Climate Change and Human Health

On April 4^th, 2016 the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) posted on their official blog about how climate change threatens human health. The blog post identifies how human driven global warming from rising greenhouse gas concentrations results in increased temperatures, altered precipitation, increases in the frequency and intensity of some extreme weather events, and rising sea levels. These global changes threaten human health by affecting food and water sources, the air we breathe, the weather we experience (ex. coastal regions experiencing more severe hurricanes), and our interactions with the built and natural environments.

Sources:

https://blog.epa.gov/blog/2016/04/how-climate-change-threatens-human-health/

Setting the Agenda – Week 5 – Host a Kitchen Meeting

Opening Message: What are some renewable energy options Saskatchewan could pursue?

When I hosted my kitchen meeting, I purposely asked friends of mine who were not involved with biology or environmental studies. I came up with a few discussion topics and I wanted to make sure that the people I was discussing climate change with, had not had any previous teaching on climate change, past what you would learn in high school science. During the kitchen meeting, I also shared with my participants what I have learned so far from Setting the Agenda with the Climate Friendly Zone. We discussed talking to policy makers regarding Provincial election, and I asked them if they knew how to write a letter to the editor, as well as I shared my letter with them.

Now I will summarize the discussion with you:

·         What does climate change mean to you? The discussion started with one participant saying that it is a change in the climate over an extended period of time, and everyone agreeing with said participant. Another added that it occurs naturally in the environment from the natural release of carbon. She also thought that everyone keeps making a big deal out of it claiming that all the blame is on humans, and that she thought that it will happen no matter what humans do to change it. Some understood the concept more when we talked about global warming, because the topic specified the warming of the climate.

·         Do you think climate change is something we need to be worried about in today’s society? There was quite a distribution in answers to this question. I received some yes’ and some no’s. This is where it is important to indicate that climate change is a long process. It does not happen overnight and the actions we take today to limit carbon emissions will determine the fate of our planet for future generations.

·         What are some renewable energy options that you are aware of? The renewable energy options that people were aware of was solar power and wind energy. The ones that some people were unaware of was carbon-neutral and negative fuels, biomass, ethanol biofuels as well as other biofuels, geothermal energy, as well as hydrogen fuel and thorium fuel. A lot of these are not used widely so they are fairly unknown as energy options. More information on additional sources of renewable energy can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_energy#Geothermal

I     I also had the participants calculate their ecological footprint and I am really glad I included this into our discussion because I think a lot of people were very surprised with how large their ecological footprint is. A lot of what we do day to day can increase out ecological footprint more than we expect and I think it is important to know what you can do to minimize your footprint. Below are a few resources from the Saskatchewan Environmental Society for you to check out to learn ways to reduce your footprint:

      http://environmentalsociety.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/CFZ-Personal-Practices.pdf

http://environmentalsociety.ca/category/tips/ 

My experience while hosting a kitchen meeting has shown me just how much information about how the facts surrounding anthropogenic climate change is undisputed. It is commonly known that 97% of scientists agree that climate change is human-caused. Anthropogenic climate change refers to the production of greenhouse gases emitted by human activity. By examining the polar ice cores, scientists are convinced that human activity has increased the proportion of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which has skyrocketed over the past few hundred years. This strong evidence of global warming comes from direct measurements of rising surface air temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures and from phenomena such as increases in average global sea levels, retreating glaciers, and changes to many physical and biological systems.

Sources:

http://www.global-greenhouse-warming.com/anthropogenic-climate-change.html 

http://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/ 

Setting the Agenda – Week 4 – Writing a Letter to the Editor

Opening Message: What are some success stories in which other people and communities have taken climate action?

Reachout.com has some great tips and suggestions for writing a letter to an editor. Reading previously written letters to the editor can help structure your letter in a manner that is grammatically favoured and more likely to be printed and have an impact. Researching your topic and getting all the facts and know what you would like to include in your letter can also be very useful when structuring your letter and getting across your important points. These letters are usually quite short, less than 200 words, and it is important to be upfront with your comments about an article you are writing about, and indicate whether you support the article or disagree with it.

Tips on writing a letter to the editor: http://au.reachout.com/how-to-write-a-letter-to-the-editor

I wrote a letter to the editor of the Star Phoenix in Saskatoon and I am still waiting to see it published in the letters section of the newspaper. I will continue to comment on climate change in the news in hopes that one day a letter of mine will be published, and my voice will be heard.

My letter read:

“With climate change awareness increasing rapidly in the country, I had hoped to see a stronger platform for increasing solar energy, and decreasing carbon emissions in the province. The Saskatchewan Party’s platform indicates they will continue to work towards the target of having 50% of Saskatchewan’s power generation capacity produced by renewable energy by 2030. The NDP platform indicates the same goal, but they are aiming over all for 60% renewable power. These targets may be indicated in their platform but they are not advocating for these issues. Where was the big environmental debate? People are becoming more environmentally aware these days and I think it is important that environmental issues, such as climate change, get the urgency they deserve.”

Tracy Mitchell from Saskatoon successfully had a letter to the editor published in the Star Phoenix on December 15^th, 2015. She talked about how Saskatchewan continues to lag behind the rest of the world when it comes to climate action. I think this is a pretty powerful letter to the editor because only recently has Saskatchewan begun its journey towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, has started to treat climate change in Canada with the urgency it deserves, and with the provincial election today, I hope the elected Premier and MLA’s treat climate action like the urgent issue it is.

Tracy Mitchell’s Letter to the Editor: http://thestarphoenix.com/storyline/saskatchewan-continues-to-lag-behind-the-rest-of-the-world-when-it-comes-to-climate-change-letter-to-the-editor