Our Precious Natural Environment

I have always loved nature and the outdoors, the clean fresh air, the plant and animal life. There are so many enjoyable things to do in this beautiful scenic environment and so much of it is free and waiting.

As a city kid in summer I would head out of town on many Saturday mornings on my bicycle with my school buddy. After two days of fly fishing we would return Sunday evening tired, hungry and laughing all the way back into town and home and food.

In the winter many evenings were spent skating or playing hockey on the outdoor rinks and on most weekends we were skiing. We would take the first bus out to the ski hill and the last one back. I recollect that on these return trips we were very tired and happy as everyone on the bus was singing.

These were the most memorable, healthy and fun times.

My first summer jobs were in drilling camps on remote lakes in Northern Canada searching for ore bodies. These temporary 'homesteads' consisted of tents and were accessible by float plane only. Wild life was abundant and we were reminded of it daily with squirrels always present around the cookhouse, and bears less regularly. I can hear the fish jumping at dusk and the howl of wolves far down the lake late into the night.

I would later work in the mining industry full time and help raise our family in several small towns across the country and deep in natural forests. Without the fever pitch of city living there was much time for hikes, lakeside picnics, swimming and gardening, and the outdoor winter sports.

Memories of these delightful experiences in the back country stay with one forever. They are such good memories, the kind that stick and leave you feeling good for the long haul.

In the autumn of my life my trips to nature now consist mostly of walking or cycling through parks, forest trails and strolling the beaches here on the Canadian Pacific coast. There is also the occasional camping and fishing with Son and Grandson. Nature is still so enjoyable after all these years.

Perhaps you don't have the time to enjoy the beautiful outdoors. Well if you have reasonable good income and fair health a review of your lifestyle might be considered. It is normal to want better lives for ourselves and our families, but what is a better life? Shouldn't we balance our goals and achievements with the cost? How much does that promotion, vacation, new purchase, cost in terms of real life? How many extra hours of stress and anxiety, now and later, go into getting it? What are we missing in the meantime?

Perhaps these wholesome and uncomplicated pleasures do not seem easily accessible to you. But take a closer look around. Go for a walk in the park, look for, hear, and smell the many things that Mother Nature has there for your appreciation. Take notice of the flowers, trees, birds, an insect crossing the sidewalk or kids playing in the snow. Look up at the cloud formations and at evening time the moon and stars.

Nature is all around in some form and waiting for our pleasures. The outdoors belong to the people of the world, and with all its vast and lovely resources is a most precious thing that needs to be cared for to the best of our ability.

In having a true appreciation for this beautiful wonder it is easy to understand the current worried talk about the environment. There has been a general shrinking in the purity and extent of our natural resources and an increasing accumulation of garbage and pollution going on for a long time.

It is so important that we all pay particular attention to what is happening and get involved in reducing waste and excesses in our consumption. Let's discuss nature's future and get our kids on the right path; to enjoy and preserve that which is under continuing assault in this great marketing-consumption era. Children are naturally interested in the forest, gardens and beaches, and especially so if they have the opportunity to experience this regularly with their parents.

"There is however, a true music of nature - the song of the birds, the whisper of leaves, the ripple of waters upon a sandy shore, the wail of wind or sea." - John Lubbock (1834-1913)

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Kids, Home and Nature

The lifestyles of families and children are changing as exercise and activities in the fresh outdoor air decline.

As a kid I couldn't finish supper quickly enough so that I could go outdoors to play softball in the vacant lot or join the street hockey out front. There were many near zero cost, fresh air activities like roasting marshmallows at the back of the lot or exploring the neighborhood with the other kids that were always out doing something. There were an endless number of things to do and we seemed never to be bored; and it was pretty well all healthy. As we grew older there was fishing, hiking, swimming, skiing and hockey using up our free time and none were very costly.

Much of these pastimes would continue for many years and the memories too. In the winter there was an outdoor rink one block from home where we skated and played hockey in the evenings. As the temperatures were often well below freezing we regularly made trips to the adjacent wood hut where a pot bellied stove was humming. With our skates off we would rub our toes to ease the thawing as we chatted.

This kind of fun is still occurring in varied ways with families today, where they are able to, and inclined to make it happen. But it has also been made much more difficult. There are parents' busy days with work and commuting, so often required to maintain the 'in' lifestyle, for those that are tuned in to this very common trait in our society. Some sports can be an expensive part of kids' healthy entertainment today, but there are activities out there requiring little or no expense. Meeting in the park or on the road with a neighbor family for casual chat or to kick the ball around, Hiking or playing any outdoor game or working on a garden or other project with family can often be of no interest to many, yet such a valuable event going forward in life.

In the 40s we were also missing out on so much that is available today. We didn't have all these conveniences and technology, some of which are so wonderful, like the home computer. Having owned one for 25 years I would not want to do without.

Health wise perhaps some of the new wonders are not so wonderful, especially when the time that it consumes does not include outside exercise, learning, mixing with friends nor involve family time together. Being addicted to video games for example, does not add any value to one's life as this can gobble up hundreds of hours, but in small doses can be very entertaining.

