists to do their part by joining the effort to capture sightings of new colonies and/or colony change/growth.

“With the help of the public reporting bat sightings, we can hopefully figure this out over the next few years,” she said. “What we really want is where you saw the bat, the date and the time, and maybe what the bat was doing.”

And she pointed us to a link to get started:  http://www.batconservation.ca/

Not sure about you, but this nocturnal creature WILL be paying more attention to the night skies as I search for and admire the bats in my neighborhood!

Hey, Landlords, Time to Go Green! 

Source: Greener Ideal 

As the upcoming seasonal rental period approaches, many people will be on the hunt for a new place to live and you can attract potential buyers by selling an eco-friendly location! A source reports that keeping up with the current trend of being environmentally conscious can actually increase your chances of finding a renter for on-sale locations.

The first way to increase sustainability in your house is to install energy-efficient appliances—any appliances which reduce the overall electricity cost peruse. This not only allows for tax breaks for the landlord of the establishment but also reduces the overall charge for rent. Additionally, the same premise can be used to install low-flow and water reduction faucets, to reduce the overall amount of water use in the location. This will save on the water bill and will also save depleting water reserves!

The last way to be environmentally conscious is to introduce a variety of eco-friendly décor in the house. It may sound odd, but it is a rather simple process! For example, if you introduce native plants as décor, this can be used for meals and compost. Moreover, garden plants such as native grasses and trees will not only make the location more appealing to renters but will also appeal to pollinators and other wildlife near you! 

Nova Scotia Is Not Protecting Over 60 Species at Risk

Source: CBC 

A new report published by Nova Scotia’s auditor general has found that the province has not been able to protect species at risk for almost half a decade. This unfortunate result was found after a year from the Supreme Court’s ruling to implement recommendations provided by the province in 2016. The five regulations provided to the Department of Natural Resources in Nova Scotia:

1. The Department of Natural Resources should establish recovery measures such as the creation of teams and other management tools to protect species at risk
2. The Department of Natural Resources should establish a method of communication with said teams to ensure that they address concerns with sensitive species immediately
3. The Department of Natural Resources should review the species at risk list to establish proper practices of protection for all identified species
4. The Department of Natural Resources should create a monitoring program for all species at risk
5. The Department of Natural Resources should create a biodiversity strategy and a detailed action plan to outline goals for species conservation

However, it seems that nearly 60 species on the list have been more or less ignored by the province even after the establishment of these recommendations. The province has not even reviewed the list and the Department of Lands and Forestry has yet to create recovery teams or action plans to protect species. 

Rural, Remote….and Under Greater Threat

Source: CBC

Last week we touched upon the highlights and lowlights from the federal government’s recent Canada in a Changing Climate: National Issues report. Now thinkers are delving into the areas of greatest concern, hoping to be able to foment the solutions to mitigate the worst impacts. As the researchers reviewed the full national impact of climate change on Canada, its people, and its national vibrancy, there has been an increased focus on examining the areas of this big, giant land where the impacts are likely to be the most severe (and from a complex ecosystem of interconnected problems).

“I’m extremely worried about the impacts that climate change is having and will have,” said Kelly Vodden, one of the authors of the new National Issues Report and a professor at Memorial University.

As researchers looked at the particular impacts on rural and remote communities in this country – which let’s face it, makes a massive majority of our landmass – it demonstrates that for Indigenous and small-town Canada the existing erosion of traditions, jobs/economic opportunities, rising costs and the rush to the big cities (including government funding), the vaunted ‘resiliency’ of the rural and remote communities will be severely tested by the obvious and less-obvious impacts of climate change. From the broadcast-news-worth wildfires and flash floods to the subtle and yet more lethal threats to our food systems and waterways that comes from permafrost thaw, invasive species, seawater inundations coupled with freshwater droughts (or complete water scarcity), these impacts will be felt more harshly in the rural and remote communities as the respective Canadian governments seek to fight off the impacts in the places where most of us live…..urbanized Canada.

Ironically, our collective national experience with the Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated the tendency for urbanized Canadians to seek out solace and refuge in the wilder places in our land. There’s a rush to buy property in rural and remote areas, as city folks dream of their own ‘Green Acres’ in the corners of the country that they might not have previously thought about. And the infrastructure that is so at risk from climate change – our waterways, our powerlines, our sewage systems, etc. – that we worry about in the urbanized areas are equally at risk in the R.O.C. (rest of Canada) but are generally less sparsely developed and less frequently maintained to the degree that is becoming necessary as we grapple with rising waves of climate consequences.

