Archive for the ‘Nature Articles’ Category

Like so many monster homes, the de rigueur grand entrance and cathedral ceiling is meant to impress. Town of Blue Mountains’ new town hall’s lofty entrance to its 26,000 square foot building is meant to do the same: lots of glass and echo while the Town wastes all that heat so it can look important to the ski and golf crowd.  By wasting public money on frills that will stay around and by not creating a sustainable action plan for future generations, the town ‘leaders’ expose themselves even through the smoke and mirrors. The town’s very expensive “Sustainability Path” 107 page ‘plan’ leaves youth in a vulnerable position by not taking the actions needed to protect their future, just as the UN celebrates on August 12 the start of International Year of Youth: Our Year, Our Voice. “Dialogue and Understanding” is the theme for the world-wide celebration of youth, but the Town of Blue Mountains’ inability to hear youth’s voice is astonishing.

As many people are aware, the Council of the Blue Mountains has voted to accept the Official Plan Amendment for the Terrasan Craigleith Village Community. (What a community that will be: mostly second homes standing empty most of the year as fossil fuels create air-conditioning and in the winter constant heating makes sure furniture won’t get moldy.)  Only Councillors Gamble and Martin opposed the OPA.  Don Kerr, a director with Blue Mountain Watershed Trust had this to say: “This OPA gives about half the protection to the Wetland {Silver Creek Wetland} than was provided in the Collingwood portion of the same Silver Creek Wetland (SCW) in the hearings under the Ontario Municipal Board. The Council voted for the Amendment in spite of our strong demand that the protection should be at least equivalent to what was achieved in Collingwood.”  This ‘village’ is on both sides of the wetland.  Development setbacks are inadequate to protect the wetland’s population from harm. Studies have not been adequately pursued and some species are at risk. Don Kerr continues by saying, “The wider buffers are required to prevent harm to the wetland from residential development for many reasons including herbicides, insecticides, pets, road salt, noise, etc. It is also needed for those species that depend on both wetland and upland such as most turtles, reptiles and amphibians. The threatened Blanding’s Turtle and other sensitive species were found in and around the proposed development. Residential development encourages predatory human-tolerant species like raccoons, red squirrels, crows, cowbirds and grackles that will displace species that prefer quiet non-human environments (wood thrush, warblers, mink, muskrats, rails, etc.)”

It is impossible to reconcile nor justify the huge Terrasan project and have a ‘plan’ for the future.  As of June 29, with only one more day to sign on, only one third (31) of the organizations who initially supported the Integrated Community Sustainability Plan.decided to pledge support in seeing through with its implementation. Reading through the ‘plan’ gives a person the impression that the authors have no stake in its implementation either. Actions and goals regarding biodiversity and habitat quickly get washed away when ‘Village’ developments and the extension of highways 410 and 427 or regional airports are to be considered in getting tourists here. Forget about the idea of peak oil and that we probably will have to do with far less. Meanwhile the words ’science’ or ‘Earth’ never get mentioned in the Environmental Stewardship and Natural Heritage, Conserver Society or greenhouse emission reduction schemes laid out in the ‘plan’.
Out of 11 or 12 people on the plan’s steering committee, no more than two were youth at any given time and only 2 women were part of that committee. At the same time, the Town tells us that 25% of the population is under thirty years of age. Furthermore only elite groups were brought into the process spanning more than a year. The 2.5 hour meeting with community should have been the start of democratically initiated consultations but that was all the time community got from the town. At the same time the Town tells us that they have a dream being put forward in the plan. “We are committed to ensuring that our every action finds a sustainable balance.” The Town can’t even get their greenhouse reduction numbers right: on the website,  www.thebluemountains.ca/community-emissions-invent.cfm the greenhouse gas base line used is 1994 but in the ‘plan’ it’s 2005. Tragically 2005 appears to the base year that emissions will be reduced from.

There is an election coming. For a town that can’t even get an anti-idling bylaw in place but spends millions of dollars on its palace and its 2050 pie-in-the–sky ‘plan’ destined for the shelf, many new caring faces brought to local government might bring the critically needed change youth need and deserve if they are to survive 2050.

