Stop Ruining Canada, Stephen Harper!

Dear Stephen Harper (Prime Minister of Canada),

The other day I was driving in my car, listening to my favourite radio station, and was surprised to hear an ad come on proclaiming to the Canadian masses all the good things your government has done for the environment. First of all I don't know why a government should have to have ads to promote itself, but that's a whole other issue. The ad said that the government is introducing tough new laws to strengthen the environment. My immediate reaction: WHAAAAT?! as I almost crashed while wanting to scream at the radio.

I couldn't believe my freaking ears. I was totally outraged at the blatant lies in the ad! I've spent 8 years working for your Environment department, I have seen first hand the changes you have made. And by 'changes' I mean total destruction!

I worked for many years under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act as an EA coordinator, reviewing projects and helping them minimize their impacts to wildlife, birds and species at risk. When you 'strengthened' this Act last year, you made sure it only applied to mega-projects which appear on the 'list', with only certain factors to be assessed, and limited participation from the public. But sometimes even the small projects can have a big impact! For example, I remember one project which involved building a boardwalk on a beach where there were endangered Piping Plover nesting. With the changes you made to the Act last year, that type of small scale project and thousands more like it will be able to proceed with no assessment of effects at all.

Please don't build boardwalks over our nest!!

You also pushed through changes to the Fisheries Act, which used to be one of our strongest laws protecting the environment. It was so strong because it protected not only all fish, but also fish habitat. This forced anyone wanting to impact fish habitat to compensate for those intended changes, resulting in a no net loss of fish habitat. Doesn't that sound great, Canada should have maintained a healthy level of fish habitat in perpetuity. Not any more. Under the new Act, all mention of habitat has been removed, and the protection of actual fish species is limited to those of recreational and commercial importance. Thus totally ignoring the intrinsic ecological value of all other species and allowing habitats to be disturbed with no consequences. What a major step backwards in our environmental legislation in Canada, not to mention a huge blow for fish and rivers.

As if that wasn't disturbing enough, you also severly weakened the protection offered to rivers in the Navigable Waters Protection Act. This Act used to protect tens of thousands of waterbodies throughout our country. In typical Canadian fashion, any waterbody big enough to float a canoe in was protected. However, there is now a list of only 97 lakes, 62 rivers and the three oceans that the Act applies to. Thank you for making it that much easier to bulldoze, build bridges, pipelines and roads in our formerly clean waterways.

The future of our rivers

Last week I also read a news story that uncovered evidence that the changes you made to the Fisheries Act were directly linked to the wishes of industry. Not surprisingly, Harper's Natural Resources Minister made these comments: "Our natural resource industries — energy, mining and minerals processing and forest — account for more than 10 percent of our gross domestic product and provide close to 800,000 jobs in Canada. That’s why it’s so important to ensure that Canada has the right conditions in place to attract global investment in our provinces and territories. The time is now for Canada’s immense resources. Canada must compete with other resource-rich countries around the world for these job-creating investment dollars." Clearly when he speaks about the "right conditions" for investors, he means not worrying about the fish in that river you need to build a bridge across, and doing the minimum analysis of other potential effects to the environment. Because the environment doesn't matter when you have money!!?? Right?!

This sums up my thoughts on the issue quite nicely.

Another part of the radio ad said that you have increased environmental monitoring in the Alberta oil sands. While that is true, it has been at the expense of other environmental programs across the country! For example, the environmental emergencies staff you cut last year, who are the ones who would respond when an inevitable oil spill does happen!

The final straw for me happened when you enacted the Bridge to Strengthen Trade Act, exempting a major bridge project from Canada to the US from  requiring certain permits, approvals or authorizations under a number of federal laws. Basically giving the project an automatic green light in the name of economic development. I had worked on the species at risk and migratory bird issues of this project for 2 years, along with many others at my work. How demoralizing is it to be told at the last minute that all your work was pretty much worthless since the bridge would go ahead regardless. At least in this case the EA and species at risk work had largely already been done, but I fear for a future where this type of exemption from environmental legal requirements is normal. You have set a dangerous precedent!

To make the whole situation even worse, I've read reports that your ad campaign has cost tax payers over $100 million. Think about what good things we could do with that much money!!! What a total waste! At a minimum it should be used for salary or research dollars for the department of fisheries or environment that you have deeply cut, instead of brainwashing the masses into thinking you are environmentally friendly.

The bottom line is, globally we have reached the point where we can no longer go on exploiting the natural environment for the sake of economic gain. It's time to start working with nature instead of exploiting it.

Sincerely,
Someone who cares

Tree hugger and proud of it.

Come on Canada, we can't stand for this! Now is your chance to tell the government you want your tax dollars to support programs that protect nature. Sign the petition at this link:

http://action2.davidsuzuki.org/nature_and_democracy 

It takes literally 30 seconds. Do it!

My Alternate Realities

Right now I'm at the 6 month mark of my year off. I've already visited 9 new countries, made so many wonderful, inspirational new friends and had some incredible, mind blowing experiences (who knew that sea lions and sea turtles cuddle???!!!). It has really been more than I could have ever imagined in my wildest dreams so far. And it's only half way done!

