Robert Rundle kids will get back to nature this week as they spend five days in a massive botanic garden.
About 25 students from Alexandra Adams' Grade 4/5 class will spend the next week taking lessons at the Devonian Botanic Garden southwest of Edmonton. It's part of a hands-on learning program called Green School, where students learn about plants, trees and nature by going out and touching them.
Most kids today live very controlled, scheduled lives, says Deb Greiner, Green School co-ordinator, with little chance to get out and play in the outdoors. “We need to get kids back into nature.”
Green School, established in 2008, has kids spend a week exploring the Devonian as they learn about its inhabitants.
“We're giving them time to experience nature,” Greiner says. Students will walk through forests, sketch trees, and get up close with different plant species in the greenhouse. There might even be some stick insects, she adds. They will also get their own “tree buddy” to visit and monitor each day.
Adams says she signed up for this class in part because she went through a similar program at the Devonian when she was in Grade 4. This is the first time that Robert Rundle has taken part in the program.
“Children all learn in different ways,” Adams says, and this class gives students a chance to get hands-on experience they can't get indoors. She says she hopes it will help students understand the environmental challenges the world faces today.
Visit www.devonian.ualberta.ca for more on the Green School.
A St. Albert woman is calling on local youth to get involved in the Earth Summit.
The non-profit group We Canada is holding a free talk this Wednesday to promote the 2012 Earth Summit, an international event that will be held this June in Rio de Janeiro. The talk is part of a national tour meant to gather ideas to be presented at that event.
A lot of people aren't aware of the Earth Summit and the role it plays in figuring out a sustainable future, says Marina Hutton, a St. Albert resident and local spokesperson for We Canada. This conference only happens every 10 years, she notes, and features leaders and interest groups from around the world.
Except for Canada, she adds. “Right now, Canada [as a government] is not currently going to be represented at the conference.” This talk is meant to get Canadians to speak out and tell their government that this summit is important to them.
This year's conference is meant to evaluate the world's progress towards creating a sustainable economy, according to We Canada's website.
Sadly, says Colin Soskolne, an epidemiologist (population health specialist) at the University of Alberta and one of the speakers at next week's event, we're seeing declines in almost every indicator that measures the sustainability of life on Earth.
“We've essentially taken the planet to hell in a hand-basket.”
Rising populations and greenhouse gas emissions are both threats to the health of the global populace, says Soskolne, who has written a book about the Earth Charter, an international guide to sustainable development that emerged from the Earth Summit. Canada is contributing to these problems by not investing in renewable energy and by promoting asbestos production.
“Canada takes the position that asbestos mined out of Quebec can be safely used,” he says, despite ample scientific evidence that it causes painful lung conditions, cancer, and premature death. “It's killing people.”
Yet Canada has, on three separate occasions, blocked the international community from banning its export under the Rotterdam Convention.
This summit is about deciding the future of Canada, Hutton says. “We can't let the people at the top dictate where the future is going to go.”
The talk is on Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the University of Alberta's Centennial Centre for Interdisciplinary Science, room 1-440. To register, visit www.wecanada.eventbrite.com.
Clarification: Following the publication of this item, We Canada spokesperson Marina Hutton said she was mistaken and that the Canadian government will, in fact, be at the Earth Summit conference.
A local nature nut is giving a free talk next week about life under the snow.
John “The Nature Nut” Acorn, a renewable resources instructor at the University of Alberta, is giving a talk on winter life in Edmonton on Thursday. The talk is part of the ongoing “Cool Stuff” exhibit at the university, which features winter-related research and artifacts.
Acorn says his talk will be pretty broad, touching on how winter affects birds, beasts, fish and bugs in the Edmonton region.
Most people know that mice and voles stay active during winter, he says, but so do bugs. He participated in a recent survey of local bugs in winter and found some 207 active species, just 60 of which were indoors.
“Most of them were in the leaf litter under the snow,” he notes — which is often many degrees warmer than the surface due to the snow's insulation — but some were actually on the surface.
“The temperature that matters to them is not the air temperature,” he explains. “It's right at the surface.” The air at the snow's surface is often a few degrees warmer than it is further up, he notes, which is enough to let spiders and springtails trot about on its frozen surface.
Acorn's talk is at Enterprise Square (10230 Jasper Ave.) in Edmonton at noon. Call 780-492-5834 for details.