Ontario Trillium Foundation was pleased to announce this week a $150,000 grant over two years to two charitable groups in our area that focus their attention on the well being of Nature and humanity’s harmonious place in it. Elephant Thoughts Global Development Initiatives is a vibrant and successful organization that has brought its educational initiatives to many parts of the world. Jeremy Rhodes, C.E.O of Elephant Thoughts, and his staff have done some incredible educational work up north and across Canada with many First Nation groups. In many instances, Jeremy’s inspired work means the difference between a student graduating from high school or not. Elephant Thoughts teamed up with Georgian Triangle Earth Day Celebrations to put together the Eco Action Centre.  GTEDC has an action oriented approach to mitigating biodiversity and climate destabilization problems, and Trillium appreciated the educational/action commitment of the founders of the Eco Action Centre. The Centre is based at both the offices of Elephant Thoughts in Nottawa and deep in the woods in Kolapore Wilderness at an off-grid location. At the wilderness location, paid Eco Action youth will try to work on problems that their parents have not been able to solve or commit to putting into action. Biodiversity loss and climate destabilization will certainly have a huge impact on their generation and these youth know that.. Eco Action Centre youth are leaders and wish to be ambassadors for Nature in their schools and community. It does help that esteemed professor and author, Thomas Homer-Dixon, and EcoJustice action lawyer, Albert Koehl, will be sharing their knowledge of the issues with Eco interns while sitting under a tree deep in the woods. Aide Fernandez, fourth year university biodiversity student, and Fred Dobbs of Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority will be there too on occasions, knee deep in cold trout streams uncovering mysteries with our team. Besides putting up clotheslines (write for yours now), biodiversity hands-on skills with honey bees, working on the new community garden to foster localization of food and agrobiodiversity, cruising down rivers with Free Spirit Tours and helping them to create biodiversity tours, and working on an organic farm to feel hands-deep the soil and sustainable farm practices, the Eco Action group will be lowering their carbon footprint by cycling as often as they can and doing fifteen hours of research and reading a week to become the true mentors for a biocentric society. Eco Action Centre youth have been invited to research and write an article in the Collingwood Connection.  During the school year a new co-op program brings students to organic farms to help set up biodiversity plots near schools for younger students.

This is what Lisa Farano, dedicated and hard-working president of Elephant Thoughts had to say about their Eco Action initiatives made possible by our Trillium grant: “Zoo Guts is an environmental education program focusing on habitat conservation, species at risk and recovery programs and the topics of environmental science, anatomy and biology.. This one of a kind installation will surround five giant inflatable animals which kids will crawl into and literally replace the working guts. Students will be required to identify both healthy and ‘sick’ guts further enhancing their knowledge of species at risk and their affiliated recovery programs.
Most teachers will agree that there is nothing more empowering for a person when trying to fully understand a topic than learning it and teaching it to others. Elephant Thoughts runs some of the best science day camps for elementary students in the Georgian Triangle area. We will incorporate these sought after camps into our Eco Action Center by allowing our interns to help create the camp by creating programming that they in turn will teach to elementary students. In addition to the research needed to create their own activities, interns will learn alongside certified teachers to teach engaging curriculum and activities in the field of environmental science. This program will teach our interns solid fundamental environmental science, leadership skills, confidence, and a passion to pass on their knowledge. The camps will be held in rural communities in the Simcoe area. The interns will participate in two weeks of camp training, will have research and activity development assignments, and will teach in up to 10 weeks per year of camp programs.
Be the Change Documentary + Discussion Film Series will be a key component in the Eco Action Center. The medium of film has always been an excellent form of communicating important messages to both youth and adults. This discussion series has already begun and will continue to persuade residents of Simcoe County into action where it relates to social justice and the environment. We believe that one of the greatest strengths of empowered youth is their ability to influence adults, especially their own parents. Our hope is that by uniting this series with the Eco Action co-op students we will be able to influence those into action who need it the most.
Turtle signs are a proven form of recovery strategy for species at risk. With the erection of these important forms of habitat warning for motorists we hope to reduce the number of fatalities of these fragile creatures. Our co-op program with local schools will give a more focused experience in understanding that humanity is a part of Nature, and as such we must be its steward and celebrate our place as one species among many on Earth. From conservation work to readings on biodiversity this co-op brings new actions and education to youth.”

