Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Bloggers Unite-Hunger and Hope: You Don’t Have to Feel Powerless!
By Jackson Kern
There is no greater enemy to the world’s underprivileged and forgotten than the scourge of hunger. Though the great bounty of our planet could adequately nourish each living human several times over, United Nations statistics show that in 2003 no fewer than 923 million people went hungry.
This figure refers to those who are undernourished, defined as those imbibing less food energy than is necessary to maintain good health. Aside from the deterioration of physical health which comes as a direct result of insufficient caloric intake, there are strong indirect effects as malnutrition weakens the immune system and renders victims highly susceptible to illness and disease. The problem is compounded as contagious disease may advance easily, wreaking havoc on high-density populations of undernourished peoples. Establishing a basic threshold of universal nutrition is therefore a critical step in the battle to promote human health.
For those 500 million people who reside in the most extreme poverty, there is no more essential a first step than to eliminate malnutrition and thereby reduce the high incidence of illness that attends it.
And indeed, advances in many areas as well as an enhanced public understanding of the issues at hand mean that an eradication of world hunger is more within reach than at perhaps any other time in history. Not all have shared equally in the new riches, but over the past half-century many countries have amassed impressive new wealth, greatly expanding the base of donor countries of international aid. If this newly broadened base were to allocate a mere 0.7% of its income for development assistance, the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations hold that extreme poverty can be halved by 2015.
So how do we pursue these macro policy goals in the business of the everyday? The answer is simple: we make more noise!
Private donations are admirable and are to be continued. But the 0.7% goal will not be attained in the absence of increased official development assistance.
Our leaders are ever so quick to pledge their commitment to international development, and to eloquently evoke their compassion for the world’s hungry and impoverished. But we all know that actions speak louder than words, and thus far they have manifestly failed to walk the talk. It is a wonderful and too often forgotten feature of our democratic establishment that our leaders are answerable to us. Thus far they have been able to shirk their responsibilities to amend the outrages of abject misery because they have not received the necessary signals that nothing less than their political survival is at stake. If we speak loudly, if we apply a calculated and relentless pressure and if we are so bold as to cry out in a unified voice that we will end extreme poverty and hunger in our time, they will have no choice but to respond.
What a better time to begin the campaign than on this international day of Hunger, and of Hope.
To read more articles about this topic visit
Bloggersunite.org special page for Hunger Day.
Have you ever seen an iceberg the size of New York ?
By Joanie Bergeron Poudrier
Here is something I saw in the news this morning; it totally shocked me. I think people should be aware of what is going on far from us, and even more when those things are mostly caused by us. It is very scary to see an iceberg the size of New York just fell of an ice bridge.
This is those kinds of events that make me realize, we truly need to do something about climate change, and not just when we feel like it, or when it is more convenient. It should become instinctive, as soon as we wake up in the morning, we should make the fight against climate change our main priority!
Think about it!
Read this and comment if it touches you or bring any thoughts to mind.
By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent at Reuters
TROMSOE, Norway (Reuters) - An area of an Antarctic ice shelf almost the size of New York City has broken into icebergs this month after the collapse of an ice bridge widely blamed on global warming, a scientist said Tuesday.
"The northern ice front of the Wilkins Ice Shelf has become unstable and the first icebergs have been released," Angelika Humbert, glaciologist at the University of Muenster in Germany, said of European Space Agency satellite images of the shelf […]
Nine other shelves -- ice floating on the sea and linked to the coast -- have receded or collapsed around the Antarctic peninsula in the past 50 years, often abruptly like the Larsen A in 1995 or the Larsen B in 2002.
The trend is widely blamed on climate change caused by heat-trapping gases from burning fossil fuels, according to David Vaughan, a British Antarctic Survey scientist who landed by plane on the Wilkins ice bridge with two Reuters reporters in January.[…]
Temperatures on the Antarctic Peninsula have warmed by up to 3 Celsius (5.4 Fahrenheit) this century, Vaughan said, a trend climate scientists blame on global warming from burning fossil fuels in cars, factories and power plants.
Source:Reuters
Photo: Handout image shows a Envisat Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) image from 27 April 2009 superimposed on an image from 24 April 2009. The margins of the collapsed ice bridge that formerly connected Charcot and Latady Islands are outlined in white.
