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From our inbox to you From The David Suzuki Foundation, Canada’s Climate Action Plan and the UN Climate Talks November 30/15
SGC Admin: From our inbox to you From The David Suzuki Foundation on The new Canadian Government & Climate Change Action…
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New government faces climate challenges and opportunities
Although Canada’s government is heading to Paris without a strong plan, it has indicated it’s ready to represent Canadians’ interests. One of the first encouraging signs is the new cabinet.
In the reduced, 30-member cabinet, equally divided between women and men, the minister of environment’s title has been expanded to include climate change, and we now have a minister of science and a minister of innovation, science and economic development.
I and others have been warning about global warming and its consequences for decades. I spoke to science writer Isaac Asimov about it in 1977 on CBC Radio’s Quirks and Quarks. In 1989, The Nature of Things did its first global warming program and I hosted the five-part radio series, It’s a Matter of Survival, in part about climate change. The David Suzuki Foundation has worked hard over its 25-year history to inform people about climate change and to research solutions, recently through the Trottier Energy Futures Project.
The UN climate conference, just weeks away, presents an immediate challenge for the government, but Canada is in an ideal position to make positive contributions. Besides the new minister of environment and climate change and the prime minister, a cabinet committee on environment, climate change and energy will attend, headed by Foreign Minister Stéphane Dion.
Recognizing the role of provincial governments and other parties in addressing climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has also invited provincial premiers and other party leaders, including Green Party leader Elizabeth May, to the conference.
Given the ever-increasing urgency of the climate crisis, the UN process has been frustratingly slow and lacking in the kinds of concrete actions required to keep global average temperatures from rising more than 2 C. The goal of the Paris talks is for developed and developing nations to adopt a legally binding universal climate agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provide financing for developing nations.
To help guide negotiations, the David Suzuki Foundation has offered recommendations to Canada’s new government. The first is to develop a national climate action plan that sets new, ambitious emissions-reduction targets. We agree with the Climate Action Network Canada that cutting carbon emissions by one-third within a decade, or 35 per cent below 1990 levels by 2025, would fit the bill, and that reductions should begin immediately with targets enshrined in law.
The Foundation also believes the federal government must work with provinces to set a minimum standard for pricing carbon emissions, through carbon taxes, cap-and-trade or both, reaching at least $100 per tonne by 2020, and applying targeted regulations or standards where carbon price alone is not enough to meet emissions targets.
We’d also like to see government move ahead with commitments to low-carbon infrastructure, including investment in public transportation, renewable energy and climate adaptation, as well as employing natural systems to reduce impacts. Energy-efficiency standards for vehicles and buildings are also essential, as is a commitment to support the UN Green Climate Fund for developing nations.
We and other organizations will offer suggestions on a range of issues. For us, these include species at risk and habitat protection, marine protected areas, environmental rights, natural capital evaluation and improved relations with indigenous peoples. We realize the new government faces numerous challenges and must deal with competing interests around falling oil prices, pipeline projects, missing and murdered aboriginal women, national security, international commitments regarding terrorism and more. It won’t be easy and they’ll have to hit the ground running.
As leaders from Canada and the U.S. head to Paris with real commitments to address climate change, there’s hope for progress. This government seems open to engaging in conversations with Canadians from all walks of life and all parts of the country, and to accepting our global responsibilities. I wish them the best.
Written by David Suzuki with contributions from David Suzuki Foundation Senior Editor Ian Hanington.
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SGC From our inbox to you From: The David Suzuki “Science Matters” on the “Magic” of Mushrooms
SGC From our inbox to you From: The David Suzuki Foundation on the “Magic” of Mushrooms
The many marvels of the mysterious mushroom
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Until 1969, biologists thought mushrooms and other fungi were plants. They’re actually more closely related to animals, but with enough differences that they inhabit their own distinct classification.
This and more recent findings about these mysterious organisms illustrate how much we have yet to learn about the complexities of the natural world. New research reveals mushrooms can even help plants communicate, share nutrients and defend themselves against disease and pests.
