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Global Recycling Day – 18 March 2024

18 mars 2024
Nicole Gregoire
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Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: climate emergency, environment, fire, global temperatures, greener future, natural resources, planet, recycling, throwing away, waste

Every year, the Earth yields billions of tons of natural resources and at some point, in the not too distant future, it will run out.

That’s why we must think again about what we throw away – seeing not waste, but opportunity.

The last decade has been the hottest on record, and we are now facing a climate emergency of unparalleled proportions. If we don’t make significant and rapid changes, we will see continued rising global temperatures, the melting of icecaps, continents on fire and rapid deforestation.

This directly affects humanity with increased poverty, immigration from displaced communities, job losses, waste mountains and natural habitats disappearing. We have the power to make lasting changes to combat this, and with recycling being recognized in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals 2030, we are already seeing many individuals, governments and organisations taking direct action to support the global green agenda.

Recycling is a key part of the circular economy, helping to protect our natural resources. Each year the ‘Seventh Resource’ (recyclables) saves over 700 million tonnes in CO2 emissions and this is projected to increase to 1 billion tons by 2030. There is no doubt recycling is on the front line in the war to save the future of our planet and humanity.

The Global Recycling Foundation is pleased to announce the theme of Global Recycling Day 2024 as #RecyclingHeroes. This will recognise the people, places and activities that showcase what an important role recycling plays in contributing to an environmentally stable planet and a greener future which will benefit all.

Global Recycling Day was created in 2018 to help recognise, and celebrate, the importance recycling plays in preserving our precious primary resources and securing the future of our planet. It is a day for the world to come together and put the planet first.

The mission of Global Recycling Day, as set out by the Global Recycling Foundation, is twofold:

1. To tell world leaders that recycling is simply too important not to be a global issue, and that a common, joined up approach to recycling is urgently needed.

2. To ask people across the planet to think resource, not waste, when it comes to the goods around us – until this happens, we simply won’t award recycled goods the true value and repurpose they deserve.

 

Source: text & Images: https://www.globalrecyclingday.com/

 

World Vegetarian Day – 1 october

1 octobre 2023
Nicole Gregoire
Aucun commentaire
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: animal slaughter, Climate change, diet, environment, food, meat, religious concerns, vegetarian

The Many Different Types of Vegetarianism

A vegetarian is a person who does not consume meat or products of animal slaughter due to ethical, moral, or religious concerns. There are many varieties of vegetarianism. Ovo-Lacto vegetarians, for instance, eat eggs and milk, but no other animal products. Adherents of more strict forms of vegetarianism, such as vegans, tend to abstain from consuming anything that may include any kind of animal products or may be made from animal labor, such as animal testing. Other types of vegetarians include raw vegetarianism, where followers only eat raw foods or products that have been dehydrated; and fruitarianism, where adherents only consume fruits and nuts, preferably obtained without any harm to the plant.

In India, members of the Jain religion follow a form of vegetarianism that not only prohibits eating animal products, but also restricts consumption of root vegetables like onions, potatoes, and garlic.

From Religion to Saving the Environment

In many cultures, vegetarianism is an integral part of religion. Many sects of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism prohibit the consumption of meat and animal products, though the use of milk, honey, and sometimes unfertilized poultry eggs is acceptable.

Religious vegetarianism tends to be rooted in a philosophy of non-violence and compassion towards the natural world. Many other people follow vegetarianism as a way to protect the environment – they believe that raising and killing of animals for food negatively affects the environment, creates pollution, and contributes to climate change.

Many follow vegetarianism out of concern for animals and their treatment at farms where they are being raised for food. Others on the hand, adopt the vegetarian diet for its health benefits. Research has shown that a plant-based diet can help reduce the risks of heart disease, diabetes, and some kinds of cancer.

 

Source: Text: https://www.timeanddate.com/    Image: national Day Calendar

World Bamboo Day – 18 September

18 septembre 2023
Nicole Gregoire
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Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: déforestation, deforested lands, environment, natural ressource, pollution, rural development, social benefits, utilization

World Bamboo Day

World Bamboo Day is a day of celebration to increase the awareness of bamboo globally. Where bamboo grows naturally, bamboo has been a daily element, but its utilization has not always been sustainable due to exploitation. The World Bamboo Organization aims to bring the potential of bamboo to a more elevated exposure – to protect natural resources and the environment, to ensure sustainable utilization, to promote new cultivation of bamboo for new industries in regions around the world, as well as promote traditional uses locally for community economic development.

It is estimated that there are more than two billion hectares – that is nearly 5 billion acres – of deforested and degraded land around the world waiting for human intervention to save it, to nourish it, and breathe new life into it. The health of our planet needs us to do something big – as soon as possible.

