Come Visit my Online Store

Visit My Website

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Happy New Year Mother Earth

After contemplating all of the things that have occurred in the past year I decided to put together a top ten list of environmental facts that this column has covered in 2009 and some ideas that our local politicians can follow for 2010. Here it is:

10. The dikes on the marsh need to be rebuilt. This falls into the infrastructure category that both the federal and provincial governments are working on to help rebuild the economy. This is also a way to avert a disaster of severe flooding in the future.

9. Community Gardens - A community garden can be done anywhere there is a patch of soil and people wanting to get together and plant there own food. Community gardens are plots of land which are gardened by a group of people and they offer many benefits within the community. Community gardens provide access to fresh produce and plants as well as access to satisfying labour, neighborhood improvement, a sense of community and connection to the environment.

8. Financial Crisis vs. The Environmental Crisis - It is possible that we can overcome our economic and environmental challenges. The economic crisis is not separate from the resource crisis, which is not separate from the environmental crisis. We cannot consume our way out of the global economic crisis. Economic stimulus that aims to restart massive over consumption of the earth's resources is ultimately bound to fail, and cause more harm than good.

7. Swine Flu and climate change may be inextricably related. Both are the end results of unbridled economic growth and environmental degradation. The catastrophic impacts of climate change and unsustainable development can cause damage to human health. Climate Change may contribute to the accelerated occurrence of pandemics that may be attributed to global activities such as the economy, war and pollution.

6. Sustainable Development and a Sustainable Environment – According to author
Stephen Lewis who gave a lecture at Mount Allison in September, “there is the possibility of a catastrophic event between the years 2030 and 2050 which is unavoidable and will cause rising sea levels, environmental refugees, drought and the loss of food security everywhere”.

5. Global Warming - Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of the Earth's surface. Global warming is real and it's affecting earth and everything on it. There are many reasons for this temperature rise, and big part of it is resulted from human activities. Things such as electricity that we use require burning of the fossil fuel. Another factor of global warming is the by- products of manufacturing and waste from the things we use and consume. This rising of temperature will give us hotter weather and strange weather patterns. This will, in turn decrease the living habitat for animals, increase the sea level that will cause many islands and shorelines to decrease in size, and will affect the growing of crops for consumption. We need to live smarter. We need to reduce reuse and recycle!

4. The Chignecto Game Sanctuary needs full wilderness protection. The Chignecto Game Sanctuary is more than a sanctuary for flora and fauna; it is also a sanctuary for people. The Chignecto Game Sanctuary is also the largest area of wilderness that remains in Cumberland County, but it is not being protected. Chignecto is home to old-growth forests, wild salmon rivers, and species at risk including the wood turtle, inner Bay of Fundy atlantic salmon, and the peregrine falcon. Wilderness protection means that the industrial activities such as mining and clear-cutting trees will have to stop within the borders of the newly protected area – not to keep people out. There should be a better balance between industry needs and what the forests and oceans can sustain. Jobs are certainly important but as with the fishing industry, clear-cutting poses as much harm to the forests as dragging the oceans for fish.

3. Climate Change - Climate change is real, and we are beginning to experience a gradual increase in its impacts. This might mean increasingly extreme weather (hot or cold), droughts, flooding on the marsh and in towns like Oxford, and erosion. Preparing for a changing climate poses particular challenges in Nova Scotia because most of our population lives along the coastline and much of our infrastructure is located in vulnerable areas; take the new waste water facility to be built on the marsh for example. Our schools must continue to educate about climate change, a cleaner environment, and sustainable prosperity, so future generations can better cope with these issues.

2. Copenhagen - Each country that attended the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference in December has been quick to point at that other countries will need to make big changes. USA is blaming China, China is blaming USA, everyone is blaming India and so on and so forth. Canada has been strongly criticized internationally for reneging on the Kyoto climate protocol and for refusing to sign on to a new deal limiting greenhouse gases unless developing nations are included. The Climate Change Conference wasn’t about forcing other countries to our will, it was about taking steps to protect our world and our future.