“Mankind is a part of nature and life depends on the uninterrupted functioning of natural systems, which ensure the supply of energy and nutrients. Civilization is rooted in nature, which has shaped human culture and influenced all artistic and scientific achievement, and living in harmony with Nature gives man the best opportunities for the development of his creativity, and for rest and recreation.”UN World Charter for Nature, 1982

“We are human in good part because of the particular way we affiliate with other organisms. They are the matrix in which the human mind originated and is permanently rooted…To the extent that each person can feel like a naturalist, the old excitement of the untrammeled world will be regained. I offer this as a formula of reenchantment to invigorate poetry and myth. “E.O. Wilson, “Biophilia”

It’s not often that an eighty year old person writes their first novel, but Edward O. Wilson has surprised people his whole life. E.O. Wilson is the world’s foremost myrmecologist (an ant specialist). He has been an authority on ants since his teens in Alabama. He has traveled the world in pursuit of a better appreciation of ants and their incredibly important place in ecosystems and is a powerful voice in protecting Nature. He invented the word, ‘biophilia’ or the human bond with other species.  His series of essay’s called “Biophilia” take us around the globe in pursuit of ants, serpents (My 1870 house has many milk snakes that happily co-exist with their human lodgers and keep the mice away.) the Conservation Ethic and the adventures of the naturalist seeking out the New Guinea male Bird of Paradise’s courtship ritual, Ed Wilson is often said to be a fitting successor of Charles Darwin, and as such he has had his share of controversy.

His novel, “Anthill” is a fascinating story about a boy’s love for Nature and how he becomes a lawyer so he can save his beloved wetlands and lakes. “Anthill” is in part an autobiography of Professor Wilson growing up in Alabama and his life at Harvard University. He could not resist having several chapters called the “Ant Chronicles” that describe what happens when the queen ant dies in a colony and the battles that take place as a result.  He tells us about ‘tournaments’ between various colonies that have warriors on both sides doing amazing things with their bodies to look threatening but usually not attacking opposing warriors. E.O Wilson’s book is a natural history, detective/ action, and cultural history of Alabama. Add Raff Cody, our intelligent and intrepid hero into the mix of the novel and it makes our octogenarian biologist’s novel a winner.

Aldo Leopold is many times spoken of as the 20th century’s Thoreau or 19th century’s John Muir. His “A Sand County Almanac”, written in 1948, has become an inspiration for young and old to protect our vanishing wilderness. The Almanac is a group of linked stories about humanity’s relationship with Nature.  “It is inconceivable to me that an ethical relation to land can exist without love, respect and admiration for land…”  His lovingly crafted book is a paean to Nature, and why each of us must be passionately involved in turning away from an unsustainable culture of economic growth and consumerism towards a biocentric movement in harmony with Nature. Aldo’s book gracefully describes our fellow creatures across North America in the context of the seasons..

Clive Ponting’s, “A Green History of the World: the environment and the collapse of great civilizations” may have been written in 1991 but it continues to be a key book for those who want to have an overview of how humans have changed our natural world since the earliest times. “It has been estimated that the extra industrial output produced in the world each decade after 1950 is equal to the whole industrial output of the world before 1950”.  Clive’s enormous erudition is translated into wonderfully readable prose. By the end of this 407 page history the reader has a significantly better understanding of the ecological repercussions human interaction has had on Earth’s inhabitants, and what diminishing choices we have in the present if we are to resuscitate our living planet’s capacity to thrive once again.

A land ethic changes the role of Homo sapiens from conqueror of the land-community to plain member and citizen of it.” from “A Sand County Almanac  –   by Aldo Leopold

The continuing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico could end up adding a
bit of growth to the U.S. economy as the huge cleanup efforts in
some ways outweigh negative factors  –  analysts at J.P. Morgan Chase
said.

