Happy International Women’s Day
International Women’s Day is celebrated on March 8th around the world, and is a recognized holiday in many countries including Vietnam and Russia, reports CARE Canada’s website dedicated to the Day.
The importance of the “role of women in international development is the reason CARE Canada has joined in with activities around International Women’s Day,” Kieran Green, their Communications Director, told me. Over the years, CARE has “found that women play the most powerful role in fighting poverty”, Kieran explained. “A woman who is empowered is more likely to send her kids to school and make sure her family gets proper health care”. When women in developing countries become empowered economically, the rates of domestic violence go down. The effects are enormous and that’s why CARE focuses on women, and it’s also what they’re trying to help people realize on International Women’s Day this year.
Kieran also mentioned that when CARE Canada realized there was no symbol for International Women’s Day, they decided to resurrect “the old folk tradition of when you want to remember something that’s important you tie a piece of string around your finger”. It’s similar to the idea presented by the red ribbon for AIDS and the pink ribbon for breast cancer. “So for this year we’re calling on Canada and hopefully we’ll see it in the years to come spread around the world, that for International Women’s Day as a reminder of everything that women have achieved and for what they have yet to achieve, tie a string around your finger.”
CARE Canada’s International Women’s Day website has a video showing Fergie, Duchess of York, wearing a string, as well as some women in Afghanistan, Haiti and elsewhere. “String is available everywhere, and it’s cheap. It’s easy to tie a string around your finger,” Kieran added. He’s right – tying a string around my finger by myself took less than a minute. I may have a friend make it a fancy bow.
CARE Canada has a great website dedicated to International Women’s Day. Enjoy the Day, and tell your friends about it. It’s a good opportunity to celebrate the social, economic and political successes of women past and present. Yet it is also a day to think of the millions of women and girls worldwide who continue to fight for justice, equality and peace, the website reminds us.
Happy International Women’s Day!
American Attitudes towards Climate Change
George Mason University’s Center for Climate Change Communication has five recent and interesting reports about climate change attitudes that can be downloaded when you visit their website. They’re well worth a good look.
The reports include a January 2010 update to their Global Warming’s Six Americas research. Their press release suggests that Americans can be grouped into one of six groups depending on their attitudes towards climate change. Overall, the results show a shift among Americans from being convinced that global warming is happening and is caused by humans and is a real threat (10% from its previous 18%), to more people (16%) believing global warming is not happening and is likely a hoax.
The report suggests that part of the cause responsible for this decrease is the current economic conditions and the recent attacks on climate science. While people focus more on keeping their job or dealing with job loss, they share something in common with people in developing countries who just want to feed their family. As humanitarian and conservation workers reveal, when people get desperate enough they will carry packages across the Pakistani/Afghanistan border for dinner money, or clear the forests of animals for African bushmeat. It’s tough to care about the long term consequences of climate change when you’re worried about paying your rent or feeding your family. But it’s still important.
Some people still care about their world, even when they’re facing personal challenges. They decide to be game wardens rather than bushmeat hunters. If only we could bottle that and pass it around!
The Center’s reports also have interesting information about the people who occupy the middle ground. The “Cautious” believe global warming is a problem but not urgent and are unsure if it is human caused, has risen to 27% from 19% in 2008.
The “Disengaged” who don’t know much about global warming and may not even think about it, has decreased to 6% from 12% in 2008. The “Doubtful” who aren’t sure if global warming is happening, but believe that if it is it’s natural and not a threat, is now 13% from 11% in 2008.
Interestingly, the majority of respondents believe that developing sources of clean energy should be a priority for the US Government, and support more funding for related research. Perhaps we can solve the problems even if people don’t fully believe in them!
As well as the above report, the website also has information about how American attitudes don’t equal concerns about recycling or eating locally grown food. Then there are four other reports to read.
So check out the University’s Center for Climate Change Communication’s website and learn more about American attitudes and actions. It’s important reading.
Tags: Center for Climate Change, clean energy, Climate Change, George Mason, global warming, locally grown food, recycling, Six Americas
Energy Sustainability, Olympics-Style
Dancing on a sustainable power floor that lights up when dancers move on it, a film that connects the dots between Olympic athletes and powerful electrical energy, and an environmentally-friendly home – that’s BC Hydro’s Power Smart Village pavilion at the Olympics.