REUTERS/ESA (Annotations by A. Humbert, Munster University)/Handout
Full article:
Reuters.com
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Your garden in the “News”
Spring is here and it’s time to get your hands dirty!
First time, gardeners need more help than the pros, but even seasoned gardeners don’t have all the tricks.
Recently, I’ve been hearing that newspaper can be a beneficial aid to your planting strategy.
Can you believe it? Newspaper now has other uses than for puppy-training or wrapping breakables for moving. Laying a little newsprint down on the soil can actually help you push back weeds on new gardening beds.
“After planting, place newspaper on top of the soil and just hide it under mulch”, says this California gardener on her blog. The newspaper will break down organically.
Read the entire article on
Simplegreenaction.ca.
How to make every day Earth Day!
Last week on April 22nd we celebrated Earth Day. This holiday has been celebrated annually around the world, since 1970, to encourage people of all ages to participate in positive environmental activities.
This year the message to conserve (and save money)was even more appropriate. Even though Earth Day is over, we still want to know how we can save a few bucks. So what can you do?
Earth Day Canada’s EcoAction Teams program can provide you with a plan to reduce household resource consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and spending. Just stay online and do these three simple things…
1. Join the Movement
Get on the
EcoAction Teams website and join thousands of Canadians who are committing to environmental lifestyle changes.
2. Register Online
Sign up and browse through 50 measurable environmental activities (and hundreds of additional tips). You can measure your energy, water, waste and fuel reductions and automatically generate a personalized savings report to see the immediate benefits of your action!
Read the entire article on
Simplegreenaction.ca
ERA (Electronic Recycling Association) needs our help and donators!
Here is a message we received from a company that is doing good for our planet.
ERA has been extremely busy over the last few months in collecting, refurbishing & donating computer equipment to a large number of organizations across Canada.
We are also planning to host a large number of round up events which are all posted on the main page of
www.era.ca.
We are writing this email today to notify you of our urgent need for more donations of computers, laptops & other electronic equipment. Since our economy is in a position of struggle, we have been receiving five times more donation requests than any other year before! Many charities are waiting on upgrades and donation set ups for their office, resource projects and families in need.
If your company has any equipment at this time which is not being used, please contact your ERA agent to book a pick-up.
*For information on how your office can be involved, please contact
Joana Trebon
Sincerely,
The Team @
Electronic Recycling Association
Caring for caribou is a matter of urgency
By David Suzuki with Faisal Moola
You may have a caribou in your pocket. This important Canadian icon has appeared on our 25-cent coin since 1936. It would be a tragedy if this were the only place you could spot this magnificent animal, though.
If we don’t protect Canada’s boreal forest, that could be the result.
The boreal forest extends like a green halo over 35 per cent of our northern land mass. Stretching from Newfoundland to the Yukon, it forms the largest intact forest left on the planet.
This vast region of spruce, aspen, and fir trees, and lakes, river valleys, wetlands, and peat bogs supports three billion migratory songbirds, millions of waterfowl and shorebirds, and is a safe-haven for the remaining large predatory animals left on the continent, including wolves, grizzly bears, wolverines, and lynx.
Much of this biological richness is at risk from industrial activity such as logging, oil and gas development, mining, and large hydroelectric dams. Among the species most at risk of disappearing is a shy and highly secretive animal called the boreal woodland caribou. It is listed as “threatened” under Canada’s Species at Risk Act.
Caribou are not only well-loved symbols of Canada’s identity and a source of national pride; they are also a key indicator of the health of boreal forest ecosystems. When woodland caribou populations start to decline, it’s a sure sign that the forests they inhabit are not faring well. A recent scientific report commissioned by the federal government under the Species at Risk Act has found that the animal is in trouble right across the country.
This doesn’t bode well for the ecological health of the boreal region.
Boreal woodland caribou depend on large, intact forest landscapes for their survival. But caribou have already disappeared from half of their historical range in Canada, and scientists believe the probability of many of those herds surviving for the next 100 years is less than 50 per cent. Herds in Alberta, British Columbia, and the southern Northwest Territories are particularly at risk of extinction because of the intensity of ongoing forestry and energy activity.