1. The use of our forests for biomass – You have got to be kidding me!!!

Lisa Emery, B.A. is currently living in Amherst. Lisa invites comments to her column. You can contact Lisa at: emeryvine@gmail.com or view her blog at http://emeryvinegrapevine.blogspot.com

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Happy Holidays Mother Earth

As we plan to sit down with family and friends this week to give thanks for all that we have, perhaps one of the biggest “Thank you” should go to Mother Earth for putting up with all of our blunders. Earth really has taken a lot of abuse from us humans and yet keeps providing for us and all the other species. It’s not an easy task and it keeps getting harder.
Today the threats to our environment are even clearer to see. The year is 2009 and the earth is in the midst of a dramatic climate change conference. Due to man’s domination of the planet and the carbon dioxide produced as a by product and flows into our atmosphere, everything we do adds up.

We live in a world where climate change, deforestation, holes in the ozone layer, water scarcity and air pollution are growing sources of concern. Finding a solution as individuals and as nations against the environmental crisis has never been greater.

My prayer to the World Leaders at Copenhagen is that every person there has the same dream about what will happen if all of us don't start taking care of each other and Mother Earth; and that every person on earth sees what they can do to help save humanity and Mother Earth.

It has been a long, difficult two weeks in Copenhagen. The protests, the stalling discussions, the walkouts, the deadlock, the deal or no deal...and while a preliminary accord has been reached, it is only a start, and a lot more work is needed to come up with a stable and comprehensive deal. It will take time to understand the full implications of the conference. An accord was hashed out in the final hours. But this is very clearly the beginning, not the end of discussions.

As you read this column, the winter solstice has come (December 21st) which was the pagan holiday that inevitably became Christmas. As you can read, I began the column with a greeting of Happy Holidays. “Happy Holidays” is simply a term that encompasses all of those celebrations we engage in during the months of December and January.

I am wishing the best for all of the celebrations. Therefore, those of you that celebrate Christmas have a happy, healthy and green Christmas and for those of you that celebrate a holiday of a different name or persuasion – Happy Holidays and health and happiness. For this is the season to celebrate that which you cherish the most: your faith in that which is greater than you, including Mother Earth.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

The World Goes to Copenhagen Part lll - Truth or Consequences?

This is the last few days that the world leaders are meeting for the Climate Change conference in Copenhagen. The theme of the December 7 – 18 conference is “Hope,” The conference in Copenhagen is strictly about science and in this context the world’s leading researchers are free to tell it like it is – particularly about the need for massive and rapid reductions of carbon.
The science is in but the media seems to be harping on an incident of hacked emails in which the truth was out. There is a vast difference between putting forth a point of view, honestly held, and intentionally sowing the seeds of confusion.

This PR campaign could not be accomplished without the compliance of media. The world’s best-qualified scientists agree that climate is changing and that the burning of fossil fuels is mostly to blame. Although there is no debate in peer reviewed science journals, the well-funded and highly organized public relations campaign has left the impression – in mainstream media – of a lively and continuing scientific controversy.

The hacking of emails from a leading British climate research centre is an illegal act. The only issue that has to be dealt with as far as this occurrence is concerned is to find out who is behind it. The emails were hacked from computers at the University of East Anglia. As some of the emails seem to reflect attempts by mainstream scientists to block publication of articles by dissenting researchers, the affair has been dubbed “Climategate” by the media.

There is something else at play as well. This conference is outside of the confines of the Intergovenmental Panel on Climate Change. When so-called skeptics call this process overly politicized, they are right – only in the wrong way. Many researchers have long complained that diplomats and politicians who draft the final wording of their assessments force them to be painfully conservative in their estimates and communications about our warming world.
A key working group under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change came up with a six-page text last Friday. The draft may form the core of a new global agreement to combat climate change beyond 2012, when the present framework, the Kyoto Protocol, expires. However, most figures in the text are shown in brackets – meaning that there is not yet agreement on these specifics. Most importantly, the draft states that emissions should be halved worldwide by 2050 compared to 1990 levels.

The stakes are high in this planetary game of pass the buck. Will we have the truth or have to deal with the consequences? As the clock runs down on the conference, our chances to turn this global emergency around could be diminishing by the day due to an over-inflated PR campaign called “climategate”.