In many cases, the natural biome in these regions will never return due to toxic pollution that has led to collapsed ecosystems and the extinction of local flora and fauna. However dismal, these lands can recover and regain ecological functionality – admittedly with collaborative inputs from stakeholders, integrated goal-setting, and sustainable management practices.

When considering the optimization of forest ecosystem goods and services as societal needs change- and new challenges arise – bamboo has a tremendous role to play. We’ve heard about planting trees – yes – but it is also time to plant bamboo.

Bamboo is resilient & adaptable – with immense biodiversity. Bamboo species can restore land. Their unique characteristics of quick growth, extensive root systems, and pioneer spirit can reduce erosion, stabilize slopes, absorb heavy metals, create shade, harbor wildlife, recycle carbon dioxide, and clean the air. Planting and managing sustainable bamboo forests allows for multiple social benefits, including rural development (improved housing), agroforestry products (which includes nutritional food and alternative fiber), with the big bonus of climate mitigation.

Bamboos are natural flora in temperate, tropical and subtropical parts of the globe, native on every continent except Europe and Antarctica, and the latest estimates are that there may be some 50 million hectares of bamboo around the world. That’s nearly 124 million acres.

 

Source: Text: https://worldbamboo.net/    Image: Journée mondiale

 

World Elephant Day – 12 August

12 août 2023
Nicole Gregoire
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Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: carbon, conservation, endangered, environment, feeding patterns, planet, rain forest

Turns Out Elephants May Play a Crucial Role in Saving The Planet

Preserving populations of critically endangered forest elephants is crucial not just for the animals themselves, but to protect the carbon-sucking capacities of the environments they live in, a new study demonstrates.

The rainforest of central and west Africa, which is the second largest on Earth, could lose 6 to 9 percent of its atmospheric carbon capturing capacity if elephant communities were wiped out – further accelerating the warming of the planet.

Forest elephants play a crucial role in the carbon cycle, ‘thinning out’ the rainforest canopy by eating fast growing taller trees that capture less carbon. This creates more space and sunlight for the slower growing trees beneath which capture more carbon from the environment.

« If we lose forest elephants, we will be doing a global disservice to climate change mitigation, » says biologist Stephen Blake from Saint Louis University in Missouri.

« The importance of forest elephants for climate mitigation must be taken seriously by policy makers to generate the support needed for elephant conservation. The role of forest elephants in our global environment is too important to ignore. »

Using data from previous studies and new information collected in the field, the team analyzed nearly 200,000 records of forest elephant feeding patterns in Africa, covering more than 800 individual plant species.

The preference that elephants have for the lower carbon density trees seems to be down to the nutritional value they get from them rather than they’ve availability: they’re more palatable to the animals and easier to digest.

Source: Text: https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/technology/  Story by David Nield    Image: Wikipedia

International Plastic Bag Free day – 3 July

3 juillet 2023
Nicole Gregoire
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Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: drainage systems, environment, Insdustrial Revolution, marine life, pollution crisis, shopping bag, wildlife

HISTORY OF INTERNATIONAL PLASTIC BAG FREE DAY

For most of our history, single-use products were blasphemous. But through the end of the Industrial Revolution and into the modern era, plastic became a cheap and plentiful resource. Plastic bags are just one perfect example.

From birth to ban, the history of the plastic bag has impacted our world. In 1933, polyethylene, the most commonly used plastic, was created by accident at a chemical plant in Northwich, England. While polyethylene had been created in small batches before, this was the first synthesis of the material that was industrially practical, and it was initially used in secret by the British military during World War II.

By 1965, the one-piece polyethylene shopping bag was patented by the Swedish company Celloplast. Designed by engineer Sten Gustaf Thulin, the plastic bag quickly begins to replace cloth and plastic in Europe. After controlling 80 percent of the bag market in Europe, plastic bags went abroad and were widely introduced to the United States in 1979. Plastic companies began to aggressively market their product as superior to paper and reusable bags.

It wasn’t until 1997 that sailor and researcher Charles Moore discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the largest of several gyres in the world’s oceans where immense amounts of plastic waste have accumulated, threatening marine life. It was discovered that plastic bags are notorious for killing sea turtles, which mistakenly think they are jellyfish and eat them.

Bangladesh became the first country in the world to implement a ban on thin plastic bags in 2002 after it was found that plastic bags played a key role in clogging drainage systems during disastrous flooding. Other countries quickly followed suit, such as South Africa, Rwanda, China, Australia and Italy.

International Plastic Bag Free Day looks for safer alternatives to demonstrate that a world without the use of so much plastic is possible. It is part of the Break Free from Plastic Movement, which began in September 2016, and has been joined by nearly 1,500 different organizations. The movement is looking for solutions to the plastic pollution crisis, to make the planet safer for humans, the environment and wildlife. 