Replace your high cost (it’s 8 to 10% of your utility bill) and Earth unfriendly clothes dryer with a zero emission clothesline and breathe in that fresh air scent.  Thornbury’s Home Hardware will be giving you one at cost through the new Eco Action Centre. Georgian Triangle Earth Day Celebrations and Elephant Thoughts’ August team of paid teens will put up your clothesline for no extra fee, and if you live in the immediate area, Home Hardware will deliver the package to your home or pick it up in Thornbury once you have obtained our Eco Action Certificate to do so.  The supply of clotheslines is limited so write to us soon at celebrateearth@yahoo.ca using the subject heading, “clotheslines”. If you are wondering if your bylaws permit clotheslines, a provincial statute has all municipalities grant home residents the right to put one up.
Elephant Thoughts and Georgian Triangle Earth Day Celebration are still looking to fill three spaces out of ten in their August, Monday to Friday, Eco Action Centre program.  Teens will receive $15 an hour for 20 hours of work each week; as well, there are 15 hours of leadership education related to biodiversity and climate that prepares them to be eco-community ambassadors.  Each day will be different: bicycling over for hands-on work in the Collingwood Community Garden , river restoration work and fish monitoring with Nottawasaga Conservation Authority, helping to create and be part of a biodiversity action program to involve more adults through Free Spirit Tours, researching and publishing an article in the Collingwood Connection, reading selections from  Thomas Homer-Dixon’s insightful books and discussing them with him at our Kolapore Wilderness Eco Centre, reading and being inspired by (and meeting) EcoJustice lawyer, Albert Koehl’s thought-provoking ideas on  transportation alternatives to transform the climate destabilizing means of transport we have now, meeting close up with honey bees to learn how they interact among themselves and Nature, and act on drastically reducing our individual unethical 20 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions to 3.5 tonnes (the average level of emissions if our fossil fuel activities were shared evenly between all 6.9 billion people) each year while encouraging peers and family to do the same. Importantly, this program moves beyond education by creating the actions that make it possible for constructive change to take place. This Centre and the new co-op biodiversity/climate high school program leave the 20th century consumer mentality behind and find solutions for a 21st century land ethic.

Governments and some environmental groups speak in glowing terms about us becoming “green consumers”. They focus on the absurd strategy of buying our way out of human made climate destabilization and biodiversity loss crises through a hybrid car, ‘eco’ clothes or even a light bulb.  There is always some new technology or ‘green’ product that will save us from having to change our nasty over-consuming way of living. Living simply is not an option because economic growth is the only deity that is accepted for the green corporatist.  Pushing a lawn mower instead of using a gas or electric one and erasing 5% of Canada’s pollution might make us fit, breathe easier and conservation conscious, but it doesn’t hike up the Gross Domestic Product by buying 880 million gallons of gasoline to top up gas mowers across North America.  Having a basin in the kitchen sink when we wash vegetables, run the tap to get a cool glass of water or wash out coffee grounds doesn’t involve buying anything but will save an astonishing quantity of water for later use in your garden and lower your water bill. Most importantly, young people will see that adults care as well as witnessing how much water their family saves on a daily basis.  Getting Mom and Dad to cycle or walk to work or if need be, having them put their bicycles in the car and cycle part way to visit friends is a 21st century way to uncouple us from the 20th century Carbon Club. Youth under 20 years of age need to lead the way.

What now remains compared with what then existed is like the skeleton of a sick man, all the fat and soft earth having wasted away, and only the bare framework of the land being left.    From Plato’s Critias written around 360 B.C.

In the 1950’s there was overwhelming evidence that various groups had not attained equitable rights under the law. During the 1960’s and onward Canadian and United States governments and institutions tried to remedy this discrimination by giving minorities or marginalized individuals greater access to a university education through quotas and fair wages. In America, J.F. Kennedy called this ‘affirmative action’, and in Canada the federal government and Supreme Court Judge Rosalie Abella spoke of ‘Employment Equity’. In 1985 our Charter of Rights and Freedoms spoke of ‘Equality Rights’ that demanded society include women and other groups into a broader and more creative civil covenant and insisted that Canada pull down barriers that encumbered citizens’ full potential. In certain cases it was acknowledged that disadvantaged groups need to be given extra help, if only temporarily, in order to ‘level the playing field’. There is no doubt that minority groups in the United States gained historic access to higher education as a result of affirmative action programs, and when these same programs were taken away, as was the case in California, admissions for black students dropped by 80 percent.

