One of the most interesting things I learned while crossing Canada earlier this year is that Canadians are excited about embracing change. People are sick of just hearing about problems like air pollution and global warming – they want to do something about them.
In spite of explosive news coverage about global warming over the past year, most people still have only a very rudimentary knowledge of this complex issue. Unfortunately, this lack of knowledge has led to persistent myths, which are slowing down real action that could prevent the worst damage from occurring to our economy and to our environment.
Continue reading “Science Matters: Climate change myths debunked”
One of the hot topics at the international climate meetings in Bonn, Germany, this week is whether or not forest-rich tropical countries should get credit for protecting their forests as a way to reduce global warming. The issue is complicated, but the answer is simple: Yes.
Continue reading “Forest protection vital to stem global warming”
As a broadcast journalist, I’m well aware of the challenges today’s reporters and journalists face in covering stories – from tight deadlines and a lack of resources, to corporate ownership and the pervasion of tabloid-style reporting in mainstream media. But as guest editor for a recent Saturday edition of the Vancouver Sun, I found out that I still have a lot to learn.
When Environment Minister Baird announced his government’s new climate change plan, I was in Toronto, getting ready to shoot some television commercials promoting energy conservation. I volunteered to do the commercials because I believe that everyone has to do his fair share in reducing the threat of global warming. Mr. Baird and Prime Minister Harper apparently disagree.
What happens to them is unknown. The adults are simply gone ? thousands of them. No corpses left behind, nothing out of place. They are just gone.
It may seem like the set-up for an episode of CSI, but this mystery isn?t about missing people ? it?s about missing bees. Strange as it may seem, a mysterious phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder is threatening bees across the United States and may be making its way into Canada.
Continue reading “Mysterious phenomenon has researchers baffled”
Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of sharing the stage with Dr. Daniel Pauly, a world-renowned fisheries biologist. We were at a SeaChoice event, discussing the future of our oceans and how programs like SeaChoice could help by giving consumers a tool to make sustainable choices.
On March 30th, Science, one of the world’s most respected scientific journals, published a paper about how the overfishing of big sharks in our oceans has led to an increase in ray and skate populations which, in turn, is having cascading effects down the ocean food chain.
It’s a fascinating piece of work – one of those big-picture studies that helps connect the dots and shed light on the complex interconnections between various species in an ecosystem. But what makes this particular piece of science so important to me personally is the lead author – Ransom Myers of Dalhousie University in Halifax.
Continue reading “Loss of a friend is also a loss for science”
I just turned 71. That’s old – at least in my books. Sometimes I can’t believe that I’ve made it this far. Other times I can’t believe how much there is left I want to do. At my age, I think it’s pretty common for people to start thinking about these things, and what we want to leave behind – our legacies.
Phew. That’s all I can say now that I’ve finished a 30-day cross-Canada road trip to listen to Canadians’ concerns about the environment.
It’s been exhausting and at times bewildering, but I now know that the concern for environmental issues we’re reading about in the polls isn’t just a surface anomaly – it’s real and it’s palpable. Canadians are hungry for sustainable solutions and frustrated by what they see as a lack of political leadership on these issues.
Sometimes I feel like I’m the only person in Canada who doesn’t own a cell phone, and I don’t think I ever will. Watching people barking into their phones at the gym, on ski hills and in restaurants, I wonder why they bother to go there in the first place. But that’s their personal choice. What really bugs me is the planned obsolescence of so many of these technologies.
March 2, 2007 – Exhaustion. Exhilaration. Self-doubt. It seems like I?ve been assailed by these emotions daily on my cross-Canada bus tour. With up to three speaking events a day, along with a constant barrage of media interviews, punctuated by hours of driving on the open road, the emotional peaks and valleys are truly draining. But of this much I am certain: This is a great country.