But sometimes I can't help but think to the past and where I was a year ago. Last year in July and August I was on a totally different adventure for work - monitoring hundreds of thousands of shorebirds on migration. My team and I were living in the wilderness of Northern Ontario in a shack on the coast of James Bay, a 100 km helicopter ride north of even the smallest First Nation community that could still be considered a town, with no possible means of contact with the outside world. 

It was great, except for the fact that my life had just been shattered. A few days before I left, the love of my life had just informed me that he didn't really feel the same way, and then sent me off to the wilderness to stew on that new info for over a month. Needless to say that was pretty much the worst thing that ever happened. So even though we did get back together for several months, things were obviously never the same. When we finally ended things in March, I was devastated to lose my true love and best friend and partner in all things fun.  My once certain path into the future dissolved away into an imaginary alternate universe, and I began on a pathway into my new reality... with a sense that maybe, just maybe, there was something else out there meant for me.

Obviously going on an epic trip around the world is the best way to get over someone. I hope I can work that into my schedule for any future breakups haha! There is really no time to think about your ex when you are spotting elephants, lions and cheetahs in Kruger National Park, trying desperately to get a sick penguin to please eat just one more fish, or drinking caña on the Galapagos beach with your new friends from all over the world while the sea lions howl in the background. But whenever times have been quiet, I do think about what happened and what I've learned.

The main thing I have learned is to be honest. Be who you are, and be it proudly. The right person will love you for exactly who you are without all the bullshit and lies. And if you feel you have to lie and bullshit to someone to make them like you, or to live up to their expectations, then it isn't going to work. I'd like to think I'm pretty good at this part- being me is my specialty ;).

The second thing I've learned is that communication is everything. So cliche, but so true. You have to actually tell the other person what you're thinking and feeling in order to work through any issues and find compromise and balance. It seems easy, but actually can be really hard. I know I kinda suck at this, because I like to have fun always and not deal with problems. But sometimes you have to suck it up and deal with shit.

So I guess this is my way of letting it all go, getting closure and moving on. I see myself staying single for a while, although I know one or two guys who might be able to change my mind on that... but I want to make sure I remember these lessons for the future. Hopefully my real true love is still out there somewhere, also dreaming of an amazing adventure filled life where we travel the world, try to make a positive impact on this planet, and have lots of sex and babies! Haha :)

But until I find him, just wait until you see what I have planned for the next 6 months....

I'm just a lonely sea turtle waiting for my sea lion bff in this life

Workin hard or hardly workin

I know I always post a lot of pictures of fun stuff, but I SWEAR I am actually here to volunteer my time working on the farm at Hacienda Tranquila. It is hard to believe that I have already been here for 4 weeks, and my time is almost up! The work we have been doing has been tough at times, almost always dirty, mostly fun, and always rewarding. Almost every day we do something different, so it is always exciting, and the daily activities are always written on the board in Spanish, so its usually a total surprise to me haha.

Our main activity is chopping down the invasive Guava trees with machetes. It is actually really fun to machete chop stuff and its one of my favourite jobs. It is so satisfying to chop down a big evil invasive tree with just muscle power and a giant super sharp knife!

Machete weilding! This day we were chopping down the baby Guava trees. Die invasive trees, die!!

Today we cleared a field of old half burned wood (from a lightning strike!), in the rain, and got pretty dirty in the process!

The farm is also really involved with helping out the local community in so many ways. One day, we were tasked with the interesting job of cleaning out the community water source, which was a big algae filled pool in the forest.

Shoveling the sludge out of the community water supply, this is done every 6 months.

We also run a hippotherapy program for local kids with special needs. Studies have shown that these kids benefit immensley from riding horses because it relaxes their muscles and helps them connect with animals that they wouldnt normally see. Twice a week the local kids come to the farm and we help them ride the horses. Their huge smiles make it clear that they really love it!!

Our horses, Ferrari and Suco, ready for duty

One of our favourite kids, Christopher. He is likely to try for a boob grab and/or swear constantly, but he makes it interesting!

We let the kids ride in different positions for fun

Another big part of our project is growing native plants and planting them in areas that have been cleared of the invasive species. But this also involves the worst job we do, digging holes! We all dread hole digging day with a passion. But this week we finally filled in our holes with a native grass that the Giant Tortoises love to eat, so we really felt that we were making some progress on the conservation front. In other good news, there have been 2 tortoise sightings in the area near the farm, so it seems to be working!

I dug this hole!

Our new field of native grasses

The greenhouse and garden where the seedlings grow up

We do tons of other stuff as well, like making fruit juice, milking cows, making coffee, making cheese, having pizza day and movie night, napping in the hammocks, and cleaning the house. Everything we do at the Hacienda is done by hand with no machinery to reduce our CO2 emissions, which is pretty cool if you ask me. We have about 14 volunteers at the Hacienda now, from all over the world. So we also spend a lot of time chatting about our lives at home and what life is like in different countries. It is pretty cool!