There’s far more to mushrooms than the stems and caps that poke above ground. Most of the organism is a mass of thin underground threads called mycelia. These filaments form networks that help plants, including trees, connect to each other, through structures called mycorrhizae.
Scientists believe about 90 per cent of land-based plants are involved in this mutually beneficial relationship with fungi. Plants deliver food to the mushroom, created by photosynthesis, and the filaments, in turn, assist the plants to absorb water and minerals and to produce chemicals that help them resist disease and other threats. And, of course, a myriad of other life forms benefit from the healthy plants.
The structure and function of the mycelial networks and their ability to facilitate communication between physically separated plants led mycologist Paul Stamets to call them “Earth’s natural Internet.” He’s also noted their similarity to brain cell networks. According to a Discover article, “Brains and mycelia grow new connections, or prune existing ones, in response to environmental stimuli. Both use an array of chemical messengers to transmit signals throughout a cellular web.”
Research by Suzanne Simard at the University of British Columbia found that Douglas fir and paper birch trees transfer carbon back and forth through the mycelia, and other research shows they can also transfer nitrogen and phosphorous. Simard believes older, larger trees help younger trees through this process. She found that the smaller trees’ survival often depends on large “mother trees” and that cutting down these tree elders leaves seedlings and smaller trees more vulnerable.
Researchers in China found trees attacked by harmful fungi are able to warn other trees through the mycelia networks, and University of Aberdeen biologists found they can also warn other plants of aphid attacks.
It all adds to our growing understanding of how interconnected everything on our planet is, and how our actions — such as cutting down large “mother” trees — can have unintended negative consequences that cascade through ecosystems.
Scientists are also finding that fungi can be useful to humans beyond providing food and helping us make cheese, bread, beer and wine. Stamets believes mushrooms can be employed to clean up oil spills, defend against weaponized smallpox, break down toxic chemicals like PCBs and decontaminate areas exposed to radiation.
He credits his interest in fungi to another fascinating aspect of many mushrooms around the world: their hallucinogenic properties. During college, Stamets spent a lot of time in the Ohio woods, where he first tried psilocybin mushrooms. They had a profound effect on him, and after his first experience, his persistent stutter went away. He later quit a logging job, because the work was destroying mushroom habitat, and began studying fungi at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington.
Since then, his research has led to fascinating discoveries of multiple possible purposes for fungi, including nuclear decontamination, water filtration, biofuels, increasing agricultural yields, pest control and medicines.
Research is also shedding light on potential benefits of the psychotropic properties of mushrooms, such as the 144 species that contain psilocybin. Indigenous people have long used hallucinogenic mushrooms for ceremonial, spiritual and psychological purposes — and with good reason, it turns out. Psilocybin has been shown to improve the brain’s connectivity. Researchers are finding the chemical can help combat depression, anxiety, fear and other disorders, and increase creativity and openness to new experience. This makes them potentially beneficial for post-traumatic stress, addiction and palliative care treatments.
We humans have made a lot of technological and scientific advances, and this sometimes gives us the sense that we’re above or outside of nature, that we can do things better. Sometimes it takes a fascinating lifeform like a mushroom to shake us from our hubris and show us how much we have yet to learn about the world and our place in it.
By David Suzuki with contributions from David Suzuki Foundation Senior Editor Ian Hanington.
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Durham Region is working towards a greener future by encouraging tree planting… :)
The Regional Municipality of Durham Region, Forests Ontario and Raw Materials Company have all come together to encourage the planting of trees throughout the region… Collectively they hope to reach the goal set out in the Durham Community Climate Change Local Action Plan.
On June 3, Durham council endorsed Raw Marterials Comapany as a corporate champion for the tree program.
The company will now donate $1:10 for every kilogram of single-use batteries recycled at participating locations to Forests Ontario to plant trees throughout Durham Region.
For more information please visit www.durham.ca/climatechange then select Take Action, Plant Trees
source: Whitby This Week October 21 2015
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