Welcome to the Environmental Change Page!
As you know, the environment has become a hot topic over the last few years. Individuals have come together to preserve all aspects of nature including trees, wildlife, the ozone and our planet as a whole.
The Environmental Change page serves to help students understand how our negative actions today will not only have a long term effect, but can drastically change the way in which our society lives. More than just providing knowledge, we hope to hear your comments about how we can save the planet.
Please leave a comment at the bottom of the page, or send us an email if you would like to be featured on our blog.
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Post 12: I’m Melting, I’m Melting!
We have known the Arctic ice is melting for a while now, and by this time most of us finally care. But did you know that the damages caused by melting ice could cost us between $61 billion and $370 billion U.S. in 2010 alone?
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Post 11: ‘S No More
This has been dubbed London, England’s worst winter in twenty years and as a Canadian living in London, I cannot help but chuckle. Based on Canadian standards, this winter has been mild at most. Major snowfalls typically melt before the next sunrise, average temperatures in February are in the positives and wind-chill is non-existent. My inner Canadian misses real winter. But, what if this is the type of winter I have to get used to?
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Post 10: Reduce, Reuse, Freecycle
Until nine hours ago, I had never heard the word “freecycle.” When asked what I thought it might mean, my instinct was to picture a campaign for cycling in favour of reducing car pollution. Close—freecycling refers to a growing network of people who exchange possessions they no longer want in favour of someone else’s item they do want, all in the name of reusing and recycling. A freecycler finds “someone else’s junk” and makes it their treasure.
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Post 9: Shopping Evolution
“Would you like that double-bagged?” the friendly cashier at the neighbourhood grocery store would always ask when one bag seemed like it might break from the weight of its contents. The plastic bag was never able to bear heavy weights. A few canned items, a bottle of soda, plus some apples and double bagging becomes necessary. If a human being required another person to help them do their job on a regular basis, generally speaking, s/he would be fired. Therefore, needing two bags to do the job of one is one of the things that have led to the downfall of the plastic bag.
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Post 8: Canadian Rivers at Risk
Isn’t it so nice and relaxing to walk in the park watching rivers flow silently and peacefully while birds chirp? The water flows endlessly and we become lost in our own thoughts as we watch the river flow. But did it ever cross your mind that these Canadian rivers are at risk?
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Post 7: Energy of the Future!
The world is now looking for a successful innovation that replaces the wasteful consumption of nonrenewable resources most countries use to produce energy. It is estimated that world has enough oil to hold us for about 40 more years. But what comes after that? It seems governments have started working hard to find solutions. Windmills, solar and nuclear energy are all under serious consideration.
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Post 6: What’s on Your Plate?
Kraft dinner, pizza slices, grilled cheese sandwiches, bowls of cereal, and granola bars are all staple food items in a student’s diet, but rarely do consumers think about how this food is getting on their plates. The product’s manufacturing location, pesticide use, genetic modification, and animal housing conditions are not often considered when buying a sub sandwich or popping a television dinner into the microwave. The founders of the 100-Mile Diet, Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon, strongly believe that these are important questions about our food and it is important to know the answers to them
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Post 5: If You Drink Water, You’ll Be Interested in This!
There is something in the design of our planet that can be a little misleading. Most people will take a good look at a picture of our planet Earth, observe the enormous quantity of blue, and as a result, smirk at the irony of our planet’s name. The funny thing is that while our planet is made up more water than land, more than half of that water is not fit for drinking. Does this statistic surprise you? How about this – did you know that nine of the world’s countries contain 60% of the planet’s fresh water supply?
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Post 4: World Electricity Costs are Rising
In today’s world we can interact with people across the globe, whether it be family or friends.We can do business worldwide, which has helped spur international business developments around the globe and we can gather information on any topic within mere seconds. However, there is still one major negative that has arisen with the invention of all these new gadgets. When we think of all the new technologies that have helped make our life easier and have helped us interact on a global level, we tend to overlook the negative effect that all these new gadgets are having on the environment.
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Post 3: Polar Bears Drowning Due to Global Warming
When I was young, I thought that big, roaring animals were so strong that they were immortal. Elephants, lions, and bears with their natural size or predatory instincts conveyed the feeling of invincability. Polar Bears held a special place in my heart, and with such an abundance in Arctic areas, you can imagine my shock when I read that polar bears are drowning to due global warming.
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Post 2: Take a Picture, Change the World
Innovative thinking is the ability to make a difference, to change the world, to save the environment without saying one word.
That’s exactly what Prince Hussain Aga Khan is doing – by traveling around the world and taking pictures of landscape and animals, he manages to capture the essence and beauty of the environment and create awareness about our world in a way that no word description ever could.
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Post 1: French Fries Extinct Due to Global Warming?!
What do wine, baseball, french fries, frogs, polar bears and guacamole all have in common?
They are all threatened to be wiped out by global warming.
“Now wait a minute,” you think to yourself as you scan my list. “Global warming can wipe out french fries?!”
That’s right! When youth think global warming, we tend to think thirty, forty or fifty years from now before the effects are really present. We think global warming will affect our children or maybe even our grandchildren or their children. The problem is, global warming can have less than favourable effects on life as we know it.
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