Tony Lepage

In an attempt to reduce my use of plastic, I have been looking for ways to eliminate it from daily food use. It's surprising how much plastic we use and shocking to find that it's realistically impossible to ban from one’s life completely...

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The Patagonian Toothfish is the perfect example of how consumers are ultimately responsible for the depletion of fish stocks regardless of their international recognition as threatened or endangered. Commonly sold in North America as the “Chilean Sea Bass,” the species is usually illegally harvested and its stocks are threatened. The fish matures at ten to twelve years of age and commercial fishing of the species started in the early 90s. Less than twenty years later and the fish are endangered. It’s estimated that it’ll be commercially extinct in less than three years.

Fishing of the toothfish actually threatens other endangered species as well. The fishing lines pull under petrels and albatrosses and the Elephant seal’s diet consists of 98% toothfish.

Although the Canadian government is refusing to recognize international agreements for conservation, it is ultimately up to the consumer to make smarter decisions. I was happy to see local retailers recognizing the need for conservation.

But my delight was snubbed as I walked 5 steps to the next retailer.

This does wonders in convincing me that consumers are not ignorant hos.

The Patagonian Toothfish goes under many names, including: Australian Sea Bass, Antarctic Sea Bass, Black hake, Chilean Sea Bass, Chilean grouper, Mero - in Japan - and Bacalao de profundidad or Merluza negra in Chile.

Further Reading:

• WWF – Last Chance Saloon?
• Wikipedia: Patagonian toothfish
• Satellites Identify Albatross Danger Zones

How much do we really consume? Really big numbers are hard to picture. In the U.S.A. 2 million plastic bottles are consumed every five minutes. It's hard to picture how much that is. Chris Jordan has filled a niche in the art world by displaying consumption.

Take a look for yourself:


Nothing to worry about. Heck, what's the big fuss.

“Every man and woman in the street knew something nasty was up ahead. But the politicians just had their Munichs. Peace in our time. Many of us were skeptical, we thought something pretty awful was going to happen, but when it did happen, everybody suddenly grew happier, they found that instead of life being somewhat aimless, as it is now, they all had positive things to do. If you were young it didn’t seem all that bad. ”

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I love to see news articles about cars being destroyed by falling trees but when bikes and cyclists start getting the brunt of things, I am not so pleased.

In Amsterdam, bicyclists were blown over or, in some cases, blown backward. The city’s historic canals were littered with trash barrels, piles of toppled bikes and dozens of broken umbrellas.

CBC News: Hurricane-force winds batter Europe for 2nd day

For the first time in my life, my hometown, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada had a green Christmas. A Christmas without even a hint of snow is not Christmas in Northern Ontario. On a positive note, it brought the awareness of Global Warming close to home.

Many people look at the absence of snow as a blessing but forget that Global Warming doesn’t mean any more snow; it simply means there will be greater amounts of snow in shorter periods of time—a higher frequency of heavy precipitation in small timeframes and more intense droughts.

Reduce your carbon footprint!

Here are 101 reasons you should make changes within your lives—today.

