With apologies to Max, the central character in Maurice Sendak’s 1963 classic Where The Wild Things Are, and his arduous journey “in and out of weeks and through a day and into the night of his very own room”, Alice the Moose puts his to shame. Alice left her home park in the Adirondacks in upstate New York, swam across the St. Lawrence river, somehow made it across the four-lane 401 highway and finally completed her 570 km-long journey by arriving in Ontario’s Algonquin Park. Talk about a wild trip!

Alice was just doing what comes naturally – migrating with the seasons, in search of safer grounds and more plentiful sources of nourishment. And not just Alice. Lots of other animals. Thousands of different species of animals in every glorious manifestation have been migrating through what’s now known as the ‘Algonquin to Adirondacks’  region (A2A) for thousands if not millions of years. We humans joined the pilgrimage for our own survival, dodging the worst of winter’s wrath and following our meal-tickets as they embarked on their own migrations.

Turns out, there’s an interconnected network of trails and wildways stretching up the east cost of North America. You – or an Alice – could travel from Everglades National Park through Georgia’s Smoky Mountains, up the Appalachians, through the Adirondacks, across the Frontenac Arch and the St. Lawrence river and on into Algonquin Park. And there’s an organization that has charted these wildways, the species (and their movements) and the threats to biodiversity, particularly the numerous species-at-risk.

In October 2019, Wildlands Network released an interactive map of the Eastern Wildway, representing a major step forward in realizing a vision of connectivity for this region:

In their own words:

The Eastern Wildway contains some of North America’s most beloved national parks, preserves, scenic rivers, and other wild places, from the wilderness of Quebec, the Adirondacks, and the Shenandoah Valley, to the Great Smoky Mountains and Everglades National Park. Protecting and expanding these and other key core areas is crucial to rewilding the East.

I like the idea of rewilding. Of our spaces and our souls. Allowing our footfalls to provide the syncopation as we walk away our worries, lost-to-be-found in nature. And allowing nature to reclaim, to repossess, what we humans have taken from them, the birds, the bees, the flowers and the trees.

I was thinking about Alice recently when I came across a tragic story about a deer. This deer had managed to swim to Prince Edward Island – akin to Marilyn Bell swimming across Lake Ontario – only to be hit and killed by a transport truck not long after its arrival on the island. Alice had somehow survived an ordeal similar to our dearly-departed deer friend in PEI. And in Alice’s case, she was crossing one of the busiest highways in North America, the 401/TransCanada. At the point where Alice dodged death, the 401 is four lanes wide and busy almost 24 hours a day. This was Alice’s reality and the reality faced by every other ground-based species that migrates through the A2A region. The animals are simply following deep programming, genetic memories of migrations from hundreds of generations. The pathways are ancient. Highways are the interlopers, the recent development that benefits one species to the detriment of all others.

There are solutions. They go by a variety off names – wildlife overpasses, animal bridges, wildlife crossings – but I like to think of them as a modern iteration on an ancient tale. In the biblical story of Noah and his Ark, human wickedness required global cleansing, as the Almighty prepared to wash the sins of humans away through the medium of an unprecedented flood. But recognizing that the animals did not cause the wickedness and therefore should be saved, Noah was instructed by the Big Boss to construct a gigantic ark, a boat, that could hold a pair of each species. This would allow the animals to repopulate the world after the forty days of ‘cleansing’.

In our modern times, humanity constructs transportation monuments that seem built to demand animal sacrifice. But when we build a bridge – a Noah’s Arch – that allows wildlife to cross our highway infrastructures, we fulfill an obligation to right a wrong.

The A2A Collaborative’s Road Ecology project is aiming “to help reduce wildlife road mortality across the entire Algonquin to Adirondacks region by making recommendations on the best possible locations for wildlife crossings.” There are strong financial reasons to support these public works projects that buttress the moral reasons. In Alberta’s Bow Valley, a study found that “from 1998 and 2010 (there) was…an average of 62 WVCs (wildlife-vehicle collisions) per year. This amounts to an average cost-to-society of $640,922 per year due to motorist crashes with large wildlife, primarily ungulates.”

An “analysis of a wildlife underpass with fencing at a 3 km section… within the project area near Dead Man’s Flats showed that total WVCs dropped from an annual average of 11.8 per-construction to an annual average of 2.5 WVCs post-mitigation construction. The wildlife crossings and fencing reduced the annual average cost by over 90%, from an average of $128,337 per year to a resulting $17,564 average per year.”

The judicious construction of wildlife crossings saves lives and saves money. And it makes our wildways that much more alive with wildlife. It’s time for us humans to do our part and prioritize wildlife crossings on our major highways and roadways.

Alice would thank you.

The post WHERE THE WILDWAYS ARE appeared first on A\J.

Murder hornet has become the popularized name for Vespa mandarinia, but the established common name is simply Asian giant hornet — a name that describes where the insect is from and what it looks like. While in this case of this species the colloquial and standardized common name are quite different, common names aren’t always as straightforward as Asian giant hornet. They can be just as cryptic as the name murder hornet. 

“Sometimes common names are very misleading or they are not very informative,” says Adam Brunke, Chair of the Common Names Committee for the Entomological Society of Canada (ESC). “It’s a communication issue.”

However, ease of communication is exactly what a common name is for. They’re used to bridge the divide between those who study a field of biology, such as the study of insects called entomology, and those who don’t. So when a name fails to add ease, has confusing descriptors, or uses derogatory language, there’s a problem. 

These issues are what the Better Common Names Project aims to address. Led by the Entomological Society of America (ESA) and a steering committee made up of many ESC members, the Better Common Names Project involves revisiting common insect names, proposing new ones, and approving a new standard common name for both the United States and Canada. 

The first renaming for the project was for Lymantria dispar where the official common name “gypsy moth” was changed to “spongy moth” due to the term gypsy being an ethnic slur for the Romani people. The new name “spongy” refers to the insect’s distinct sponge-like egg masses. It’s a characteristic that’s unique to the insect and easy to understand. 

