Environment

Arts Environment News

This Famous Maple Tree Will Live… Forever

In 1867 when Canada was created, a towering Silver Maple tree standing in front of Alexander Muir’s house in Toronto gave him an idea.

He would write a poem and a song about the majestic tree, so common in Canada and so symbolic, to celebrate Canada’s confederation.

His song was called The Maple Leaf Forever and it has been the unofficial Canadian anthem to this day.

Environment News Science

Great Lakes Almost Frozen Over This Year

The Great Lakes were almost completely frozen over by March 2, with 90.5 per cent of their total surface covered in ice.

The five connected lakes are located on the border between Canada and the United States, in northeastern North America.

Although some sections of the lakes freeze each winter, usually only about 50 per cent of the water is covered with ice.

In 2012-2013, only about 38 per cent of the lakes was frozen over, and just 13 per cent was covered with ice in the winter of 2011-2012.

Environment News

Cleaning Up The World’s Tallest Garbage Dump

Imagine climbing all the way to the top of Mount Everest—the tallest mountain in the world—and when you get there, the summit is littered with garbage.

Over the years, exhausted climbers have left things like empty oxygen tanks, tent poles and food containers at the summit.

There are even parts from a helicopter that crashed on the mountain in 1974.

Experts say there are about 50 tons of garbage on the mountain.

Environment News Science

Microplastics Threaten Marine Life In The Great Lakes

Tiny pieces of plastic – each about the size of a grain of sand – are posing a huge threat to marine life in the Great Lakes.

For the past two summers, researchers from an organization called 5 Gyres have been collecting water samples from the Great Lakes.

They used fine-mesh nets to skim the surface of the water.

When they looked at what they had collected, they found thousands of tiny plastic beads, each less than a millimetre.

At first the scientists didn’t know where these “microbeads” came from. Then they used an electron microscope to compare them to products such as face and body washes or toothpaste that people use to help scrub and polish our skin and teeth.

Environment News Science

Canada Announces Protection For Endangered Birds

Environment Canada has issued an emergency protection order that will limit construction activity and loud industrial noise near the habitat of an endangered bird species.

The greater sage-grouse is a shy bird that lives in southeastern Alberta and Saskatchewan.

There are fewer than 150 adult birds left in Canada, and environmentalists believe the species could be extirpated (locally extinct) within five years unless it is protected.

The birds’ natural habitat is long prairie grass, but much of this grassland has been destroyed by agriculture and oil and gas development over the past hundred years.

In December 2013, Environment Canada – the government department responsible for the environment – issued an order that prohibits any activity that would disrupt the birds’ habitat during the spring mating season.