LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Want to save the world? Get involved
Our world is at a crossroads. Will we be able to reverse climate change or is our environment doomed?
Every day, there are new reports about the deterioration of our environment as we know it.
A new report from the National Climate Assessment in the United States says that climate change is worsening faster than expected, and that it would cost their economy hundreds of billions of dollars and kill thousands of people.
Here in Canada, a study published November 16 found that our current efforts to reduce emissions will still result in a 5.1 degrees C warming of the planet by 2100. Hundreds of species are disappearing every day, mainly because they are losing the appropriate habitat they need to survive.
Is there any hope for the future of our environment? Can we avoid this? Is there any turning back? It will be up to all of us, as citizens of the world, to take steps toward the restoration of a healthy environment.
There are actions we have all heard before but haven’t implemented into our daily lives: drive less, recycle, reduce your food waste, or use a reusable travel mug. However, bettering our own communities is equally as important.
Organisations like GreenUP and Peterborough Field Naturalists (PFN) work towards nature conservation and encourage sustainable living. GreenUP has built Ecology Park, a naturalized area and plant nursery, which offers skills-building workshops and a home for many Species at Risk.
The PFN promotes environmental education and asks volunteers to help document animal populations like butterflies, birds and bees.
By working with local organisations, we can improve our own city first, then encourage others to better theirs. It helps to change our mindset and change our lifestyle to be sustainable and ecologically harmless. Bettering the environment, and in turn reversing climate change, starts with actions at home.
So, where will you begin? “To reconnect with nature is key if we want to save the planet.” – Jane Goodall “Graeme Smith, BSc, MSc Candidate, Environmental and Life Sciences, Trent University
Promise yourself to take care of your heart
Working with the public downtown, I meet a lot of people. Since last Christmas season,
I’ve had no less than 10 customer friends pass away suddenly.
Let’s get a dialogue going that heart attacks involving relatively young people are happening at an alarming rate.
It really blows my mind that these 10 individuals were relatively healthy (or thought they were) and now they are gone.
We all get too busy with work and family but we must try and make the time to learn the options we have to prevent heart disease.
You can have no idea you have it, and then it’s over. It’s empowering to share information with others; to truly speak out against heart disease.
It’s the No. 1 killer in Canada. Before you do another thing, if you don’t know what your blood pressure is, or the condition inside your arteries, it’s time you found out. (and tell others you love)
Nothing can lead to heart trouble quicker than un-checked blood pressure, and/ or clogged arteries.
There are meds that effectively deal with both conditions, but you need to be on them now if you are so afflicted.
Once again, you can have no idea you have it, and then it’s all over.
Act now. There should be a Heart and Stroke cooking collective for people downtown. It would be well worth it to chip in and share recipes and ideas to make changes and GET ACTIVE. Put away your video games, and cell phones and get the heart moving!
And let’s also try and make people aware of how dangerous it is to be inactive.
Also it’s about time to connect the dots in the relationship between yer ticker, and good old booze, in all its forms.
Sad but true, booze gets in the way of the smooth transmission of nerve impulses which keep the heart pumping steadily.
Booze will disrupt and interfere with the process, resulting in what is called “Arrhythmia” (Irregular Heartbeat), which can then lead on to strokes and heart attacks.
And still on the subject of booze, when you eat, and drink alcohol at the same time, the liver is so busy metabolizing the booze, that it gives a free pass to fats in your food, sending them directly into the blood stream, to clog the arteries.
Heart attacks don’t have to happen and they are often very much preventable. I’m surprised, and a bit ashamed, that I didn’t know all the ways to get in shape.
I’m on a crusade to encourage friends and family to make New Year’s resolutions to be aware and beat heart disease.
There are many issues at “heart” to discuss with your friends, loved ones and neighbours and family. Inactivity can and will kill you so get up off the couch or away from your computer screens and get moving. Jim Reedyk (Jimmy Light Show), Parkhill Road W.
General Motors owes taxpayers an accounting
If only old Sam McLaughlin had created his own motor and driveline and had not gone to Buick. Of course, GM would have just bought or starved him out later anyhow.
But now Justin and Dougie are going to have to again pay the “protection money” to keep employment in Canada, but Canadians are already payin’ the way for Big Oil and these investments are getting real costly for you and me.
The last GM payoff was $10.8 billion back in 2009 and now they’re shakin’ us down again.
Cars, trucks and oil are all killing life on Earth, and radicals like me think our tax dollars would be better spent on a Canadian clean energy plan that diverts the $40billion pipeline fund to the creation of new Canadian owned companies (that are totally removed from Big Oil) to begin the creation of a clean energy economy.
It would include Canadian designed and produced electric vehicles that employ Canadians while putting an end to the black death called oil.
But Canadians, and only Canadians, could buy limited shares in the new car company. The big three are going to go clean or die and they’ve had the game to themselves too long ... much too long. Maybe just this once, let’s play “Canada FIRST!”