Television is another story as the young, and old too, are often glued to the box for many hours a day. There are many drawbacks to watching stretched out programming that pumps commercials into the room telling us all about what we are missing and must have. Sadly many kids today may be stuck at home with this electronic companion.

In Green Living Ideas Reenita Malhotra Hora provides insight and suggestions in an interesting article:

Eco Kids, the Sustainable Generation
As you integrate green living choices into your own life, you might be wondering how kids fit into the equation. What does it really mean to have a "green kid?" Greening your children is about going beyond the things that you do to create a green lifestyle for your family—it is really all about education. Today’s kids will soon rule tomorrow’s world. The best that we can possibly do to prepare the next generations is to consistently teach them about the green living values that are critical for their own survival. After all, they do share a common future with our planet.

It goes on to list tips
Outdoor Education with green kid activity ideas.
Travel Time and exploring nature ideas.
Green at Play - giving kids some positive directional suggestions.
Green Media Toolbox - make less use but good use out of TV.

Above all, have your kids do as you would do yourself. The truth is kids learn more from there their parents than anyone or anything else—if living green is important to you, then rest assured they too will pick up the habit. You are without doubt the most important person in their life, and chances are they will want to do what you do. Remember though, you won’t have them for a very long, so while you do—teach your children well!
more . . . . Read the article by Reenita Malhotra Hora at Green Living Ideas.

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Water: Conserve Protect Share

Water is such a precious commodity to the world as a whole yet in many areas it is wasted and spoiled, as if a fresh supply will always be here. Pollution has already caused serious damage to much of our ground water, rivers, lakes and oceans.

But there is much we can do to conserve on the water we consume and to prevent damage to our natural water sources.

There is an excellent source of Water Saving Tips brought to you by the water agencies of Santa Cruz County, USA area. It starts with the Top Twelve Water Saving Tips then details 45 more ways to save water indoors and outdoors.

And the EPA's Water Pollution Prevention and Conservation paper asks:
"How do we use water?" - PDF version - - HTML version
Water is a resource that has many uses, including recreational, transportation, hydroelectric power, agricultural, domestic, industrial, and commercial uses. Water also supports all forms of life and affects our health, lifestyle, and economic well being. As individuals, we use water for sanitation, drinking, and many other human needs, and we pay for the public water utilities that provide water. Water pollution is any human-caused contamination of water that reduces its usefulness to humans and other organisms in nature. Pollutants such as herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers, and hazardous chemicals can make their way into our water supply. When our water supply is contaminated, it is a threat to human, animal, and plant health unless it goes through a costly purification procedure. . .

And then there is the other world. A world where not only do they not have water to waste, but do not have sufficient to sustain health or life for all. Surely the rich countries of the world can conserve more of this valuable commodity and sacrifice some of their expensive excesses to ensure that nobody is denied clean water as a basic necessity.

"Water is one of the most basic of all needs -- we cannot live for more than a few days without it. And yet, most people take water for granted. We waste water needlessly and don't realize that clean water is a very limited resource. More than 1 billion people around the world have no access to safe, clean drinking water, and over 2.5 billion do not have adequate sanitation service. Over 2 million people die each year because of unsafe water - and most of them are children!" - Robert Alan

You can check out the Charity Guide for your choice donation recipient if you wish to help in the cause of poverty and unsafe water.

Public Space Advertising

Advertising has slowly and steadily increased prominence in our daily lives. With each passing year there is more exposure to advertising from the regular sources such as TV, newspapers, web spam, junk mail etc. Much of this we can choose to turn off or discard.

But it continually worsens as the armies of marketing find new ways to get into every corner of our lives, to capture more space in our minds. This is an invasion that steers society in the wrong direction.

Advertising is increasingly showing up in public spaces that were once free of paid propaganda. Governments at various levels are selling our precious space for revenue, often destroying the natural view. It's appearing boldly in areas such parks, public entertainment centers, transit and so on, carrying commercial messages and corporate logos.

This public space belongs to the public. If we are being cheaply sold out to business by our politicians and other public figures we need to speak out.

The Media Awareness Network is home to one of the world’s most comprehensive collections of media education and internet literacy resources. They express deep concerns of the widespread expansion of advertising that is surrounding us.

No, it's not your imagination. The amount of advertising and marketing North Americans are exposed to daily has exploded over the past decade; studies show, that on average we see 3,000 ads per day. At the gas pumps, in the movie theater, in a washroom stall, during sporting events—advertising is impossible to avoid. Read more - Advertising: It's Everywhere.

The Anti-Advertising Agency website is also dedicated to raising awareness in advertising's invasion of our public space:

Through long-term commercial saturation, it has become implicitly understood by the public that advertising has the right to own, occupy and control every inch of available space. The steady normalization of invasive advertising dulls the public’s perception of their surroundings, re-enforcing a general attitude of powerlessness toward creativity and change, thus a cycle develops enabling advertisers to slowly and consistently increase the saturation of advertising with little or no public outcry."