Greens part of Moving Planet

This weekend, Canadian Greens will be taking part in a global movement to make the shift away from fossil fuels as part of our effort to solve the climate crisis.  Moving Planet, spearheaded by 350.org, is a worldwide rally, with thousands of events taking place in countries across the globe. 

Canadian Green Climate Change Critic Adriana Mugnatto-Hamu will be speaking at the Moving Planet event in Toronto's Queen's Park, along with local Green provincial candidate Mark Daye.  “We are highlighting the importance of green energy, a key issue here in Ontario,” said Mugnatto-Hamu.  “But even more than that, we are highlighting how many Canadians are part of this movement and are ready to take action.”

Deputy Green Leader Adriane Carr will also speak at an event in Vancouver.  “Canadians realize that we need to start the transition to a lower-carbon way of life and we are asking for governments and industry to join with us in taking meaningful action to achieve that goal,” said Carr.

Arctic and Northern Affairs Critic John Streicker is pleased more attention is finally being paid to climate change, an issue that hits close to home.  “We in the North have been seeing the impacts of climate change for many years and are continually taking action, including helping low income community members to bring down their energy costs.  Individual action is key and when we have a global mass action like Moving Planet, we see the power that can come from banding together.”

Mass Animal Deaths Map

If you haven't heard about the end of the world (at least as far as birds, fish, etc are concenred click here; to view the Mass Animal Deaths Map live version.

Losing Their Grid

Green pioneers are showing it’s possible to connect with creation by disconnecting from the grid. All it takes is a little sacrifice and savvy.
 
By Vidya Kauri

In the same way that “Make love not war” was a slogan for the turbulent 1960s and “Think outside the box” was on everyone’s lips in the 2000s, “Living off the grid” is becoming a catchphrase for the climate-conscious 2010s. Despite the currency the phrase may have in the environmental movement, however, for most of us the idea of radically changing the way we live so we’re not a drain on creation remains just that — an idea. But increasingly, off-the-grid pioneers are showing that with a little savvy and sacrifice, it can be done.

Read the entire article at the UCObserver

Dear Mark: Be the Earth’s man of the year! | Greenpeace International

Dear Mark: Be the Earth’s man of the year! | Greenpeace International

Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg has been in the news quite a bit in the last few days. Previously portrayed as a reclusive billionaire who shuns the limelight he’s made couple of big gestures recently.

With a reported personal fortune of US$6.9 billion (up 245 percent this year!) he donated US$100 million to Newark schools in the US and just last week he joined a pledge initiated by Bill Gates to give half his personal fortune to charity.

Congratulations to Mark on his charitable donations and on being named today as the Time Person of the Year. To be our person of the year and give what over 500,000 Facebook members are asking for, Mark it’s time to choose renewable energy to power Facebook, not dirty coal.

That would be a big gesture we would all applaud.

Elizabeth May'sUpdate from COP16 - December 7, 2010

The Human Effect On Climate Change And Global Disasters

Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather over periods of time that range from decades to millions of years. It can be a change in the average weather or a change in the distribution of weather events around an average (for example, greater or fewer extreme weather events). Climate change may be limited to a specific region, or may occur across the whole Earth.

In recent usage, especially in the context of environmental policy, climate change usually refers to changes in modern climate. It may be qualified as anthropogenic climate change, more generally known as "global warming".

Anthropogenic factors are human activities that change the environment. In some cases the chain of causality of human influence on the climate is direct and unambiguous (for example, the effects of irrigation on local humidity), while in other instances it is less clear. Various hypotheses for human-induced climate change have been argued for many years. Presently the scientific consensus on climate change is that human activity is very likely the cause for the rapid increase in global average temperatures over the past several decades. Consequently, the debate has largely shifted onto ways to reduce further human impact and to find ways to adapt to change that has already occurred.

Is Applesauce More Dangerous Than Climate Change? Glenn Beck Prophecy COME TRUE!

 

In 2009 Glenn Beck made some bold predictions about the future of our planet and in August 2010 THEY CAME TRUE! http://www.truthfool.org

350.org's Bill McKibben on The Late Show With David Letterman

 

Eaarth 

Rethink Alberta

 

RethinkAlberta.com

WWF - Help Save Canada's Arctic from Disaster

WWF - Help Save Canada's Arctic from Disaster

Let your voice be heard! Right now the US is using every tool at their disposal to respond to the Gulf oil spill crisis. In Canada, we need to call on every tool at our disposal to keep such a tragedy from happening in our waters. Now is the moment to rise to the challenge, and halt offshore drilling for oil until or unless we can safeguard our environment, our marine species, and our coastal communities.

WWF - Help Save Canada's Arctic from Disaster

Sign the Kyoto Plus Petition

Global Day of Action

Saturday is the Global Day of Action on Climate Change.  Please join Toronto Greens and other Torontonians to celebrate life and this planet we love, and to demand a good future for ourselves, our children, our communities, our grandchildren.  Take part in the global movement initiated by 350.org to press world leaders for the decisive action climate change demands.

World leaders are gathering in Copenhagen this December to negotiate a global agreement on climate change for the post-Kyoto period.  The decisions they make will determine the world our children and grandchildren inherit.  Failure to commit to the dramatic changes that science demands could leave a vastly impoverished planet this century, no longer able to sustain us all.

Emerging science indicates that the emissions reduction targets being discussed in Copenhagen are likely too weak, and Canada is proposing targets well short of this inadequate range.  The Green Party of Canada is joining with Canadians to press our government for the commitments we need.  Now is the time for Canada to take responsibility.