Male spongy moth (Lymantria dispar) // Credit: S. McCann; Source: Entomological Society of Canada

“What happens is that we don’t actually propose any names ourselves. We get proposals from the entomological community and they do some background research and provide a rationale. They explain why any existing names are appropriate or not appropriate,” Brunke says. “Normally, there’s two or three names that are already out there, or maybe the name exists in French, but not English, or vice versa. So this is a bit of a special case where we had a pest insect with a very, very dominant name.”

It’s easy to look at this project or renaming happening in any field as only a means of creating a more inclusive and equitable society. And while that’s certainly not a bad thing to consider, the main goal is to enable clear communication and understanding. 

Though we often learn and accept terms for what they are and can adapt to a pre-existing language, it doesn’t mean the language is as effective as it could be. In fact, it’s possible people may get the wrong idea of what an insect is or does if a name is too ambiguous or nondescript.

Take the case of a newly introduced tick in Canada.

“It was starting to get a lot of media attention because it is a potential disease vector.” 

A disease vector is something that carries and spreads disease, like an insect, which is definitely information that the broader community should be aware of. But the way in which this information is communicated should be done carefully. It was important that this insect be given a name that’s more than just clickbait. No one needs a new case of “murder hornets”.

“We were trying to use something neutral and something descriptive before it could, you know, sort of get out of hand or go in a direction we’d rather it not,” Brunke says, emphasizing that a common name should help someone identify an insect. This is especially important for those monitoring for a specific pest that may be harmful or damaging to the environment.

Murder hornet news headline // Source: Saanich News

Identifying, suggesting, and standardizing common names is definitely not a one-person job. After all, there are an estimated 10 quintillion insects out there. The collaborative effort of the entomological societies and the great entomological community are key for identifying what names work and what don’t. 

Though there are many experts and enthusiasts out there, it doesn’t necessarily mean they always have the answers about why a common name exists as it does. Their origin may ultimately remain unknown because no one documented the rationale and it’s because of this that a common name may come into question.

“That’s the problem. We never get the reasons for things.”

If there isn’t a well-understood reason for something or if in hindsight a reason isn’t very well justified, then there’s room for change. Just like science itself, it’s a process of hypothesizing, researching, and concluding. And if you don’t agree with the outcome, or in this case, the name? Create a new hypothesis, test it, and come up with a more acceptable, well-founded standard.

The post They Call It Worm. They Call It Lame. That’s Not Its Name. appeared first on A\J.

I’ve been told that there are two main pathways that I could take as the next step in my career: further education or entering the work force in some capacity. Typically, further education is the path to take if 1) I feel like I need more skills and knowledge for the work force, 2) I just want to keep learning, or 3) I want to do my own research. But I never thought of furthering my education to be able to express myself and be who I want to be. That is, not until I had a conversation with Dean Alice Hovorka.

Dean Hovorka’s experience as a seasoned academic who so strongly followed her passions throughout her career serves as a wonderful example of a heart story born out of the pursuit of further education. Her story is one that shows how academia has the potential to be a space where you can be who you are and who you want to be. 

“I’ve been lucky enough as an academic to find a job in a sector of higher education that allows me to be who I want to be. That is a rare thing in the job market,” Hovorka shared. “As an academic, I have been able to work with students in the way that I want to work with them. No one has told me what to study. No one has told me what I must be teaching or how I must be teaching it. And now that I’m the Dean of the Faculty [of Environmental and Urban Change] at York, what I love about this role is being of service. Being a champion for students, faculty and staff, who want to make a difference in the world.”

And Dean Hovorka is just that – a champion. She is so dedicated to helping others succeed in following their passions because she herself has done just that in her career. One topic of research that she focuses on is the relationships between humans and other animals. She started a group called The Lives of Animals Research Group that originated from passion translating into academia, and I asked her what the story was behind its creation.

“I sort of think of my academic career in two different phases. The first phase, I had nothing to do with animals whatsoever. I was doing a lot of work on gender issues, gender politics and relations of power, and I was doing my work in urban, sub-Saharan Africa. A lot of my work for my PhD was in Botswana, in Gaborone. At the time, I was very interested in urban agriculture. So, I was documenting how men and women farmed differently in the city, and I thought I was going to be finding maize and beans and fruit trees – no, it was all chickens. I went ahead, wrote my dissertation, and for about 10 years, I was known for doing work on gender, urbanization, and everyday life kind of issues. 

“At a certain point, I’d gone back to Gaborone for a visit, about 8 years into doing this work. I was driving around and I had this random thought. I was driving past all these poultry farms, I was seeing chickens everywhere, and I was like, ‘the city would look different if the chickens weren’t here.’ At the same time, I had been reading some work about the exploitation of animals and I remember, I started to cry. I was reading an academic text and I’m starting to cry, so you know there’s something wrong. I realized I had completely missed the animals. I had been walking through abattoirs where chickens were getting slaughtered, I was walking through poultry farms with 30,000 birds in them – never noticed the animals. I mean, I noticed them, but I never really appreciated that they were a social group in the city as much as people were. That’s how I got inspired. 

Source: Lives of Animals Research Group

“So, I took my PhD work and instead of focusing on men and women, I turned it around and focused on chickens. The reactions I had from folks in academia in this part of the world was, ‘Why would you focus on animals? There are people who matter more.’ But when I talked to my colleagues at the University of Botswana, they were like, ‘You should totally do that. We really believe that the animals are number one.’ I started to get a lot of confidence from my Botswana colleagues to pursue this and I kind of never left. I’ve been doing this work for about 12 years now. I started the research group because I wanted to bring together a team of students to help me think through all these issues. It was largely in Botswana at the start, and now it has stretched into Canada and Costa Rica. We’re so intertwined with animals, we don’t even recognize it – and we are animals, that’s the other piece.”

Dean Hovorka has used her academic career to spotlight the role of animals in our societies and really pour her compassion into her work. Similarly, with her work on gender issues and urbanization, she always advocates for intersectional environmentalism – including the injustices between men and women and humans and other animals – which is vital to effectively tackling the climate crisis today.

