“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

“Principles have no real force except when one is well-fed.” Mark Twain

For the second year, Collingwood and area will be able to share the warmth of the sun with- their clothes. This innovative program will get its launch in 2011 with the paid Eco Action Centre youth putting up a clothesline (all the hardware and poles and cement included for $94) in your yard. Not only is the line emitting zero greenhouse emissions, but the youth will ride over on their bicycles to your house to install it!

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 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 and install it yourself in Thornbury once you have obtained our Eco Action Certificate from us 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.

Not long ago Melanie Vollick completed a six month in the making excellent research paper for Georgian Triangle Earth Day Celebration. As we expected, the pollution from lawn gas mowers is destroying our health. Up to nine percent of Canada’s pollution is created by these devils. It’s not only pollution but the noise, and the fact that a person does not get much exercise as they breathe in nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, particulate matter and volatile organic compounds and sulfur dioxide Besides the fact that Americans alone burn 800 million gallons of gas each year, Canadians share the same glee in killing their youth by letting them cut their lawns, and in the worse cases, actually buy a gas mower for their teens to go off and have a ‘summer job’ breathing in all that junk and ending up with real health issues. Is this ‘Parenting’? Other adults tell us that they have a gas mower and now are ‘committed’ to using it. The Home Depot had a high profile two week “Mow Down Pollution Event” six weeks ago and every spring, whereby you can buy a push mower and get a rebate for up to $100 for that destructive monster. Ms Vollick’s research points to this astonishing fact given to us by the California Environmental Protection Agency: “A gasoline-powered lawn mower, running for an hour puts out about the same amount of smog-forming emissions as 40 new automobiles that run for an hour.” You can now read her report on-line at www.georgianbayearthdays.org.

The Collingwood area is now lucky enough to have a program with youth cycling to houses and cutting homeowners’ lawns with a Fiskars “Momentum” push mower that was purchased at Canadian Tire. If you wish a youth to cut your lawn, send an email to celebrateearth@yahoo.ca and use the subject, “push mower”. Georgian Triangle Earth Day Celebration will send a teen over and end your noise and pollution problems within the week. Plus, you’re helping a teen stay strong and know that he/she is doing great work for their community instead of ruining it with a gas mower.

“We’re calling it a Global Work Party, with emphasis on both ‘work’ and ‘party’. In Auckland, New Zealand, they’re having a giant bike fix-up day, to get every bicycle in the city back on the road. In the Maldives, they’re putting up solar panels on the President’s office.  In Kampala, Uganda, they’re going to plant thousands of trees, and in Bolivia they’re installing solar stoves for a massive carbon neutral picnic.”

350.org Climate Movement

Collingwood and area joined the world on October 10, 2010 to be part of the Global Work Party with 7347 groups in 188 countries to bring attention to the climate crisis that most assuredly will intensify throughout the 21st century unless we change now how we locally and globally think and act. The aim of this grassroots effort was also to tell governments that they have to get to work-now. What we did in Collingwood on October 10th was to first go to our Community Garden and pick some of the vegetables and turn over the earth. An art project was held at the garden with Michelle Fleming of The Bay School of Art.  We ended the afternoon by planting 45 two foot trees at Black Ash Creek. Imagine 7347 creative work efforts on October 10 that aimed to inspire us to lower greenhouse gas emissions and have millions of voices saying to our politicians that it’s unacceptable not to point government polices towards a safe 350 parts per million carbon dioxide level for the world. By including many more people through various strategies, we’ll change the present political inertia into action for the stabilization of our climate with all the ramifications that holds for biodiversity and not least, indigenous populations. One strategy to move this grassroots ground swell of support along is to have the 350 Earth Project that will take place between November 20- 28th.  If you look at the word, “Earth” you can find the word. ‘Art’, and in the Grey/Simcoe counties we’ll be asking our artists to demonstrate through the arts what needs to be done for a reduction of carbon to 350 ppm.  How can this take place? At the “Be the Change” film series on November 24th, there will be photos shown of the most beautiful places on the Earth; places that we don’t want to lose. Live music will accompany those exquisite photos. The Bay School of Art is also going to have a creative arts event during this time period that visually presents the case to act on climate and lower our greenhouse emissions to 350.

I wish to address another important topic that impacts our community: the changes coming to the Silver Creek Wetland. Although a change of ownership of the wetlands to the Town is excellent news, not necessarily is a twig saved by doing so. What is frequently left out of the news reports is that the condo development, that is right in the middle of the wetlands, can proceed whether or not the remaining wetlands change hands to the Town of Collingwood. As well, the transfer of ownership may in fact give traction for the need to have the public ‘get something out of the deal’ such as trails where none may have been before. I see this transfer as a beginning and not as an end for better protection of the wetlands.  Perhaps it may be possible to persuade TD, who is the new owner of the upland condo development, to give those lands to the Town or to a conservation group such as the Nature Conservancy as well. Why not name the entire wetland, as one of many possibilities in return for such an act of wisdom and conservation foresight, ‘TD Trust Wetland Refuge’ or any other name that meets with their approval, and gives them a broad public acknowledgement of their generosity. So while a good start has been created for Silver Creek’s protection, a comprehensive vision should not stop there.