Hopefully, as we continue to craft new solutions to our national, shared problems, we develop equitable and nationally shared solutions that serve rural and remote communities while building bridges with their fellow citizens living in the urbanized communities.

The post The WTF: The Week This Friday Vol. 56 appeared first on A\J.

I considered the shift that environmental legislation had taken in the last fifty years and how much of that was due to the events in the 1970s. I wondered about the time period the article was based on and more specifically what it was fighting for. I thought I would conduct some research and reflect on the change that has happened pertaining to governance and the environment.

The second-wave of the environmental movement was in full force during the 1970s. It was different than the first initial movement in Canada, which was lead in part by early conservationists (naturalist groups) and indigenous groups when there was no clear policy in protecting forests, lakes, and wildlife—this lead to the development of national parks, including providing protected status to a monumental and significant feature known as Yellowstone National Park in Banff in 1872. However, the second-wave saw the introduction of the term “environmentalism”.

During this period ranging from the 1960s to the1970s, many Canadian residents began to worry about the effects of human development on nature. It was during this period of time protests, calls to action, and reporting on environmental issues became the main feature of society. This period of time saw the rise of many significant victories for the recognition of the biosphere, such as the creation of Earth Day on April 22, 1970. Much of the environmentalism was driven from the past years drenched in warfare and its effect on the environment; Americans and Canadians alike became aware of the effect of nuclear machinery that had cast its toxic shadow on natural spaces. The anti-war movement had also included the environmental movement in this case, as both considered peace and reflection as an alternative to war and progress.

In Canada, energy projects were scrutinized for the first time on their effect on ecological and cultural systems (including both its environmental impact and its impact on indigenous groups). A big project that was canceled due to the environmental movement in this time was known as the James Bay Project. This first phase of the project was based on the development of a pipeline in the coast of James Bay in Quebec, which had flooded natural land that was used by Inuit communities, caused contamination of fish populations in nearby reservoirs, killed over 10 000 caribou, and caused numerous other environmental catastrophes in local natural spaces. This lead to mass amounts of protest and legal battles to stop the second project (during the 1970s-1980s), in which the roots of environmental assessment were built (still used for reference in present assessments).

Additionally, environmentalism in the 1970s led to the establishment of the Canadian Wildlife Federation and the World Wildlife Fund Canada. It also allowed for new federal and provincial environmental legislation to be introduced and later passed into governance; the Environmental Impact Assessment was introduced in 1973 and formally passed into legislation in 1995. There were many other regulations that came into force due to the second-wave environmental movement, including The Department of Environmental Act (1971), Canada Water Act (1970), and many more.

Believe it or not, Alternatives Journal also began its work in the second-wave environmental movement. We were a part of it and so was the pilot issue. It is incredible to think that our publication started in a period of protest, change, and hope. However, that has always been the premise of A/J.

To allow for environmental activists to use their voice and create change. To actively hope for a better future. That is our philosophy from our first issue in 1971 and still goes strong in every issue we made since then.

The post The Importance of the Second-Wave Environmental Movement: A/J Pilot Issue Revisited appeared first on A\J.

We can’t tell you much about what happened that fateful summer in 1971, we will leave that story for later in the series told by a founding member himself, however, we can credit our success to that first issue. Our very first mark in the environmental reporting space. Most importantly, it created a space for new enthusiastic writers to share their knowledge and stories about nature–we have carried that space over in our work in the present.

Join us in this series as we discuss the first issue and look at what has changed in the last fifty years. We can absolutely guarantee it is not just our logo, even though we immensely appreciate the groovy style of “Alternatives” in the pilot copy.

Our first article will delve into a topic from the pilot issue and what has changed since its first debut in 1971. Hint, it has very much to do with the gavel of environmental justice.

We hope you like our featured image for this series. You know what they say: blacklight posters never go out of style!

Our first post is published and can be found here.

The post NEW SERIES: A/J’s Pilot Issue Revisited! appeared first on A\J.

Source: News18

A new report from a team of researchers from NASA and the NOAA has concluded that the “EARTH’S ENERGY IMBALANCE HAS DOUBLED SINCE 2005”. This is a simple headline that holds a lot of depth of meaning. As background:

Earth’s climate is determined by a delicate balance between how much of the Sun’s radiative energy is absorbed in the atmosphere and at the surface and how much thermal infrared radiation Earth emits to space. A positive energy imbalance means the Earth system is gaining energy, causing the planet to heat up.