“If you have inequities and injustices between men and women, you’re never going to have sustainability. It’s the same with the animals.”

“If you think about this new faculty – the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change – one of the reasons I wanted to be here at York with this group of people is that they’re not just looking at sustainability, they’re looking at justice as a means to get sustainability. To me, that totally makes sense. If you have inequities and injustices between men and women, you’re never going to have sustainability. It’s the same with the animals. If you treat other beings in the way that we are treating other beings, we’re never going to be sustainable because not only are you abusing nature, i.e. animals, you’re also undermining everything you need to feed yourself, to have clean air, clean water, fertile soil, a climate that doesn’t change at such a rapid rate.

“I’ve been around long enough now that I’ve seen us go from the actual concept of sustainability being brought forward in 1987, the ideas of a climate change issue, and how long it’s taken us to actually talk about climate change such that we’re recognizing it’s a climate crisis. When I think about the work we have to do to understand biodiversity matters, in that we are not just messing up with the climate, we’re messing up soil, plants, animals, water, air… How do we move ourselves faster through that learning curve? Even this pandemic – itself rooted in an environmental crisis first and foremost, and our relationships with animals, hands down. What it has brought forth is we’re now talking about green recovery. We managed to somehow engrain that we’re in a climate crisis, the pandemic hits, and now we’re bringing the climate crisis back as part of our recovery. So, part of this has been generating momentum, but I feel like we’re in a good place to really draw some energy from the breadth of understanding of what sustainability means.”

To read the rest of this conversation, stay tuned for our upcoming issue, Playbook for Progress. In this issue, Dean Hovorka shares her best advice for new grads on how to take that first step into further education – how to succeed, stay motivated, and sustain the journey while maintaining your core purpose and vision. You won’t want to miss it!

Alice Hovorka is the Dean of the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change at York University. She is an accomplished academic, holding both Master’s and PhD degrees in geography; her research focuses on urban agriculture, gender and power politics, and human-animal relations. Dean Hovorka is a strong advocate for the imperative link between sustainability and justice not only in scholarship but all facets of life.

The post Journeying Farther appeared first on A\J.

Spring of 1970 – A shift in attitudes, values, and beliefs of 20 million Americans embodied through a movement of consciousness about our planet. 

Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, U.S., created Earth Day as a way to give environmental issues a voice and put them on the national agenda. In December 1970, Congress authorized the creation of a new federal agency to tackle environmental issues – the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Since then, efforts to tackle environmental degradation and climate change have been adopted worldwide from introducing policy and legislation, to funding clean technologies and renewable energy, to manufacturing biodegradable materials. Here, we look at the honouring of this day through the decades. 

News headline from the first Earth Day, 1970 // Source: ETEE

In the decades leading up to the first ever Earth Day, industrialization took over North America and other parts of the world. Manufacturing (1900s), mining (1930s), transportation (1950s) and retailing (1970s), along with rapid urbanization and consumer culture, all played a part in developing our world as we know it today. North America was consuming vast amounts of leaded gas through massive and inefficient automobiles. Industry belched out smoke and sludge with little fear of the consequences from either the law or bad press. Air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of prosperity. Mainstream North America remained largely oblivious to environmental concerns and how a polluted environment seriously threatens human health.

1980 – In the U.S., this year saw significant environmental legislative achievements. Just 10 years after the first Earth Day, government protections over the environment drastically increased. By 1980, the following U.S. government acts were passed: Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. 

On September 11th, Paul Tinari, a graduate student from Queen’s University, launched the first Canadian Earth Day. Flora MacDonald, then MP for Kingston, Ontario and the islands, officially opened Earth Day Week, encouraging MPs across the country to declare a cross-Canada annual Earth Day. 

Through the 70s and 80s, Earth Day in North America focused heavily on pollution. By Earth Day 1990, organizers and environmental agencies shifted their focus to climate change. 

1990 – Earth Day goes global, mobilizing 200 million people in 141 countries and lifting environmental issues onto the world stage. 

The activities of the 20th anniversary of Earth Day in 1990 presented a huge boost to recycling efforts and paved the way for the United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992. The ‘Rio Declarations’ laid out 15 principles recognizing the impact of human activities on sustainability and committing to sustainability goals. In 1997, the United Nations Kyoto Protocol was signed setting commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions worldwide as well as establish the connection between human activities and climate change.

In Canada, this was the start of Earth Day Canada (Jour de la Terre Canada), combining efforts from both France and Canada, and the internationalization of Earth Day. Since 1995, Quebec has celebrated Earth Day through raising awareness on environmental issues. 

Earth Day Canada Logo // Source: EarthDay.ca

2000 – Earth Day goes digital. Through the power of connectivity, hundreds of millions of people in 184 countries celebrate the 30th anniversary of Earth Day, with a focus on clean energy. 

By leveraging the power of the Digital Revolution, Earth Day in the new millennium meant that environmental activities and initiatives spread faster to many parts of the world. Suddenly, awareness became the greatest tool in the fight against climate change. 

2010 – This was a challenging time for the environmental community as they faced climate deniers, well-funded oil enthusiasts with a not-so-environmentally-friendly agenda, a disinterested public, and neutral politicians. The Earth Day Network repositioned Earth Day as a day for environmental activism as the right time. On Earth Day 2010, over 250,000 people participated in a rally on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and hundreds of millions of people observed Earth Day around the globe. Climate activism gained serious momentum. 

In 2015, the Paris Climate Agreement was drafted, going beyond the Kyoto Protocol, by setting a goal of achieving global net-zero emissions by 2050. In Canada, the French and Quebec teams joined forces to take the Earth Day movement to a new level for the French-speaking world. 

In 2018, Greta Thunberg acted as a voice for youth, by starting a protest in front of the Swedish parliament building, vowing to continue until the Swedish government met the carbon emissions target agreed by world leaders in Paris, in 2015. Students around the world quickly began following her lead, staging large protests and demanding change.

Greta Thunberg’s Climate Strike // Source: DW

In 2019, Earth Day Canada formed an alliance with EcoKids to enable environmental initiatives to be carried out across all provinces and territories. That year, I remember attending a climate rally in Ottawa and feeling empowered by the movement as a young adult living in the world today. 

