Browsing: Environmental Articles

CaNOE, the Canadian Network for Ocean Education, is a network for the advancement of ocean literacy in Canada. At CaNOE, we link our diverse members with best practices to chart a course towards a sustainable future for Canadians that includes ocean education. We connect Canadians from Arctic to Atlantic to Pacific coasts and everywhere in between who are working towards ocean literacy—and we’re as much about celebrating current efforts as we are about moving the ball forward.

On March 31, an underwater pipeline carrying oil to a refinery in Balikpapan, Indonesia, broke, spreading crude over 20,000 hectares of Balikpapan Bay. Some of it ignited, killing five fishermen. Area residents experienced health problems including nausea, vomiting and respiratory difficulties, and marine life and mangroves were also devastated.

WWF-New Zealand welcomes today’s announcement by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern that the government will not issue any further block offers for offshore oil and gas exploration. While Energy and Resources Minister Dr Megan Woods releases a block offer for limited onshore oil exploration today, the government is announcing that it will progressively reduce new block offers for onshore oil exploration to zero.

The global alliance of Siren Fleet, Master Liveaboards, The Junk and blue o two is very pleased to announce that as part of their expanding environmental policy they are aiming to be completely single use plastic free by the end of 2019.

When the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency increased safety and environmental standards for cars in the 1970s, automakers responded. Although they had to adhere to the new rules, they didn’t base their entire response on safety or pollution concerns. Instead, they looked for loopholes.

Anishinaabe economist and writer Winona LaDuke identifies two types of economies, grounded in different ways of seeing. Speaking in Vancouver recently, she characterized one as an “extreme extractive economy” fed by exploitation of people and nature. The second is a “regenerative economy” based on an understanding of the land and our relationship to it.

Contrary to a common perception, ignoring climate change won’t make it disappear. Global research going back to 1824 in fields ranging through physics, oceanography, biology and geology have confirmed human activity — mainly burning fossil fuels, raising livestock and destroying carbon sinks like forests and wetlands — is increasing greenhouse gas emissions and causing global temperatures to rise rapidly, putting humanity at risk. Every legitimate scientific academy and institution and every government, except the current U.S. administration, agrees.

People sometimes get bugged by insects, but we need them. They play essential roles in pollination, combatting unwanted agricultural pests, recycling organic matter, feeding fish, birds and bats, and much more. They’re the most numerous and diverse animals on Earth and form the base of many terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.