Hello from Vancouver, home to the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games. BC Hydro is using their role as the Official Supplier of Electricity to the Games as a platform to promote a message of conservation, Simi Heer explained to me. Simi is BC Hydro’s Power Smart Media Representative.
BC Hydro provides electricity to 94% of British Columbians, and is the third-largest electric utility in Canada. Their Power Smart program has been delivering a sustainability message for years, encouraging British Columbians to consume less electricity.
It was fun to dance on the electricity-generating floor at Club Energy, and watch as the colored lights beneath the floor turned on and flashed with my dancing speed. The floor is also part of BC Hydro’s message of how we impact and are tied to energy. According to Simi, 1.1 million watts of electricity were generated the first two days from people dancing on the floor. She told me that the floor has generated around six kilowatt hours of electricity in just over a week, enough for six loads of laundry. That’s a lot of dancing. “The message we’re trying to show is that it’s hard to generate electricity, so we should be wise in how we use it,” Simi commented. Electricity doesn’t excite everyone, so the dance floor “makes it more interesting.”
Also at the Power Smart Village pavilion is a short film that draws parallels between athletes using their bodies efficiently and people using energy wisely. Sometimes people need to be trained in conservation messages, just like athletes require training to become skilled in their sport. Lack of knowledge can be a major stumbling block in getting people to live more sustainably.
Another onsite display is the Home of the Future, which is made of two recycled shipping containers. The outside is made of B.C. cedar board siding and pine beetle wood. Inside, a Smart Washer & Dryer and Smart Refrigerator monitor energy levels and do their most intensive work when the energy demand is low. Part of BC Hydro’s Olympics effort is to recruit British Columbians to become members of Power Smart, and reduce their energy consumption by 10%, reports Simi. It’s one step along the road to living sustainably.
Tags: 2010 Olympics, BC Hydro, Climate Change, Club Energy, Conservation, dance floor, generating electricity, Home of the Future, Power Smart, Power Smart Village, sustainability
Weather and Wildlife
Do you ever read a news item that makes you go “hhmmm”? Recently, several news items from the world of wildlife had that effect on me.
The first was from CNN online, about Kenyan wildlife officials rounding up and moving thousands of zebras and wildebeest from a northern park to Amboseli National Park to feed starving lions and hyenas. The lions and hyenas have started going after local livestock, because the drought that Kenya recently suffered from has killed many of their prey animals in the park. This also impacts tourism – Amboseli is one of Kenya’s top parks, and most tourists go there to see the animals.
Then, halfway around the world, another item that has been in the news caught my attention. Partly because it’s important, and partly because when combined with the above story all I could think at first was “hhmmm”.
As various news outlets have recently covered, animals and plants have been dying in Florida due to a bout of unusually cold weather. Animals such as the endangered manatee was featured for several nights on evening broadcasts as they huddled in springs trying to stay warm. The New York Times In Transit Blog mentions that thousands of “cold-stunned” sea turtles were rescued. Sadly, animals died from the cold, including manatees, sea turtles and crocodiles.
What struck me is that both of these stories exist due to drastic weather changes, and yet stories appeared around the same time in other media outlets announcing that the number of people who “believe” in climate change has gone down since Copenhagen. How can people not believe in climate change, or be concerned about what is happening in our world, when they learn stories like the above?
The other thing that struck me about the stories is what a strange world we’re living in now, and it’s likely to become even stranger.
What did the two news stories make you think? Other than simply, “hhmmm”?
Tags: Amboseli National Park, Climate Change, Conservation, Copenhagen, Endangered Species, Florida, Kenya, lions, Manatees, sea turtles, Wildlife, zebras
Protecting Whales and Dolphins
The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, (WDCS), along with eleven other groups, have gone to court to try to stop the US Navy from building a US warfare training site east of Jacksonville, Florida. The area happens to be the only known calving area for endangered North Atlantic right whales. So I called Erich Hoyt, Senior Research Fellow and Programme Head for Critical Habitat/MPAs for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, to find out more.
Erich reports that the Navy and the National Marine Fisheries Service have acknowledged that the training site may impact right whales and other species in the area. (The National Marine Fisheries Service manages marine sites and marine mammals and is responsible for enforcing the Marine Mammal Protection Act, Erich told me.) In spite of this, however, the Navy has decided to construct the site. Promises that they will evaluate the impacts after the site has been built do not satisfy environmentalists who can’t imagine the Navy spending that kind of money and then not using the site.