In terms of methodology, researchers and scientists understand better than any of us the interconnected complexity of our planet’s climate. They busted out the best satellites and in-ocean monitoring devices to help inform the study. And they determined that not only are things happening faster than anticipated but that the negative impacts are also likely to continue that way at an accelerated pace until better solutions are found.

The study finds the doubling of the imbalance partially results from decreased clouds and sea ice that lead to more absorption of solar energy. Additionally, an increase in greenhouse gases due to human activity, also known as anthropogenic forcing, along with increases in water vapor are trapping more outgoing longwave radiation, further contributing to Earth’s energy imbalance.

The evidence is unequivocal. Humanity’s collective actions and full-hearted commitment to mitigating climate change must be equally unequivocal – and start not a moment too soon.

Make July 4th Environmentally Friendly

Source: GBS Commercial Cleaning

The Fourth of July is a national American Holiday, doused in traditions of all sorts but this year is there a way to celebrate the independence of the U.S in an environmentally friendly way? The Nature Conservancy says yes!

The first way to reduce your carbon and water footprint is the change your Fourth of July snacks! Buying more fruits and vegetables is a healthy way to reduce your impact on the planet. Moreover, healthy food consumption also includes using reusable plates and utensils during traditional feasts. However, if you do choose to use cutlery that is not reusable, try sourcing compostable sets.

Another solution to reduce air pollution is to not use or partake in the lighting of fireworks. Fireworks contribute massive amounts of emissions into the atmosphere and they also pollute local ecosystems. As one source describes, “the propellants, colorants, and heavy metals in fireworks can end up in the soil or waterways, polluting our drinking water or the ocean”.

Lastly, if you do enjoy barbequing perhaps use other sources of heat instead, as the emissions released from your grill also contribute to global warming. There are many other methods to cook your favorite foods, including oven grilling or using air fryers for crispier items.

This Fourth of July celebrates by an environmental defender!

A Small Price to Pay

Source: Natural Resources Canada

The Canadian government recently released a report examining the near-term costs, impacts, and potential mitigation of the worst impacts of climate change on Canada, the Canadian people, and our national economy. The report, Canada in a Changing Climate: National Issues, was produced by the Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Division of  Natural Resources Canada.

The 734-page report is chock-a-block with information, research, and insights that shine a spotlight on the thinking permeating the Federal government’s environmental leadership. Interestingly, the foreword to the report points out the overarching theme:

Although dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic has dominated the world’s attention, the issue of climate change remains firmly embedded in many global, national, and sub-national dialogues. Indeed, while we are still trying to understand the pandemic shocks that are rippling through our social, economic, and environmental systems, some encouraging insights are emerging that are relevant to responding to climate change. The response to COVID-19 thus far has shown that once individuals, businesses, and governments understand the risks, they are willing to make major changes to protect lives and livelihoods, even in the face of uncertainty. The experience of the past year has also demonstrated the advantages that can be realized through cooperation, the progress that can be achieved through aligned efforts, and the critical role that the private sector and civil society play in responding to global challenges.

As we have all experienced, our national economy took a significant ‘hit’ as a result of the pandemic, necessitating new strategies and new investments. The budgets for our provincial and federal governments were (justifiably) extended to support our economic well-being as we all dealt with an existential threat to our existence. Tens and hundreds of billions of dollars have been allocated and spent over the last 18-months in our collective investment to ‘flatten the curve’ of the pandemic. And the authors of this report frequently return to the idea that ‘now that we have the collective experience via Covid…’ as the basis to lay out some clear dollars and sense. 

A big headline from the report is the cost of damages and impacts of climate change on the Canadian economy, currently estimated at $1.9B annually (and up almost 500% in the last decade). That sounds like a lot, but remember that while our current Liberal government is gung-ho on climate-positive messaging, they are also the government that declared a CLIMATE EMERGENCY in the House one day and then spent $10B+ of our money on a gas pipeline the next! Duplicitous much?! Oh, and…. (from the Narwhal):

Despite repeated promises to phase out fossil fuel subsidies, Canada’s federal government dedicated $18 billion in 2020 to assist the country’s oil and gas sector, according to a new report that outlines additional support for the industry since the COVID-19 pandemic was declared last March.  

So as we look to the post-Covid future, let’s bring the same energy to the effort to ‘flatten the curve’ of the worst impacts by making the necessary investments today. We can find the money easily by simply repurposing current investments in ‘dead dinosaur juice’ industries towards new sectors that can and will support strong national employment and achievements. Oh, and we get on the right side of climate change, too. Small price to pay, indeed!