“The Empathic Civilization is emerging. We are fast extending our empathic embrace to the whole of humanity and the vast project of life that envelops the planet. But our rush to universal empathic connectivity is running up against a rapidly accelerating entropic juggernaut in the form of climate change … Can we reach biosphere consciousness and global empathy in time to avert planetary collapse?

Jeremy Rifkin, “The Empathic Civilization: the Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis”

“We’ll need chief among all things, to get smaller and less centralized, to focus not on growth but on maintenance, on a controlled decline from the perilous heights to which we’ve climbed.”

Bill McKibben, “Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet’

It’s the myriad voices and actions that are now coming together to create the difference between relentlessly pushing our planet’s biosphere towards a collapsed, unrecognizable place and forging a balanced ecologically sustainable Earth that makes our times so fraught with anticipation.  Bill McKibben, arguably the most influential Nature activist in the world, has written a book called “Eaarth” with two a’s signifying the massive changes that are now moving our planet towards a terrifying and perhaps uninhabitable new ‘Eaarth’. Will we have to redefine the very basis of humanity’s existence on this planet, and therefore should we call it by a new name? Bill tells us that the planet has already changed and that we must take action now so creative steps find strength in worldwide collective grassroots efforts.

There is good news. While attending a climate action meeting for two days last month it came to light that a new poll tells Canadians that 48 percent of us believe the climate issue to be very important and very urgent to solve, while 80 percent of Canadians feel that humans are at least partly responsible.  It’s when we get to the age groups and genders that climate activists know where the work is cut out for them: 54 percent of women and 45 percent of men under 35 believe that climate change is caused primarily by human activity and it is only in the last two years that most young women have become involved In working for a climate solution.  Unfortunately a majority of men between the ages of 35-54 did not feel it was very important for the world to find solutions to climate change. Strategies to work more diligently with already involved women to instill faster change in the population are a priority.

Our community is answering the call to work on finding solutions enabling a more resilient planet. The arrival of author Mike Nickerson in Collingwood last week was met with excitement. His book,” Life, Money and Illusion: Living on Earth as if We Want to Stay” is already in its second printing. He asks,” Might the goal of sustainability serve the needs of humankind better than the goal of perpetual economic expansion?” Mike met with Collingwood Collegiate students and then with members of the Transition Town group that is dedicated to bringing about the localization of food production and the reskilling of young and old to better be able to live in a world without globalization, and where the community becomes more self-reliant.  Earlier in the week a group of citizens started the Collingwood Food Alliance.  It’s first two initiatives is to bring about the wide spread use of our new community garden and to bring back local farmers to the Saturday morning market.

Next week brings climate justice groups to Toronto on November 13-14.  In September, 850 people came to hear James Hansen, the climate scientist from NASA, speak at University of Toronto. The grassroots movement is gaining momentum and it’s ready to change status quo destructive politics and corporate agendas forever.  Join us.

Reduce Carbon Dioxide emissions, grow a healthier lawn and save money!

Did you Know!

Fact: Gas mowers emit Nitrogen oxides, Carbon monoxide, Hydrocarbons, Particulate Matter, and Volatile Organic Compounds.

Gas driven lawn mowers cause monstrous quantities of noise, ground ozone pollution and massive greenhouse gas emissions. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), one gas mower going for one hour is equivalent to eight new cars going 85 km an hour. Image eight older inefficient cars? Shocking!

Be part of the solution!

This spring, Georgian Triangle Earth Days will be employing youth to cut your lawn. The cost will be $25 for in-town front and back yards and will be a pollution free initiative!

Download our brochure for more info:

Push_Mower_Brochure

This Picture was taken in the Community Garden in Collingwood to foster local food  and organic gardening knowledge.

October 10 Action Simcoe/Grey CELEBRATION & PROTECTIVE EARTH WORK PARTY has been
updated.

