Recommended Winter Reading

Snow days or no-snow days, winter does tend to keep us inside more, so here's a worthwhile read. If you enjoyed David Suzuki's Nature of Things episode on the animal mind recently, you will definitely want to delve into biologist Marc Bekoff's book. The Suzuki episode was just a teaser on this profoundly important topic.
And here's an intriguing passage that tickled my "tiny green" fancy:

In my musings about animal emotions I also can't help wondering, What about the insects? Do even mosquitos have emotional lives? Of course, mosquitos have tiny brains and lack the neural apparatus necessary for the evolution of emotions, so it's doubtful they do. But in truth, we just don't know. One day, perhaps we'll figure out a way to determine this. More important, however, would it make a difference to us if they did? It should, just as it should make a difference to us that other animals have emotions. Knowing that animals feel - and being able to understand them when they express joy, grief, jealousy, and anger - allows us to connect with them and also to consider their points of view when we interact with them. Knowledge about animal passions should make a difference in how we view, represent, and treat our fellow beings.

Nature Near Home...

A lone wild turkey walks through the field near the house.

“After long experience, I am convinced that the best place to study nature is at one’s own home, — on the farm, in the mountains, on the plains, by the sea, no matter where that may be. One has it all about him then….The wild creatures about you become known to you as they cannot be known to a passer-by.”

John Burroughs,"Nature Near Home"
Field and Study (1919)

I'm going to work for Planet Earth in 2012...How about you?

Our planet can no longer wait for us to grow up and wake up! So with a new year only hours away, let's make a commitment - a resolution if you will - so that 2012 is the year that grassroots humanity takes charge and takes back the Earth, for all people and all species.

So goodbye Greed, Waste, Carelessness and Irresponsibility. Tell bad corporate citizens what they can do with their dirty products and practices. Remind governments what they should be doing for their people and the planet, instead of serving big business and the investment bankers. Take action. Speak up. Become an activist for Earth.

It's our only home, this pale blue dot swimming in a sea of space...

Let's mobilize for Mother Earth! There is so much we can do, so much work to be done.

Bless the Earth this New Year's Eve.

WINDFALL: The Movie

A must-see documentary from the U.S. The situation is slightly different in Ontario, where the McGuinty government has shown little regard for rural rights and has aided Big Wind to walk all over the province without really addressing the complexities of the issue first.

Yet the stunning lack of democracy on this side of the lake is perhaps not all that different from the frontier-like free-for-all happening in upper New York state, because in the end there is only one winner in this seedy little shell game that touts itself as "green" and that's Big Wind - the wind corporations, now the billionaire heirs to Big Oil.

Funny how it's always the little guy who gets hoodwinked and stomped on. Make no mistake, neither you nor the planet is going to benefit from this latest big bucks, big business bamboozle. Certainly not the birds, the bats and the butterflies.

We must ensure a moratorium on ALL new wind facilities before any more are erected and we must demand that ALL wind farms undergo independent environmental assessments by scientists, biologists, ornithologists and ecologists.

We cannot lose our precious million-year-old migration routes to the latest wave of corporate greed just because it come wrapped in green packaging.

Learn and read about the true cost of wind, and why we need to look at alternatives to the alternative.

We can do better than this. And we must if we want to call ourselves environmentalists.

On a final note, I took a trip to the Port Burwell wind farm a few months ago, where some 60-odd turbines tilt at the skies from their jagged stride across the lush southwestern Ontario landscape. That is to say, the ones that were actually working were "tilting." A few stood motionless, a small red light indicating they were not functioning.

I watched two tiny specks come into view. Birds. Blackbirds, I believe. I did not have my binoculars, so I am surmising. I watched the two birds for several minutes. They were flying ominously close to a turbine, ominously close to the giant multi-ton paddles. I sucked in my breath. I was hoping against hope...

and then there was only one speck left.

One. The other bird was gone. Vanished. Annihilated.

I did not have my binoculars. But one second there were two birds, lazily and leisurely drifting across a late summer sky...

and then there was one.

I have been bloody angry ever since.

Record Day for Raptors of All Kinds

And there's more about the marvels of migration in this recent London Free Press article.

