Today, Blog Action Day, I'm going to use the Digital Stage as a bit of a soapbox.
I believe that when we think about 'the environment' and 'global warming' and 'climate change' or any of the phrases used to describe the changes that are happening, the concepts can seem distant and vague. But really, our environment is that which surrounds us. It can be as near as our living room and as distant as hurricanes or deforestation or droughts halfway around the world.
Except that, of course, where I live, in Nova Scotia, serious hurricanes happen; deforestation occurs through clear-cutting; and drought does happen in Nova Scotia now and then. With climate change happening (and the climate is changing, whether we want to admit that the change is caused by humans or not), we can't afford to ignore it. We can do little things, like opening our window coverings to let in sunlight, or close them to keep out the cold in the evenings. We can recycle, re-use, compost, follow the instructions of our local waste management program.
I moved back to Nova Scotia after Hurricane Juan hit, and it didn't severely affect the area I live in (Annapolis County). These photos show the devastation in other parts of the province.
As for clearcutting, there are patches everywhere. The photos here include pictures of the Ship Harbour Long Lake area near where I grew up.
As for waste management, Nova Scotia has been promoting environmental stewardship since the late 1980s. What this means in practical terms is that in Annapolis County we have to divide our disposable items into garbage, recyclables, and compostables. This can be really annoying, to be truthful, but it really isn't that hard. One of the most difficult tasks is dragging my compostable bin up a hill at 8:30 in the morning.
I'm including a few photos to show where I live. The barnacles are from the beach at the bottom of the hill below my home. The picture makes them look large but they are really tiny and, on the day I photographed them, covered many small and large rocks well below the high water line. Wikipedia's entry is quite good - I think my photo is of a common rock barnacle. In any event, they were a living organism on a beach which sometimes seems to contain only empty shells. On that day, when the tide was out very far, there were also clumps of periwinkles and mussels waiting for the tide to come back in.
In the photo taken from the beach, the water you see is the Annapolis Basin. If you click on the "Map" link one of the places you will see is Cornwallis, where I live. Across on the other side of the Basin is North Mountain (I live on the South Mountain). Neither of them are terribly high, except when you have to walk up part of one carrying grocery bags.
Over beyond the left of the photo is the town of Digby, and beyond that is Digby Neck, which is currently the site of a dispute about the building of a basalt quarry. As with most things, there are at least two sides to the story. Those opposed want the quarry stopped. The company that wants to build the quarry wants it started, of course. And this dispute is an example of the many sides of any consideration of environmental change.
