A Gift That Keeps on Giving: Charitable Giving

'Tis the season of giving!  With the holidays just around the corner, one of the best ways to give is by making a donation to a charitable organization.  Supporting charities financially will ensure they have the resources to help those in need.  Charities support a diverse range of causes including social services, health, the arts, education, and the environment.

To find out more about a charity's cause, their activities, and how they allocate people's donated contributions, check out their website, and their annual and financial reports.  If you're looking for a cause in which to donate, in Canada, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) maintains the "Charities Listings" resource where you can search for registered Canadian charities.  Information listed here includes the charity name, their charitable business registration number, and contact information.  This resource also provides information on the charity's activities, revenues, and expenditures.  The basic search and advanced search functions of this resource currently do not have a field for keyword searching, nor does it have a section for 'environment' under 'Charity Type' in the advanced search to browse through.  So if you're looking for anything environment related, you may have to browse through all the results.  For more information on what constitutes a registered charity, check the “Registered charity” page on the CRA website.

Regardless of which charity you decide to support, donating to a charity helps the cause go a long way.  It really is a gift that keeps on giving.

Google's Scholarly Approach: Google Scholar

Google is one of the most used search engines on the Internet.  It indexes a wide variety of online resources and makes them accessible through its search engine.  When looking for more scholarly resources, such as journal articles, they have a separate tool that focuses on this, Google Scholar.  Google Scholar is a search engine that indexes online scholarly materials from a wide variety of disciplines, including areas that relate to the environment, from institutions and organizations such as academic publishers and university repositories.

Search results in Google Scholar will provide you with partial descriptions or abstracts of the articles.  You can see what other articles reference them through the "cited by" link, or other articles that relate to them through the "related articles" link.  If available, access to the full text of the article online may be provided.  Otherwise, you will be required to pay a fee to the publisher's site to access the full text since they may be part of a publisher's fee-based subscription.  If you're affiliated with an institution such as a university, you may be able to access these resources for free if the university library subscribes to them.

They also have a blog where you can keep up to date on new features.

Happy researching!

A Greener Search Focus: thegreenpages.ca

Looking up any topic on the Internet can be daunting.  A search using the word "environment" in any search engine generates a plethora of results that may or may not be relevant to what you're looking for.

Enter thegreenpages.ca.  Founded in 1997 by an environmental studies student at the University of Waterloo, Canada, and maintained with the dedication of volunteers, thegreenpages.ca is a portal that connects people to environmentally-related information and resources.  Guided by their philosophy to "collect and archive environmental information and resources to help ordinary Canadians make sustainable life-style choices", this portal links to news and events from across Canada, and shares stories and articles from contributors.  Other resources the portal links to include books (powered by Amazon), book reviews, a search engine (powered by Google), environmental education, and employment opportunities, all related to the environment.

This portal is more than just a website, it's an online venue for information sharing, and a network for community connection, engagement, and interaction.  So check out the conversation, and see what's happening across Canada!

A Familiar Tune: Hinterland Who's Who (HWW)

The sound of a lone flute has become a familiar tune among Canadians, and something that has become associated with Canadian wildlife.  This distinctive and iconic flute is the theme song that begins each Hinterland Who’s Who (HWW) television service announcement, or vignette.  Originally created in the early 1960s by the Canadian Wildlife Service, these 60 second educational vignettes brought nature to television viewers across Canada through narration and wildlife film footage.  These short vignettes were accompanied by fact sheets with more detailed information on wildlife species, which were made available to the public.

After 40 years of education and success, Environment Canada and the Canadian Wildlife Federation (CWF) revamped these educational tools to give them a new generational look and feel.  New vignettes, a dedicated website, as well as educational fact sheets for the general public, and lesson plans for educators were all developed for a new generation.

While the original goal of the HWW's series of vignettes was to educate the public about Canadian wildlife, the popularity of these vignettes speaks to the impact they had on Canada's culture, history, and identity.  No doubt they will continue to be informative, educational, and memorable resources for generations to come, as they originally did over 40 years ago.

Water Consumption

Did you know that it takes a global average 80 litres of water to produce 1 orange?  Or that it takes a global average 10,000 litres of water to produce 1 kilogram of cotton?  Or that it takes a global average 15,400 litres of water to produce 1 kilogram of beef?  Though we use water everyday, we tend to just think about it directly in terms of drinking, cooking, bathing, and washing.  But water is also used indirectly everyday to produce things that we use and consume.

The Water Footprint website has a tool where you can calculate your water footprint, or how much water you use both directly and indirectly.  It also provides the water footprint of many common items that we consume and use.

This website brings to light the issues of water consumption, water scarcity, and consequently, water conservation.  By thinking about, and appreciating how much water it takes to produce the many things we use and consume in our everyday lives, we can make better choices to help lessen our impact on the environment.

