The Silent Sound of Snowfall

A fresh blanket of snow brings about an air of tranquility to the scene.  All is calm.  All is bright.  All is silent.

This is because snow absorbs sound.

Sound travels in waves.  When there is fresh, fluffy snow on the ground, the sound waves are absorbed, and sound is buffered.  When snow melts or freezes, it becomes smooth and hard.  Sound waves are then reflected off the hard surface and becomes audible.

The next time you find yourself under a fresh snowfall, take a moment, to enjoy the the silent moment.

Following the Sun(flowers)

For those of us in the northern hemisphere right now, the days are short, and the nights are long.  We're yearning for more sunlight.  Sunlight is right around the corner.  Until then, think of sunflowers!

Have you ever noticed that sunflowers follow the sun?  This motion of following the sun throughout the day is heliotropism.  Heliotropism is a form of phototropism, where an organism responds to light (either towards the light, or away from the light).

In the mornings, sunflower heads face towards the sun in the east, and follow it throughout the day, where they finally end in the west. They then reposition themselves to face the sun again by morning.  Once the young flowers reach maturity, they remain east-facing towards the sun.

The mechanisms of how they do it, are due to circadian rhythms, or their internal clocks, which tells the plant what to do during a 24-hour cycle.  In this case, it signals the growth rate of the plant's stem:  during the day, the side facing east grows (and moves the sunflower head towards the west), while at night the side facing west grows (and moves the sunflower head towards the east).  At maturity, the sunflower head remain facing the sun in the east, which warms up the flower, thereby helping them attract pollinators.

Have a look at this research article published in Science, or watch this video produced by Science that explains it.

Keeping Our Great Lakes Great

On October 10, I attended a presentation at the Toronto Public Library, "Protecting the Greatness of Our Great Lakes" by Mary Kate Whibbs, biologist, educator and Aqua-Links Coordinator at the Toronto Zoo.

There are five Great Lakes.  From West to East, they are: Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario.  They are situated between Canada and the United States, except for Lake Michigan, which is entirely in the United States.

The Great Lakes provide us with fresh drinking water, food, recreational opportunities, electricity, and other economic advantages.  The Great Lakes Basin supports a diversity of plants, fish, and wildlife.

However, there are many things that threaten the health of the Great Lakes.  These include: invasive species (such as sea lampreys and zebra mussels), toxic algae blooms, microplastics, pollution runoffs, as well as a lack of connection and appreciation of the Great Lakes.

On a government level, there are laws and government strategies that are in place to protect the Great Lakes, which include:

• Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement 
• Canada-Ontario Agreement 
• Fisheries Act and the Aquatic Invasive Species Regulations under this Act
• Ontario’s Provincial Fish Strategy 

On an individual level, there are things we can do to help to protect the Great Lakes.  These include:

• volunteering plant shrubs and trees to support habitat near the shoreline
• collecting water samples to send to the lab for analysis through Lake Ontario Waterkeeper 
• donating
• conserving water/reducing water usage 

For more information on the Great Lakes, check out these resources:

• Great Lakes Protection website from the Government of Canada
• Great Lakes Strategy website from the Government of Ontario

Environmentalism Through Film: Planet in Focus

Films that bring about public awareness to environmental issues, and explore the world in which we live, are spotlighted at the annual Planet in Focus film festival.

Planet in Focus is an international environmental film festival that takes place this year from October 15 to 20 in Toronto.  It was established in 1999 and heads into its 20th year this year.

The festival showcases films that not only focus on the environment, but on how we - humanity, and how we live - impact it.  The goal of this festival is to enlighten, engage, and entertain audiences, through thought-provoking films.

For more information, or to purchase tickets, visit their website.

Hurricanes and Their Names

We are in the middle of hurricane season, which runs from May 15 to November 30.  Hurricanes occur in various tropical cyclone basins around the world, and there can be more than one occurring at the same time.  To help identify storms and provide warnings for emergency preparations, information must be disseminated as quickly and accurately as possible.