For example, one herd in the foothills west of Hinton, Alberta, is now critically endangered. Close to 82 per cent of the Little Smoky herd’s habitat is now degraded by a mosaic of clearcuts, crisscrossed with roads, seismic lines, and oil and gas pipelines, and pockmarked with well-heads. Scientists have determined that this herd, and in fact, every herd in Alberta, cannot survive unless we work to protect its current habitat and to restore habitat that has been degraded.
Elsewhere in the boreal, including Ontario and Quebec, levels of industrial activity are quickly approaching similar thresholds of habitat disturbance beyond which caribou can no longer survive without decisive action on the part of federal, provincial, and territorial governments. There is a bright spot: scientists believe that in some large areas, such as the northern Northwest Territories, habitat has not yet been degraded to the point where caribou populations are at risk.
We still have time to ensure that caribou herds do not become extinct.
But it will require full and immediate implementation of Canada’s provincial, territorial, and federal endangered species laws and accompanying policies. In particular, governments must immediately halt further industrial activities in the ranges of critically endangered herds and must use the findings of the scientists to develop and enact recovery and action plans that identify and protect the habitat that caribou need for food, breeding, migration, and other necessities of survival.
As well as using scientific knowledge, governments must also reach out to Aboriginal people in the boreal who have interacted with the species for millennia. Aboriginal Canadians have significant and important knowledge about woodland caribou, and governments need to respectfully gather that knowledge and incorporate it into recovery measures for the species. Aboriginal people need to be fully involved in recovery efforts, as the survival of caribou is not only critical to the ecological health of the forest, but also the health, culture, and well-being of Aboriginal peoples who share its boreal habitat.
There was a time not long ago when billions of passenger pigeons darkened the skies for days, when huge herds of bison ranged along the centre of the continent, supporting wolves and grizzly bears. Today caribou are the remnants of the once breathtaking abundance of animals in North America. Are we willing to protect them from becoming mere memories stamped on our coins?
Photo Credits Image by: Biggins, Dean - USFWS
Take David Suzuki’s Nature Challenge and learn more at
Davidsuzuki.org
Monday, April 27, 2009
The DEARTH of Corporate Social Responsibility
By Michael Hopkins author of
CSR & International Development: Is business the solution?
The responsibility of companies, corporations and institutions to their stakeholders is probably more important today than ever before. This is because the lack of responsibility in so many of our largest companies in recent years has thrown the whole issue of market freedom into question. Even the limited version of responsibility, beloved by Milton Friedman, where the only responsibility of companies is to their shareholders, has been undermined by the crash of shares, bonds, titles and, in some cases, the total loss of pension funds and savings from Wall Street to Iceland, and from Antigua to the City of London.
As our politicians and press speculate about the future model of our economies, and ‘more of the same, but better' remedies emanate from the April, 2009 G20 world leader's conference in London, where are we?. Should we follow either a socialist (aka communist) or a market (aka capitalist) agenda? Currently, a third way of responsibility with a mix of socialist and market principles is attractive as Eric Hobsbawm argues (cited above.)
Yet companies have lurched against responsibility as exemplified by their seeming move to embrace ‘corporate sustainability' or ‘corporate citizenship'. This is aided and abetted by the ‘think-tanks' of change such as the consultancy SustainAbility or The Global Reporting Initiative. If either embrace the tenets of strategic CSR[3] then perhaps we should worry less. But it does appear that those who embrace the last two ‘phrases' have lurched either toward more environmentalism (sustainability) or more community involvement either at home or abroad (citizenship).
Now there is nothing wrong with being concerned with either of the latter two issues. A strategic approach to CSR includes both of these as part of its overall systems approach. So has CSR been rejected too soon?
CSR rejected?
Curiously, the increased need for ‘responsibility' comes at a time of a perceived tiredness with the concept of CSR. The rush into CSR in the 1990s was led mainly by environmentalists who had seen a useful concept to use in a world that eagerly and continually searches for new concepts. Further, when CSR is defined as 'treating the stakeholders of a company in an ethically responsible manner' it provides a powerful systems tool to managing a company.
But the problem with CSR has not been about what it means, when carefully defined, but the combination of words. Of course corporations are responsible, some would argue [4], because they could not otherwise survive - an irresponsible company would soon have its wings clipped. Many companies have had their wings clipped because of irresponsible behavior (Shell, Nike, Gap, Exxon, BP, Parmalat, Fanny Mae etc) and some have been disemboweled (Enron, Bear Sterns, Lehman Brothers, Worldcom etc).