2020 – Last year marked the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. The social and cultural movements that we saw in the 1970s rose back up again as we were hit with one of the largest crises of our time: COVID-19. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic transcended almost everything in 2020 (the good and the bad), including the environment, from cancelled summits on climate and biodiversity, to a temporary dip in air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, to greater awareness of the link between human health and climate change. As climate rallies and events were cancelled, Earth Day quickly pivoted from mobilizing millions on the ground to raising hundreds of millions of voices digitally. Fittingly, in Canada, the Earth Day theme was climate action with the main message being: “keeping our distance at home, but taking action for the planet together”. Now, we’re in the slow and gradual transition to a green recovery. 

Present day – The fight for our planet continues with increasing urgency. A\J has partnered with Earth Day Canada to shine a light on Earth Day celebrations through the years and explore the evolution of this day through this editorial series. This Earth Day will be spent at home, and Earth Day Canada has put together some practical, creative, and smart ideas for #EarthDayAtHome. The Earth Day Canada 2021 theme is Take Care of the Planet. The official campaign features “animals that have to clean up their polluted environments themselves”. The goal is to raise awareness about the urgency we are facing, and to encourage Canadians to #TakeCareOfThePlanet every day because it’s our responsibility to do so. 

Earth Day Canada’s #TakeCareOfThePlanet 2021 Campaign // Source: EarthDay.ca

Stay tuned for next week’s article for more about what Earth Day means for us this year, and how we can and should be celebrating the planet in the present day.

This article is part of a 3-part editorial series, in collaboration with Earth Day Canada, titled ‘The Past, Present, and Future of Earth Day’. Check out the full series here!

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The United Nations SDGs // Source: UN

The SDGs, adopted in 2015, outline seventeen interconnected goals that acknowledge that efforts to end poverty must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health, education, reduce inequality and tackle the challenges of climate change. Assessment of the first five years of SDGs implementation suggest that the world is off track to realize the set objectives by the 2030 target. Meanwhile, extreme weather events, wildfires and related environmental challenges, particularly, over the past few decades necessitate accelerated action if a planetary catastrophe is to be avoided. Given these ongoing and persistent challenges, the UN in September 2019 called on all sectors of society (global, national, local and individuals) to mobilize for a ‘Decade of Action’ on the SDGs. This call emphasizes the need for cross-sectoral coordination and collaboration in the implementation of the SDGs with a call for faster and more ambitious responses to stimulate environmental, social and economic transformation. Maintaining focus on the SDGs implies a holistic approach to development that focuses not only on the wellbeing of humans but also safeguards the planet upon which human lives depend. Actions to accelerate progress on the SDGs are even more urgent now because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic which threatens to derail SDGs implementation.

Non-state actors, specifically community-based organizations promoting conservation, are relevant stakeholders with activities that contribute to the objectives of the SDGs. Organizations promoting sustainable development present an opportunity to pursue a path of green recovery from the negative impacts on the economy and the planet.

Community-based organizations reflect a change in focus from these top-down approaches to the bottom-up, where local goals tend to focus on regaining autonomy and control over natural resources and improving social and economic wellbeing. Community-based programs are generally based on the premise that local people have greater interest in the sustainable use of natural resource than outside actors, and thus can be more cognizant of the intricacies of local ecological processes and practices. While it is important not to essentialize or homogenize ideas of ‘community’ and ‘conservation’ without regard for local contexts, finding innovative solutions to complex environmental and development issues often requires outside expertise and training in collaboration with local knowledge. In this way, community-based organizations can help to ensure a holistic and cautioned approach to development. This approach is unique in that it often considers differing worldviews that may reflect alternative definitions of conservation and development, local systems of land tenure, and the gendered divisions of labour in economic activities, to ensure that rural communities really do benefit from these initiatives. Community-based approaches highlight the importance of local context and agency, and that there is no one size fits all approach to achieving SDG objectives.

Bamboo provides a prime example of a resource that has been increasingly promoted as contributing to sustainable futures, as it is sought-after in diverse industries of the growing global “green economy” as an alternative to timber due to its fast-growing and structurally durable properties. Bamboo is considered a resource that—when grown and harvested following sustainable management practices—can achieve positive environmental, social, and economic outcomes. Ecosystem services provided by bamboo include carbon storage and sequestration, soil and water regulation, and biodiversity conservation.

Bamboo forest // Source: Unsplash

In many bamboo habitat countries, the resource plays an important role in cultural heritage and provides socio-economic benefits through supplementary income for the rural poor. Due to these components, bamboo is promoted to contribute to at least seven of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) including: no poverty (SDG 1); affordable and clean energy (SDG 7); sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11); responsible consumption and production (SDG 12); climate action (SDG 13); life on land (SDG 15); and partnerships for the SDG goals (SDG 17).

Credit: Tamara L. Britton and Eunice A. Annan-Aggrey

Community-based bamboo development projects are taking place all over the world, ranging from bamboo charcoal projects as an economically viable alternative to wood charcoal in Madagascar; community-based bamboo nurseries in the Philippines; bamboo disaster relief building projects, construction and bamboo management training programs in Ecuador and Nicaragua; community-based bamboo processing factories in China; and community-based management of natural bamboo forests in Laos.

Due to small budgets, community-based projects like these often cannot compete with the wide scale promotion and ambitious claims made by larger-scale development initiatives. However, in practice, many community-based programs often have a greater long-term impact on community wellbeing and autonomy. Thus, there is a research gap to be addressed on the contribution of smaller-scale grassroots conservation movements and researchers from Global South countries regarding SDG objectives.  

Credit: Tamara L. Britton and Eunice A. Annan-Aggrey

In a post-pandemic world, if SDG targets are to be met amidst an increasingly uncertain economic future, it is crucial that conservation and development projects invest in building resilient communities through agroecological solutions and strengthening environmental stewardship to ensure that the rural poor are not completely dependent on external markets for their livelihoods.

