Search results for "climate change"

Making Forests Count for Caribou And You update

Back in October, I blogged about why Making Forests Count at the UN climate change talks in Copenhagen is important to caribou and you.

Just before CPAWS’ climate and forest expert Chris Henschel took off for Copenhagen to attend the talks, I got the chance to sit down with him to hear what he expected and hoped for from the negotiations. Here is the video of our conversation:

(watch meet Chris Henschel video on YouTube)

Since then, Chris has been reporting about the UN negotiations around forests and climate change in Copenhagen via his Make Forests Count Scorecard, Forests and Climate Change blog and Biocarbonman twitter account. The news early on was dire. Only Switzerland agreed to account for real carbon emissions from cutting down forests while the other developed countries wanted to create a logging loophole:

(watch logging loophope video on YouTube)

But, then a glimmer of hope. Out of nowhere France stepped up to the table and agreed to make forests count and urged the other EU countries to follow suit. With this hopeful news I crossed my hooves hoping to hear of developed nations siding with France and Switzerland to make forests count. But now as the clock ticks down to the last day of meetings, it looks as though an agreement might not even be finalized. Whatever comes out of Copenhagen, one thing is clear. Making Forests Count will continue to be an important issue. This means the Make Forests Count team will continue to pursue and support the right change for our climate.

Join the cause and follow the news at:
www.MakeForestsCount.org
Make Forests Count on facebook
Chris Henschel’s Blog
Chris Henschel on twitter

New report confirms boreal forests are vital to caribou and you!

The Boreal Songbird Initiative and the Canadian Boreal Initiative today posted the findings of a new scientific report "The Carbon the World Forgot". The report's findings confirm how important boreal forests are to the fight against climate change. Besides being the life blood for a large variety of wild life, including me and my boreal woodland caribou family and friends, the boreal is also vital to your health and well being because it is the world's largest land carbon store. Boreal forests represent 22% of all carbon stored on our planet's land surface.

Some other interesting findings are:

1. Boreal forests hold almost twice as much carbon per area as tropical forests.
2. Boreal forests can keep large amounts of carbon out of our atmosphere for thousands of years by storing the carbon underground in deep peatlands and permafrost soils.
3. Canada has the largest intact Boreal forest.

So how should these new findings be used to fight climate change? According the report:

The Kyoto Protocol failed to create sufficient incentives for forest conservation and sustainable forestry. Carbon accounting for peatlands, the planet’s most carbon-rich ecosystems, was also not included.

Future climate change protocols must be better suited to motivate stewardship of the massive quantity of carbon stored in forest and peatland ecosystems.

Two simple changes to the protocol that would have far-reaching beneficial impacts are 1) inclusion of peatland carbon; and 2) mandatory accounting of all carbon emissions from forest management, without an obligation to account for emissions caused by natural disturbances. This protocol should also require a positive or neutral affect on biodiversity and ecosystem services in order to maintain capacity to adapt.

In other words, our leaders need to Make Forests Count in the next agreement on climate change. If you want your Government to make forests count, then go to www.makeforestscount.org and sign the email or petition. It will take you less than a minute to do, so please take a minute to do it now.

I would like to send a BIG woodland caribou THANK YOU to the Boreal Songbird Initiative, the Canadian Boreal Initiative, and the authors of the report for all of their hard work in putting together and publishing these very important findings. You are helping to save the lives of both of our species, families, and friends. Thank you.

Free feature films for the connected world

The other night I watched the documentary HOME.…for FREE! It’s one of the many feature length movies available on YouTube's movie channel (one caveat, some of them are not available to Canadian viewers…Grrrrr)

HOME - a documentary by Yann Arthus-Bertrand

If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend you grab a friend, a bucket of popcorn, a couple of comfy chairs, set the YouTube player to HD full screen mode, and sit back and make it a movie night.

It’s the story of our planet. How it came to be and where it’s headed. The film contains all the traits of a great story - history, conflict, hope, connection to the audience, and leaves you with much to talk and think about after it’s over. It's beautifully shot and narrated by Glenn Close.

For me, the movie really hit home the fact that we are all connected and the reason why I guess I'm called an indicator species. If woodland caribou are in trouble then that’s an indication that Canada's boreal forest is in trouble, which means our planet's environment is at risk. So basically if I’m in danger, so are you – YIKES!

I give Home a full 5/5 stars. But hey, since it’s FREE on YouTube you can rate and review it for yourself. If you do, I would love to hear what you think of the film.

-Bou
a woodland caribou living in Ottawa

Wildlife matters!

Canadian climate watchers got hot and bothered last month over the release of Natural Resources Canada's big report on how the country should address the impacts of climate change.  While the report acknowledged that climate change will have "unequivocal" and "significant" implications for ecosystems and wildlife, it didn't put us threatened Boreal critters at high priority for action.

Climate change, on top of habitat loss and other factors, is bad news for wildlife -- 20 to 30% of all species are at increased risk of extinction, according to the International Panel on Climate Change!.  Protecting threatened plants and animals has to be a priority in the fight against climate change.  It's a shame that Natural Resources Canada doesn't agree.