The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, along with the eleven other groups, feel that these impacts must be addressed first and that mitigation plans need to be developed before the site is constructed.
The US Navy has acknowledged that their sonar caused Cuvier’s Beaked Whales off the Bahamas to strand. Training exercises involving sonar have also caused whales to strand elsewhere, including the Mediterranean and off the Canary Islands. The US Navy is interested in these results, and apparently are trying to find out more about the impacts of their sonar. I like to believe that many US Navy people enjoy the sea so much that they also care about whales and dolphins.
The problem is that underwater, “noise travels so fast and far that something that might not seem to be a problem on land is quickly a big problem under the sea,” Erich reflected. I remember as a child, swimming off an island beach, hearing what sounded like the engine of a motorboat almost on top of me. I burst to the surface, expecting to see the boat and was surprised when I couldn’t locate it. It was not yet within view. I continued my swim but looked up every few minutes until finally the small boat came into view. I can only imagine how unnerving the noise must be to whales that can’t understand what’s happening.
Further, whales and dolphins are very dependent on sound. The background noise of the container ships that are on the ocean has doubled every decade since the 1950s as the number of ships grew. Scientists, Erich told me, have found evidence of whales communicating using louder sounds and blue whales using lower noises. The supposed link is being investigated.
This is not only an American issue. It’s a Canadian issue as well, Erich pointed out. North Atlantic right whales migrate north and feed in summertime off of the Bay of Fundy and the coast of New Brunswick. They go to Florida to breed. So they summer in Canada and winter in Florida – sounds like they do their own version of snowbirding!
Erich has written several books, including one about marine protected areas. Entitled Marine Protected Areas for Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises (Earthscan, 2005, 516 pp), it is in its second edition and is available on Amazon.com. It features protected areas around the world which include marine mammals. “There are about 600 of them existing or proposed worldwide,” Erich commented, but many of them “are too small to be really effective”. The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society is campaigning to establish 12 representative, large, highly-protected areas or networks. Some of these are actually networks of several marine protected areas that protect migrating whales.
More details about Erich and reviews of his books can be found on his personal website at www.erichhoyt.com. To find out more about the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, visit their website.
Tags: Caribbean, Conservation, dolphins, Erich Hoyt, National Marine Fisheries Service, sonar, US Navy, whales, Whales and Dolphins
Sustainability for Businesses
The Burnaby Board of Trade held an Environmental Sustainability Forum for Business yesterday evening that is worth writing about. Hosted in the architecturally stunning Electronic Arts building, the event featured a panel of four environmentally friendly speakers with good business tips.
As the panel was introduced, it was noted that the pathway to being green is often less clear than the desire to be sustainable. Thus, it was fitting that the first speaker was Peter Robinson, CEO of the David Suzuki Foundation that helps teach people how to be sustainable.
Peter suggested that sustainability targets should include longer term solutions that apply to the whole system, that balance production and consumption, are transparent and include accountability. Making operations efficient and reducing energy and waste helps a business save money. The next step is reducing their product’s footprint, by making it and its packaging greener. Level three involves greening your network – your customers, suppliers, producers, and not least your employees. As in the palm oil article I posted recently, examine your supply chain. How green is it and how could it be made more sustainable?
Maureen Cureton, Green Business Manager at Vancity (see www.vancity.com/greenbusiness), spoke next. Vancity, she started, was the first North American-based financial institution that became carbon neutral. They accomplished this through focusing on building energy savings, paper use, employee commuting and bus travel. Items such as 100% post consumer paper cost more, she acknowledged, but reductions in consumption helps offset costs. Vancity’s environmental commitments generate employee and member (customer) loyalty as well as enhanced brand value which far outweighs any residual cost increase.
TJ Galda, Chair of the Electronic Arts Green Team, was next. He opened by saying sustainability gives a business a good triple bottom line – including the business, the environment, and the corporate cultural attitude. They’re thorough at EA (as it’s called) – the paper towels get composted. TJ made an excellent case about the benefits a business receives when employees are happy, and increasingly employees want to go home at night and tell their children that Mom or Dad works at a planet friendly company.
