Surviving the Future - Doc Zone | CBC-TV

Surviving the Future - Doc Zone CBC-TV

Future Earth 2025 - The Passionate Eye | CBC News Network

Future Earth 2025 - The Passionate Eye CBC News Network

Halloween Window Mural 2010: Winnie the Witch

Oi gente! Happy Halloween para todos! Esta data especial para toda criançada está chegando e a gente aqui em casa anda a mil preparando a casa. Meu pequeno L tem me ajudado um bocado: decorou o seu pumpkin, colou insetos e baratas na porta da entrada, ajudou a colar aranhas nos vidros da janela dos fundos e outros decalques pela casa. Já está todo animado com a sua fantasia de Happy Feet (Penguim) e me ajudou a pintar a nossa janela da frente com a personagem do livro favorito dele: Winnie the Witch!
Levou exatamente três dias para terminar... Que sufoco! Ela é uma personagem com muitos detalhes. Mas para pintar janelas de vidro determino mesmo três dias, pois primeiro preciso traçar os detalhes em preto. Depois deixar secar pelo menos umas 12 horas. Depois pintar a primeira base, as cores ficam meio apagadas, e deixar secar novamente por umas 12 horas. E no último dia repassar as cores e terminar os detalhes, e então novamente deixar secar.
Fico esperando que outros amigos me peçam para fazer desenhos nas janelas deles, mas até agora ninguém me pediu... assim continuo a pintar na nossa janela de casa.
Minha família AMA! Que já virou tradição, no Halloween e no Natal!

Our contribuition

Ok. Now you may ask me, so what is your contribution to reduce the consumption of Earth's resource and ecosystem degradation? Specially living in one of the most consumerists countries in the World. Canada seems to be high in resource consumption, land use, productivity and waste. Canada is pretty close to the USA according to the Living Planet Index report!

There are simple actions I believe each of us can take to reduce the gap between Ecological Footprint and biocapacity. The following are the things our family is doing to help (and we are happy to do them, it is not a burden in our life-style):

• We recycle (magazines, junk mail, cardboard, milk containers, juice boxes, drawing papers, cereal boxes, etc.);
• We ONLY use rechargeable batteries
• Support our Green Party and Green politicians;
• We turn off our computers at night and when not on use;
• We don't smoke, and we don't like smoking;
• We donate old clothes and other items and never throw them away unnecessarily (unless broken or when a hazard);
• We read a lot about environmental issues and share the information with friends, family and others (like this blog!);
• We use mostly All-Natural, Plant-based, Biodegradable cleaning products;
• We are a ONE car family (actually ours is on the top 30 green cars), a small car, reducing air pollution and saving on fuel;
• I carry a mug for coffee/tea and drinks I buy to go;
• We turn off all the lights that are not necessary around the house (My son is big into that one too! Often reminding us to do so);
• I store most of our food in reusable containers instead of aluminum foil;
• We COMPOST and we use our compost in our vegetable garden;
• We turn off the water when brushing our teeth;
• We support local farmers and local business owners;
• We read news online rather then the newspaper;
• We only wash our laundry when we have a full load to do, and we own a Energy Saver frontloader;
• We only run our dishwasher when it is pretty full;
• We NEVER eat at MacDonalds;
• We are against hunting for sport;
• We don't litter;
• I let my hair dry naturally;
• Most of our fruits and vegetables are organically grown;
• We don't watch TV;
• We go to our local public library

So, there you go, those are the few things our family do daily to support the environment, and we are constantly looking for other options and alternatives to help a bit our planet.

Above all, we accept that small changes can make a BIG difference. And here we encourage others in their effort to make those changes. I have my son as my biggest reason to do whatever is possible to create a clean and prosperous World for him and all the next generation...

Sadly, reading the report's results the impact of environmental degradation seems to be greater in the world's poorest and most vulnerable people. Reduce access to clean water, proper food, fuel and goods, these people cannot break out the poverty trap they find themselves in and cannot prosper.

People need to be aware that right now, it is a reality that renewable resources are being harvested faster than they can be generated, more wood is being taken from forests each year than it can re-grow, and more fish are being harvest than are replenished every year depleting the resources faster than imagined.

The problem is being ignored because people are just ignoring the problem by moving to a new fishing area or another forest, clearing new land for farming, or targetting a different population.

What is the biggest effects? Easy answer: increase concentration of CO2 in the air, trap in the atmosphere, leading to increase global temperatures and affecting climate changes, and ocean acidification, etc.

Ecological Footprint Index

Living in harmony with nature from WWF on Vimeo.

The ecological footprint index is a measure of human deman on the Earth's ecosystems. It compares human deman with planet Earth's ecological capacity to regenerate.

It represents the amount of biologically productive land and sea area needed to regenerate the resources a human population consumes and to absorb and render harmless the corresponding waste.

Using this assessment, it is possible to estimate how much of the Earth it would take to support humanity if everybody lived a given lifestyle.

While the term ecological footprint is widely used, methods of measurement vay. However, calculation standards are now emerging to make results more comparable and consistent.

Living Footprint Index

Human well-being is directly connected to the way we treat our planet's natural resources. Deforestation, pollution, extinction, loss of biodiversity directly impact quality of living. Destroying nature makes life harder for all of us and even more for those who are already vulnerable.

Not Another Nature Film from WWF on Vimeo.

The Global Footprint Network promotes the science of sustainability by advancing the Ecological Footprint, a resource accounting tool that makes sustainability measurable.
It works to further improve and implement this science by coordinating research, developing methodological standards, and providing decision-makers with robust resource accounts to help the human economy operate within the Earth's ecological limits.