In the past, people have assigned names to storms in various ways.  Later, when storms were given latitude and longitude coordinates, though while accurate, it proved to be confusing as numbers and technical terms were not easy to remember.

In the early 1950s, a system of naming Atlantic tropical storms by a phonetic alphabet (Able, Baker, Charlie) was developed by the US National Hurricane Center.  In 1953, the system changed to using female names, and by 1978-1979, both female and male names were used.  Today, the system of assigning names is maintained by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

Tropical storms are given names when they have a wind speed of 39 miles per hour.  If the storm increases to a wind speed of 74 miles per hour, it is then called a hurricane.

There are lists of tropical storm names developed for the various basins around the world. 

For storms that occur in the Atlantic, there are 6 lists of names, each with 21 names, in alphabetical order, and alternating between female and male names.  The lists are used in rotation, and repeated every 6 years.  However, when a storm is so deadly or damaging, the name is retired from the list as using it again would be insensitive and inappropriate for those who were greatly impacted.  A new name is then added in its place.  If there are more than 21 storms, they will then take on names from the Greek alphabet.

To learn more about hurricane names, including history, lists of current and retired names, and procedures for naming them, check:

• the National Hurricane Center
• the World Meteorological Organization

Happywhale, Happy Whale Watching

Whale watching is one of the greatest experiences you can have.  If you ever had the opportunity to see them in the ocean, these grand creatures leave you in awestruck.  It's a wondrous feeling to see them in their majestic form.

If you were also able to take a photograph of the whale, specifically the whale's flukes (tail) or dorsal fin, you can submit your photo(s) to Happywhale, a website that identifies and tracks whales around the globe.  This tool is a way to engage citizen scientists - including whale watching guides, whale watching enthusiasts, passengers - to help collect data about marine mammals.  The data will be used by scientists, and help expand our scientific knowledge about them.  By tracking and learning about whales, we can have a better understanding of marine life and ocean conservation.

Beyond the Beauty and Scent of Flowers: the Meanings of Flowers

If you loved someone and you wanted to show the person your affection, what flower would you give - a red rose or a red tulip?  I think most people would choose the red rose.  But did you know the red tulip is just as romantic, or even more, as it symbolizes your declaration of love.

Flowers are used to express feelings and emotions to one another.  Flowers are also used to mark occasions.  Our lives are touched with flowers.

Different flowers have different meanings, and the meanings behind them can be just as touching.  Beyond love, they symbolize many other things, such as reconciliation (hazel), overcoming obstacles (mistletoe), hope (iris).  The meanings also differ from culture to culture, which is why a flower can have more than one meaning.

The symbolism of flowers is seen in stories, in artwork, in poems, going back through time.  Shakespeare himself included symbolism in Hamlet, in the scene where Ophelia gives out flowers during her madness.

Here are a few books that I've checked out:

•  Flowerpaedia: 1000 Flowers and Their Meanings, by Cheralyn Darcey
• The Meaning of Flowers: Myth, Language & Lore, by Gretchen Scoble and Ann Field
• The Naming of Flowers, by Anne Halpin
• A Victorian Flower Dictionary: the Language of Flowers Companion, by Mandy Kirkby

Flowers are a significant part of our lives.  They lift our spirits, provide comfort, beautify our lives, and make the world a more beautiful place.

Zero Waste Living

On May 23, I attended a presentation at the Toronto Public Library to learn about zero waste living, from Sophi Robertson, Zero Waste Events manager at the Toronto Tool Library.

First, what is not: zero waste is not no waste, as it is not possible right now to live waste-free in our society.  What zero waste means, is a lifestyle change to reduce our waste.

Zero waste started out originally as an industrial term, where the goal is to send no waste to landfill.  This evolved into a movement that consumers adopted into their lifestyle.

This is a shift from a linear economy (where products are used and then tossed out as waste), to a circular economy (where products are reused/repurposed again).

Remember the 3Rs that we were taught growing up?  Sophi suggests the 5Rs of zero waste (from Bea Johnson, Zero Waste Home): refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle, rot (compost).