David Moran, Director of Public Affairs and Communications for Coca-Cola Canada, rounded out the panel. Coca-Cola Canada is a huge company, and it takes time to change a company that size. But they’re making a good effort. They’re examining ways to reduce their sugar footprint, and to become carbon free. A beverage container now contains a significant amount of sustainable material. And managers present their efforts to their Board of Directors annually, who importantly support the green shift.
The event was wrapped up with a Q&A session, during which the speakers responded to questions with knowledge and a genuine interest in helping businesses become sustainable.
Overall, it was a great event and hopefully this article will help businesses everywhere and of any size examine their own footprint and make it sustainable.
Tags: BBOT, Burnaby Board of Trade, Coca Cola, David Suzuki Foundation, Electronic Arts, green business, sustainability, Vancity
Happy World Wetlands Day!
World Wetlands Day (Feb. 2) recognizes those countries that have signed the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, a conservation agreement called the Ramsar Convention. The agreement provides an outline for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources. It came into popular effect in 1975, and remains today the only global environmental treaty that deals with a particular ecosystem.
Canada (with 37 Ramsar sites) and the United States (with 26 Ramsar sites) are among the many countries who have signed the agreement. Canada has more sites than the U.S. partly because Canada is home to 25% of the world’s wetlands.
Wetlands, according to the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC), include swamps, ponds, marshes, and peat bogs. They function similarly to giant sponges, soaking up rain and snow melt water, and slowly releasing it during drier seasons while filtering it to help reduce pollution and soil erosion.
Wetlands are the exclusive home to plants, fish and birds that use them for breeding, nesting and feeding. Sadly, wetlands are disappearing. In Canada, organizations such as the Nature Conservancy of Canada and Ducks Unlimited work together to try to preserve wetlands.
Much of this work is part of the Nature Conservancy’s partnership with the Government of Canada. The Natural Areas Conservation Program is a $225 million grant given to the NCC by the government in 2007, which the organization is responsible for managing. The grant assists NGOs in securing ecologically-sensitive lands, and involves the government matching funds raised by the NGOs. As of September 2009, the program has saved over 302,880 acres, protecting habitat for over 79 species at risk.
The Nature Conservancy of Canada determines which natural areas are significant based on an area’s level of biodiversity and the threats it faces. Much of this information is gathered through the eight Conservation Data Centres established by the organization across Canada since 1988.
Once priorities are set, the NCC works with private landowners to secure ecologically-significant land identified as conservation priorities. NCC acquires and protects land through land purchase, donation, conservation agreement or relinquishment of mining or timber rights.
NCC’s work doesn’t end when the land is acquired. Ongoing land management is needed to ensure the continued health of ecosystems and the plants and animals that live within them.
The program is certainly a positive one for a government that didn’t do much good in Copenhagen. Let’s hope that by recognizing the good that they’re doing here, we can encourage the government to care for the climate – the very climate that provides the rain and snow that make wetlands possible.
Tags: Ducks Unlimited, marshes, Nature Conservancy, peat bogs, ponds, Ramsar, swamps, Wetlands
Good News for Haiti
The Hope for Haiti Now telethon has raised an awesome $58 million, a figure which is likely to increase as donations continue to pour in.
Today I spoke with Meredith Eves, Assistant to Director of Communications, of Partners in Health. Her organization is one slated to receive funds from Hope for Haiti Now. She reports that Partners in Health has been helping people in Haiti for over 20 years, and they plan to continue their presence there. Due to the earthquake, “there is going to be such a great need going forward,” Meredith told me.
Picture From Partners in Health
Meredith confirmed that the $58 million means that there will be funding available to build new hospitals and schools. Partners in Health is especially interested in “education, healthcare, as well as clean water and the roots of health and social justice,” Meredith explained. The wonderful support from the telethon’s viewers makes greater support possible. Meredith continued, “This is going to be a long-term recovery. It’s not something that will shift in the next couple of months. Haiti was already a pretty marginalized place prior to this.”
One example of the challenges facing Haitian people is the number of people who now live without an arm or a leg. “And they’re living in a mountainous country,” Meredith added. Psycho-social support, much needed following the traumatic event, will also be possible thanks to the money raised, and the people will be really well-cared for.
“We incredibly appreciate the support and we hope that people continue to stay updated on what’s going on,” Meredith concluded. Partners in Health’s website will continue providing coverage on Haiti and how they use the funding.