Perhaps the problem is the word “social” as companies may believe that this means socialism through the backdoor? Clearly, on first sight, it seems to exclude economics and the environment. But then, do not Economics faculties in our main universities come under the heading of social science? And can we deal with environmental problems without their economic roots? Of course not!
I think we would all love a 'new' term that describes all that succinctly. CSR has survived because it, as I define it [5], has concentrated minds on all key stakeholders and how they are treated by a company or entity. Yet, when people start saying goodbye to concepts without defining them, as many have done with CSR recently (eg the overly dramatic 'death' of CSR in The Financial Times and an earlier critical piece in The Economist, subsequently reversed) perhaps these concepts have more mileage left in them? For instance, many have predicted the 'death' of GDP as a concept because the growth it purports to measure does not capture such things as 'intangible' assets, environmental protection and so on.
Companies, or at least some of them, are now delighted that new terms allow them to forget the stakeholder model that covers such knotty issues as corporate governance, employee layoffs, supply chain standards, customer concerns, corruption etc and allow them to concentrate on such things as 'corporate sustainability' (i.e. long-term environmental issues) or 'corporate responsibility' (which is what they do already).
A VP of Unilever, who looks after these issues, confirmed what I suspected: that many companies switched too quickly over to 'sustainability' issues and ignored the social and economic ones and he felt that a re-alignment towards 'social responsibility' was sorely needed[6].
A truly independent and forward thinking advisory company, such as MHCi, can best serve companies by not being a slave to them and giving them a 'get out of jail for free' card, but to help them honestly and critically to deal with all their stakeholders so that the 'responsibility' crisis of the present, and the future, can be avoided and their reputation and business model be reinforced. [...]
To read the entire article visit
MHCinternational.com
Green Benefits of a High Speed Rail in the USA
A week ago, Obama announced a brilliant idea to the nation:
a High Speed train that would go through North America.
During that declaration Obama said :«With high-speed rail system, we're going to be able to pull people off the road, lowering our dependence on foreign oil, lowering the bill for our gas in our gas tanks. […]We're also going to deal with the suffocation that's taking place in our major metropolitan areas as a consequence of that congestion. And we're going to significantly lessen the damage to our planet.
This is a giant environmental down payment.»
According to one recent study, achievement of pending plans for the federally designated HSR corridors could result in an annual decrease of 6 billion pounds of CO2, which is enormous.
What Obama had to say to get the spirits enchanted over that idea:
«Imagine boarding a train in the center of a city. No racing to an airport and across a terminal, no delays, no sitting on the tarmac, no lost luggage, no taking off your shoes. (Laughter.) Imagine whisking through towns at speeds over 100 miles an hour, walking only a few steps to public transportation, and ending up just blocks from your destination. Imagine what a great project that would be to rebuild America.»
The President then compared the USA to countries like France, Spain, China and Japan who have been using these transportation infrastructures for many years now.
« So it's being done; it's just not being done here.», he reminded the audience.
He also added that building a new system of high-speed rail in America will be faster, cheaper and easier than building more freeways or adding to an already overburdened aviation system, so in the end everybody will benefit from it.
While searching for subject related to this new possible high speed rail, I found a list of
Obama’s 7 Greenest Ideas So Far on
Treehugger.com.
Here’s a summary of this interesting list:
1-Funding Renewable Energy
2-Getting a Carbon Cap off the Ground
3-Joining the International Dialogue on Global Warming
4-Building a High Speed Rail Corridor
5-Setting a National Vehicle Emissions Standard
6-Asking the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate CO2 emissions
7-Pushing the Smart Grid
For more details concerning that list, visit
www.treehugger.com.
Source:
Whitehouse.gov.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Earth Day Playlist
By IdealBite.com Staff
For Earth Day 2009, the team at
IdealBite.com put together a playlist of some of their fave tracks from green artists.
Seriously these musicians have done good things for our ears and the planet - touring in biodiesel buses, promoting green causes, and walking the eco-walk in their own lives.
"Flake" by Jack Johnson
Jack founded the Kokua Hawaii Foundation, which supports eco-causes in his home state, and he carbon-offsets all his tours.
"Lovers in Japan" by Coldplay
The stadium rock band carbon-offset the production of past albums and even sews its own clothes. Singer Chris Martin also has a Make Trade Fair fair-trade tattoo on his hand.