 

Source: text & Image: https://nationaltoday.com/international-plastic-bag-free-day/

World Day for Responsible Tourism – 2 June

2 juin 2023
Nicole Gregoire
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Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: Aboriginal culture, big issues, economy, environment, indigenous land claims, landscapes, sustainability

RESPONSIBLE TOURISM IN CANADA

Everything is big here. Even the issues around responsible tourism in Canada. And although Canada has a reputation for being environmentally sensitive and caring for the land, it isn’t always true, especially when you look at the big picture. It is a huge resource extraction-based economy, particularly in the Arctic regions. But also with regards to logging, which still happens in a big way – even in places like Vancouver Island, where you will see massive areas just ‘clear cut’. Clearcutting, as opposed to selective cutting of lumber, is very controversial regarding its sustainability.
The other big issue is, of course, the Aboriginal culture, indigenous land claims and so on. Tourism is still slow to embrace Aboriginal communities and vice versa. So, just as your eyes will open wide when you first see the scope of Canadian landscapes, keep your eyes and ears open to the big issues too while you are there. They are still sensitive issues, and so tread carefully, but they are big all the same.
Source: Text: https://www.responsibletravel.com/holidays/canada/travel-guide/responsible-tourism-in-canada    Image: Unesco.org

World Turtle Day – 23 May

23 mai 2023
Nicole Gregoire
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Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: endangered species, environment, extinction, protect, reptiles, tortoises

Turtles are a type of reptile that exists in many environments throughout the world and have found their way into literature, poetry, and parable throughout the world’s history. World Turtle Day celebrates these noble reptiles and their place in the world and encourages people to take action to help protect both the common pet turtle and the ever endangered sea turtle.

History of World Turtle Day

Well, the first thing to know is that Turtles and Tortoises are not the same thing, though this day is dedicated to celebrating and protecting both. First created in 1990 by American Tortoise Rescue, World Turtle day recognizes that some species of our hard (and soft!) shelled friends are suffering and almost on the edge of extinction due to environmental hazards, issues with hunting and harvesting of their eggs.

American Tortoise Rescue was created by Susan Tellem and Marshall Thompson, a married pair of animal activists who had a particular passion for tortoises. We all have to have something that drives us in this life, and for these two it was bonding over animal right’s activist work. Don’t think these two are just closet hippies with an overwhelming adoration for all things shelled and scaly.

Susan is deeply involved with television arts & sciences and the public relations society of America while being a partner in Tellem Grody Public Relations Incorporated. They organize charity collections and works around the world to help protect these amazing critters, and created World Turtle Day to get everyone involved and spread awareness of the shrinking habitat and declining numbers of these sensitive creatures.

So what is the difference between turtles and tortoises? Although they are both reptiles, the main difference between the two is that turtles live in the water at least some of the time, while tortoises live on the land. Because they live in the water, turtles have streamlined and mostly flat shells, while tortoises often have larger and more domed ones.

Our tortoise friends can also live longer than their reptilian cousins. Tortoises can live over 300 years, although their average lifespan can go up to around 150 years. Turtles live up until the age of 40, although one record-breaking turtle almost lived to the age of 90!

 

Source: Text: https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/turtle-day/    Image: National Today

World Fish Migration Day – 21 May

21 mai 2023
Nicole Gregoire
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Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: environment, impact, life cycle, océans, rivers, safeguarding, survival

What is a Migratory Fish?

Migratory fish swim short or long distances daily, monthly or annually, to complete their life cycle, mate and feed! Some migratory fish migrate up and down rivers, others between rivers and oceans, and others across the oceans. Are there some migratory fish species you may know? Salmon migrate up rivers as adults to spawn in the same river they were born. On the flipside, freshwater eels are born in the ocean but migrate epic distances to carry out their lives in rivers. Bull sharks migrate up rivers and back through the oceans to breed and feed. And there are many more examples! Check out our downloads page for some cool fish fact sheets. Learn about their migratory routes and about some species you may have never even heard of!

Goals of World Fish Migration Day

We need to ensure the survival of these species for generations to come. But many times, fish do not receive the proper attention they deserve. For this reason, it is important we raise awareness about the plight of migratory fish and the importance of their survival not only for the environment but also for us.

Creating awareness is an essential first step to make real change. The primary purpose of World Fish Migration Day is to improve the public’s understanding of the importance of migratory fish, and how to prevent negatively impacting them. The next step is to enable citizens on the world to take action on these topics. Ultimately, we aim to create sustainable commitments from NGOs, governments and industry on safeguarding rivers and restoring swimways or migratory fish.