Other organizations receiving funding also have information available on their websites. Here’s a listing of the recipients, including links to their websites:
Clinton Bush Haiti Foundation
United Nations World Food Programme
Yele Haiti Foundation
All of these organizations, and more, are wonderful for helping the Haitian people. Our support makes more assistance possible. Good for those of you who have reached out to provide a helping hand or a much-needed donation.
Tags: Clinton Bush Haiti Foundation, Haiti, Hope For Haiti Now, Oxfam, Partners in Health, Red Cross, UN World Food Programme, UNICEF, Yele Haiti Foundation
Wildlife Call Ringtones
Ringtones are available that sound like the calls of endangered wildlife and are one way to show what you care about. One of the greatest selections of wildlife ringtones available is written about in the Friday File (which you can access through either this link, the menu bar at the top of this page or the link at the side).
Tags: Bald Eagle, Center for Biological Diversity, Conservation, Grizzly Bear, Mexican Gray Wolf, Prairie Dog, ringtones, Wildlife
Ending Hunger
The response to the crisis in Haiti has been an outpouring of warmth and support from people all around our world as our hearts go out to the people there. Aid organizations have responded to the call to provide emergency aid to the devastated country, including medical, food and water. There is still a lot to do, and I wanted to highlight an organization helping to make a difference.
Margie Fleming Glennon, Communications Director of Share Our Strength, kindly gave me some insights into the aid effort as well as about her organization. Share Our Strength has given $145,000 to five organizations with the capacity and expertise to respond to such a huge crisis. The funding ranges from $67,500 for Partners in Health, to $25,000 for each of CHF International and the United Nations Foundation, $22,500 for CARE, and $5,000 for the International Organization for Migration.
Haiti’s immediate needs must be addressed first, as aid is struggling to get in and issues around starvation and security loom. VoicesForOurPlanet.com joins our readers in wishing the aid organizations and the people in Haiti all the very best and pray for them daily.
Once the current crisis settles down, there will be a need for long-term assistance, and that’s where Share Our Strength will continue to help. The organization specializes in feeding the hungry. Hunger has been a long-standing issue in Haiti, one which is expected to be even more urgent going forward.
Share Our Strength is in the planning stages with chefs across the United States, many of whom they have long-established relationships with. And history. Following Hurricane Katrina, the organization managed the Restaurants for Relief program, which helped raise money to rebuild New Orleans. Now they will step forward to do the same for Haiti.
So what does Share Our Strength do between major crises, and where does their money come from? The organization’s mission is to end hunger in the United States. Having been founded 25 years ago to help provide aid to the Ethiopian famine, Share Our Strength today continues to provide some international support, although it’s a small part of their budget. They have been addressing the ongoing problem of hunger in Haiti for around 20 years, which takes the largest portion of their international aid budget. Now, obviously, they are giving Haiti a much greater focus.
The organization is likely familiar to many of you, through some of their well-known events. The flagship event is Taste of the Nation(R), which started in 1988 and today is America’s largest culinary event. Presented by American Express, popular restaurants in 55 US cities offer food and beverage tastings, involving over 10,000 chefs. The events are entirely managed by volunteers, and raise millions of dollars each year that Share Our Strength uses to support over 1,000 hunger organizations as well as its own food programs.
Margie also mentioned several other major programs that her organization manages, including the Great American Bake Sale and the Great American Dine Out events. Their Operation Frontline program helps teach low-income families to shop and cook on a budget. They are also starting a new program focused on people with diabetes in 20 communities across the US.
As well, in the summer of 2009, Share Our Strength surveyed American teachers about child hunger in the classroom. Responses came from 700 teachers in 47 states and a wide range of schools. Sixty-two percent of teachers reported seeing children who come to school hungry each week because they are not getting enough to eat at home. Sixty-three percent of teachers mentioned that they use their own money to help feed children in their school. They likely understand the negative cycle to which hunger can lead. If you’ve ever been hungry, you may remember how distracting it can be. Distracted children, unfortunately, are often labeled as misbehaving, a label which can stick and lead to medical and societal problems when the children are a little older.
From feeding hungry children in the United States to the massive rebuilding that needs to be done in Haiti, Share Our Strength is committed to working with other organizations to make a positive impact. For more information about Share Our Strength and to find out how you can help, visit their website.
Tags: CARE, CHF International, earthquake, Haiti, Humanitarian, hunger, Katrina, Migration, Partners in Health, Share Our Strength, United National Foundation
