On Sharks

I personally love sharks. They're some of the oldest creatures on the planet, having evolved over 400 million years ago - that's 150 million years before the dinosaurs, and well over 398 million years before human ancestors. They have developed keen senses for a variety of uses, and have high intelligence and long term memory.

Humans are systematically eliminating sharks from the world - whether purposefully through shark fishing and finning, or whether sharks are a product of by-catch in fishing. Fear and apathy in the general populace allows this to happen, often perpetuated by the media view that "a dead shark is a good shark."

Since sharks are slow to mature and only have a few young at a time, when their populations are devastated it takes decades for recovery. Recovery is not happening at a fast enough pace to keep up with how quickly humans are killing sharks.

Sharks are incredibly important for the ocean ecosystem, and all life on earth would be affected by the loss of sharks from the planet, as they have been the apex predator regulating the oceans for millions of years.

A great way to learn more is to watch the movie Sharkwater by Rob Stewart, a young Canadian activist fighting to save sharks. The movie is fun, and doesn't guilt the viewer - it's goal is awareness for the average person, as well as planting a love of sharks in the world.

This is a photo I took of a Grey Reef Shark in Hawaii, 2009 on a dive trip. I love diving with sharks - they're so beautiful.

On the Plastic Oceans

There is a garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean that has accumulated all of the plastic humans have thrown away that never made it to a recycle plant or garbage dump. Not only does it sit there and look nasty, it breaks down into consumable parts that fish and other marine mammals eat. This is causing them to die of lack of nutrition, and it also genetically alters them due to having chemicals in their systems. The plastic layer also chokes out the ocean by covering the surface and not allowing for oxygen to permeate into the water. This essentially suffocates all the living things and eliminates species from the bottom up.

This also affects humans, as we consume the fish and higher level creatures. As you travel up the foodchain, the concentration of chemicals increases and accumulates in larger animals - this is known as bioaccumulation, and it also happens with mercury as it gets into the ocean from the burning of fossil fuels. When humans eat these larger animals we also bioaccumulate.

See an impactful presentation on bottle cap accumulation in the Pacific Gyre by Captain Charles Moore, who has led expeditions to see the Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch.

Easy things to do that help the situation:

>Use plastic as sparingly as possible - instead of plastic bags and ziplocs, use reusable containers that can be recycled once their life is over. Make a consumer statement by refusing to purchase over-packaged food and goods.

>Buy a reusable water bottle - metal ones are very popular for good reason, as they last a long time and seep no chemicals harmful to humans (I have a klean kanteen, and I love it!) Plastic bottles are one of the biggest offenders for plastic waste.

>Sort your plastic waste into recycling - take a few seconds and make a plastic recycling bag for your home. In some places you can take your plastic bottles and your cans into a depot for a recycle refund. In places that don't have pick up for recycling, there is generally a place where you can drop it off at a centre

>Reduce the use - this is the most important one. Look at your lifestyle and pick out where you can cut the plastic out of your life - this can often be good for cost-efficiency, too! Do you eat out a lot? Often the containers from eating out are plastic or styrofoam - making this kind of lifestyle change is good for your health, your wallet and the environment :)

These are the easy changes that can be done solo - signing petitions, getting involved with organizations or donating to a cause is the next awesome step.

Keep tabs on everything by searching for stuff you care about on facebook, twitter and other sites.

On Low-Impact Lifestyle

I just have a minute to sit and write some of my thoughts. I've been thinking a lot lately about how I can reduce my personal impact on the environment. These are mostly small things that I have let pass by without letting the guilt actually influence action...

Despite the fact that it is so tastey, I will not eat unsustainable seafood until such a time that it is a stable resource and much less harmful to the oceans. Shrimp are the worst, and I love shrimp. Wild shrimp (and other kinds of fish, actually) are caught using a method called bottom trawling, and it is highly destructive to fish, corals and topography. Some kinds of fish are better for sustainable farming or harvesting, but aquaculture also has negative effects on surrounding environments and animals. There is a comprehensive guide to choosing sustainable seafood here at David Suzuki's site.

I'll expand on this later!

On Injecting Stuff Into the Earth

Now, today was quite cold in this part of the world, and some would argue that this is proof against the phenomenon of Global Warming (last week was almost 30 degrees Celsius btw, and "climate change" is the better term). But, as I watched my breath freeze in midair I noticed a similar occurrence on the road in front of me - gases visibly billowing out of idling cars at a busy intersection. It's really quite appalling when you think about it... I mean, if you were to close yourself into a contained room with this idling car you would die. Everyone knows that. Now, as humans, we all seem to live on this one large contained planet - a global room, if you will, and it seems that we are poisoning ourselves.

I bring this up due to the increase in activity in preparation for the United Nations Copenhagen Climate Conference which will hopefully point our world in a better, if more difficult, direction. Note Ban Ki-Moon, the UN's Secretary General, is on the front - I adore this man for his compassion, honesty and drive for global reform on big social issues.

Here in Alberta we have had a flurry of activity (along with media suppression) on the happenings of Greenpeace "extremists" who have recently protested the Alberta Oilsands by chaining themselves to various machines and whipping out banners for the press. Leader of this particular project, Mike Hudema, is quoted as saying:

“I think we succeeded in really continuing to tell the tarsands horr

ors story, and the growing environmental and human rights price tag associated with tarsands development.”

Take a second to think critically about what he's saying: we have the human right to a safe world where rising water levels isn't a concern for wiping out our homes. We have the human right to breathe clean air, and not be afraid of the sun because of what we have done to our atmosphere. We have the right to support those who invoke change for the better.

That brings me to my last point, which is that to fix this problem, companies, governments and researchers are encouraging major greenhouse gas emitters to take all that CO2, compress it into a liquid and - get this - inject in into the earth. Now, when I first heard about this I honestly thought it was some sort of Jonathan Swift Satire. Nope. It's called "Carbon Capture and Sequestration" (CCS), and you can read the Synopsis by Edmonton's own Graham Thomson, who decided to pursue this story for the last year of his journalistic career after being awarded a Fellowship from the Canadian Journalism Foundation.

There's a lot of points in the article, but I'll ruin the ending and tell you what it boils down to: If we inject stuff into the Earth we have no idea what the consequences may be. It most probably will have negative effects on our water tables (that's our drinking water), and will be incredibly expensive and difficult to regulate. Besides, it would be an excuse to allow us to carry on progressing in the backwards and irresponsible fashion until some other disaster is imminent.

If you're thinking "WHOA, there's no way I can make an impact on all this big stuff going down" you are mistaken. One easy way is to take the Nature Challenge, which is simply a guide to help you make small changes in your life that are environmentally friendly and impactful. Trust me, making those changes not only improves the global environment, but your personal environment: feel good about yourself!