Source: Text: https://worldfishmigrationfoundation.com/portfolio-item/world-fish-migration-day/     Image: https://nationaltoday.com/world-fish-migration-day/

World Penguin Day – 25 April

25 avril 2023
Nicole Gregoire
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Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: animal kingdom, endangered species, environment, habitat, migration, pollution

Penguins are some of the most adorable, lovable and impressive creatures in the animal kingdom, so why not dedicate a day to these flightless birds?

World Penguin Day is a celebratory and educative initiative that encourages people to learn more about penguins and their environment, how important they are to our ecosystems and the threats they face. Interested in learning more about this day? Then let’s dive in!

The particulars of penguins

These distinctive black and white birds are highly adapted to aquatic life, their wings have evolved into flippers and their excellent swimming abilities allowing most species to dive around 200m deep, with emperor penguins even reaching depths of 500m! They’re camouflaged to protect against predators from above and below, and their glossy feathers trap air to both keep them warm and help them stay afloat.

It’s practically impossible to look at a penguin and feel angry.      Joe Moore

Penguins vary quite significantly in size, from the large emperor penguin, reaching heights of over 1m, to the little blue penguin, coming in at just over 30cm tall. In ancient times there were even giant species of penguin that grew almost 2m high and weighed 80kg!

Found all over the Southern Hemisphere, from Antarctica to the Galápagos Islands, penguins are famous for their endearing waddles, their dedicated chick hatching efforts and, for those based in icy climates, their trick of huddling to stay warm. They’re even known to enjoy a spot of tobogganing, gliding on their bellies over the ice!

History of World Penguin Day

World Penguin Day takes place during the annual northern migration of Adélie penguins, a species of penguin that is native to Antarctica. Adélie penguins migrate north to have better access to food during the winter months when the sea ice expands and then, during the summer, return to the coastal beaches of Antarctica to build their nests.

This annual celebration of penguins was created at McMurdo Station, an American research center on Ross Island. Researchers noticed that the Adélie penguins began their migration around this day each year, and so they founded World Penguin Day as a way to mark the occasion and raise awareness of these creatures.

While the day originated from the Adélie penguin’s migration habits, it celebrates all species of penguin and highlights the plight of these water-loving creatures. Of the 17 or so species around today (the total number of species varies depending on how you classify them, but there are at least 17 and possibly as many as 20!), sadly 10 of them have been deemed endangered or vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and 3 are considered near threatened.

Penguins spend up to three quarters of their lives out at sea and are reliant on the oceans for food. Overfishing and pollution such as plastic and oil spills therefore pose a real threat to these birds and have contributed to decreasing populations, which in turn has a knock-on effect on the wider ecosystem. And for those species based in the Antarctic (the emperor penguin and the Adélie penguin), climate change is shrinking the sea ice, which not only impinges on their habitat but can also impact chick hatching times and the availability of food.

 

Source: Text: https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/world-penguin-day/      Image: The Weather Channel

Earth Day – 22 April 2024

22 avril 2023
Nicole Gregoire
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Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: Climate change, environment, health, natural disasters, planet, politicians, pollution, scientists

For the past 50 years, Earth Day has been celebrated by billions of people around the globe, annually every April 22, to join together in promoting awareness for the health of our environment. Why should we continue to celebrate this holiday? Some people may view it as just another holiday, or an excuse to wear green and a flower crown, similar to St. Patrick’s Day, but with serious concerns about our changing environment being studied and addressed today by prominent scientists, politicians, and young climate change activists alike, some people are adapting to more environmentally friendly ways of living — every day, not just on April 22 every year. Cue the composting, recycling, repurposing, carpooling, thrifting, and metal straws to save the turtles.

HISTORY OF EARTH DAY

The idea for Earth Day was originally born in 1969, when a US Senator named Gaylord Nelson, witnessed the effects of a massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, CA. He called to action all Americans to take a stand for the environment in 1970, and thousands of colleges and universities across the United States organized protests for a healthy, sustainable Earth. This included air pollution from factories and freeways, as well as the loss of habitats for animals and animal extinction. Because of these national rallies, the first Earth Day helped create the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species acts into law.

Today, we have similar concerns, and unfortunately they are even messier than that original oil spill. Increasing natural disasters, extreme weather, and rising global temperatures may seem impossible for one human, let alone millions or even billions of humans, to slow down, or stop. It has been reported that coral reefs are dying, we see pictures of animals on land and in the ocean with trash in their bellies or around their body, and corporate factories and large companies around the world continue to pollute our air and our living spaces. But a small action, like picking up litter on the sidewalk that may have otherwise ended up around the neck of an animal or in the ocean, still makes an impact — a step in the right direction, and an important change.

Source: Text: https://nationaltoday.com/earth-day/    Image: Freepik