1. If the biosphere is ruined it will be done by people who know that emissions must be cut - but refuse to alter the way they live
2. How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic
3. Canada’s Top Ten Weather Stories For 2006
4. Canada’s 2004 emissions were 35% above the target to be achieved under the Kyoto Protocol.
5. An Environmental Citizen… Who Me?
6. Rain warnings in B.C., warm weather in Toronto lend to wacky weather picture
7. Walk/Bike: Each Canadian makes an average of 2,000 car trips of less than 3 km each year
8. Climate 2006: Rhetoric up, action down
9. Self sufficient ‘ish’.com - The urban guide to almost self sufficiency.
10. What You Can Do: At Home
11. What You Can Do: At School
12. What You Can Do: At Work
13. What You Can Do: On the Road
14. Greater Toronto Area Clean Air Council
15. A Scan of Climate Change Impacts on Toronto
16. Idling Control By-law and Enforcement Workshop
17. Governments in Action: Toronto #5
18. Recent Toronto Atmospheric Fund grants awards
19. Disappearing world: Global warming claims tropical island
20. Study Says Methane a New Climate Threat
21. Alternative fuels: How they compare
22. Solving the Climate Problem: Technologies Available to Curb CO2 Emissions
23. Carbon footprint calculator
24. Stabilization Wedges: Solving the Climate Problem for the Next 50 Years with Current Technologies
25. International Energy Outlook
26. Climate and health Fact sheet
27. Target: Intensity. An Analysis of Greenhouse Gas Intensity Targets
28. Growing in the Greenhouse: Protecting the Climate by Putting Development First
29. New law permits the burying of CO2
30. MIT survey: Climate change tops Americans’ environmental concerns
31. Department of Energy Advances Commercialization of Climate Change Technology
32. Can carbon dioxide storage help cut greenhouse emissions?
33. Prospects for CO2 Capture and Storage
34. IPCC Special Report on Carbon dioxide Capture and Storage
35. International Carbon Capture and Storage Projects Overcoming Legal Barriers
36. London Protocol Adopts Amendment Allowing for Sub-seabed Carbon Dioxide Storage
37. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)
38. Coming to Grips with Global Warming
39. WWF Canada: Save Our Client
40. New Trend Isn’t a Fad But a Sea Change for Business
41. Mercedes-Benz Pays $1.2 Million for Clean Air Act Violation Also Spends $59 Million for Voluntary Recall
42. The Weather Makers
43. Planes, trains, and the road to ruin
44. World faces hottest year ever, as El Niño combines with global warming
45. Climate Change vs Mother Nature: Scientists reveal that bears have stopped hibernating
46. 2006: Year of Giant Waves
47. Some European birds delay migration due to warmth
48. Sea level rise ‘is accelerating’
49. Sea level rise ‘under-estimated’
50. Greenland is currently losing about 100 billion tonnes of ice a year.
51. Stark warning over climate change
52. Arctic Sea Ice Seen Vanishing in 35 Years
53. CDC: Climate change a health threat
54. Greenhouse Gas Is Ramping Up Fast
55. Disasters losses may top $1 trillion/yr by 2040: UN
56. Europeans Eye Tax On US For Shunning Kyoto Protocol
57. Gulf Stream came to halt for 10 days in 2004
58. Exxon misleads on climate change -UK Royal Society
59. Exxon Reviews Funding In Climate-Change Issue
60. Dutch greenhouse gas emissions fell 2 percent in 2005, now at 1990 levels, agency says
61. Ice bubbles reveal biggest rise in CO2 for 800,000 years
62. How to Tell Whether a Candidate Is Serious About Combating Global Warming
63. Environment in crisis: ‘We are past the point of no return’
64. Climate change information site of the BBC
65. Climate Change and Biodeversity
66. Environment is the main issue of the 21st century
67. Join the Walk the Talk campaign, and show that reducing emissions is possible and cost-effective.
68. What is Dangerous?
69. 2° Celsius: A World of Difference to Life on Earth
70. 2007 Could Be the Year of Biomethane, Says Newsletter
71. Climate Change 101
72. US EPA: Climate Change
73. Recommendations for U.S. Policy
74. Corporate Strategies That Address Climate Change
75. U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions 1990 - 2004
76. Greenhouse Gases and Where They Come From
77. Friends of the Earth: Climate Change
78. Greenpeace: Stop climate change
79. The world’s first greenhouse gas speedometer
80. Diesel Passenger Vehicles and the Environment
81. Personal Vehicles Initiative
82. Most fuel-efficient vehicles
83. Europe’s going green (that’s due to lack of snow)/article.do”>Europe’s going green (that’s due to lack of snow)
84. Wikipedia: Climate Change
85. Offset your footprint and reduce climate change
86. One global warming problem, 6.5 billion solutions
87. It doesn’t cost the Earth to save the planet
88. The Latest Fashion from London: Domestic Wind Turbines
89. Products and Accessories in the Renewable Energy World
90. See how much CO2 your flying puts in the air
91. Scheme to cut ‘carbon footprint’
92. How to reduce your carbon footprint - top 10 tips
93. Photo Gallery: Greenland’s Agricultural Boom
94. BBC Climate Change Experiment: Take part in the biggest climate change experiment ever undertaken.
95. Invest in Sustainability
96. Green Futures
97. Greening the Dragon
98. Bridge for Africa: Building resources to inspire dignity, growth and empowerment
99. The Alternative Energy Store
100. Inhabitat: Green design is good design - good design is green design
101. David Suzuki Foundation

In case you hadn’t heard, British Columbia was hit by a powerful storm this week. This was the third storm in as short as a week to pound the west coast and knock out power lines that still have not been repaired. What’s more, “it disrupted the morning commute.”

Across the Atlantic, Europe is thinking of canceling winter due to a lack of snow. Okay, they don’t really have a choice—it simply looks like the snow isn’t coming this year.

Further south, Bahrain was brought to “a virtual standstill” due to near record setting floods. But Bahrain isn’t the only nation to be affected from these storms; Saudi Arabia, Iran, Sri Lanka and India have all been hit by hard rainfalls displacing thousands of residents.

What’s worse, Thailand’s car sales dropped nearly 10% “due to prolonged severe flooding.”

To sum up the year, the United Nations released a report stating that 2006 will be the 6th warmest year on record.

Speaking of heat, Australia is evacuating residents of many towns after declaring the bushfires of Tasmania are out of control.

In Canada, we read about the rain storms of the west and the lack of snow in Europe. Across the globe, other completely different, environmental issues cause worry and suffering. Would it be a jump to wonder whether this trend will continue? Would it be bold to think we’re going to need to depend upon ourselves, more and more, to cope with these crises?

Sure, environmental crises happen all the time. This is what makes it hard for us to notice any change. It’ll take years before we can have any solid conclusions about what we’re seeing take place right now.

To the scientists, attempting to draw attention to the root of these problems, attempting to conclusively draw links between what we see more of in 2005, and 2006, than we’ve seen previously, I say:

Good luck.

To you, and the world, who will continue to experience these extremities of weather, I say, again:

Good luck.