The UN Decade of Action is a clarion call for an ‘all hands on deck’ approach to keep the wheels of development turning.

The SDGs include an ambitious target to combat climate change. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed vulnerabilities of the economic systems upon which development is hinged. Thus, the need for integrated development that encompasses socio-economic and environmental progress is relevant now more than ever. The UN Decade of Action is a clarion call for an ‘all hands on deck’ approach to keep the wheels of development turning. Community-based organizations are rising to the task. Indeed, integrated solutions and green alternatives chart a course that holds optimism for a greener, more inclusive future.

This article is part of our March 2021 Western Student Editorial Series – a series that showcases the works of students in the Collaborative Specialization in Environment and Sustainability program. Read more articles from this series here!

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Schindler achieved many accomplishments in his 50+ year career. From 1968 to 1989, he directed the Experimental Lakes Area research facility in Ontario. Then, from 1989 onward, he was a Killam Memorial professor of ecology at the University of Alberta. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2004, and received more than 30 other awards and honours for his accredited work in environmental science. 

Schindler was a voice of science but also a voice of action. He spoke up about issues regarding environmental protection and policy in Canada, bringing these topics to the forefront of conversation, and always fighting to keep freshwater ecosystems free from industrial harm. In the A\J article, Schindler’s Pissed, Stephen Bocking interviewed Schindler about his thoughts on tar sands development in Canada. He shared his opinions, urging people to realize that scientific expertise is imperative to environmental assessment and decision making.

He will be remembered as an explorer, experimenter, ecologist, educator, conservationist, and much more. It is clear that his lifetime’s work of fighting for freshwater conservation will not be forgotten but will be foundational in conservation work going forward.

The post In Memory of David Schindler appeared first on A\J.

I’ve always been intrigued by the ocean. I see it as the perfect combination of beauty and destruction, with unique aquatic life and the potential to cause deadly tsunamis. My fascination lies in the fact that the ocean’s majesty and mystery is not as easily accessible to be explored as the land but contains many interesting creatures. There is much that’s still undiscovered out there. Despite the lack of human interaction with the ocean at the scale of interaction with its terrestrial counterparts, our actions have been collectively impacting the ocean and aquatic life. One of the main visible and destructive issues is plastic pollution. 

Plastic pollution, such as 6-pack plastic rings, plastic bags and plastic straws, and its harmful impact on aquatic creatures (like sea turtles), is truly saddening. Currents and tides show that there are no limitations to the movement of plastic pollution from one part of the globe to another. These currents connect countries and their pollution, whether we choose to acknowledge it or not. What’s worse is when plastic pollution, in the form of microplastics, cannot be easily seen in the water, but can negatively impact fish when consumed. This can then bioaccumulate up the food chain to affect humans by being in their seafood. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) defines microplastics as pieces of plastic that are broken down into fragment sizes <5mm long. That’s about the length of a rice grain!

If plastic debris is removed from the water early on, this will reduce the risk of current irreversible cleanup when the plastic is broken down into microplastics and dispersed throughout the lower layers of the water column. 

Microplastics are smaller than a grain of rice. Source: The Washington Post

Microplastics have impacted species in unprecedented ways and cases of this will increase as plastic pollution in the ocean continue to disintegrate into microplastics. I, like most people (and previous studies), always thought that microplastics from accumulations at the surface of the water, were moved to the seafloor after settling in the water column, by simply sinking. However, a recently published article by Science Magazine came across my radar, proving that thought to be inaccurate. This study done by a group of researchers from the University of Manchester (United Kingdom), the National Oceanography Centre (United Kingdom), University of Bremen (Germany), IFREMER (France) and Durham University (United Kingdom), suggested that surface and bottom thermohaline–driven currents which are currents driven by temperature and salinity also influence settling of microplastics to the seafloor. These currents are important for distributing oxygen and nutrients resulting in the determination of biodiversity hotpots. 

This study sheds light on the importance of location on microplastics and how it can impact the food web and even deep seafloor ecosystems

The study was done in the Tyrrhenian Sea which is off the western coast of Italy and within the boundaries of the Mediterranean Sea. This Sea was chosen as it was representative of other oceanic areas in terms of its physical geography, global ocean current circulation patterns and speed of currents. As well as, the location and volume of plastic naturally existing in a controlled manner. The most eye-opening, jaw-dropping, finding of this study was that in 1 square metre of the seafloor, a total of 1.9 million pieces of microplastics were found. If this existed in 1 square metre of the ocean then just imagine how alarming the number will be if it were possible to survey all water bodies globally. This was the highest record of seafloor microplastics found in any study that was previously done, including submarine canyons and deep-sea trenches. In my opinion this is 1.9 million pieces too many, of plastic pollution.

Source: Science Magazine

This finding highlights that seafloor microplastics repositories exist globally. This also shows that areas of biodiversity hotspots are also being bombarded with microplastics. With changes in the intensity of current over time, this can disturb seafloor microplastics and contribute to bioaccumulation of microplastics up the food chain, especially in biodiversity hotpsots. This means that when seafloor microplastics are disturbed, they can move throughout the water and be consumed by small aquatic organisms or fish. When that aquatic life is eaten by a larger fish and this process occurs at several levels in the food chain, microplastics can then be present in seafood that humans eat. Therefore, you may be having a filling plate of fish with a free, hidden side of microplastics.

This study sheds light on the importance of location on microplastics and how it can impact the food web and even deep seafloor ecosystems. What is disheartening is that with increasing production of plastic products, the issue of microplastics will continue to exist and affect aquatic life. Can consumer behaviour and their demand for companies to switch to environmentally sustainable plastic alternatives help reduce the impact of microplastic pollution? Can people also be more responsible with their waste disposal? Microplastics is yet another anthropogenic-induced environmental issue that doesn’t seem to have a clean-up solution in sight.  