Canada's Parks

After winter hibernation, Mother Nature awakens and bestows us with the beauty of nature.  The warm weather of spring and summer calls us outdoors to parks to enjoy the natural world.

In Canada, parks protect and manage natural areas.  This ensures protection and conservation of habitats and ecosystems for all species and wildlife that inhabit them, and also ensures preservation of nature for public education and enjoyment.  Canada's natural areas are bountiful and diverse, and includes wide ranging and breathtaking landscapes such as mountains, glaciers, tundra, grasslands, and forests.

Parks are protected and managed at various levels of government.  Here are some resources for federal and provincial parks.  You can check out your municipal's website for more local natural areas near you.

• National
• British Columbia
• Alberta
• Saskatchewan
• Manitoba
• Ontario
• Quebec
• New Brunswick  
• Nova Scotia
• Prince Edward Island
• Newfoundland and Labrador
• Yukon
• Northwest Territories 
• Nunavut

Earth Summits

The environment is a global issue that affects everyone on this planet.  It is an issue that is woven into the fabrics of life, affecting how we live responsibly in the present time, and how we live sustainably for future generations.

The environment has long been an issue, and international programs, conferences, policies, and protocols were developed over the course of time.   A historical landmark was the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also commonly referred to as the Rio Conference or the Earth Summit, which took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  This conference brought together global leaders, government officials, nonprofit organizations, scientists, and other stakeholders to discuss issues of the environment and sustainable development.  Significant documents that came out from this conference were: 

• Agenda 21, a blueprint to guide sustainable economic and social development while ensuring environmental protection
• Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, a statement of principles outlining basic human and environmental rights for everyone amid a world of economic development 
• Statement of Forest Principles, a statement of principles that addresses the importance of forests as resources for economic growth, and their importance as part of their role in their natural ecosystems 
• United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, a framework that recognizes the effects of emissions of gases into the atmosphere from human activities and the urgent need to address climate change 
• United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, a document that addresses the issues of biological diversity conservation, sustainable use, and fair and equitable sharing of genetic resources

On June 20-22, the world will once again convene at Rio de Janeiro for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), or Rio+20, commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Earth Summit.  The conference will focus on the themes of green economy, and an institutional framework for sustainable development, as well as discuss the priority areas of jobs, energy, cities, food, water, oceans, and disasters.  The end result will be a political document that will help guide countries with implementing sustainable development.

My own impression of the Earth Summit came from Severn Cullis-Suzuki, who at the age of 12, gave a heartfelt speech to the world leaders at the conference:

The message from Severn Cullis-Suzuki was inspiring.  I hope the outcomes of this conference will bring us one step closer to a more sustainable future.

The Influence of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring

 

I wanted my first entry of environmental resources to recognize, and pay homage to the influence of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring.  Rachel Carson was a biologist, a writer, and an advocate for the environment.

Silent Spring was published in 1962 at a time when pesticides and other toxic chemicals, most notably DDT, were routinely spewed onto the environment to control undesired insects.  These chemicals were widely applied without consequence, thereby affecting not only the targeted pest, but also other living things, to their detriment.  Carson's compilation and synthesis of documented research after research, painted a dire picture of the effects of exposure to these chemicals.  What were left after these chemicals settled into the environment were species loss, environmental degradation, and harm to human health.  Carson wrote about the disruption in the balance of nature and population dynamics when chemicals were used to rid certain species for the benefit of man.  She conveyed the message that everything on earth is connected with each other, and what happens to one species, has a profound effect on the living world at large.

Ultimately, Silent Spring was not just about the environment and the myriad of species living within it, but it spoke about human health, public awareness and education, the importance of research and fieldwork, responsibility towards the earth, and the balance and interconnectedness of all living things.  She viewed the environment as something of which we're all a part, not separate from it, and reconnected us back to the natural world that we seem to have misunderstood about and forgotten.

Rachel Carson expressed an urgency for government accountability, policies, and change.  She was not around to see the impact of her book, but Silent Spring went on to become inarguably the underlying force behind the environmental movement that followed.  It sparked future generations of environmental leaders and concerned citizens, caring and advocating for the environment.  Environmental legislation, education, and research, and worldwide recognition followed.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Silent Spring.  Rachel Carson published Silent Spring to increase the public's knowledge of environmental issues, and to advocate for decisions to be made based on sound scientific evidence.  The book and the public outcry for the protection of the environment that followed, reinforces that public education continues to be the most powerful influence to affect change.  While there continues to be challenges to this day, her passion, conviction, and values continue to be an inspiration to people today.

Introduction

Happy Earth Day, and welcome to my new blog, The Green Bookmark.  I created this blog to combine my interests in life - librarianship and the environment.  My goal is to learn more about the environment by becoming more familiar with environmentally related resources, and document my exploration by writing about them on my blog.  Feel free to recommend resources, or live vicariously through my journey!