Earthwatch – April is Earth Month

By Paul Henderson

Making Every Day Earth Day

April 22 is Earth Day. Hug a tree, or better yet, plant one. Coinciding with Earth Day — which has become Earth Month in Canada — is the shutdown on April 30 of the Lakeview coal-fired generating station. The trees, if they could, would thank us for that. More importantly, we will all literally breathe a sigh of relief.

The skeptical among the enviros think this shut down may be too good to be true. Tom Adams from Energy Probe thinks that the shutdown is hasty and new coal technologies make coal cleaner than before. He is certain the provincial government will have to renege on their commitment to shut down the plants, so the sooner they do so, the better.

Others are praising the decision. On their website, the Ontario Clean Air Alliance is counting down the days until Lakeview stops burning coal. They are even hosting a celebration on May 26 at the Royal York Hotel called “Goodbye King Coal.”

Others still are critical of the shutdown plans. Some in the business community — chambers of commerce, affected union leaders, the Fraser Institute — continue to wail the Ontario-is-not-competitive cry in the face of coal plant shutdowns. We can’t afford to shut down cheap coal plants and have business pay the true cost of electricity, they say. The cancerous logic of infinite and exponential growth behind the competitiveness argument is the reason why we have bad air, bad water, and bad soil in the first place. To paraphrase David Suzuki: if your house was on fire would you pause putting it out to question if you could afford to or not? Ontario’s proverbial house is on fire, and the moves to start putting out the blaze are welcome.

Those same folks critical of the coal-fired plant shutdowns often argue that much of southwestern Ontario’s pollution floats north from the U.S. and if anything, the states are building more coal-fired electricity generation.

Therefore, the logic goes, closing down our coal-fired plants will have a virtually insignificant effect on North American GHG production, and even our own air quality. But that isn’t totally true. While they may be moving slower than Ontario, there is a growing groundswell in the U.S. towards cleaner energy. In December Democratic governor of Pennsylvania Edward Rendell signed into law a clean energy portfolio standard ensuring that in 15 years, 18% of all of that’s state’s energy comes from clean, efficient sources. Baby steps in the direction of clean air.

But even if the U.S. was moving in a different direction regarding energy, the idea that we shouldn’t clean up our own systems is so selfishly irresponsible as to be laughable. Everyone else has a gas-guzzling SUV, so one more for me won’t hurt? My neighbour is using pesticides on his lawn so I should too? That schoolyard pack mentality logic is as destructive to the environment as the logic of greed that underpins our whole system. Shutting down the first of the coal-fired plants in Earth Month may end up being a bold step into Ontario’s future. Stay tuned to see if the provincial government has the tenacity to see it through.

What's Your Eco-Footprint?

Every wonder how your consumption compares to others sharing the planet? Probably not, but maybe you should. There is a complex method of calculating how much resources your lifestyle uses up, and it’s called eco-footprinting.

For an uncomplicated way to simply check out your eco-footprint visit Mountain Equipment Co-op’s website www.mec.ca. Using MEC’s somewhat crude, eco-footprinting calculator my relatively modest — for Canadian standards — lifestyle would require 3.5 planets if everyone on Earth lived the way I do. And I’m a guy who rides his bike a lot, lives in a relatively small apartment, and eats local food quite often. Part of the huge number for my modest lifestyle is because some of the eco-footprint isn’t based on personal activities. Rather we are guilty by association with the collective western way of living. Things like living in the biggest city in Canada don’t help my number any.

Another simple eco-footprinting quiz can be done at www.earthday.net/footprint/

Migrating Butterflies

There is a somewhat clichéd expresesion used in quantum physics, and in environmentalism, to express the utter interconnectedness of our world. That is: when a butterfly flaps its wings in some distant part of the world, it affects the weather close by. Well new evidence gathered in Mexico shows that what happens here in Canada is affecting butterflies flapping their wings in Mexico. We’re all connected. Ever think that Canadian grocery store purchasing habits could be killing butterflies? Seems like a stretch. Well in Contepec, Mexico where for generations wintering monarch butterflies have blanketed the fir-covered hillsides, the butterfly numbers were drastically down this year. In fact there was a sharp drop in the number of butterflies wintering in five other Mexican forest sanctuaries as well.

