In search of climate solutions before the December 2009 summit
By Bill Kovarik
So this is the speed of light.
We laugh as the solar-powered boat glides silently down the Spree River through the heart of Berlin, Germany. As monumental buildings drift past, our captain, Arno Paulus, points out a series of 64-year-old bullet holes in the stone walls alongside the river.
It’s a sobering moment in the new Berlin, a city where ghosts still flit through the Tiergarten and where hollowed-out churches still draw crowds on the Ku-Damm boulevard.
And it’s because of this past, Paulus says, that Germany has a moral obligation to help change the world. “We can do it,” he says, [...]
Chasing Copenhagen – Part I
Chasing Copenhagen – Part II
In search of climate solutions before the December 2009 summit
By Bill Kovarik
A sobering dinner with one of the worlds leading climate scientists — Stefan Ramstorf of Pottsdam University in Berlin — sets a tone of urgency. As we watch the swans paddle out on a pristine German lake, I think about Ranstorf’s prediction that at least six feet of sea level rise by 2100 is close to inevitable.
He tells us that if the goal is to limit CO2 from fossil fuels to 750 billion tons over the next 40 years, then the “only fair and just principle here is to assign them on a per capita basis.” He asks [...]
The Changing of the Grid
Unlocking the infrastructure for the next energy generation
From: Appalachian Voice, Dec. 2009
By Bill Kovarik
If the inventors of the telephone, the adding machine and the light bulb could visit their legacies today, the first two – Alexander Graham Bell and Herman Hollerith – would see enormous change, with satellites, cell phones, computers and more.
But Thomas Edison would scarcely notice a difference. The systems that lit up his incandescent bulbs a century ago run on the same principle today: large central power plants boiling water to turn turbines and feed regional monopolies.
The idea of smaller, distributed, more flexible power systems, with all their environmental and national security benefits, is only beginning [...]
Little Humbugs educates kids about the environment
By Maria Ionova
Marghanita Hughes can still clearly remember the day that started it all.
She was resting in the backyard of her suburban home in British Columbia, observing her three children weaving around a group of tall-standing pine trees. She couldn’t help but notice the vibrant butterflies and enormous dragonflies circling the heads of her little ones.
Hughes wondered to herself, ‘what would happen if her children were to magically merge with the surrounding insects?’ She imagined they would take on the form of butterfly girls and dragonfly boys. She picked up her pencil and sketched an image of a girl with butterfly wings. These were to become the main characters of [...]
Disappearing Bees
By Colin Schultz
Blueberries. Cherries. Raspberries.
It sounds like a perfect summertime snack, but it’s also a list of what might be off the shelves if the honeybee isn’t saved.
All across Canada, western honeybees (apis mellifera) have been dying out steadily over the last few years. Even with some promising research, local beekeepers are having problems saving their hives.
Dave Gale, 51, has been working as a beekeeper for the last 27 years, 25 of which have been spent at his home-based ‘Dave’s Apiaries’ in London, Ontario.
“We’ve had losses as high as 30%. This year was good, but the last few years have all been around 30%,” said Gale.
When beekeepers open their hives [...]
Activist galvanized by festival waste
By Jim Saunders
(Full pdf)
It was summer 2007 and bags of garbage were piling up alongside the bins of Victoria Park as the year’s festivals progressed.
For Maryanne MacDonald this was too much. The sight galvanized her and her London based environmental group, Waste Free World, into action.
“Something needs to be done,” she remembers saying.
MacDonald would spearhead the Victoria Park EcoStation initiative, which saw the placement of volunteer-manned composting bins at strategic locations around the park to absorb waste, including food scraps, plastic plates, knives and forks from the festivals.
Raising Campus Awareness
By Angelique Veerman
The environment was on the minds of UWO students at Clubs Week this fall and EnviroWestern has come up with many projects and events to keep environmental issues at the forefront this year.
EnviroWestern is a campus club that started in 2003 with the goal of making the University of Western Ontario “the most sustainable campus in Canada,” said the club coordinator Holly Stover.
This year EnviroWestern attracted close to 700 new members at Clubs Week. Students are attracted to the group because of a mutual interest in the environment, said Stover.
With two new projects beginning this year and many others carrying on from previous years, EnviroWestern has created many [...]
London’s Birds and Birdwatchers Unite
By Angelique Veerman
With brightly coloured dried leaves crunching underfoot, thirteen Londoners went for an autumn walk through the Fanshawe conservation area on Sunday.
The walk was organized by The McIlwraith Field Naturalists of London and was led by bird expert Cathy McCrae, the club’s field trip coordinator.
For Janet Stevenson, it was her first time out with MFN, a club devoted to the preservation and enjoyment of nature, but it won’t be her last, she said.
She joined the group out of a desire to learn about birds and as an excuse to spend time outdoors. Living half the year at her cottage on Georgian Bay, she said she spends all of her [...]
Enjoying London’s outdoors
By Marika Motiwalla
On a cold Autumn afternoon a group of nature enthusiasts, including members of Nature London and McIlwraith Field Naturalists of London were led through one of London’s parks to enjoy the outdoors.
Each person had their own reasons for being there ranging from loving the outdoors to wanting to learn about birds but all wanted to support London’s environment.
Marika Motiwalla reports.
(Audio link)
Deadly Hot
By Steve Howard
It’s not just polar bears that need to worry about global warming according to Health Canada. While increases in extreme weather conditions, melting icecaps and infectious diseases are well documented, an increase in temperature may be having effects closer to home.
Peter Berry, Health Canada’s senior policy analyst for climate change and health, delivered a speech on October 19th as part of the EcoCare 2009 conference, during which he outlined the dangers facing Canadians due to climate change. Berry, who spoke first at the conference put on by the London Health Sciences Center, suggested the number and severity of heat waves will be increasing worldwide. And with those [...]