The sheer number of birds that were observed should serve as a reminder to all why this must remain a migratory corridor, not a wind turbine corridor.

Record Day at Hawk Cliff

Migration of the Raptors - Hawk Cliff, Lake Erie

A couple of pictures taken at Hawk Cliff, on the shores of Lake Erie, one of the key sites for observing migrating hawks in North America.

Learn more about Hawk Cliff Foundation

Hawk Bander: Cyril Crocker

Industrial Wind Turbines, Migratory Birds and Political Shenanigans

If you are interested in expanding your understanding of this issue, the impact of IWTs on migratory birds, I urge you to read Wayne Wegner's passionately argued and brilliantly articulated essay, Location, Location, Location…Migration, Migration, Migration, embedded in the Middlesex Wind Action Group website. Scroll down through Issues, you will find it under the category "Wildlife."

The Wind Issue

As a follow-up to the previous post about wind farms, here are two links of note:

If you live in Middlesex County and have serious reservations about the continuing construction of wind farms in the county and in southern Ontario without proper environmental assessment and public input, then see what the Middlesex Wind Action Group has to say.

To gain a greater understanding of the issue and to learn more about the actual efficacy of wind energy, please visit Ontario's Wind Performance.

Why I Can't Fully Support Wind Farms in Ontario

Of course we need alternative energy sources. We cannot rely on fossil fuels much longer and I am certainly opposed to the cavalier approach most oil and gas companies take when it comes to the environment. And I don't buy their greenwashing either.

However, as environmentalists we would be wise to really question and examine all of our alternatives. In the province of Ontario wind energy has been promoted, above all other energy alternatives on the table, as the way to go. The problem is the Ontario government has been rubber-stamping projects willy-nilly, with very little concern for the surrounding environment or wildlife. The Ontario government repeatedly refuses to listen to biologists, naturalists and other members of the scientific community, many of whom merely want to point out the folly of some of the proposed locations, not denounce the industry as a whole.

And I don't even want to delve into the issue of who stands to profit or gain from all of this. That's a murky and mucky issue. Murkier and muckier than any swamp, bog or fen. No, there's even more to this preference for wind energy than meets the eye, and it's not all about folks who are simply concerned about the well-being of our planet. This has more to do with the pocketbooks of a small group of investors than it does with saving Planet Earth.

Let's not be naive. As with coal, gas, and oil, there are going to be wind barons, people who stand to get very rich from the wind energy industry. Let's not forget that this IS an industry, not a philanthropic endeavour led by a group of well-meaning, good-intentioned people. This is going to be about profits.

The Ontario government too hastily adopted wind as THE solution to our energy woes. We needed to explore and weigh other options - solar, for one. And what about geothermal energy? At the very least, the government should have been taking a more informed and enlightened approach when choosing wind farm locations. Not on migratory routes surely!

In any case, all this to preface the most recent update about TransAlta's Wolfe Island wind farm. This 86-turbine wind farm is a death trap for thousands of birds and bats. It should never have been built where it was built. The scientific and environmental communities were silenced and held at bay.

As a resident of the Great Lakes I am so deeply disturbed about the rampant, unchecked and unexamined proliferation of wind farms along our shores. And we have yet to really see how these turbines will perform. During this most recent heat wave, wind energy came up short, producing very little energy to offset our consumption when we needed it the most. A reliable source of energy for our future? Hardly.

Ontarians should all be very angry. Great Lakers should be very angry. No more wind farms without environmental impact studies first!

There's an election coming. Demand that!

Please visit the Nature Canada blog now to read the latest about TransAlta's Wolfe Island Wind Farm and the decimation of our bird populations.

Happy Victoria Day from Canada's "Deep South"!

The magnolias are blooming, the turtles are swimming lazily along the edge of the pond, damselflies, bluets and swallows skim the surface, while tadpoles wriggle and dart in the pools between the reeds. Red-winged blackbirds send shrill notes from nearby perches on rails and wires.

Now everything, from the tulip trees to the maples, oaks and willows, is lush and green in Carolinian Canada. And every blade of grass shimmers after the rain.

This is Canada's Deep South, and another sultry deep south summer is upon us.

Bring it!