New Developments in Sustainable Global Beef Production

Source: GRSB

The Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (GRSB) has released its new sustainability goals to reduce the environmental impacts of the beef supply chain across the world. In the official news release, the group has provided three main issues they would like to tackle: climate change, land use, and animal health and welfare.

1. Reducing the Effects of Climate Change by Changing the Cattle Industry

 The GRSB wants to reduce 30% of net global warming from each unit of beef by 2030. Additionally, they want to incentivize climate-smart beef production, shipping, and trade to ensure that all aspects of the supply chain reuse carbon stores and not make more carbon sources. Furthermore, they want to use soils and grasslands to sequester carbon; the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) suggested that grasslands could sequester 54 to 216 million tonnes of carbon per annum, beginning in 2030. Lastly, the roundtable members will also be funding research on the development of climate-smart practices—such as carbon sequestration technologies.

2. Ensuring that Land-Use is Sustainable

The group wants to ensure that its beef production has a “net-positive” impact on nature. Their main goal is to increase the reporting of land use such that they can keep on track with measures that will restore, conserve or increase biodiverse locations. Moreover, they wish to adopt science-based land management practices that will maintain sensitive flora and fauna.

3. Providing Top Quality Animal Health and Welfare

The members in GRSB have decided to focus on improving the quality of life for their cattle based on best practices provided by the World Organization for Animal Health.

It will be interesting to see if these changes are made, what the new sustainable beef industry will look like. However, it is now a challenge and a promise that will hopefully not fall short of the planet’s desperate need to have environmentally-conscious agriculture.  

How Bad are the Algae Blooms in Lake Erie?

Source: NCCOS

The predictions around the amount of algae blooms in Lake Erie suggest that it will be smaller and less harmful in the summer of 2021. The National Center for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) released their report on their predictions for the amount of algae blooms in Lake Erie and suggest that algal blooms will be smaller than average in an almost unprecedented result as it was last year.

Algae blooms are defined as phytoplankton’s visual and rapid growth (a water plant) in either freshwater or saltwater systems. They are triggered by increased water temperature and direct sunlight, which has been on a prominent increase due to global warming. However, there are different types of algae blooms and in Lake Erie specifically, there are also blue-green algae present. The blue-green algae bloom consists of cyanobacteria which is toxic and poses a risk to humans and wildlife, as it affects the liver.

However, this year’s bloom is expected to measure 3 (or potentially anywhere between 2-4.5) on a scale of 10 in the severity index. Algae blooms over 5 usually have immense impacts on marine life and drinking water, typically causing scum formation on the surface of the lake.

We have yet to see if these predictions are accurate, but let’s hope for an algae-bloom-free summer!

The post The WTF: The Week This Friday Vol. 55 appeared first on A\J.

Source: CTV News

In the species conservation community, the ‘bad news’ tends to outweigh the ‘good news, and seemingly by a large margin. But, as team A\J works on an issue dedicated to exploring the work of species conservation, we keep bumping into ‘good news stories. Stories that engender hope that perhaps we’re not too late and our right-now efforts (let alone our historic efforts) have not been in vain. 

So you can imagine our delight in reading a recent news report about the ‘humpback comeback’ to the BC waters that researchers have recently discovered. Researchers from the Pacific Whale Watch Association explain that the number of humpback whales in the Salish Sea has “increased exponentially since a single whale was spotted in the region over 20 years ago.” In a statement released Tuesday of this week, the Association noted that the number of humpback whales migrating each summer to feed in the nutrient-rich Salish Sea now number in the hundreds.

While no conclusions were drawn as to the cause of the humpback whales’ resurgence in these particular waters, the researchers will now continue to be able to conduct studies that will continue to inform the broader community’s work in facilitating better management solutions for preserving at-risk aquatic populations.

Cambodia Charges Environmental Activists for Recording Pollution

Source: Mother Nature Cambodia

A court in Cambodia is charging three environmental activists for treason and insulting the king after they reported on a waste run-off system that was polluting a local river. It is important to note that the documentation of this pollution was not explicitly placing blame on the Cambodian monarchy, but rather disparaging the country’s management of its natural systems.

The three that have been charged are from an environmental activist group known as Mother Nature Cambodia. This group has decided to report on all environmental issues in the country, even though many activist reporters are often silenced by the government for doing so. They hope that garnering attention to these issues causes an action to be taken to protect the Cambodian environment. It seems that this group is used to such backlash from their government, as they have stated,

“Our brave campaign activist reporters refuse to be silenced. They have endured harassment, oppression, and even imprisonment.”