Pepe, taking time to smell the flowers... and that big white one is supposedly a drug kinda like shrooms, that Pepe has obviously been smelling a little too often haha!

Pizza day! We have a brick oven that makes yummy yummy pizzas!

Grinding the freshly roasted coffee beans!

Everyone enjoying the coffee!

We beat our previous record of 11 people (and a surfboard) in a taxi today... we had 14 people, plus 4 banana trees!

We "picked" these papayas by shaking the really tall trees they grow on until they fall down, and we try to catch them out of the air football style. Sometimes they fall directly on your head and smash though!! (Scott hehe)

Tomatoes in the garden almost ready for picking

Chillin out after a hard days work.

Scuba Diving, Galapagos Style

I was lucky enough to spend the weekend scuba diving at a few sites in the Galapagos. I am so happy that some of the other new volunteers are scuba people too! So, it turns out that the underwater world here is just as fascinating and enthralling as the terrestrial environment. Even more so maybe! We started off our dive at Kicker Rock, a short boat ride from the town where we are staying.

Kicker Rock

We descended down a wall of interesting rock covered by even more interesting creatures, like bright blue stripy nudibranchs, giant purple sea urchins, and yellow starfish that looked like they were covered with chocolate chips. Then we began to see huge schools of shiny silvery fish, and among them out of the dark depths emerged sharks... lots of sharks. They were mostly juvenile Galapagos and Black-tipped Reef sharks. There must have been about 100 of them... just gliding ever so gracefully through the schools of fish. Every once in a while a Green sea turtle would paddle his fins by, or would just be chilling out resting among the rocks seemingly oblivious to all that was going on around him. Then the super playful sea lions would come out of nowhere, and do a kind of underwater acrobatics show for us, coming sooo close to check us out, then darting away with a flourish of fins and flippers.

I didnt get any underwater pictures, but here are a few from shore.

A dead sea turtle, *tear*

Lava Gull, one of the rarest birds in the world! Their entire population (only about 350 pairs!!) lives here on the Galapagos.

The Hacienda girls and our new scuba friends, haha!

Another view of Kicker Rock

I heart pelicans

These red crabs are everywhere and look so cool in contrast with the black lava rocks of the shoreline

Yellow Warbler, just hanging at the beach

Penguins, Giant Tortoises, and Sea Lions, oh my!

The Galapagos are really fascinating islands. They are volcanic, so most of the terrain is composed of black volcanic lava rocks, with really sparse vegetation including a lot of cacti. In parts it feels more like you are on the moon rather than on a tropical island. A few of the volunteers and I took last weekend off and went on a trip to two other islands, Santa Cruz and Isabella. We had such a great time!

We saw SO many animals. First, on the boat we saw an eagle ray jump right out of the sea, followed shortly by some type of shark, visible only by its two fins drifting alongside our boat. When we got to Santa Cruz, we went to the Charles Darwin Research station (my hero!) where they breed the Giant Tortoises for reintroduction into the wild. It was really cool to see the baby tortoises, juveniles, and all the way up to a few big (well, giant actually!) adults. Hopefully some of those juveniles will be released into the habitat that we are working to rehabilitate on San Cristobal in a few years.

We took a tour to the highlands of Santa Cruz as well, where we saw Tortoises in the wild! It was so exciting. They arent scared of humans at all, and just go about their business of relaxing in tall grass, eating fruit, and being cool while you (and by you I mean me) do a little happy dance and see how close you can get to take pics and just observe them doing their giant tortoise thing!

On Isabella Island we saw my favourite!!! Galapagos penguins were swimming around in the harbour as our boat sailed into port!! There were even sea lion babies playing and swimming with them as well. Then we saw about 6 stingrays glide by in the crystal clear water, and noticed a few marine iguanas lounging on the beach. Blue footed boobies were hanging out on the shore, and we could even see sea turtles sticking their heads out of the water! There was one spot in a narrow channel where we saw tons of white tipped reef sharks just hanging out. I was in biology nerd heaven.

The next day we did a 20 km hike up to the crater of one of the islands active volcanoes, which last erupted in 1979. It is actually the 2nd largest volcanic crater on earth so that was pretty cool. Half of it was shrouded in morning clouds and looked really spooky when we arrived. But the day cleared off and we continued to another series of smaller craters and lava fields of black, red, yellow and ochre lava flows and stony earth. The only vegetation to be seen was giant cactus trees, so it was totally other-worldly.

Here are a few pics...

Baby sea lion at the harbour in San Cristobal

Stick my tongue right back out at you, Mr. Marine Iguana

My traveling buddies, Anna and Manon!

First Galapagos Penguin sighting!

At Volcano Chico

Pinguino

Blue-footed Boobie!

Hello sea turtle!

Marine Iguana looking like a boss

White-tipped Reef sharks

Boobies!

The Tortoise sanctuary

Sea Lions on the beach at San Cristobal

The Beach at the Charles Darwin Research Station, not bad.

A Marine Iguana swimming!