Looking for paid employment that makes a difference to our planet and the health of our community? READ ON! Georgian Triangle Earth Days Celebrations is a charitable organization dedicated to energy conservation strategies and climate change mitigation approaches. It starts with science based education and moves as quickly as possible towards action in solving problems for our Earth. GTEDC will be hiring 2 people under 30 and one coordinator to install clotheslines as an alternative energy project to help homeowners and apartment dwellers stop using clothes dryers that consume large amounts of natural gas or electricity.
Here is how it works: a representative will first come to a home to see where the clothesline would be placed. They will have homeowners sign a contract agreeing to the long-term usage of the clothesline. This project will help families cut greenhouse gas emissions. Families also save $100 a year or reduce 6 to 10 percent of their electric bills by using clotheslines. In fact, if we got rid of all our electric/gas dryers we would reduce the emissions equal to145,000 cars in Ontario. That is why this work is so important. Since the goal is to dramatically lower emissions, bicycles will be ridden most days to the various sites.  Work will start as early as May 1st. Some employment will run only for the summer but other work will continue to spring.
This pilot project is only the first step in implementing many other low- cost but extremely effective projects. Youth can be the leaders in achieving successful change and be paid to do so!   As engaged and informed persons on climate issues know, older adults need help in finding alternatives to an out-dated ‘growth-is-best’ consumer driven ethos.  Many young people feel hopeless with regards to fighting climate change, but hope means rolling up your sleeves and turning good ideas into actions.
Write to celebrateearth@yahoo.ca if you are a motivated young adult who wants to lead the way with meaningful actions and desires to work on this innovative team project. Tell us about yourself and when you are interested in working.  Our corporate partner, Home Hardware in Thornbury, will reduce the cost of a clothesline package by 25 per cent to help make this a successful project. This project will go ahead in early July if public sector funding is also received.
Recently EcoJustice and one of its lawyers, Albert Koehl, worked to make all municipalities in Ontario clotheslines-friendly, thus overturning bylaws that had previously prohibited them. GTEDC wants to celebrate their efforts by putting into action this Ontario law. Projects such as Clothesline Action need young adults to be in the vanguard because they know what is at stake and can inspire other people to make a huge difference.
Clearly, young people can no longer take the chance that older generations will act on their behalf. University of Calgary’s David Keith says “People talk a lot about spending money for future generations but typically they don’t do it very much.”  Just take a look at the recent UN Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations in Bonn, Germany.  “As the Secretariat’s analysis shows, the pledges of rich countries add up to a negligible cut in carbon pollution, jeopardizing the welfare of our children.” See www.climatenetwork.org

“The trick now, of course, is to actually use our foresight and abilities not only to dodge but also to deflect the bullets heading our way- including, perhaps especially, the ones aimed squarely at Earth’s ecological heart…The reason Earth is in peril is because of individual actions. Just as the problem is the sum of what each one of us is doing, so is fixing the problem. That means we each hold a little part of the future or the world in our hands… It’s never been easier for you to help change the course of the planet. “
Anthony Barnosky, “Heatstroke: Nature in an Age of Global Warming”

The United Nations is framing World Environment Day on June 5 as a day of action by saying, “Your Planet needs you: Unite to Combat Climate Change”. The host for this year’s Billion Tree Campaign is Mexico who promises to plant a quarter of these trees. This is also part of a campaign to highlight the urgency to act now and make the December climate negotiations in Copenhagen succeed in bringing about a post-Kyoto deal on drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

On May 30, Professor Thomas Homer-Dixon from University of Waterloo gave an impassioned talk in Collingwood on climate change. The two-hour talk and discussion started off with a picture of his young children.  He believes that in the next twenty years his children will question him as to his role in stopping the collapse of the natural world and civilization. The talk was an exploration of how we can make our societies more resilient through renewable energy, changing our values and our willingness to fully embrace a conservation ethic.  He backed up his cogent arguments with the latest scientific evidence that unequivocally flags the need to act aggressively to combat climate change. Thomas also says that we must find the courage to demand creative alternatives to the business-as-usual, rigid growth models that can’t continue without the destruction of a benign climate.  “A value system that makes endless growth the primary source of our social stability and spiritual well-being will destroy us…Alternative values might… promote broader, fairer and more vigorous democracy”, he says in “Upside of Down” and in his lecture. Alternative values that celebrate Earth as opposed to conquering it, could support a steady state economy.