"Human Behavior" by Björk
Our fave (sometimes-a-lil'-crazy) avant garde singer just released a new docu about eco-issues facing her native Iceland (exclusively available on iTunes).
"The Seed (2.0)" by the Roots
Hip hop group (and Jimmy Fallon's new house band) that's worked on veg campaigns with PETA and has hosted green pre-Grammys bashes in the past.
"No Surprises" by Radiohead
Frontman Thom Yorke's a longtime vegan who even wrote an alt rock album inspired by climate change.
"Holiday" by Green Day
The pop-punk band's pet cause? Green energy, which it champions alongside the National Resources Defense Council.
"Love is Free" by Sheryl Crow
The pop rock queen toured the United States with Stop Global Warming and will likely never get past the toilet paper comment.
"My Humps" by Black Eyed Peas
Lead rapper/producer will.i.am's written eco-themed pop songs and drives an electric Tesla roadster.
"We Are All Made of Stars" by Moby
This vegan DJ's a big supporter of the Humane Society.
"My Moon My Man" by Feist
The indie crooner traveled to the Arctic Circle to bring attention to climate change, and offsets her tours with wind power.
"Hot Thing" by Talib Kweli
Hip hop artist who uses recycled materials for his albums and has written more than a couple eco-themed songs (one even namedrops Al Gore - no lie).
"Heartbeats" by José Gonzáles
This indie-acoustic guitarist offsets his American tours through Reverb.
You can even buy IdealBite's playlist on iTunes at
www.idealbite.com/itunes-playlist
Friday, April 17, 2009
Earth Day April 22nd it’s coming soon
A bit of history:
In 1970 twenty million people celebrated the first Earth Day on April 22nd.
In 2009, I wonder how many people will be celebrating across the nation?!
Earth day events
Across Canada and the United States there will be hundreds of FREE activities taking place during that day.
Show your support and join the festivities with your friends and family while doing some good for our good old planet Earth!
For a listings of Events in Canada visit
www.earthday.ca.
For a list of Events and Volunteer opportunities in the USA visit
www.epa.gov
Top 10 actions to help the environment on Earth day
1-Smart Shopping
2-Simple Savers
3-Transportation Alternatives
More tips at :
www.earthday.ca.
Newsletter: Sustainable transportation, now made possible thanks to these new technologies!
 |
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Peapod car of the future
Peapod’s arrival on the market aims at a big impact, as revolutionary as Dyson’s nouveau genre vacuum cleaner. This futuristic eco-friendly vehicle, will be available for order on...
Read the full article
|
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subscribe to this newsletter, please contact
Joanie Bergeron Poudrier.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Segway’s new PUMA
Segway’s P.U.M.A. (Personal Urban Mobility & Accessibility) prototype represents the solution that’s needed for the future of transportation.
It prefers less over more; taking up less space, using less energy, produced more efficiently with fewer parts, creating fewer emissions during production and operation, all while offering more enjoyment, productivity, and connectivity.
This prototype is just the first example of what’s possible when two renowned vehicle makers get together. P.U.M.A is the ingenious creation of Segway and General Motors.
Unfortunately, for now there is only one prototype in the entire world which is the one you see in the
video and it is not for sale yet…but you can stay informed by reading Segway’s blog for updates at
www.segway.com/blog.
Let’s hope that their collaboration will bring many more inventive electric transportations of this kind in the years to come, this is the revolution we were waiting for!
Dynamic stabilization
The way Segway can balance on two wheels brings many benefits such as incredible maneuverability, a small footprint and providing a fantastically unique riding experience.
Electric Propulsion
Electric vehicles are clean and extremely efficient, but more than that electric propulsion enables fine adjustments to be made to each wheel (for turning and smoothing out the ride), and a precise, software-based approach to traction control and breaking.
Interesting facts
Passengers: Currently configured for 2, but could carry more
Top speed: Aimed to travel between 25 and 35 mph (40 – 56 kph)
Range: Aimed to have a 25 – 35 mile range (40 – 56 km)
Weight: Currently ~300 lbs/136 kg
Charge time: ~5-8 hours
Recharge cost:Based on the current battery configuration, it’s about $0.60 in electricity to recharge.
Watch the
prototype in action on Alternative Channel.
