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!

All most of the games require is some basic skills, such as hand/eye coordination.  Trying to get the Seagull to poop at the right time so it lands on the evil fishermen and saves the fish takes a certain talent!  I enjoyed it, even though I confess that my first game’s score was just 12.  We get better at this game apparently, because the highest score is around 6,700!

If you are or ever have been a Tetris fan, you will most likely enjoy Bycatch Bonanza, and successfully avoid catching the good sealife when you’re trying to catch just fish.

The Earth Hour Game matched my “The Seagull Strikes Back” game in being simple fun.  It’s entertaining making the little character run along, turning out lights along the way.  Be careful you don’t make him fall off the planet!

Toxic Blaster was fun once I caught on how to play it (Hint: the spacebar helps!).

Rescue the Russian Leopard and Poacher Peril both need to be downloaded, which I haven’t yet done - the online games are keeping me happy enough.

Basic conservation messages are embedded in the games, such as when fishing people should just catch what they’re trying to, and avoid bycatch.  As with most things that WWF do, these games although simple are both fun and high quality.

Happy Friday!

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.

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.

A film of a spirit bear welcomes visitors to the BC Pavillion.  Later, Douglas Green at the Kla-howya told me that when the Aboriginals fish for salmon in the Chilcotin area of BC, they use smaller nets so they can check the sex of the salmon that are caught.  They keep the males but throw the females back, thereby maintaining a sustainable fishery.

This being the Friday File, let’s have some fun.  Have you noticed that the 2010 Olympics has 3 mascots, all based on animals?  They are called Sumi, Miga, and Quatchi.  There’s also a fourth mascot, Mukmuk, who is viewed by organizers as a mascot sidekick.

On the mascot’s website is the story of how the mascots became interested in the Games (the video is adorable, especially for children).

The website also describes what the 3 mascots are and how they are associated with local native legends of the Pacific West Coast.   Mukmuk is based on a Vancouver Island marmot.

Mukmuk has his own website, with a cute video about him.  There’s also a quiz that will tell you which mascot you’re most like!

It’s great to see animals taking such a central role in the exhibits and as the mascots for the Olympics and Paralympics.  Enjoy watching the Games, and good luck to the athletes of our world.

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”?

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.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is an agency of the US Department of Commerce.   NOAA’s goal is to enrich life through science, and to keep Americans informed about the changing environment around them from the sun’s surface to the ocean’s floor.  NOAA’s National Ocean Service (NOS) is the nation’s premier science agency for oceans and coasts.

The Educational Part:

NOS has a section on their website called Five Things You Should Know About Coral Reefs.  It is both nicely presented and educational.

Page One advises that coral reefs are the ocean’s version of land-based rainforests.  With rich biodiversity and thousands of creatures, coral is one of the largest living structures on earth.

Next, think about the number of people who depend upon reefs.  Do you think the number of people who are totally dependent on reefs is 5 million?  15 million?  20 million?  Or 30 million?  Then guess how much money is generated annually by coral ecosystems?  Both answers can be found on Page Two on the website.

Then NOS invites us to consider the sad news that around 20% of the world’s reefs are damaged beyond recovery, and about 50% are seriously at risk.  Both manmade and natural threats exist, from climate change to marine debris to invasive species.  Check out Page Three for more information.

Page Four mentions the activities of NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program.  The program also helps international reefs since, similar to other animals and plants, reefs don’t know what a border is.

Page Five wraps up the section with what you can do to help reefs. Awareness is step one, so check out this section and other parts of their website.  And managing your impact is important, so follow their invitation to check out their Coral Reef Conservation Program.

The Fun Part:

Check out NOS’s fun section.  In particular, The Migration Game is a fun way to learn about topics including shipping lanes, animal migrations, and other ocean facts.  The game has a few technical twists to learn, but soon you’ll be zipping around the board.

The Ocean Guardian Activity Book is fun for younger kids, while Nim’s Island teaches about special ocean places such as national marine sanctuaries.

If you like seeing storms, the Tornado section shows some fascinating photos.

And so on.  This website is worth poking around.  It is very multi-layered and one trail will lead to another.  Have fun checking it out!

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.

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.