So how does one begin to live zero waste?  Sophi says that it looks different for each individual.  It can also be overwhelming at first.  She suggests to look in the bathroom and kitchen first, as these are the most wasteful areas of the home, and then follow these three steps:
1) start with one change
2) find a replacement for that single use item with a reusable item
3) once you're comfortable with that change, try another item to swap

To divert sending your things to landfill, you can donate them to charity, or check out various groups to give away or to swap for another item, such as Kijiji or Bunz.  There is also the Toronto Tool Library where you can borrow tools.

Hopefully, all these ideas can help you get started in your path to make more conscientious decisions that affect your everyday living and the planet.

The Toxins of Daily Life

On April 18, I attended a presentation at the Toronto Public Library by Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie, authors of the book Slow Death by Rubber Duck: How the Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Life Affects Our Health, and their recently published 10th anniversary edition, Slow Death by Rubber Duck Fully Expanded and Updated: How the Toxicity of Everyday Life Affects Our Health.

The authors discussed their 2009 book, where they examined various toxic chemicals that can be found in everyday life.  They did this through experimenting in activities that resembled everyday life (e.g. sitting in a new car, applying body products containing phthalates and parabens, eating tuna).  Urine and blood samples they took showed the absorption of these chemicals into their bodies.

For their 10th anniversary edition, they discussed the chemical BPA in receipts, and how this is today's BPA threat.  Even 15-20 minutes of handling receipts (which they again experimented on themselves), increases BPA levels in your body.

The good news, as the authors mentioned, is that levels of these toxic chemicals can be lowered if we lower our exposure to them (e.g. eating organic produce, using body products that don't contain phthalates and parabens).  We can't eliminate them completely as we are surrounded by them, but lowering them in our bodies is the next best thing.

A lot of these chemicals are water soluble, so our body is able to rid of them.  Constant exposure to them however, will keep these levels of chemicals up in our bodies.  Additionally, health effects of these chemicals may not be noticeable in the short term; it may be a long while before we see any long-term effects of our exposure to them.

It is important for us consumers to be aware of the extent of these chemicals in our daily lives, and how these chemicals can impact our health.  As consumers, we can make choices in the products we use to live a more healthy life of reduced toxins.

Green Living, Healthy Living at the Green Living Show

The Green Living Show is an annual consumer show in Toronto devoted to sustainable and healthy living.  Held annually since its inception in 2007, the Green Living Show showcases a wide variety of products and services for consumers.  Consumers can listen to speakers, participate in activities, and interact with vendors, all the while learning about the various ways and choices they can make to live a sustainable life.

The Green Living Show will be taking place from March 22-24 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.  Visit their website for more information.

Snowflakes, Snowflakes Everywhere!

Did you know that what we call a snowflake, is actually a snow crystal?

A snow crystal is a single crystal of ice, whereas a snowflake is a more general term that can mean an individual snow crystal, or an aggregation of snow crystals colliding together as they fall from the sky.

A snow crystal is formed in the sky when water vapor converts to ice.  (This process is called deposition, as it does not go through the liquid phase.) 

When we see them on the ground, we see their intricate patterns.  Each snow crystal is different because each experiences different conditions as they fall from the sky - different paths, different temperatures, different humidity - all of which affect how they grow and develop.  Because of this, every snow crystal really is unique.

If you're intrigued by the beauty and science of snow crystals, have a look at these resources:

• Kenneth G. Libbrecht, professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
• The official website of Wilson A. Bentley, operated by the Jericho Historical Society
• The Bentley Snow Crystal Collection of the Buffalo Museum of Science

For the Love of Nature Book Clubs

If you love books and nature, you may be interested in the Nature Book Club, which is hosted by the High Park Nature Centre in Toronto.  Each meeting focuses on a theme related to nature. 

Book clubs provide opportunities to discuss books, share ideas and opinions, and meet new people.  It's a great way to expose oneself to different reading material, and learn about the world through other people's thoughts and experiences.

For more information, check the High Park Nature Centre website.