More info at
www.segway.com/puma in the streets of New York.
If the bees disappear, we’ll all be stung
If the bees disappear, we’ll all be stung
By David Suzuki with Faisal Moola
Some people think of bees as something to be feared. But without bees, humans would not be able to survive. It’s not just that they provide us with honey and wax; they are also one of the world’s most important pollinators. (In fact, bees native to Canada do not produce honey; honeybees are imports – and not all bees sting!)
Close to 90 per cent of the world’s plants rely on pollinators for fertilization and reproduction – including many of the plants we use for food. Beyond providing food, plants anchor soil to prevent erosion and fuel the nutrient cycle by decomposing and absorbing nutrients. Bees aren’t the only pollinators; butterflies, hummingbirds, and bats, among other animals, provide pollination. But bees are the most common pollinators.
If we lose the bees, we lose the plants, and if we lose the plants, well…
The problem is we are losing bees. European honeybees, which are now used for pollination around the world, are declining in number, as are native North American bees. We know some, but not all, of the causes.
The biggest threat is habitat loss and destruction, as increasingly natural areas are developed for housing and shopping centres and sterile lawns. Pesticide use is also killing bees and other pollinators.
But we can help our buzzing buddies in a number of ways – and at least one solution is a lot of fun for you and your kids.
First, we can stop using harmful pesticides to keep our lawns and gardens looking pretty. A growing number of provinces and municipalities, including Ontario and Quebec, have been banning these pesticides, known as cosmetic pesticides, not just to protect pollinators but also to protect human health. As well, a number of large retail stores have voluntarily taken these chemicals off their shelves.
One of the most fun ways we can all work to keep bee populations healthy is to create homes and habitat for the insects. If you have a garden, even a small one on your balcony, you can fill it with plants and flowers that attract bees and other pollinators. And because bees are easy to please, almost any garden will attract them – but remember that native plants will attract native bees while exotic plants will attract honeybees. Choosing a variety of plants that bloom throughout the season will keep bees buzzing from spring through fall.
You can also build homes for bees. Different kinds of bees have different housing needs, and it’s a great educational experience to learn how to build homes that will attract various types of bees. Canada is home to hundreds of bee species of all sizes. The smallest is the size of the head of a pin. Some live below ground, some above. And every species is beneficial to plants. The David Suzuki Foundation’s Queen of Green, Lindsay Coulter, has instructions on the foundation’s website on how to build three different kinds of bee dwelling, as well as a bee bath. It’s easy, fun, and educational.
In my hometown of Vancouver, the Environmental Youth Alliance has even started a project to place mason-bee “condos” throughout the city. Mason bees, also known as blue orchard bees, are small, about the size of a housefly. They are called mason bees because they create rows of cells in their nests divided with walls of clay. They are great pollinators – a single female will visit as many as 17 flowers a minute.
Last year, the EYA handed out 100 bee condos, each housing 36 bees, for residents to place in their yards. This year, the group is putting large condos, housing from 72 to 720 bees each, in parks and public spaces around the city. One is even designed to look like an urban condo. The project has so far spread more than 8,000 bees across the city, with the hope that they will reproduce. Urban areas are centres for bee diversity because of the diversity of flowering plants, habitats, and landscapes.
As I often point out, everything in nature is interconnected. Bees are a crucial part of this interconnection.
If bees start to disappear, the effects will cascade throughout ecosystems, affecting all life, including humans. We must do everything we can to ensure that bees survive and flourish. Our own survival depends on it.
Take David Suzuki’s Nature Challenge and learn more at
www.davidsuzuki.org
Photo:
www.greenlivingwithstyle.com.
Fashionably Responsible
A new piece of clothing (picture vibrant colors and textures) can really enhance my sense of self. So when the seasons change, I use the new weather patterns as an excuse to go shopping for something that will make me feel and look great.
But as an environmentally-conscious person, I also have to think about how, where, and with what things get made. This built-in conscience can definitely be at odds with the urge to go on a shopping spree.
Being environmentally forward and fashionable however, does not have to be mutually exclusive. What you wear and how you shop can be sustainable if you consider a few things:
1. Some of the hippest clothing just isn’t getting made any more. So how do you find it?
Action: Stake out the best vintage or second-hand clothing stores in your area (or look for them when you go traveling) and pick up something new to you.
