Earth, environment, green, nature

40°C, global heatwave

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Pretty worrying.  The entire northern hemisphere on the glob is in a heatwave.  For the past few days, we’ve seen temperatures hovering around 40°C.  Lytton, BC, has stolen the North American “hot spot” from Nevada.  Lytton, unfortunately, is now gone.  The fire season has started already.  Fire ripped through the town, and 150 people evacuated.  No one injured, so they think.

inside looking out

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If I were a wild animal, I don’t think I’d want to be in an enclosed area.  But in Parkbridge, deer come in in the morning and leave at the evening.  They spend their days meandering around the park, eating what they can, and sleeping the rest of the time.

I saw this one on the back way home from shopping.  We just stood there looking at each other.  We, as people, personify various animals.  The deer is obviously thinking, “Why is that guy outside of the enclosure?  Doesn’t he know the dangers?”

Reversing that, would the deer be personifying (or, rather, deerifying) me?  The human is obviously thinking, “It’s too bad that fence is there.  I’d like to kill that deer and eat it.”

nature is amazing

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I get awe-struck sometimes of how amazing nature is.  There is a type of insect that has the only functional gear mechanism evolved in nature, that we have found at least, long before people designed it.  There is a bird that mimics the sounds of up to 14 other species of birds and, believe it or not, chainsaws.  Yesterday I read another article online entitled Scientists Discover a Major Lasting Benefit of Growing Up Outside the City.  I haven’t had a Netflix subscription for ages.  I do, however, have a subscription to curiositystream.com because of nature documentaries.

Here are a couple of pics taken out / by my kitchen window.  I bought this and hung it on a garden / camping hanging pole duct-taped to another long pole.

how many trees?

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According to one study, it’ll take about 1.2-trillion trees to absorb enough carbon to completely neutralize and reverse the carbon-emissions greenhouse effect that is (apparently) going on around the world.  Deforestation in various places should be reversed; the land there isn’t good for much anyway except forest as they’ve been ranched to death.  People plant green grass in their front lawns; how about shrubs, fruit trees, shade trees?  Anyway, I thought it was interesting.

Carpeted in trees, the 2.82 million hectare Chiribiquete National Park in Colombia sucks CO2 from the atmosphere. (CNN)

replant, and plough no more

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The Guardian reports that we’re seriously boned unless we change our ways … now.

‘It’s a groundswell’: the farmers fighting to save the Earth’s soil

I planted native southern Alberta wildflowers near the house this spring instead of watering and expecting green grass to grow there.  It’s supposed to be conducive to the lives of birds, bees, butterflies, and or course beauty.

Yes, I bought a larger van, but you have to remember that the embodied energy needed to invest into a new vehicle is quite serious – the fuel equivalent to somewhere around 130,000km of driving.  I didn’t even get that far in seven years in the Kia Soul.

I plugged in my little electric foot scooter today.  It costs – and I don’t care if you don’t believe me – I’ve done the research and calculations – about $1.00 of electricity to go about 1000km on this.  Of course, I can’t carry lumber or a family or suitcases and cannot drive in winter.  But it serves its purpose.

And of course there’s my favourite – my bicycle.  But my physiotherapist is frowning on using it just yet.  The bonehead to T-boned my car made sure of that.

RRRRRR strong proponent

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I’m a strong proponent of this.

One Thing You Can Do: Fix It

I’ve been fixing stuff my entire life.  Why throw something out that is 95% alright when only 5% of it is broken?

My idea of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle continues on with the RRR theme –

  • Refurbish
  • Repair Renovate (so long as you’re not like those home reno people on TV who bash the hell out of perfectly good cabinetry with a sledge hammer and pitch it all into a Smithrite)
  • Redistribute
  • Respect
  • Repurpose

and many, many more.