Photo Source: Triocean Istock

I hope that one day companies will take responsibility for their use of plastics. The ocean is a source of fascinating discoveries of which most are still yet to be revealed. Microplastics have been affecting aquatic life in ways that we know and do not fully understand as yet. Imagine in the future, fossils of an undiscovered species dating back to our lifetime are found. However, the species was never discovered at the time due to their vulnerability to microplastic pollution. Now imagine if that species was the answer to a presently incurable disease. May we be more conscious of how our waste is disposed, ensure that the coastlines are waste-free and avoid thinking that our actions only impact the land that we occupy.

The post Two Million Too Many appeared first on A\J.

Jill Pelto, artist and earth and climate scientist, is paving new paths for science communication.

Pelto accessibly captures the urgency of scientific climate data through her watercolour art pieces.

She holds a Masters of Science focusing on the sensitivity of the Antarctic Ice Sheet and degrees in Studio Art and Earth Science from the University of Maine.

Inspired by her own field research done from high school right through to her Master’s, her father’s research, and witnessing first-hand the effects of climate change, Pelto created her first watercolour data piece in 2015 – and her art has been evolving ever since.

Her goal is to creatively communicate environmental topics to a broad audience and inspire them to learn more, and hopefully, take action.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.  

Syerra Turry: Can you tell me a little bit about the field research you’ve done?

Jill Pelto: I’ve done a lot of field research through my undergrad career and all through grad school. Actually, I started doing field research in high school because my dad is a glaciologist, and he’s been a great inspiration to me. I got to work with him on glaciers that he works on every August out in Washington State on the Alpine glaciers out there. Getting in the environment, seeing climate change first hand from a younger age – I continued to find those opportunities wherever I could in school. I worked with Dr. Brenda Hall at the University of Maine for most of my career there. In undergrad, I worked with her first in Antarctica, and then in the Falkland Islands, and then she offered me the position for a Masters for work on the Antarctic Ice Sheet, so I did more field seasons down there, including my own projects.

ST: What was your most memorable field expedition?

JP: There’s always highlights and pros and cons to every field season. I’ll talk about the Antarctic because that’s where I did my Master’s work. Working where we were was really incredible because the way the program is set up, you have these bigger bases that provide physical support for the research you’re doing down there, so having these bases is a key part of where you’re trading your supplies, and then there are temporary remote towns that allow scientists to do work that is further away from these stations which are typically closer to the coast, so my research was done in a mountain range that basically cuts across the continent and east end Arctic Ice Sheet and the west end Antarctic Ice Sheet, so that range is called the Transantarctic Mountains. Getting out to the southern portion of those is a bunch of different steps, and then you’re out where they call it the ‘deep field’ with your team. There’s four or five of us out there at a time, and so you just have your couple of tents set up. I guess just that moment, where you’re dropped off at your camp, and you’re going to be there for a month or six weeks, and you’re brought by helicopter or small plane, and you’re dropped off at that small camp, I guess you could say it feels scary, but that’s not quite the right word. But it’s a little bit daunting in a way because you look around and you can see the mountains and ice shelves and just as far as you can see – white and vast – and nothing. It’s really incredible to feel that moment: here we go, we’re out here now.

Jill Pelto, artist and climate scientist, exploring Rainbow Glacier, Mt. Baker, Washington. Photo provided by Jill Pelto.

ST: Does your field research inspire your pieces?

JP: Yes. They’ll definitely inspire future work. The first data series that I did was in early fall of 2015, and that was after coming back from working on a field season with my dad’s project in Washington State, called North Cascade Glacier Research Project.

It was one of the years where the drought was the most severe. For me, it was the most severe I personally experienced it – to see the streams and the lakes and reservoirs being so low, the glaciers having no snow on them, the way the ecology was impacted, the lack of wild flowers and things that haven’t been able to bloom and then of course the really bad fires they were experiencing.

That year, I was kind of hit in the face, like – wow, we’re experiencing so many of these factors and it was really emotional to see that and to see the glaciers being so bad. I came back from that field season and made my first data art series in an attempt to try and communicate what I saw and experienced, so I have a three part series – there’s one about the decline of the Alpine Glaciers in that area, there’s one about global temperature data and the increase of forest fires, and there’s one about salmon populations which are being really affected by the low water levels in combination with how much warmer the water is, especially when you don’t have as much of that cold glacial melt to feed it in the summer.

So that was my first series. In terms of my fieldwork inspiring my art, I haven’t done too much since doing my Master’s. I did painting on site and of the landscape when I was in Antarctica. The work that I was doing was a little bit more difficult to communicate in art-form. My first priority is to communicate through my art.

ST: What was the “aha” moment to combine environmental data and art this way?

JP: When I came back from Washington to Maine that summer and went back to school, I was in a print-making class and was trying to come up with that first idea. I realized when looking at data from my dad’s project, because my dad was doing his glacial monitoring project in that area every year for 35 years now – so he essentially has all this data about what the health of those glaciers have been over decades – it’s looking at that data line and how dramatically it drops, especially over the last decade, so I just saw that as the profile of a declining glacier.

Working with [glaciers], you get a feel for what they look like and see the really dramatic ice falls, so I saw that profile line of that of a glacier. It kind of seemed too obvious to me at first because I’m used to looking at graphs and having to make, use and read them all the time in my science classes, so I thought, graphs are pretty basic, but I realized for a lot of people, they’re not. They might look at a scientific XY graph and just kind of glaze over or have trouble interpreting what the data is really saying, so I realized it’s a really nice way to show change over time – that’s all they are. I thought that would communicate well just to my fellow art classmates who weren’t in science classes, and it did. But that was my moment, looking at that graph from my dad’s research.

Progression uses data that shows the increase in overall use of renewable energy by the United States over the last decade. Photo provided by Jill Pelto.

ST: Do you have a favourite place or publication that your work has been featured or published in?

JP: I wouldn’t say favourite, but there are some that I’m proud of, or are special. For example, one of the first places that wrote about my work was Climate Central. I was really proud of that because I’m really impressed with how they communicate science without simplifying it too much. I’ve always been a fan of their platform.

