Down in New Zealand there’s a fence that people go out of their way to see. This fence was the first of its kind and was built to keep invasive predators out while conserving native species. The fence was built a couple decades ago and was specially designed to protect
Continue readingTag: Nature
Things Are Good: iNaturalist Goes Its Own Way
Way back in 2011 we took at a new app that helps to identify the world around, back then it was to help the California redwoods. That app is iNaturalist and it’s had a great decade plus of identifying all sorts of plants and animals. The app, which has a
Continue readingScripturient: Our Troubled Urban Forest
On August 8, Collingwood council will “consider” a proposal to spend “up to $100,000 to retain a consultant to inform the next council on how Collingwood can better protect [our] tree canopy,” according to a story in CollingwoodToday. The article says, “With Collingwood’s population rapidly increasing, the town is behind
Continue readingThings Are Good: This is Why Nature Helps Your Cognitive Health
It’s clear that being around nature is good for one’s health, but why? Researchers have been looking into the physiological reasons for the benefits of nature and multiple reasons have been found. Being in nature is good for you in many tiny ways that culminate into a big benefit to
Continue readingThings Are Good: Time to get Wild in Scotland
We keep kicking wildlife out of their homes, and it’s time to reverse that process. We need to invite wild animals back into the places they used o live, this is known as rewilding. The most celebrated rewilding effort was done in Yellowstone when wolves were reintroduced into the park,
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: The Unspoken Privilege – English Privilege
We all know what White Privilege is but no one seems to speak about English Privilege. English privilege is simply the ability of English language speakers to get by practically anywhere in the world without learning another language. It brings with it a sense of entitlement. English speakers get annoyed
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Time to start paying Mother Nature back
I’ve long thought that the sensible approach to the global economy is obvious, if complex. We calculate what the Earth can sustainably provide in terms of natural resources, then we set our economic demands at something less including a substantial safety factor. The total demand is then equitably shared by
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: The Pensioner and the Pandemic
This is the post I was going to write before I was rudely interrupted and told to lock myself in my room. I may indeed be the least affected person on the planet by this pandemic, and the only one that it seems to be not such a big deal,
Continue readingThings Are Good: In Canada Your Doctor May Tell You to Walk it Off
Doctors in Canada may soon be prescribing the oldest medicine in the world: walking it off. Thanks to the work of family doctor Dr. Melissa Lem in British Columbia the province will allow a walk in nature to be prescribed by doctors. It’s been proven time and time again that
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Hit the Trail, Amigos! Gearing Up for the Great Outdoors
A Trestles Elite Eco 20 Sleeping Bag….. Perfect. (And again, I get no commission from anyone – so far; though maybe I should reconsider that. I just promote things that I like, because I like them.) * I have more than a little experience wilderness camping, and in all seasons;
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Canada, eh?
I did not know – Quebec is nearly triple the size of Texas or France…which makes it roughly the size of Mexico. Wow. And that is just one Canadian province. Vast country, eh. Good thing nearly all 37 million of us live within 100 km of the southern border, gathered
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: My Dream Homestead Garden – Or, Healing The Earth, One Carrot At A Time
A dream homestead garden? Ok, so this is not a subject to everyone’s taste or interest, clearly. Nor is it my usual domain, but it is related. I tend to write about politics, philosophy, social issues and social commentary, with forays into economics and finance, green living, health, and green
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Get Outdoors! (Nature therapy is best – and free)
My boy and I did some back country bush camping, boondocking in a tent, on the Oak Ridges Moraine; hiking, exploring logging roads and public lands. It was wonderful. (Only meditation beats nature as the world’s most powerful healer and stress reliever.) Now, two days later, it makes me happy
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Books To Read, or Re-Read
(Notes to myself, and anyone else who may be interested) Desert Solitaire The Monkey Wrench Gang Hayduke Lives! A Wizard Of Earthsea The Essential John Muir Essays – Thoreau Walden The Cancer Stage of Capitalism The American Empire and the Fourth World Oneness vs The 1% Faulter V for
Continue readingThings Are Good: Collision: How we can Better Protect Endangered Species
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and Achim Steiner spoke today at Collision at Home about The Lion’s Share organization. The organization looks to protect endangered species by channeling some funding that large companies put into advertising into spending on protecting our environment. It’s basically putting in a voluntary tax earmarked for a specific
Continue readingThings Are Good: We Evolved to Walk and it’s Great for our Health
Walking is great! Most of us have heard that we should get 10,000 steps a day to maintain our health, but walking is more than just taking steps. Shane O’Mara in his book In Praise of Walking explores what walking is all about (hint: it’s everything that makes us human).
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Work and Workaholism: Puritanism, and A Day Off
This morning when I got up, feeling exhausted again from the on-going 30-year stint of sleeplessness and insomnia, I thought, I should take a day off – considering I pretty much never take a day off. (Some people imagine that writers and philosophers sit around all day staring at their
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: The Pensioner and the Pandemic and …
The Government Wants to Lock Me in My Room Well this blog post is taking somewhat of a change of direction from that planned, which was to focus on the benefits of being a retired pensioner at this time, since the Ontario government is telling me that I will suddenly
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Primitive vs Civilized Societies
As someone born in 1950 and raised and educated in a Eurocentric culture I learned early that civilized societies are intellectually, socially, and technologically superior to primitive societies. This despite the fact that the indigenous peoples of this land I was born on have for centuries had their own distinct
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: SELF CARE? YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING.
Last evening I presented a workshop on self-care for caregivers in my city of Ottawa, Canada. Going in, I knew that this group had huge challenges at home and that they were pretty cynical about the standard ‘just have a bubble bath’ approach to self-care. These were parents who need
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