Professor Homer-Dixon speaks of a power shift happening around the world that can bring huge suffering to humanity. There are two billion people who don’t make $2 a day and it is an explosive situation. “Dislocated lives, worsened poverty, and wider income gaps affect the motivation to participate in violence by providing fodder for extremist leaders.” Climate change will exacerbate the deep divide between groups and the disparity between rich and poor will widen. A ‘power shift’ will mean that there is a greater possibility for terrorism.

Fortunately, there is another ‘power shift’ that is gaining ground; youth are leading the way. Canadian Youth Climate Coalition (See www.ourclimate.ca) will be having a three day (October 21-23) forum. They have decided to reach out towards the international Power Shift (See www.powershift2009.org) movement in the U.S., U.K. and Australia. All levels of Canadian government are asked to cut carbon dramatically and immediately, invest in a green economy, power our future with clean energy and not dirty fuels, and lead the world to a clean and equitable energy future. Their inaugural conference call last week brought together 40 people from across Canada, and it became abundantly clear that these bright and articulate youth can put together the workshops and strategy sessions culminating in a huge ‘lobby’ day on October 23.  “We will deliver our message of change to our elected officials and push the federal government to take bold steps in tackling climate change.”  Youth are embarrassed at seeing the Canadian government declared a “laggard” in not implementing, and in many cases blocking, international climate initiatives.

World Environment Day is a sign post that directs us towards taking our planetary responsibilities seriously. It is one of many vital clarion calls to action. Please visit Ottawa this October 21-23 and unite with young people in their fervent wish for a safe future. They deserve your full commitment.

“Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.” Mark Twain

“I found that a piece of turf, three feet by four in size, which had been exposed for many years to exactly the same conditions , supported twenty species of plants, and these belonged to eighteen genera and to eight orders, which shows how much these plants differed from each other. So it is with the plants and insects on small and uniform islets; and so in small ponds of fresh water.” Charles Darwin, “Origin of Species” printed1859

“We are a dumbed down society with the alarms switched off…while navigating a hazardous passage through the night at full speed with fully distracted deck officers. Michael Major
The Truth does not Change according to our ability to stomach it.” Flannery O’Connor

Elizabeth May’s new book, “Global Warming for Dummies” describes biological diversity as “the planet’s variety of living species…from the deep forests of China, to the mountains of Canada, to the icy waters of Antarctica”. (Ms May apologized when she visited Collingwood on May 16 for the name “Dummies”. She explained that the “For Dummies” series of books uses a specific way to get to the heart of a particular subject, and her book is for people like you who are passionate about making a difference in stopping climate change.) Her book is a fantastic opportunity to bring you up to speed on climate change and related issues. You can get a copy from your library; discuss it with your friends and create an action plan to reconsider old 20th century models for success.

Mahatma Gandhi deeply understood that happiness and well being had little to do with acquiring more things.  You, the youth of the world, might want to learn more about this wonderful man, if you are going to be inspired to change the world’s growing obsession to convert the natural world into a parking lot for consumption. You may wish to ponder what the older generations have been selling you, including the all-in-one-save-the-world organic cloth shopping bag full of ‘green’ products signifying a bankrupt generation’s shop-to-you-drop answer to when huge doses of permafrost and livestock methane hit the bag of goodies. So please cozy up to Nature and take the bus, walk or cycle instead of accepting the hybrid car Dad or Mom wants to give you when you graduate.

Start off your new independence with a visit to The Schad Gallery of Biodiversity at the Royal Ontario Museum which just opened on May 16 to celebrate the United Nation’s International Day for Biological Diversity. The Gallery looks at the diversity of life on earth and how species and habitats are threatened by human activity. Life Is Diverse, Life Is Interrelated and Life Is in Crisis are the three main areas of interest. www.rom.on.ca/schad/ On Friday, May 22, the Gallery looks at how humans can help stop Invasive species that have no natural predators in their adopted habitat. Take the train for the day from Barrie to Toronto to the museum. The event is called “Partners in Protection: Invasive Species”, 10 am – 3 pm.

Speaking about being better informed, Professor Thomas Homer-Dixon comes to Collingwood on May 30. He is in Collingwood to talk about making intelligent choices for humanity and our planet. Check out a copy of his newly printed “Carbon Shift” or “The Upside of Down” to be ready for his talk-$5 for youth. Find out how unbridled growth causes balanced and resilient ecological systems to become unhinged and collapse.