The disabled and the marginalized, including many women and aboriginal peoples, are not the only ones to benefit from affirmative action but society as whole. It is vital to now apply that same vision to Nature; it is long overdue. Balance has not been achieved between economic interests, community/societal goals and Nature, although economists and corporations sometimes declare that to be their goal. For most of human history it was a given that Nature was to be conquered and literally consumed; in 2010, with that destructive legacy, ecosystems are beginning to collapse. Species are being brought to extinction directly as a result of individual, corporate and government prejudice against permitting Nature to recover from past and present human excesses while contemptuously not caring about ecological boundaries that constitute a resilient future. . A recent example of this is Canada’s refusal to vote for protection of many endangered species such as polar bears, hammerhead sharks and bluefin tuna, to name just a few, at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species held in Qatar this March.

Although affirmative action is still controversial for some, many countries have been able to give previously disadvantaged groups the means to contribute to their world, and thereby create a stronger and less violent society through programs and legislation in the last fifty years. Disadvantaged Nature can no longer be excluded from societal/planetary aspirations except at our extreme peril. If we have indeed subdued Nature it will be for a very short time. Nature, the fundamental building block for community and the economy, is in deep trouble and so are we.

All citizens need to have the wisdom now to give back to the Earth its health and well being. To read the headline, ”Copenhagen Accord pledges are paltry” in the science journal, Nature, that goes on to say, “Canada is the only country that both weakened its ambitions in the course of the negotiations and effectively argued for an increase of 2020 emission allowances…” is to feel ashamed.

Societies, with much smaller populations, have often been ‘skilled’ in not knowing limits to growth, and “these ravages” of ecosystems Plato mentions in his dialogue, had begun before his time. Today’s ecological bottleneck is bred from a history of interwoven ills that have consequences not only for one region like Plato’s but for the entire planet. It is time to not “turn away and lose the name of action” but now steadfastly insist that Nature must have a place at the table at home and abroad while being second to none and then, and only then, there will be true balance and a civilization worthy of the name.

We can no longer see the continued loss of biodiversity as an issue separate from the core concerns of society: to tackle poverty, to improve the health, prosperity and security of present and future generations, and to deal with climate change. Each of those objectives is undermined by current trends in the state of our ecosystems, and each will be greatly strengthened if we finally give biodiversity the priority it deserves…Now we have clear warnings of the potential breaking points towards which we are pushing the ecosystems that have shaped our civilizations. For a fraction of the money summoned up instantly to avoid economic meltdown, we can avoid a much more serious and fundamental breakdown in the Earth’s life support systems.     UN Global Biodiversity Outlook 3

The United Nations Report Global Biodiversity Outlook 3 (GBO3) was released in May to coincide with the outcome of biodiversity targets governments pledged to meet in 2010. Goals that were established in 2002 by the world’s governments were not met. As Canada celebrates World Environment Day, whose theme this year is “Many Species, One Planet, One Future” on June 5, it has the dubious distinction shared with the United States of losing a higher percentage of forest cover than other countries in the world, including Brazil and Indonesia between 2000-2005, according to the National Academy of Sciences-USA. In other words, Canada lost 160,000 square kilometres of forest as a result of human (tar sands, climate change induced mountain pine beetle infestation, forest exploitation, to name just a few) and natural causes such as lighting causing fire . On a provincial level we know that biodiversity loss continues to diminish well-being in Ontario. For example, the annual report by the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, entitled “Building Resilience” is critical of weak efforts to protect our amphibian population who give us a realistic picture of the overall level of health in our communities. Habitat loss or its degradation and fragmentation lead the causes of their destruction but unsustainable harvesting, invasive species, emerging diseases as well as climate change and ozone depletion is threatening our area’s amphibians more than ever before. Local municipalities don’t help by continuing to grant development corporations permits that destroy our wetlands and forests while mandarins proclaim a vision for the future in sustainability ‘plans’ that are a travesty of democratic involvement and scientific knowledge. Governments around the world have essentially refused to protect our youth and future generations of life on Earth. The 95 page GBO3 reflects this tragedy on almost every page through graphs, photographs and text.