The familiar monarch butterflies that almost represent summertime in Canada and the northern U.S. amazingly fly thousands of kilometres each winter to the warmer climate in Mexico. Ongoing deforestation in Mexico is giving the butterflies less and less place to live for the winter. Part of the story is bad weather in the U.S. corn belt, and part is logging. But not only does deforestation threaten the monarch but so too does herbicide use in Canada and the U.S. The hardier GMO crops being planted in Canada leads to increased herbicide use that is killing the winged migrating insects.

In February a group of 11 biologists studying the butterflies concluded, “Monarchs have proven resilient to many environmental stresses but the ongoing deterioration and loss of habitat in Mexico, the United States and Canada has the potential to drive the population below a level from which it can recover.”

Dire Report Card for the Planet

A landmark study released in late March has finally given solid evidence and politcal weight to what many have been complaining about for some time. The Millenium Assessment reveals that approximately 60% of the ecosystem services that support life on Earth – such as fresh water, capture fisheries, air and water regulation, and the regulation of regional climate, natural hazards and pests – are being degraded or used unsustainably. Scientists warn that the harmful consequences of this degradation could grow significantly worse in the next 50 years.

“Any progress achieved in addressing the goals of poverty and hunger eradication, improved health, and environmental protection is unlikely to be sustained if most of the ecosystem services on which humanity relies continue to be degraded,” said the study, Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) Synthesis Report, conducted by 1,300 experts from 95 countries.

With the ongoing degradation of 15 of the 24 ecosystem "services" on Earth, we will be witness to an increased likelihood of potentially abrupt changes in the world around us. These upcoming changes include the emergence of new diseases, changes in water quality, "dead zones" appearing along coastal areas, further collapse of fisheris, and shifts in regional climate.

Clean Air Promises to Remember

Lest they slip out of this one, we won’t be forgetting the promises made by Natural Resources Minister John Efford and Environment Minister Stephane Dion. Dion and Efford vowed that greenhouse-gas emissions of cars and trucks in Canada will be cut by 25% by 2010. In a joint interview, Natural Resources Minister John Efford and Environment Minister Stephane Dion said that they were committed to the deadline and the amount.

"Are we going to say 10 percent is OK? Fifteen percent? No. Twenty-five percent is our goal and the auto industry clearly understands that," stressed Efford.

California in September established its own rules to curb greenhouse-gas emissions from cars, and seven Northeastern U.S. states are likely to follow suit. If they do, the area covered by strict emission rules, encompassing Canada, California, and a cluster of northeastern states, will comprise around a third of the North American automobile market.

Seedlings of Hope & Toxic Sludge

Toxic Sludge: To AM General, the makers of the Hummer for their latest TV commercials where images of factory robotics constructing the grotesque and ridiculous monstrosities is overlaid with animal sounds; monkeys and birds. Adding environmental insult to ecological injury the ad ends with a shot of the Earth and their slogan: “Like No Other.” Indeed.

Seedling: The UK government’s announcement of a plan whereby they would pay into a climate change fund every time a minister or civil servant flies in a plane. The idea is to offset the carbon dioxide emissions from flying. While it might seem like a token gesture, even a PR stunt, the UK government does a lot of flying and it is reported that the fund could raise the equivalent of over $1 million to be invested in such things as solar cookers in India, home insulation in South Africa, and micro-hydro projects in Sri Lanka. Are you paying attention Ottawa?

Toxic Sludge: To New Brunswick’s Conservative government for approving the construction of a toxic waste incinerator in Belledune. According to the Green Party of Canada, when the operation begins incinerating 100,000 tons of U.S. toxic waste per year it will violate numerous conventions including: the Kyoto Protocol, the Baie des Chaleurs Convention, and the Stockholm Protocol on air pollution.

“Canadians will not stand by and watch our communities and pristine wilderness contaminated by toxic waste imported from the U.S.,” said Green Party of Canada leader Jim Harris. “If we can say ‘no’ to missile defense, why can’t we say ‘no’ to toxic waste


Websites worth a look:

• www.cleanair.web.net – Ontario Clean Air Alliance
• www.energyprobe.org – Energy Probe
• www.earthday.ca – Canadian Earth Day website
• www.mec.ca
• www.earthday.net/footprint/
• www.millenniumassessment.org