Now that you’re graduating, it’s your turn to take the helm and steer the ship, Earth, towards safety. Don’t wait till tomorrow.

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”  – Albert Einstein

“In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.” 
John Muir

Humans are now changing our climate so rapidly that all of civilization is in the balance. Our Earth desperately needs you, the youth of our nation, to show leadership if our planet is to have a sustainable future. There is no time to wait for someone else to act. Please read the below suggestions; these are just a start.

Reading: It is so important that you think for yourself. Read Henry David Thoreau’s great book, “Walden” and begin to understand the meaning of living simply. Read Darwin’s “The Voyage of the Beagle” or Tim Flannery’s “The Weather Makers: how man is changing the climate”. Buy a student subscription to Scientific American to help you be an independent thinker and enable you to have scientific facts so you can have the means to put viable actions in place for your generation and beyond. Meet Thomas Homer-Dixon, one of Canada’s greatest thinkers on humanity’s climate crisis on the afternoon of May 30. He is eager to meet with youth before his evening talk on climate change. Read an essay from his new book, “Climate Shift: how the twin crises of oil depletion and climate change will define the future”. Interested? Write to celebrateearth@yahoo.ca to find out what you need to read and how to join the group.

Join a group such as the Sierra Club or the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition and take action with other young people regarding the large changes that are necessary now to protect our planet.

Get to know Nature up close by finding a place to grow an organic garden. No space? Replace your “green” lawn that only wastes water. Go on a wilderness hike or canoe trip for no less than one week (a week is necessary to acclimatize yourself) in northern Ontario. Take a bus to get there if you can. Appreciate nature by working with a bee-keeper or organic farmer this summer. Our honey-bees need help and agriculture needs honey-bees.

Use your bicycle or public transportation to get to school. Refuse taking a car ride there. If you’re going to visit friends and it is too far to walk, ask your parents to drive you part way and say you’ll bicycle the rest of the distance provided the weather and the road is safe. Increase the kilometers you cycle as you become stronger. In a car, don’t use a drive-through. You are now becoming a conserver and not a consumer.

“One of the greatest gifts you can give to the planet is to choose to become vegetarian, or even better a vegan” (Julia Butterfly-Hill). Even the United Nations’ International Panel on Climate Change Chair, Rajendra Pachauri, has pleaded with us to do so. Reduce over one tonne of greenhouse gas emissions by becoming a vegetarian, and by eating locally grown organic food. When you become a vegetarian you make a positive difference by slowing down deforestation and massively reducing water and soil contamination. See www.veg.ca

Call it what it is: Earth, Nature, Soil, Humus, Forests, Wilderness, Oceans, Wetlands or Rivers. They are not some resource called the “environment” that makes Nature a thing. Boreal Forest is an animal’s home and a Marsh is a flower’s rightful place to live. Let your generation celebrate Nature by immediately calling it just that and you’ll change how you interact with your planet. Reinvent the sacred. You are touching it right now.

Over a year ago I wrote to Prime Minister Brown asking him to place a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants in Britain.  I have asked the same of Angela Merkel, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd and other world leaders.  The reason is this – coal is the single greatest threat to civilization and all life on our planet.

Our global climate is nearing tipping points.  Changes are beginning to appear, and there is a potential for explosive changes with effects that would be irreversible – if we do not rapidly slow fossil fuel emissions over the next few decades.

Tipping points are fed by amplifying feedbacks.  As Arctic sea ice melts, the darker ocean absorbs more sunlight and speeds melting.  As tundra melts, methane a strong greenhouse gas, is released, causing more warming.  As species are pressured and exterminated by shifting climate zones, ecosystems can collapse, destroying more species.

The public, buffeted by day-to-day weather fluctuations and economic turmoil, has little time or training to analyze decadal changes.  How can they be expected to evaluate and filter out advice emanating from special economic interests?  How can they distinguish top-notch science and pseudoscience – the words sound the same?

Leaders have no excuse – they are elected to lead and to protect the public and its best interests.  Leaders have at their disposal the best scientific organizations in the world, such as the United Kingdom’s Royal Society and the United States National Academy of Sciences.

Only in the past few years did the science crystallize, revealing the urgency – our planet really is in peril.  If we do not change course soon, we will hand our children a situation that is out of their control, as amplifying feedbacks drive the dynamics of the global system.

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air has already risen to a dangerous level.  The pre-industrial carbon dioxide amount was 280 parts per million (ppm).  Humans, by burning coal, oil and gas have increased carbon dioxide to 385 ppm, and it continues to grow by about 2 ppm per year.