Affirmative action for Nature, as mentioned in a recent article, is as much a value and moral issue as it is a beginning of a survival plan. Such a plan can protect both disadvantaged humans and life on Earth. If governments have shirked their responsibilities to act in the best interests of their citizens, an involved ethical citizenry will create the means for change. The GBO3 points out that those areas that are considered sacred by indigenous communities are able to sustain the resiliency of natural places and support local economies. Achim Steiner, Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme, is worried that nations and many adults have “fabricated the illusion that somehow we can get by without biodiversity or that it is somehow peripheral to our contemporary world”.

GBO3 speaks of a crisis in genetic diversity. Natural areas, livestock and seeds for crops are undergoing vast species extinctions. Collingwood finally has a community garden where we’ll emphasis the growing of heritage seeds and low-impact organic gardening practices. Georgian Triangle Earth Day Celebrations, Elephant Thoughts and Katimavik are breaking ground next week, thanks to Margaret and Eric Willis’ donation of ¾ acre of sunny ground. It is a chance for our community to work together and begin to fashion a cohesive response to biodiversity loss through one of several positive hands-on initiatives that will inspire young and old. If you are interested in participating in the garden, write to celebrateearth@yahoo.ca More to come regarding this exciting venture.

One of the most important resources that a garden makes available for use, is the gardener’s own body. A garden gives the body the dignity of working in its own support. It is a way of rejoining the human race.  Wendell Berry

Last Saturday our region celebrated its first ‘Seedy Saturday’; it was a great success. People of all ages showed up to look at and swap a variety of seedlings, trade or buy some seeds. Collingwood’s Katimavik youth also came to the Kimberley General Store, where the event was held. This celebration of seed diversity was the perfect way to get Earth Week soaring with meaningful participation. After asking two farmers what they considered to be the perfect tomato, I came away with their prized ‘Black Zebra’, ‘Green Zebra’ and ‘Hubert’s Pink’. In return they received my rare ‘Sunberry’ that tastes like a blueberry and Italian large leaf organic basil seedlings.

2010 is the International Year for Biodiversity and April 22nd the 40^th anniversary of Earth Day, so making our gardens glorious and meeting fellow tillers of the soil is part of the festivities. More than ever, intergenerational cooperation is vital if humanity is to find common ground that links us to a passion for Nature. Perhaps gardening is the answer. Across Canada and the U.S. gardens are becoming the epicentre for a new engagement in community life. Gardening and a renewed respect for the farmer’s role in a stable and self-reliant community is once more gaining widespread acceptance as one way to sustain an independent and thriving local area. There are many reasons for this happening. The rise in food transportation costs have enforced the view that the globalization of our food is no longer tenable and food security can’t be left to multinationals to determine. As well, there is growing recognition that food prices throughout the world are linked to increased biofuel production at the expense of fertile agricultural lands. People want to take back the land and make it sacred once more. The Earth is not a commodity as we’ve been told.

It is encouraging to watch so many people in their 20’s and 30’s take up gardening. They want to be in control of their food sources, and it’s wonderful to hear that many are putting up inexpensive greenhouses from reclaimed glass to kick-off their early spring season sowing of seeds. Without doubt these youthful gardeners are dedicated to growing organic foods. This is good news as we will have to reduce and eventually stop using fossil fuel fertilizers. Young gardeners are literally basking in the sun with the delight of caring for their locally grown food. Conversations can be heard as to when and where to grow heat demanding eggplants and peppers, growing broccoli rabe and the joy of tending and finally eating your own raspberries.