Lisa Emery, B.A. is currently living in Amherst. Lisa invites comments to her column. You can contact Lisa at: emeryvine@gmail.com or view her blog at http://emeryvinegrapevine.blogspot.com

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Copenhagen Protest Turns Violent, Hundreds Arrested (VIDEO)


You are quite right Aliksa there is always someone in a crowd that can ruin or disrupt a grassroots movement. First climategate from the mainstream media and now the rest of the detractors are getting violent. sometimes it is tough to be green and want to help save our planet from man-made destruction.
About Copenhagen 2009
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Saturday, December 12, 2009

The World Goes to Copenhagen Part ll

From December 7th to the 18th the world will hold a Climate Change conference in Copenhagen. Governmental representatives from 190 countries are expected to be in Copenhagen in the days leading up to the conference accompanied by other governmental representatives, NGO's, journalists and others. In total 8000 people are expected to Copenhagen in the days of the climate change meetings.

The conference in Copenhagen is the 15th conference of parties (COP15) in the Framework Conventions on Climate Change. The last most recent meeting in United Nations Climate Change Conferences was held in December 2007 in Bali.

In 2012 the Kyoto Protocol to prevent climate changes and global warming runs out. To keep the process on the line there is an urgent need for a new climate change protocol. At the conference in Copenhagen 2009 the parties meet for the last time on a government level before the climate agreement needs to be renewed.

Therefore the Climate Conference in Copenhagen is essential for the world’s climate and the Danish government is putting a hard effort in making the meeting in Copenhagen a success ending up with a Copenhagen Protocol to prevent global warming and climate changes.
Research shows that most Canadians don’t understand the science of global warming, or how it could affect their health, communities and livelihoods. On the flip side, as Canadians grow to understand climate change — what’s happening, why, and what we can do about it — they become more likely to support the policies and practices that are necessary to combat global warming.

Despite the unprecedented threat of climate change, many people still doubt the science or question the economic case for action. Skeptics think that the science is to wishy- washy or wrong all together. However, the world’s most authoritative scientific bodies emphatically recognize the evidence and danger of human-caused climate change. The only uncertainty is how quickly change will occur — and the latest science shows it happening faster than anticipated.

Some experts think that global warming is just a trend and things will get back to normal eventually. They are correct in that climate change is normal, but geologic history shows that
sudden warming shocks to the earth’s systems can and will cause rapid sea-level rise and mass extinctions. An average global warming of only 2°C would result in serious impacts on Canadian ecosystems, infrastructure and the resource-based economy sectors, such as farming, fishing and forestry.

Lisa Emery, B.A. is currently living in Amherst. Lisa invites comments to her column. You can contact Lisa at: emeryvine@gmail.com or view her blog at http://emeryvinegrapevine.blogspot.com

Monday, December 7, 2009

THE WORLD GOES TO COPENHAGEN

From December 7th to the 18th the world will hold a Climate Change conference in Copenhagen. If the whole world goes to Copenhagen and leaves without making the needed political agreement, then the conference will be seen as a failure that is not just about climate change. It will be seen as the whole global democratic system not being able to deliver results in one of the defining challenges of our century.

There is a steady momentum regarding climate change throughout the world. It would be irresponsible for the world’s governments not to use this momentum to create the changes needed now. Our Prime Minister, Stephen Harper has only this past week agreed to go to Copenhagen. He feels, and our government feels that the initiatives they have in place to reduce carbon 20% by 2020 is good enough for our country. Is it??

The climate conference may not put in place a climate treaty this year to replace the Kyoto Protocol; however, it should be close to an agreement with these essentials in place: 1. How much are the industrialized countries willing to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases? 2. How much are major developing countries such as China and India willing to do to limit the growth of their emissions? 3. How is the help needed by developing countries to engage in reducing their emissions and adapting to the impacts of climate change going to be financed? 4. How is that money going to be managed?

Each country attending the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference in December has been quick to point at that other countries will need to make big changes. USA is blaming China, China is blaming USA, everyone is blaming India and so on and so forth. India, in the past week has come forward with some targets on reducing carbon by 2015. Canada has been strongly criticized internationally for reneging on the Kyoto climate protocol and for refusing to sign on to a new deal limiting greenhouse gases unless developing nations are included.

The Copenhagen Climate Change Conference isn't about forcing other countries to our will, it's about taking steps to protect our world and our future. That's why, regardless of what the other countries attending the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference decide, Canada and our Prime Minister should take the lead in affirmative and positive action in addressing all of the issues raised at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference! Lets hope that this is not just another photo opportunity for our world leaders.

Lisa Emery, B.A. is currently living in Amherst. Lisa invites comments to her column. You can contact Lisa at: emeryvine@gmail.com or view her blog at http://emeryvinegrapevine.blogspot.com