Earth, with its four kilometer deep ocean, responds only slowly to changes of carbon dioxide.  So more climate change will occur, even if we make maximum effort to slow carbon dioxide growth.  Arctic sea ice will disappear in the summer season within the next few decades.  Mountain glaciers, providing fresh water for rivers that supply hundreds of millions of people, will disappear – practically all of the glaciers could be gone within 50 years, if carbon dioxide continues to increase at current rates.  Coral reefs, harboring a quarter of ocean species, are threatened, if carbon dioxide continues to rise.

The greatest threats, hanging like the sword of Damocles over our children and grandchildren, are those that are irreversible on any time scale that humans can imagine.  If coastal ice shelves buttressing the West Antarctic ice sheet continue to disintegrate, the ice sheet could disgorge into the ocean, raising sea level by several meters in a century.  Such rates of sea level change have occurred many times in Earth’s history in response to global warming rates no higher than that of the past thirty years.  Almost half of the world’s great cities, and many historical sites, are located on coast lines.

The most threatening change, from my perspective, is extermination of species.  Several times in Earth’s long history rapid global warming of several degrees occurred, apparently spurred by amplifying feedbacks.  In each case more than half of plant and animal species went extinct.  New species came into being over tens and hundreds of thousands of years.  But these are time scales and generations that we cannot imagine.  If we drive our fellow species to extinction we will leave a far more desolate planet for our descendants than the world that we inherited from our elders.  We will leave a world haunted by the memories of what was.

Clearly, if we burn all fossil fuels, we will destroy the planet we know.  Carbon dioxide would increase to 500 ppm or more.  We would set the planet on a course to the ice-free state, with sea level 75 meters higher.  Coastal disasters would occur continually.  The only uncertainty is the time it would take for complete ice sheet disintegration.

The tragedy of the situation, if we do not wake up in time, is that the changes that must be made to stabilize the atmosphere and climate make sense for other reasons.  The changes would produce a healthier atmosphere, improved agricultural productivity, clean water, and an ocean providing fish that are safe to eat.

Actions required to solve the problem are dictated by physical facts, especially fossil fuel reservoir sizes.  About half of readily extracted oil has been burned already.  Oil is used in vehicles, where it is impractical to capture the carbon dioxide.  Oil and gas will drive carbon dioxide to at least 400 ppm.  But if we cut off the largest source of carbon dioxide, coal, it will be practical to bring carbon dioxide back to 350 ppm and still lower through improved agricultural and forestry practices that increase carbon storage in trees and soil.

Coal is not only the largest fossil fuel reservoir of carbon dioxide, it is the dirtiest fuel.  Coal is polluting the world’s oceans and streams with mercury, arsenic and other dangerous chemicals.  The dirtiest trick that governments play on their citizens is the pretense that they are working on “clean coal” or that they will build power plants that are “capture ready” in case technology is ever developed to capture all pollutants.

The trains carrying coal to power plants are death trains.  Coal-fired power plants are factories of death.  When I testified against the proposed Kingsnorth power plant, I estimated that in its lifetime it would be responsible for extermination of about 400 species – its proportionate contribution to the number that would be committed to extinction if carbon dioxide rose another 100 ppm.  Of course, we cannot say which specific species should be blamed on Kingsnorth, but who are we to say that any species are worthless?

The German and Australian governments pretend to be green.  When I show German officials that fossil fuel reservoir sizes imply that the coal source must be cut off, they say they will tighten the “carbon cap”.  But a cap only slows the use of a fuel, it does not leave it in the ground.  When I point out that their new coal plants require that they convince Russia to leave its oil in the ground, they are silent.  The Australian government was elected on a platform of solving the climate problem, but then, with the help of industry, they set emission targets so high as to guarantee untold disasters for the young and the unborn.  These governments are not green.  They are black – coal black.

On a per capita basis, the three countries most responsible for fossil fuel carbon dioxide in the air today are the United Kingdom, the United States, and Germany, in that order.  Politicians in Britain have asked me: why am I speaking to them — the United States must lead?  But coal interests have great power in the United States – the essential moratorium and phase-out of coal likely requires a growing public demand and a political will yet to be demonstrated.

The Prime Minister should not underestimate his potential to initiate a transformative change of direction.  And he must not pretend to be ignorant of the consequences of continuing coal emission, or take refuge in a “carbon cap” or some “target” for future emission reductions.  Young people are beginning to understand the situation.  They want to know: will you join their side?  Remember that history, and your children, will judge you.