It has been hotly debated as to when seeds should be sown this spring, owing to unpredictable and historically unseasonably hot and then cold weather we have experienced recently. Those who thought we’ve gained a month of warm weather to plant everything from potatoes to peas are now questioning the decision to plant in light of the mercurial climate conditions. Best of all, keeping up with the consumer driven Jones has now been superseded by pride in growing a better garlic or French lettuce patch. Status and wealth can be found in the palm of your hand in the cool shape of a squash seed.

Community gardens are now gaining wide acceptance. One program that Cornell University and the town of Ithaca helped start is called Garden Mosaics. It’s unique in that it focuses on “science education, youth and adult well-being, cultural understanding and sustainable communities and agriculture.” www.gardenmosaics.org It has a place in our community as well, where all too often there is not enough interaction between elders, who can impart their love and knowledge of gardening and life, to budding enthusiastic youth.

To the degree that we come to understand other organisms, we will place a greater value on them, and on ourselves. Edward O. Wilson, “Biophilia”

How do we find authentic hope in the face of climate change, the biological holocaust now under way…and the void of world leadership adequate to the issues?  David Orr, “Down to the Wire: confronting climate collapse”

Our community and world urgently need transformational leaders, leaders who will be able to help us rethink who we are, our place in the world and as such, in the web of life. Those who have tirelessly studied biodiversity loss and climate destabilization know that this crisis can’t be understated. Youth must be the vanguard to speak the truth, inspire its peers and mentor a reluctant adult population to embrace a difficult but critical restructuring of societal values if humanity is to survive.

Biologist E. O. Wilson coined the term, ‘biophilia’, to express a deep love and affinity for Nature that is shared by billions of people. Our community now has the chance to give youth aged fifteen through nineteen the opportunity to transform their intuitive love for Nature into an action/education plan that protects the Earth and be paid while they are doing so. This month long internship is meant to inspire and lead to further educational and action endeavours across our area. Georgian Triangle Earth Day Celebrations and Elephant Thoughts expect to launch the Eco Action Centre this August 3. Ten highly motivated and courageous youth will be paid $15 an hour for twenty hours a week for four weeks to perform hands-on leadership work that will lower community greenhouse gases while developing an understanding of why Canadians have such high carbon footprints that create climate instability in the first place. Outdoor work on biodiversity restoration and community education projects are just some of the ways that Eco Action interns will enhance their leadership skills. Throughout the four weeks in August our ten Action youth will initiate a clothesline installation plan to wean homeowners away from the inefficient use of clothes dryers. Eco Action youth will be a part of river conservation efforts that will range from fish monitoring, temperature testing, water sampling, and erosion control to meeting landowners who may become part of river restoration projects. Our hands-on partners at the Centre range from the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority, Kolapore landowners to Free Spirit Tours.

Community garden efforts are now under way with Collingwood’s Katimavik’s youth who are setting up the garden biodiversity experience that Eco Action youth will continue to nurture through August, and then help co-op high school students to take over right to harvest time. In 2011 we’ll start even earlier and include more people. Also, community gardens are a fabulous way to create intergenerational friendships and pass along knowledge.

Twenty hours of paid work will be augmented with 15 hours a week of education on climate science and biodiversity issues that will give youth the fundamentals with which to go forward to be community ambassadors for real solutions. Books will be read and discussions will focus on creating a unified plan for conservation that also invites other high school and public school students to join in during the school year with a renewal of hope for their planet. Two well known Canadians will visit us to help inspire successful efforts. Thomas Homer-Dixon from the University of Waterloo and Albert Koehl from EcoJustice will sit down with Eco Action youth to help them formulate their action plan.

Interested youth should send a letter to celebrateearth@yahoo.ca using the subject, ‘Eco Action Centre’. Please tell us why you are passionate about our Earth and feel that you are the right person to be part of this intense and rewarding month long project. You are welcome to send a resume as well. Interviews will be held during the month of May and June.

Led by Skeet Sutherland of Sticks and Stones Wilderness School and Peter Mitchell from the Centre for Land and Water Stewardship, University of Guelph.

For land-owners, grounds keepers, or managers who are interested in tax incentives and practical land management, to balance ecological, cultural, and future needs.

