The Journal of his Delights

It’s rare to have good environmental news, so I thought I’d share this bit from Grist.org.

The Canadian province of Ontario will permanently protect a gigantic swath of boreal forest in what green group ForestEthics says is the largest conservation deal in Canada’s history and one of the top three forest protection initiatives anywhere, evah. Some 225,000 square kilometers of trees — that’s more than 86,800 square miles in American — will be kept safe from resource exploration and development. The conservation commitment applies to nearly half of Ontario’s boreal forest, which houses more than 200 species of wildlife and sucks up nearly 13.8 million tons of carbon dioxide each year. “It’s unspoiled and undisturbed, and if there’s one thing we know for sure, it’s not going to stay that way forever unless we do something,” said Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, adding, “We need to prepare for development and plan for it. It’s our responsibility as global citizens to get this right, and to act now.” Wow, foresight! How very refreshing.

Pretty cool, huh?

I have a couple of news items for you. Neither article may sound all that interesting from their description, but each in their own way is compelling.

Lost Promise for Rape Victims
The first is an account of all that goes into putting together a rape kit. It’s written by a researcher at Human Rights Watch, and it’s downright damning given the effort involved.

Can Weeds Help Solve the Climate Crisis?
The second article is a New York Times piece about the effects of global warming on weeds. It’s long and often more about the researchers than the research, but it’s a potential glimpse into the future–one where we can’t take for granted the ability of agriculture as we know it to feed humanity. Although, it may be that the weeds save us in the end.

Check ‘em out.

Kim let me know about another article with information about plastic in the ocean. This one takes a closer look at the effects on the human body.

Our oceans are turning into plastic…are we?

I grew up next to the Pacific Ocean. I have fond memories of playing along its beaches as a child, and there were many days as an adult when I found myself staring out into its immensity. If there is any natural place in the world for which I feel an affinity, it is the Pacific Ocean.

You can imagine my distress then, when I read about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Technically, this area of the northern Pacific Ocean is called the North Pacific Gyre, a clockwise-swirling vortex of ocean currents twice the size of the continental United States. It’s called the Garbage Patch because the motion of the currents tends to accumulate marine debris.

In the past, this was not a problem for the Pacific and its denizens. Sea birds, marine mammals, and fish were well adapted to make use of driftwood and other debris in the Gyre. The last few decades, however, have seen a dramatic new threat to ocean health arise — plastic.

According to the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, more than a hundred million tons of plastic debris have accumulated in the North Pacific Gyre. A hundred million tons! There is so much plastic, that it outnumbers the zooplankton six to one.

This is plastic that will never disappear. Plastic doesn’t biodegrade. Instead it photo-degrades, which means that sunlight breaks it down into smaller and smaller pieces. Those small pieces drift in the ocean and are mistaken for food by fish and birds.

For example, seabirds like the North Pacific albatross are often found dead with innards full of plastic. Things like cigarette lighters and toothbrushes. Also, sea turtles will mistake plastic bags for food, thinking that they are jellyfish. These turtles will often be found dead with their intestines clogged by plastic bags.

The result? One million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals die each year due to ingestion of or entanglement in plastics. And even worse — these small bits of plastic act as sponges for non-water soluble pollutants and toxins. These poisons reach concentrations up to one million times higher in the plastic than in their free-floating state.

Filter feeders that eat these plastics are in turn eaten by fish, which are in turn eaten by larger and larger predators. In many cases, this chain concentrates the poisons even further and leads it directly to human beings.

The scope of the problem is astounding, but I refuse to believe that nothing can be done. There are places around the world contemplating banning plastic bags, and I plan on supporting those efforts. On a more personal level, I will re-commit to using cloth bags and reusable drink containers.

If you think that won’t make much of a difference, think again. For each reusable bag, another 400 plastic bags will keep from being used. Every reusable water bottle will keep another 167 plastic bottles from entering the environment.

And as we all know, change is created a person at a time. Won’t you join me?

For more information on plastics and the ocean, check out:

• The Rise Above Plastics blog
• Sailing on a Sea of Plastic
• Are Plastic Grocery Bags Sacking the Environment?

Note: This is a parallel post to the one at http://care2campaigns.wordpress.com.

May is American Wetlands Month, and as such it provides an opportunity to explore these amazing places. For too long, wetlands were perceived as wastelands, whose value came only once they were drained and converted to other uses. This was the prevailing view for centuries. In the 1600s, in the area that would later become the lower 48 United States, there were approximately 220 million acres of wetlands. Today, there is less than half that amount remaining.

And yet wetlands are the link between land and water, where the flow of water, the cycling of nutrients and the energy of the sun combine to create a unique ecosystem sometimes called a “nursery of life.” In addition to their importance for the sustainability of terrestrial and aquatic plants and animals, wetlands replenish and clean water. They provide needed rest places for migratory birds, and help reduce the risk of floods. They provide opportunities to get away from our cities and get in touch with the natural world. They are precious resources.

American Wetlands Month was first established in 1990, and it signifies a recognition that wetlands are not wastelands — that they are important to life and to the health of the larger ecosystem. But still more needs to be done to educate about their importance and encourage respect for them. The sad fact is that the United States loses approximately 80,000 acres of wetlands per year.

This alarming figure needs to be turned around. Required is more respect for the natural world, not less. If you can, this month pledge to do your part in protecting America’s wetlands.

One place to start is the petition at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/573485811.

If you would like to learn more about wetlands, Wikipedia has very thorough article, although be warned that it’s slanted towards the biologists among us.

My friend CC had this video posted on her blog, which she in turn had gotten from her friend Steve. I thought it was clever, so I thought I’d post it here too.