* 10 October 2010 – 10:00am- 12:30pm

We will be at our new community garden on October 10, 2010 helping to prepare it for its first full year in 2011. We’ll have some shovels and hoes but please bring extra ones. Also, we’d like to show how push lawn mowers are great for climate stabilization and we hope to have a few of these ready for our community to try out. Our hope is to hire youth for the spring/summer to cut the lawns of people, going from one house to the next by bicycle with the push mowers at the back to transport them.
As well, we’ll be signing people up for our clotheslines to be installed in the spring of 2011.
Event Website: www.georgianbayearthdays.org
How to Get Involved Planning the Event: Write to celebrateearth@yahoo.ca or phone 519 599 5461
Event Host: www.georgianbayearthdays.org and www.elephantthoughts.com

Location Information
795847 Grey Road 19 (also called Osler Bluff Road) Collingwood, Canada
Directions To Event:Turn south at the corner of Mountain Road and 19. there is a “Tee Please” golf range there and go 1 Km to the Community Garden sign; alternatively, when coming from Collingwood, take 6th Street west of Rona and turn right on 19 for 2 Km

“Those who purport to lead us, and all of us who are concerned about climate change, environmental quality, and equity,{must} treat the public as intelligent adults who are capable of understanding the truth and acting creatively and courageously in the face of necessity…” David W. Orr “Down to the Wire: confronting climate collapse”

As Eco Action Centre’s first month draws to a close ten youth have had new hands-on actions and/or educational experiences almost every day.  Ninety-five percent of these experiences have taken place out of doors. Monday to Friday, from morning to late afternoon, our youth’s community involvement has far exceeded their expectations; this has led to new visions and actions for 2011.

We have strengthened our bodies and mental preparedness by cycling several hundred kilometers and hugely reduced our carbon emissions instead of taking fossil fuel transportation every where. Cycling has given the group the mobility to work on sometimes four projects in a day. Wearing our bright safety vests and carrying hoes and shovels around the community has given the action youth a real presence, and people are curious to know what is happening.

A typical day may start at the community garden by cultivating the earth for next spring’s first full time garden, and continue on our cycling journey by placing tree blankets around the base of very small trees so as to discourage competition from weeds and raise moisture levels, then put up two clotheslines and finally sit under a tree and discuss what we read about biodiversity the evening before.  Another day takes the group in a Free Spirit Tour van up to meet Thomas Homer-Dixon in Kolapore wilderness after having read a few chapters in one of his books. (The informal meeting and conversation with this well known author was inspirational for the group.) Cycling from Kolapore back to Collingwood or cycling from Kimberley to Heathcote after putting on bee suits and learning how to care for honey bees (homemade potato bread and honey a must afterwards) to work on Matt Code’s Free Spirit Tour garden creates great team spirit.

A long day pulling out weeds, picking eighty-eight pounds of beans so they will be ready for community baskets the next day and installing a row cover at Edencrest organic farm is ended quietly with Farmer Jim talking about sustainable agriculture under a tree and why youth must be part of the effort for the relocalization of food.  A hay ride and cool juice supplied by grateful Farmer Maureen is awarded to the group in praise of our “work ethic” and results in a return visit this Friday.

Another day has us sitting in a circle in the community garden with Jen and Grant from the Green Bin Project. (They stopped by as they cycled from Vancouver to Newfoundland to talk about their adventures across Canada in search of sustainable living practices and promote their film that shows them living a zero trash year to help create a post-consumer society.)

Sonja Klinsky, from the University of British Columbia came by to discuss climate justice. How hard is it to put together an international agreement on climate? Our group went through an exercise whereby each of us represented countries with national interests that varied widely with respect to committing to lowering greenhouse gas emissions.  Our youth now realizes that climate consensus is not an easy accomplishment, and at the same time understands that a key component in realizing a climate stabilization solution rests with resolving justice issues among 192 countries.

The Eco Action youth look forward to meeting Mayor Carrier next week. Municipal sustainability questions have been researched at the library and we expect a lively conversation with the mayor.  EcoJustice lawyer, Albert Koehl will discuss with us several topics: alternative transportation and how it might be implemented in our area as well as hearing first hand how a lawyer can fight for migratory birds through litigation or policy change in government. From Kimberley he comes with the group to Heathcote to have a paddle for two hours as our resident biodiversity specialist, Aide Fernandez, points out the wonders of the Beaver River ecosystem.  Fred Dobbs of the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority gives his time for us to learn about rivers and hands-on skills needed to protect them.  We end our month by visiting two committed elders. Malcolm Kirk and Greta McGillivray, to hear words of encouragement from these outstanding and passionate naturalists.. Courage is what youth will need to support their world.

Special thanks to Ontario Trillium Foundation for believing in Georgian Triangle Earth Day Celebration’s and Elephant Thoughts’ vision for youth and positive change, Margaret and Eric Willis who gave us the land for the community garden, Janet and Bill Bartram who joyfully gave the Centre access to their Kolapore paradise and Thornbury Home Hardware for supplying and delivering free of charge all those clothesline parts at wholesale prices and replacing battered shovels.

What’s next?  Eco Action Centre youth will begin their role as ambassadors for climate and biodiversity solutions in their schools and community by writing the next article directed at some of the pressing problems facing life on Earth. This article is the result of each youth giving a twenty minute presentation to the group on a subject they are keenly interested in pursuing.  We thank Scott Woodhouse, editor of our local newspapers, for making this possible.

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.