A second example is Science Friday. They did two different pieces at the same time. One was just a piece about me and examples of my artwork, and the second feature was a curriculum or lesson plan that I had worked on with that person over the phone, and helped them design that based on my artwork. That went to schools all over the country to help them illustrate graphs. Having the kids come up with what that topic means to them and how they interpret it is really, really cool, because that was something I was able to transform into outreach. Going into schools is one thing I’m really proud of. It’s crazy to see how informed a lot of young people in the U.S are about climate change. They know so much about these topics – more than some of the adults I know. It’s just so cool to see how much they care and how much they’re learning. Of course, there’s places where that’s not true, but it’s a really important goal of mine to help inform and inspire them.

ST: Did you ever expect your work to carry that type of impact or be as far-reaching as it has been so far?

I think to expect scientists to [communicate their research] themselves is pretty unrealistic. They’re not communicators.

JP: No, and certainly not as fast as it did. As a student, I started reaching out to places, and trying to share my work. I started getting more features and it’s been a really awesome impact. I have a long way to go and it’s been really awesome that it’s reached further than I thought. You never know what other people are going to think about your idea and what it’s going to mean to them, how it’s going to communicate to them. I didn’t know that doing this data art was going to speak to a lot of different audiences of so many backgrounds and ages, so that’s really, really wonderful.

Being in the natural sciences, you learn how hard it is to communicate the research that you’re doing, even to people who are just in a different field of science. I think it’s really important to think about and figure out ways to communicate it. I think to expect scientists to do that themselves is pretty unrealistic. They’re not communicators. Some of them have those skills, and some of them definitely don’t. So working with people who don’t, that’s where I’m trying to bridge the gap. You can’t expect them to do the research and be experts on getting it out to the public too.

ST: Are you still creating data art pieces?

JP: Yeah, I am. I just finished my Master’s this past August, and I’ve made a couple pieces since then, but some of them have been commissioned.

My goal for this coming year is to start working on another body of work or portfolio that I can show. I want that portfolio to be more united from one image to the next so it can convey one image amongst a big group of paintings, now that I’m done with school, and I have the time to do so. I’m just in the early planning stages of asking myself, ‘how do I want to do this, and how do I want it to be different from the work that I have been doing, while still using the elements that have been translating well to other people?

Landscape of Change uses data about sea level rise, glacier volume decline, increasing global temperatures, and the increasing use of fossil fuels. These data lines compose a landscape shaped by the changing climate, a world in which we are now living.

ST: You mentioned earlier that you were involved in developing lesson plans. Are you part of any other types of outreach projects?

JP: There’s always lots of stuff going on, lots of little things. Right now, what I’m trying to do is join on other science grants and be their outreach and communications person on different projects. Either within my field – earth and climate science – or outside of it. Right now, I’m on one grant for a team of researchers in Europe, in Sweden and Norway. They’re a paleontology research team, so studying how plant communities shifted and changed after the last Ice Age – how they adapted, and responded to warming. That’s kind of similar to my own line of research – I was studying what happened to the Antarctic Ice Sheet after the last Ice Age, and comparing that warming to now. Working on another project like that that’s not in my field of research is really exciting because I’ll get to learn about the work that they’re doing and then create a body of artwork for them, and get to do that beyond the grant itself. I’m on another grant, a glaciology grant, so that type of project is another thing that I’ve taken on right now.

ST: Why is it important to make this type of scientific research more accessible?

JP: I think there’s a lot of important research. There’s so much research constantly in any field, and for the layperson to, in the medical field for example, be aware of advances or changes or hypotheses – what the takeaways are – can be a lot of work. So, I think that’s where people bridging that gap come in, because it’s really important to be informed on things that will affect our lives and future generations.

Obviously climate change is massive because of how broadly it’s going to affect all of our lives and in such different ways depending on where we live in the world, so I think it’s really, really important to find ways to express that and find lots of different ways to express that because people are going to respond differently or learn differently. Scientific writing, publications, scientific talks and conferences are one way, but that’s only for a certain audience. I think art is one way that people are more used to responding to, and it’s part of our culture, so having that discussion in a cultural form and visual form is, I think, a good way to connect with people. It’s something they’re maybe more likely to pay attention to if they’re not already informed about it.

ST: How do you decide on research topics to illustrate?

JP: It’s often been things that I see reading online or am talking about with a friend and I’m inspired to communicate that topic – reading environmental news and researching it further and trying to learn what the topic is about. I talk to scientists in different fields to get an idea about different topics and that’s what I’ve been doing for my last few pieces, kind of a collaboration, so if I’m making a piece about something like ocean acidification or rising ocean temperatures, yes, I can communicate that that’s going on and that’s going to be affecting things, but what exactly is the story, how do I want to communicate it best so that I’m not misrepresenting the data?

For example, I did a piece this past year called the Gulf of Maine Temperature Variability and all the media stories have communicated that the Gulf of Maine is warming faster than 99 per cent of the world’s oceans, and that’s not really a good way to tell a story. It’s more of an ‘oh my god, this is happening’, and, what’s really happening is the temperature swings are really dramatic – there have been fast rises and they have dropped too, and it’s been hard for the species to keep up. But that’s not as simple to tell as a story. But, that’s the story I’d rather tell – the true one, than just say, this is happening so fast. It’s choosing something, even if it’s something more complex, and trying to communicate it well, and choosing something that I think is important. At the end of the day, it’s ‘what do I want to communicate right now?’

ST: So, your goal is for your pieces to be able to convey more of a complete story, rather than alarming statistics?

JP: Yeah, definitely. That’s why I think my pieces are stronger when they’re paired with a description for people to be able to take away information a little bit closer afterwards. People can read about it and see what I was trying to communicate and know what the data is about.

Gulf of Maine Temperature Variability tells the story of increasing temperature fluctuations in Maine’s coastal marine environment. The watercolor uses ocean temperature data from the past 15 years to highlight how greater variability affects various species including ourselves.

ST: When you’re creating your pieces, do you more often have a concept or topic in mind and then find supporting data, or do you find data and think of ways to illustrate it?

JP: I’ve done both. I think I’ve more often chosen a topic then researched it. Sometimes finding the data you have in mind, it doesn’t exist or you can’t find it from a source that seems reliable. I’ve done both, but I usually choose a topic first. Occasionally I have seen data, like when I saw the Arctic Sea Ice Decline graph, I was like, ‘oh, I want to make a piece out that.’ It goes both ways.