Tax incentives applied to personal property;
Simple and practical planning and management options for private land stewardship;
Managing invasive species;
Simple and effective wildlife corridors, core habitat creation, and increased food and cover for wildlife;
Low impact plantation thinning for future hardwood growth and indigenous forest succession; and
Available materials for projects such as bridges, benches and wildlife habitat.

Event details:

When:
Sunday May 9th, 9:30 AM to 3:30 PM
Where:
Kimbercote Farm, Heathcote Ontario, 316362 3rd Line C
Cost:
$95. Volunteers for site prep on Saturday May 8th can attend for cost of lunch ($10).
Special Mother’s Day offer: Bring your mother for ½ price!
Lunch:
Provided.
Attire:
Dress for the weather. The workshop will be held both indoors and outdoors, combining theory and practice.
Registration:
Email   stacie@kimbercote.org or call 519.599.5885

www.kimbercote.org

World Water Day, which is coming up on March 22 aims to encourage governments, , communities, and individuals around the world to actively deal with pressing water quality problems by working on pollution prevention, clean up and restoration. (More info…)

It’s not hard for us to appreciate the vital importance of water to everyday life. This doesn’t, however, mean that our society has taken appropriate action to protect our water resources — in fact, far from it. The question is: “why?”  The answer may be in how our society values things. In 1972 Bhutan’s King Jigme Singye Wangchuck decided that Gross Domestic Product indicators had no bearing in defining his country’s ‘wealth, but Gross National Happiness measurements did. The bottom line is that the GDP only looks at ‘success’ through the veil of capitalistic growth. Exponential growth and its foot soldier, consumption, has been anathema to a healthy and biologically diverse planet. As we approach 7 billion people, less than a billion people have participated in the west’s economic dream, and 70 percent of all consumption is created by those same billion people. Over-consumption in North America raises the GDP, but as monetary rewards surge they blithely disregard the implications economic gains have for water quality, First Nation peoples’ lack of clean water, increased greenhouse gas emissions, soil erosion in ethanol production, mining for gold in Canada and why we are opening up the Northwest Passage to explore for new oil and gas while encouraging dangerous global shipping to proceed through arctic waters. The accelerating rape of our planet and higher GDP numbers go hand in hand with the inevitable collapse of ecological resiliency. Perhaps this is why there have been many credible attempts to have other indicators of ‘wealth’ such as the Genuine Progress Indicator and the Happy Planet Index, an index of well-being and ecological impact. ”The HPI is based on general utilitarian principles — that most people want to live long and fulfilling lives, and the country which is doing the best is the one that allows its citizens to do so, whilst avoiding infringing on the opportunity of future people and people in other countries to do the same.”  The HPI has shown that out of 143 countries Canada is rated 89th on the list for 2009 and ecologically balanced Costa Rica is at the top.
Fifty-three of the hundred largest economies in the world are corporations. Many of these corporations embody what the UN’s 1996 Human Development Report terms as jobless, ruthless, voiceless, rootless and futureless growth. An example of such types of growth in Canada can be found in the push to expand globalization and profits by selling Alberta’s dirty tar sands to Asian markets via unwanted pipelines and new coastal infrastructure. This adds up to a more divided society as well as an increasingly impoverished Earth including B.C.’s marine species.
James G. Speth, Dean of the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale and author of, “The Bridge at the End of the World”, promotes the well-being of people and Nature through “Being, not having; giving not getting; need, not wants; better, not richer; community, not individual; other not self; connected, not separate; ecology, not economy; part of nature, not apart of nature; dependent, not transcendent; tomorrow, not today.” Speth’s book  begins with 16 graphs ranging from population growth, great floods, damming of rivers and water use, to name a few, and in each case by the time we proceed to year 2000 from 1900 measurements, consumption has spiraled to unsustainable levels.
The UN’s Millennium Development Goals named 2005 to 2015 the “Water for Life” decade and has an excellent 20 page booklet outlining the actions that need to take place if we are to create a more equitable and conserver society.

World Water Day is a good opportunity to remind ourselves that the most valuable things on earth are not always measured in dollars and cents. What is clear is that if we fail to properly value water we will soon pay a price that cannot be measured.