Join us at the Collingwood Public Library on Saturday, April 18th from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm for a celebration of Earth Day with crafts, science, music and much more!

Georgian Triangle Earth Days Celebrations has partnered with the Library to bring a great lineup of events to the community. Their mandate is ‘working with youth for a vibrant earth’ and ‘educating adults to create a sustainable planet for youth’. For more information about GTEDC you can visit their website at www.georgianbayearthdays.org

Children aged 7 and up will be able to enjoy a variety of experiences at several interactive stations organized by the Georgian Triangle Earth Days Celebrations, NEOrganics and Elephant Thoughts. Children can make a flowerpot from newspaper and plant marigold seeds, look at bugs and pond water through a powerful microscope, learn about turtles, snakes, chickens and other creatures they share the earth with and find out how bees and beekeepers work together to make honey!

‘Green Musician’ Mark Sepic will teach children how to make musical instruments from garbage! Mark Sepic is an internationally recognized guitarist/composer, whose virtuoso finger-style guitar; appealing vocal style, impeccable taste, child-like sense of play and some electronic loop-wizardry make his concerts an irresistible joy-ride into the magic of music. Kazoos, shakers and drums will be created using paper toilet rolls, jars and cans. The workshop is followed by a world rhythm sing and play along session.

The events are all FREE. Registration is required for the Musical Instrument making session. The Georgian Triangle Earth Days Celebrations has assisted with the funding of this event.

Countries around the world search for solutions to stop the destruction of their forests and ecosystems habitats in order to save biodiversity, endangered species, and turn away from run-away greenhouse gas emissions. In the West we have been asked to put together action plans that balance our demand for wood, biofuel, and resource taking with the protection of huge areas of pristine forest.  These plans have been the subject of intense scrutiny by the United Nations, International Union for the Conservation of Nature to the World Bank. Deforestation and farm community fragmentation are some of the main causes for an increase in greenhouse gas emissions; we must do more to see real financial value in undisturbed forests and other natural areas that encompass so much of the Earth’s biodiversity!
Fortunately in Bruce, Grey and Simcoe counties we have a truly heroic charitable organization working with landowners and governments to give landowners an option to the selling or logging forests and natural areas: Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy is that group! EBC obtained charitable status in 1997 in order to help create nature reserves in and around the area of Ontario’s Niagara Escarpment. They have been able to protect almost 7,000 acres in our Georgian Bay area from Manitoulin to Simcoe County by establishing conservation agreements and land acquisitions. These conservation agreements do not only apply to forests but just as importantly to conserving farms by preventing conversion to non-farm uses. (Please see www.escarpment.ca)
“Many people look after their lands for thirty years and then wonder what will happen with the next generation, the next owner. It’s possible to set rules governing the way your land will be used in the future and get a very generous income tax benefit from keeping your land the way you want it in perpetuity. Sometimes a land trust can provide a long term conservation solution for your land that brings financial benefit equivalent to selling the land on the open market. We are quite excited that we have 6900 acres on our 81 nature reserves and included in those are habitat for fifty-six rare and endangered species.  Probably a million and a half trees are sequestering sixty thousand tonnes of carbon dioxide every year.” Bob Barnett, Executive Director. Please write rbarnett@escarpment.ca or call 416-960-8121 to discuss how Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy can make an enormous difference for your land’s long-tern sustainability.  It does not matter if you have five acres or 500 acres. This charitable organization has the means to give you, through government programs, the means to be financially rewarded while you can safely secure your natural areas for future generations.  Mr. & Mrs. Springer from Chatsworth, Ontario did just this.  “We entered into a conservation agreement with the Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy because we are concerned about the ever increasing encroachments on the natural land in Grey County. There are more and more subdivisions, golf courses, ATV trails, gravel pits, and residential, commercial and industrial lots. The agreement contains covenants that bind future owners of our land to preserve its natural features. Restoring and extending our woodlots is of particular interest to us because forests are beneficial to climate and groundwater resources. On marginal lands, forests are at least as profitable as many other agricultural crops.”
Canada has signed the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity. People in our area can contribute to the 2010 CBD Canadian Targets for biodiversity by committing to the stewardship programs that the Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy provides.
Georgian Triangle Earth Day Celebrations wishes to thank Ontario Trillium Foundation in making the funds available for these articles to be wrtten.