Science Matters by David Suzuki
Vol. 7 No. 49 – September 6, 2006
Just how important is nature to Canadians? For some, our land defines who we are as a culture. For others, it provides a place of escape and renewal from the frenetic urban centres where the majority of us live. As Canadians, it seems that nature is deeply embedded in our collective psyche.
It?s easy to tune out all those bad news stories about what?s going on in our oceans. After all, when you look out over the water, it seems like everything?s fine ? same as it ever was. But look beneath those waves and it?s a different story.
Our out-of-sight, out-of-mind mentality has prevented us from really catching on to what human activities are doing to marine life ? including important species we depend on for food. Nations, industries and individuals all get away with doing things to our oceans that people would never put up with on land.
One may be the loneliest number, but 17 is rapidly becoming one of the saddest. That’s how many Northern Spotted Owls are left in Canada, and a recent decision by the federal environment minister all but guarantees that they will be the last of their kind in our country.
Continue reading “Environment minister delivers death sentence to owls”
Have you ever been to a focus group? They’re very odd. Often used in marketing research, these small selections of randomly chosen people are brought together as a sampling of public opinion to gauge how folks feel about a particular product or issue.
It’s the heat of the summer – do you know where your kids are? According to a recent study, they’re probably in a darkened room somewhere, staring at a television or computer monitor.
Continue reading “Reality TV the closest some children get to reality”
Al Gore once told me that to get politicians to listen, you have to engage the people first. The former vice president is attempting to do just that this summer with his critically acclaimed global warming documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.” But he’s up against some pretty powerful opponents.
Artificial lighting is so ubiquitous in modern life that we hardly notice it or think about it anymore. In fact, even the term “artificial lighting” probably gives people pause. Most of us in the developed world spend so much time under artificial lighting that we’ve come to see it, rather than the sun, as our primary light source.
Continue reading “Bright lighting ideas need regulations to spur market”
I have good news and I have bad news. So let’s start with the good.
Last week, a long-awaited (since 2002!) piece of federal legislation came into force – the Pest Control Products Act. It’s a boring name for a vitally important tool to help protect farm workers, gardeners and other Canadians across the country from hazardous pesticides.
I’m no fan of George W. Bush, for reasons too many to list. But I have to give credit where credit is due, and the recent White House decision to create a new marine reserve in Hawaii deserves a round of applause. In fact, I hope our own federal government is paying close attention.
Continue reading “Marine reserve an idea Canada should emulate”
While Environment Minister Rona Ambrose fights for her political career over the federal government’s inaction on global warming, Quebec has put forward its own plan to deal with the problem – and it’s one that could teach the feds a thing or two.
From metals to minerals, we all need natural resources brought up from the earth through mining. But mining can have a huge environmental impact, and some companies are giving the industry a bad name around the world – with Canadian firms being some of the biggest offenders.
Continue reading “Time for the mining industry to clean up its act”
It’s one of those science stories that at first appears rather irrelevant: A study out of Woods Hole Laboratory has found that poison ivy will become more common if our world continues to heat up from global warming. But the
study actually gives us an indication that a warmer world will really be like – and it won’t be springtime in Paris.
Continue reading “Warmer world more annoying, scientists predict”