What can we do?  Participate in any/all of the following on October 24:

2 pm - Join Toronto Greens at the 350.org Rally for Climate Action in Queen's Park organized by the Toronto Climate Campaign.

4:30 pm - Gather with Toronto Greens at O'Grady's Tap & Grill, 171 College St.

6 pm - Watch The Age of Stupid with U of T Greens at Sidney Smith Hall, room 2102, 100 St. George St.  See the movie for $10 or buy a Green Party membership for $10 and see the movie free.

Please spread the word:  bring your kids and grandkids, bring your friends and neighbours, tell your colleagues and your classmates ... lots of participation will make a huge impact!

We have one Earth, for all of us to share.  Help make October 24 a celebration of our Earth, now and for the future. 

China to take the lead on climate?

Expectations were building for China to take the lead on climate change, as some 100 world leaders gather Tuesday to breathe new life into deadlocked negotiations.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon called the biggest-ever summit of national leaders on climate change some 100 days before a high stakes gathering in Copenhagen, which is meant to seal a successor to the landmark Kyoto Protocol.

We will have to wait and see, but China is trying to seal itself as a new world leader and the competition with India is getting fiercer, but a country like China could make very minor changes to its laws regarding pollution, industry waste and the like and due to its sheer size, would make a HUGE impact.

Any sort of pollution limitation and advances toward greener economies are still advances, but I have a feeling this may get blown out of proportion. Even with significant cuts to pollution and changes to laws, China would, like the United States, still be a major contributor to the amounts of pollution and greenhouse gases on earth.

This future is going to be very interesting.

Will this be China's biggest move yet to assert itself as the new world superpower?

That day is coming, and the west is currently funding it.

Canada Earns Failing Grade on Climate Change Action

For the first time, Canada has taken over last place from the United States in this years G8 Climate Scorecard rankings! This comes just as the G8 nations are meeting in Italy in an effort to find solutions to the world's main issues, including climate change.  According to the report, developed by WWF and the global insurance company Allianz, the United States rose in the rankings due to recent actions taken by the Obama administration on green energy and vehicle fuel efficiency. Canada ended up at the bottom of the pack because our greenhouse gas emissions are not only still increasing, thanks in large part to the expansion of the tar sands, but also because we lack a credible plan to reduce emissions in the future. Learn more about Canada's climate performance by downloading the report.

Proud of yourself Harper?

Earth Hour Today at 8:30 PM

City Dwellers Pollute Less

Source: Thestar.com
When it comes to climate change pollutants, Toronto residents are among the greenest in Canada, says a new study.
The report, published in the April issue of the journal Environment and Urbanization, says metropolises, commonly denigrated as big, dirty places, are in fact spewing fewer greenhouse gases per capita than the rest of their countries.
"Blaming cities for climate change is far too simplistic," said author David Dodman, a researcher at the International Institute for Environment and Development in London, England. "There are a lot of economies of scale associated with energy use in cities. If you're an urban dweller, particularly in an affluent country like Canada or the U.K., you're likely to be more efficient in your use of heating fuel and in your use of energy for transportation."
Dodman found that the average Canadian is responsible for 24 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions each year, while Torontonians just 8.2 tonnes.

Congratulations Torontonians, but lets keep it up and cut the 8.2 tonnes even more!

Spring at the Daye...

I've been working on some new images, which I have been posting on here, as well as a new banner for the spring/summer season, which is on the site now.  And can also be seen here right now... drum roll please...

I'm attempting to keep the feel of the past several banners, with a bit of imagery, which, I hop will reflect the general principals of this blog which are;

• Our environment, climate change and global warming
• Human rights
• Photography and the arts

I hope you like it, and as always, your comments on this or any post are always welcome. You can also sign up to receive this blog by email or by RSS. Look for the links in the right column of the page.

I'd also like to remind you that our Earth Hour poll is still continuing for about another week, so I hope you will participate in the poll and in Earth Hour. 

In the coming days and weeks I am going to continue to work on my website and will be adding some of my favorite photos and sprucing it up, now that I've finally got it online. Thanks for stopping by, I hope  you will return soon.

Best regards, Mark Daye

A Message From Al Gore

Last week I asked you to get your friends involved in our campaign to stop global warming and you responded: more than 70,000 people have joined in the last week alone. That's simply amazing and shows that there is immense support behind our call for solutions to the climate crisis. Today we are just 76,000 short of reaching our goal of 1,000,000 members by April.
You can help put us over the top. Right now I need you to forward the email below to everyone you know and ask them to get involved.
More than 924,000 people have already joined us, but if we are going to succeed we need to reach 1,000,000 by April.
With your help, we'll reach this goal and send a powerful message to the world. Please ask your friends to get involved today: http://wecansolveit.org/invitealliance
Thank you,
Al Gore
P.S. You can donate to our efforts here: http://www.climateprotect.org/donate You can unsubscribe from future emails here.

Harper - Be Canadian on Climate!

Prime Minister Harper's Clean Air Act has been called "embarrassing" by David Suzuki and "a complete fraud" by Al Gore. What's more, Canada has been undermining international negotiations to stop climate change, receiving an international "award" for the worst country in the world on climate change last year. This is not what Canada is all about, and it has to stop.

Click here to visit the Avaaz.org and send a message to Harper.

Arctic ice is melting faster than computer models of climate calculate, according to a group of US researchers. Click here for the full story from the BBC.