The activists that have been charged for this event are facing a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, however, the court has not justified the arrest other than stating that “evidence” points to their reporting being an “insult to the king”. This action by law is unethical, as it limits freedom of speech and criminalizes those fighting (peacefully) for nature.

Embassies in Cambodia, such as the United States and Sweden, have been critical of these charges and have condemned such actions. It now lies with the defendants seeking proper counsel and hopefully changes within the Cambodian legal system to release the unguilty defenders. 

Examining the Ecological Consequences of Sunscreens

Source: Vancouver is Awesome

A recent CBC News article highlights the work being done to better understand the true impacts of the chemicals in our sunscreen products on the aquatic ecosystem. While it is generally understood by most of us that the chemicals on our bodies that get exposed to our lakes, rivers, and oceans do ‘wash off’, there’s been a lack of in-depth research that aims to quantify the danger.

“The sunscreens that you put on, the pharmaceuticals that you take, you know a portion of these are getting back into the environment,” said Brett Sallach, an assistant professor in environmental chemistry at the University of York in the U.K, one of the participating academic institutions involved in the study. “And that’s really where our research focuses to try to understand how much is being released and then what effects that might have.”

For sunscreen products, the main concern relates to two UV-filtering chemicals, oxybenzone, and octinoxate. Both of these chemicals have been identified as possibly causing harm to both coral reefs and freshwater fish. And while researchers would obviously like to eliminate any possibility of harm to the broader aquatic ecosystem, they are also fully aware that these chemicals also currently play a vital role in human health protection vis-a-vis the harmful effects of UVA and UVB rays. 

“This isn’t a vanity issue. These are compounds that are really important for human health protection. So we want to make sure we have a really good environmental risk assessment before we make draconian changes to the products that are available,” said Sallach.

Much of the freshwater fish research is being conducted by environmental toxicology professor Kyungho Choi at Seoul National University in South Korea. After eight years of study, Dr. Choi advises that “(w)e have found that these compounds damage reproduction in fish and also hormonal balances,” he said. “In addition, we found these compounds could damage kidney function and neurological behavioral function.”

Dr. Choi reminds us that the more we know – and the sooner – the better we will be able to make the appropriate decisions. “(W)e cannot simply ignore the possibility of ecological consequences based on this experimental data,” said Choi.

Helium Balloons Killing the Great Lakes Ecosystem

Source: The Weather Network

A recent news article suggests that a few hundred thousand helium balloons are washing up on the shores of Great Lakes all across Canada. In one beach near Lake Eerie alone, which spanned only 7km in length, 380 helium balloons were found. This number is likely incredibly higher in other shorelines with larger lengths.

The sheer amount of these balloons ending up in our lakes likely has to do with the release of these items in events or holidays in Canada. This accumulation is to do with current celebrations and has been a gradual debris increase throughout decades of traditional North American events.

The environmental problem lies in the life-cycle of these balloons. Even if a balloon were to degrade over time, it leaves behind small plastic litter that is spread over multiple natural ecosystems. Animals that ingest these particles can die from having them block their intestinal tracks or even starve to death, as it provides no nutritional value but can mimic a full stomach. Moreover, animals can die from being strangled by the strings of the balloons or can drown from the weight of the item pulling them down into the water.

An alternative to celebratory balloons is having events with recyclable scrap confetti, planting a tree for someone, or simply having a balloon-less party. After all, one less balloon means one better lake and many saved animals. 

Ancient Soils are The Saving Grace in Conservation Work

Source: MBS International

The world’s richest ecosystem is currently located in the ancient soils across the world. This was discovered by researchers at the University of Western Australia, who have concluded that the most diverse ecosystems grow in ancient infertile soils.

They conducted their study in over 100 international sites, such as Australia, Brazil, California, and many more. In doing so, they concluded that soils across the globe had a pattern in being rich and ecologically important, based on their maturity. For example, on the southern coast of Western Australia, the landscape contains many rare and endangered fauna and flora due to its soil composition.

These “hotspots” in biodiversity have many characteristics in common. The soil contents of these areas are old, have little to no disturbance, have very low fertility, and therefore only usable by certain flora. However, not much is known about the evolution of these landscapes and how this similar property could be replicated in other conservation work.

It is surely important that the soil is undisturbed and, even if it has low fertility, its lack of alternation by human development has likely contributed to its overall biological and ecological success. Moreover, this will shift the focus of soil research to upland places (such as outcrops or plains) rather than wetlands or coastal communities, in the hope to conserve biodiversity. 

The post The WTF: The Week This Friday Vol. 54 appeared first on A\J.