Showing posts with label global warming. Show all posts
Showing posts with label global warming. Show all posts

November 26 - Canada-on-Ice Day

  Posted on November 26, 2021


This is an update of my post published on November 26, 2010:




On this day in 1975, Canadian ice dancer Patrice Lauzon was born in Montreal, Quebec. With his wife and partner Marie-France Dubreuil, he became the world silver medalist in 2006 and 2007, competed in the Olympics twice, and 4-time gold medalist of Canada.



On this day in 1981, Canadian hockey player Gina Kingsbury was born in Uranium City, Saskatchewan. She ranks second all-time in scoring among the St. Lawrence Skating Saints.




And on this day in 2009, Canadians worried about thinning ice!


The effects of global warming are very evident and already somewhat dire for people in the far north of Canada. Apparently houses are built based on the PERMAnent nature of permafrost, and so porches and houses are beginning to droop as the permafrost melts. Major flooding has been occurring in some communities, and hunting and berry production is down in some locations because of the disappearance of permafrost. Some residents comment that the land looks a lot like a desert now.



Enjoy ice...

Go ice skating today.

There are many ways to enjoy ice skating—going around and around a rink is great exercise and, with music, a lot of fun.



Some people love learning figure skating moves and competing, and a hot, relatively new form of this sport is synchronized skating. (Watch this YouTube video if you've never seen synchro skating—it's really cool, and it definitely should be made into an Olympic sport!)




 
Some people love speed skating, and of course the rough-and-tumble version of speed skating, short track, is a favorite of Olympic viewers.


And then there is the most important game on ice skates: hockey! This sport is popular at all levels—even at the become-a-You-Tube-star-at-age-9 level.





Save the ice...


Here is a website that's all about protecting the Arctic. 







You're Welcoming Day
(Friday After Thanksgiving)








Black Friday
(Friday After Thanksgiving)





Buy Nothing Day
(Friday After Thanksgiving)






Sinkie Day
(Friday After Thanksgiving)







(Friday After Thanksgiving)
(Friday After Thanksgiving)
(Friday After Thanksgiving)
(Friday After Thanksgiving)

(Friday After Thanksgiving)
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February 6 - National Sweater Day in Canada

(First Thursday of February)
Posted on February 6, 2020


Today's Canadian holiday is apparently meant to raise consciousness of climate change and to even do a little something about it!

Every year Canadians are urged to turn down their thermostats, use heaters and fires and so forth less, by putting on sweaters to find the indoor chill. Workplaces and schools as well as homes are doing the less-heat/more-sweaters thing, and some folks are taking advantage of the special day to run informational programs or raise funds for climate-change-fighting organizations.

I dig it!

 
Above: Kids can learn to make sweaters while wearing
sweaters on Sweater Day! Sweet!

Below, next two: Wearing jackets or even blankets indoors on
Sweater Day is just fine, by the way! The main thing is to turn
that thermostat down.




By the way, World Wildlife Fund-Canada, which promotes this holiday, is committed to helping Canada reach 100 percent renewable energy by 2050. Great goal!





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January 15 - Arbor Day in Egypt, Jordan, and Malta

Posted on January 15, 2020

Tree planting!

What could be more important, these days, as we battle climate change?


You probably know that a huge problem causing our global temperatures to steadily climb is greenhouse gases emitted by burning fossil fuels (oil, gasoline, coal, etc.) and by such things as livestock manure and cattle belching!

But a lot of people don't realize that another cause of global warming is deforestation. When people cut down trees to burn (whoops, more greenhouse gases!) or to make everything from furniture to paper to houses to games - and especially when people cut down trees to build cities and roads and to graze livestock (whoops, more greenhouse gases!), they are removing the living things that actually remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere!

That's right, trees and other plants are great gobblers of carbon dioxide, one of the biggies of the greenhouse gases. And just as cutting down trees helps make global warming worse, planting trees helps make it a bit better!

Planting trees can also help create shade, provide local cooler climates through the shade and also through transpiration (trees famously "breathe out" oxygen - but they also breathe out water vapor), absorb air pollution, protect from wind, prevent erosion of soil, and provide homes for creatures. We definitely want to plant lots and lots of trees in our cities, along our streets and highways, and other places as well!


Holding a one-day Arbor Day celebration is only a start. In Jordan, attention to the importance of planting trees is provided by the King and Queen attending Arbor Day celebrations and personally planting a few trees - but the more important part of the day is (1) hundreds or thousands of others also planting trees, and (2) considering the Ministry of Agriculture plan to protect existing forests and continuing to enlarge forested areas in the nation.

Jordan's queen helps students of the University of
Jordan to plant a tree.

In Malta, people are encouraged to Tree Your Town. Participating schools get students to learn about the importance of replanting and then actually plant trees in their own towns. Parks, especially, are studied to see where more trees would benefit the environment and people's enjoyment of the environment.

In Egypt, there are no government celebrations, but organizations are encouraged to get volunteers planting in their own communities. One organization that participates is the Sabaheia Horticulture Research Station.

Some nations are doing a better job than others in really getting people to get out there and plant trees. India held a record for the most trees planted in one day - because 800,000 volunteers around the nation planted more than 50 million trees one day in 2016!!! (That's more than 60 trees per volunteer! WOW!) The next year, they topped their own record with 66 million trees planted in just 12 hours.


But last year Ethiopia shut down governmental offices and many businesses in order to plant 350 million trees in just 12 hours!!!! 

That's...that's...incredible!

Ethiopia's goal is to plant 4 BILLION indigenous trees in 1,000 different sites around the nation. Great goal, huh?

Arbor Day needs to be more than one day and more than a token tree-planting. Filipino students now have to plant at least 10 trees in order to graduate. That kind of innovative policy is necessary everywhere in order to offset some of the harm from agriculture and technology.







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