ST: Are you driven more by art or science? Would you consider yourself an artist first, or a scientist first?

JP: That’s tough, and that’s something I’ve thought about a lot. Since August, being done grad school, I do miss that environment a lot. I love being in the community of scientists, and so, it’s hard to say. I think I’m both. I loved the field I was in and I loved my Master’s program and everyone there, but I had a hard time really focusing in on one topic, as you have to do in a degree, and I think that art is allowing me to be broader and learn about lots of different types of science and research projects. That’s why I’m trying to join grants because then I can see in the science community and learn about different research and help with it, but I don’t know. In terms of doing lots of different art and making that a career, I don’t know what that looks like. I would love to be in the sciences too, but I don’t know what that looks like in terms of doing that full-time. If I were to do that, I really wouldn’t have the time and energy that I personally want for art, so I’d like to find a way to still be in both worlds. But, right now, I’m choosing art because that’s allowing me to do both a little more than if I were just in science.

ST: What are your long-term goals?

JP: To make a career out of doing both art and science and to always be involved in both worlds, so, to be able to do that full-time is my ideal, and just being able to continue to evolve in the work that I do and reach different audiences, and connect with people from different backgrounds and do more collaborations with other scientists and artists, or anyone else that can help in terms of communication of environmental issues. We were talking about before, finding ways to start to direct that to action when possible, so doing this for my career, that’s my goal, that’s what I really love.

ST: Do you have any final comments that you would like to add?

JP: I think it’s smart right now to think about what kind of changes might be happening in the areas where we live, and taking a moment to learn. There are websites now, to look at the climate history of where you live – you can look at what’s projected for the future, and just be aware and conscious, and also not be afraid to talk about it, and making it part of daily conversations. If we’re having really severe weather or something that’s not typical for the area you live, call it out as it is, and engage more people about it. Some people aren’t going to want to hear about it or won’t talk about or will turn you down but, just using that in our daily lives a little more, and being realistic and honest. That doesn’t have to be negative at all, because that’s how we’re going to make a change – by coming together more. That’s something I truly believe in.

You can find more of Jill Pelto’s work here: http://www.jillpelto.com/

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When she decided to join the movement, her father bought her a one-way ticket to join a Sea Shepard campaign in the Galapagos Islands. It happened to be the same time she learned her father was dying of terminal cancer. 

BY SEVEN YEARS OLD, Emily Hunter began seeing footage of her father, Bob Hunter’s environmental activism as a co-founder of Greenpeace. By 19, she joined the “family business” and began her career as an environmental activist, the same year her father succumbed to cancer. 

When she decided to join the movement, her father bought her a one-way ticket to join a Sea Shepard campaign in the Galapagos Islands. It happened to be the same time she learned her father was dying of terminal cancer. 

“Instead of having me stay there by his bedside, he wanted me to go out and send him daily updates. He kind of vicariously lived through me,” the younger Hunter said in an interview last fall. She says he pointed her towards a more radical side of activism, which is what the elder Hunter is known for from his Greenpeace days. 

In the world of environmental activism, Emily Hunter is leading the younger generation with the faith and knowledge passed on from her parents (her mother, Bobbi Hunter, is also a co-founder of Greenpeace).

“We’ve seen the climate movement really become our primary issue, and mind-bomb issue of our generation,” she said, borrowing one of her father’s most well known phrases. “We can’t just keep going into negotiations expecting that ‘this will be the one, this will be the talk to change the world.’ I think there’s a real awareness that we have to evolve our tactics, our strategies, our sense of identity as activists.”

One gap she identifies in the millennial generation’s activism is the mystical, risk-taking, spiritual side that her father’s cohort was known for. Often written off as “flakey” and “hippie” activism, Emily says it’s more than that, and spirituality is needed in an effective movement. 

“For me that larger something is the very thing that we have with us every day on planet Earth. That’s kind of how I think of myself as spiritual – sometimes we’re looking for extra, larger beings than ourselves to help guide us,” she said. 

Ironically, the younger Hunter adds, people are always searching for something else to give meaning to their lives, while destroying the very thing that allows for human existence – Earth. 

The post Higher Powered : Emily Hunter appeared first on A\J.

Public opinion:
    – GPC 2015 – http://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/results-2015/
    – e-recycling – http://www.ipsos-na.com/news-polls/pressrelease.aspx?id=6541
    – GMO ban – http://www.ipsos-na.com/news-polls/pressrelease.aspx?id=7006
    – Carbon Tax – http://angusreid.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Cap-and-Trade1.pdf
    – Protecting Species – http://www.ipsos-na.com/news-polls/pressrelease.aspx?id=6818
    – Nature- http://www.davidsuzuki.org/publications/downloads/2004/DSF-GG-En-Final.pdf

Trust in Charities:
    – https://www.muttart.org/…/Talking-About-Charities-Full-Report-2013.pdf

3% of the Canadians:
    – http://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/results-2015/

98% of the Canadaians:
    – http://www.davidsuzuki.org/…/DSF-GG-En-Final.pdf

Employment by the #s:
    – Sustainability Professional: http://www.eco.ca/…/Sustainability-Snapshot-12-03-15.jpg
    – Environmental Employment, Environmental employee, Environmental Professional: http://www.eco.ca/…/2013-Profile-Canadian-Environmental-Employment-ECO-Canada.pdf

Education levels:
    – http://www.eco.ca/…/2013-Profile-Canadian-Environmental-Employment-ECO-Canada.pdf

Total # of Colleges and Universities:
    – A\J Issue 41.4

Funding: – Side bar:
    – http://grants.cegn.org/**

Top funding areas by%:
    – http://pfc.ca/about-pfc/our-members/

Amount granted per issue:
    – http://pfc.ca/canadian-foundation-facts/**
    
# of registered environmental charities in Canada:
    – http://www.globalphilanthropy.ca/…/Mark_Blumberg.pdf

** New data available

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