2. Sweatshops are definitely not fashionable.
The textiles industry and the fashion industry have had to adapt to increasing awareness about sweatshops and unfair working conditions for garment workers.
Action: Choose clothing made under just conditions. Do a little research on your favorite companies and find out what their business policies are. Can’t find it? Ask a clerk, a store manager or write a letter. Ask where the clothes get made, or if they carry organic or recycled content lines.
Full article
http://www.simplegreenaction.ca
Photo: OÖM ethikwear an organic and fair trade clothing company «Made in Québec»
http://www.oom.ca
Let’s get it together with ecosystem management
By David Suzuki with Faisal Moola
The North Coast of B.C. is one of my favourite places. If you visit this spectacular and ecologically diverse region, you’ll see people fishing, logging, travelling on boats and ships, and raising families. You’ll see mountains, forests, oceans, sea lions, puffins, and whales. If you are fortunate to dive into the ocean, you’ll see salmon, herring, rockfish, sea anemones, giant scallops, kelp forests, and – deep below – 9,000-year-old glass-sponge reefs.
There is so much to see here, but we still have a lot to learn about how this ecosystem works.
It’s absurd to think that we could manage our activities in such a vast and complex area by having different government departments oversee individual activities in isolation. But that’s pretty much the way we’ve been doing things.
Fortunately, people are beginning to talk about a new way of managing our oceans, a way that’s being tested in five large ocean areas in Canada. One of these areas is the North Coast of B.C., in a region stretching from northern Vancouver Island to the B.C.-Alaska border, which the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has labelled the Pacific North Coast Integrated Management Area, or Pncima.
DFO is attempting to engage an integrated management planning process here, in part based on the recognition that everything in nature is interconnected, including human activity. For years, many scientists, resource managers, and environmentalists have encouraged government to adopt an ecosystem-based management, or EBM, approach that takes into account all values and interests. The Encyclopedia of Earth defines EBM as “an integrated, science-based approach to the management of natural resources that aims to sustain the health, resilience and diversity of ecosystems while allowing for sustainable use by humans of the goods and services they provide.”
The Federal government’s planning processes in the Beaufort Sea, Gulf of St. Lawrence, Eastern Scotian Shelf, Placentia Bay/Grand Banks, and Pacific North Coast could set an example for the EBM approach in all of Canada’s oceans.
Until now, there’s been more talk than action.
The Pncima integrated management planning process has recently seen some significant breakthroughs, though. In December, DFO signed a formal governance agreement with First Nations in the area to move forward with a marine planning process. And in late March, more than 380 people – including representatives from government, First Nations, coastal communities, marine industries, and non-governmental organizations – took part in a two-day forum to discuss management and conservation options for the region.
That so many people from so many walks of life and so many communities were able to come together to discuss the needs of this area shows not just that cooperation is possible but also that everyone understands the need for urgent action to protect the health of our oceans.
As with most processes involving a multitude of resources, interests, and ecological values, government must continue to play a leading role.
Even more importantly, our government must provide enough money for scientific research to ensure that decisions are made according to the best local and scientific knowledge.
We don’t have a lot of time to waste. Many ocean ecosystems are at tipping points, with pollution, resource extraction, and industrial impacts contributing to declines in fish, mammal, and other marine-life populations. Add to that uncertainty about the effects climate change is having on these ecosystems, and the need for planning becomes even more urgent.
A credible, long-term plan for any ocean region must include an increase in protected areas where specific types of industrial activity are limited. Canada has the longest coastline of any nation on Earth, and 40 per cent of our jurisdictional area is ocean,
yet the federal government has set aside less than one per cent of that as marine protected areas.
I hope governments, First Nations, and other interested people will continue the formal dialogue, scientific research, and relationship-building required to ensure we have intelligent management and conservation in our oceans. I believe most people understand that our own health depends on the health of ocean ecosystems, and are willing to come together to ensure ecological and economic well-being provided by our oceans are maintained at as high a level as possible. I encourage everyone in Canada who cares about the future health of our oceans to let the government know that we want a greater investment in science, management, and conservation so that our oceans stand a fighting chance in an all too uncertain future.
For more information, visit
www.healthyoceans.ca.
Take David Suzuki’s Nature Challenge and learn more at
www.davidsuzuki.org.
