Save the Wilderness :: Environmental and Health Concerns

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Save the Wilderness

Dr Bill Pruitt, an ecologist from the University of Manitoba, estimates that about one half of the atmospheric carbon dioxide since 1860 has resulted from forest clearing. NASA estimates that approximately 7.6 billion tonnes of that carbon are released into the atmosphere each year: six billion tonnes from fossil fuels and an estimated 1.6 billion tonnes from deforestation.

Polar bears may be the first animals to fall prey to the spectre of global warming. Recent research from Environment Canada indicates that polar bears are now weighing 35 per cent less than 10 years ago. This is due to melting of the polar ice floes that the polar bears use as stepping stones to access their favourite and staple food, seals. With most of the polar ice floes turning to mush, the seals cannot be safely accessed. We should not be smug. What is befalling the polar bears could very well happen to us. We can do many positive things to reverse this "hot" situation. Mass change always starts with a handful of individuals.

Ride bikes instead of driving cars and reduce energy in the home by using insulation techniques, solar panels and low-wattage light fixtures. Plant trees to store carbon and produce life-giving oxygen. Force car companies to develop more earth-friendly technologies, such as hydrogen generation and energy systems to replace the horrible polluting and inefficient internal combustion engine. Recycle to save the earth’s valuable resources and to reduce energy consumption.

Replace coal power-generating plants with wind energy technologies. Become educated and elect politicians that will honour our planet by supporting new green energy technologies and legislating an end to clearcut logging in the earth’s primary boreal, temperate and tropical rainforests.

Gray Jones is the Founding Director of Western Canada Wilderness Committee, Alberta.

Source: alive #219, January 2001

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