Ecology

March 21, International Day of Forests

March 21, International Day of Forests

Image: Unsplash/Maxim Hopman

Forests evoke a sense of mystery and awe for me. I recall the wonder I felt walking alone in a pine forest in our Northwest Territories: I am mesmerized by photos of giant trees in BC that beckon me and awake a longing to spend silent retreats in their midst. Yet such forests also evoke sadness.  Stories of new oil pipelines and clear-cut logging in what remains of the never-to-be replaced old-growth forests in BC seem catastrophic. Why is it that we have not protected this national heritage?   And then there is the Amazon rain forest. In the March 17, 2022 edition of The Washington Post, an article by Terrence McCoy “The Amazon Undone; Death in the Forest” describes the ongoing destruction of a place of beauty, a place that preserves our climate. Along the 500 mile Highway 319 which runs through a largely preserved area of the Brazilian Amazon.  New sideroads, extreme violence, land grabbers, fires, and deforestations are present. People disappear and their bodies are never found. Large new farms on illegally deforested land are hidden among the trees.  And there is conflict between environmentalists and citizens. For example, Manaus, a city of 2.2. million is cut off from Brazil’s highway system and wants the highway to make travel easier and enable development. Yet environmentalists claim: “What has historically been a carbon sink could suddenly become a ‘carbon bomb’ upending the world’s efforts to avert catastrophic warming.”

I believe action to preserve forests is required of all of us. Some wonderful work has been done by researchers in Canada and the Amazon. We need to keep ourselves informed of such research, stories about the destruction of forests, and add our voices to those who protest these events.

-Sister Pat McKeon, csj

Earth Day Canada 2021 | Jour de la Terre Canada 2021

EARTH:  “This Floating Body We All Call Home”

For Earth Day 2021, we welcome the poetic words and thoughts, focused on climate change, written and read by Amanda Gorman. It is an inspiring poem by the 22-year-old US national youth poet laureate.  

Her poem was written and read in 2018 (the 48th anniversary of the celebration of Earth Day) during the Climate Reality Leadership Corps Trainings.  It was dedicated to Al Gore, as well as, the participants in the Corps Training Project taking place in Los Angeles.  

The Corps Training is an organization dedicated to increasing awareness about the urgency for action, as Amanda reads “And while this is training. There is no rehearsal. The time is Now, Now, Now.”   Amanda reads with the enthusiasm and convictions of her profound beliefs and promise...

“Earthrise”
By Amanda Gorman

Where despite disparities
We all care to protect this world,
This riddled blue marble, this little true marvel
To muster the verve and the nerve
To see how we can serve
Our planet. You don’t need to be a politician
To make it your mission to conserve, to protect,
To preserve that one and only home
That is ours,
To use your unique power
To give next generations the planet they deserve.

We are demonstrating, creating, advocating
We heed this inconvenient truth, because we need to be anything but lenient
With the future of our youth.

And while this is a training,
in sustaining the future of our planet,
There is no rehearsal. The time is
Now
Now
Now,
Because the reversal of harm,
And protection of a future so universal
Should be anything but controversial.

So, earth, pale blue dot
We will fail you not.

(This is an excerpt from “Earthrise,” written by Inaugural Youth Poet Laureate of the United States Amanda Gorman.

Read the full poem here.

““So, earth, pale blue dot We will fail you not”.”
— Amanda Gorman
unsplash-image-eA32JIBsSu8.jpg

For more expanded information about Earth Day please visit www.earthday.ca

-Sister Mabel St. Louis, csj

When Green Becomes Blue

Through our Federation, the Sisters of St. Joseph have become the 29th Blue Community in the world, joining with many others whose goals are: to have water and sanitation recognized as human rights, to phase out and then ban the sale of bottled water at municipal events and public facilities, and to promote publicly financed, owned and operated water and waste water services.

These communities are provided with the tools to fight the privatization of water and promote the human right to water. This project builds on nearly two decades of Water Watch work, in coalition with many other groups to promote and protect public water. Blue Communities in Canada, there are now 13 of them, is an initiative of the Council of Canadians and CUPE.

When Paris joined the Blue Communities Project on World Water day, 2016, Maude Barlow congratulated them saying “the global water crisis is getting more serious by the day and it is being made worse by the corporate theft and abuse of water.” And we all know of the problems our Aboriginal communities are experiencing with water that is not safe for drinking. Over 100 communities are under water advisory and need to boil water for drinking. And mercury contaminated water is major news and is a shame for Canada.

Indeed, water scarcity is a global concern! In my recent awareness visit to India at the invitation of SOPAR, I came to a deep appreciation of water which we in Canada take so much for granted. In India, water is not lacking so much as it’s not potable and the contaminants lead to serious illnesses. Small village communities have built filtration plants to purify the water. Doctors were asked if this was really necessary. Their conclusion was that a village that had 5 doctors now only needed one. (see www.sopar-balavikasa.org)

During her time in South Sudan on an awareness trip with Canadian Aid for South Sudan, Sister Joan Atkinson found similar realities. There they also have to deal with water-borne diseases causing illness and death. Taught by a Canadian scientist, they fill specific types of plastic bottles with water and let the ultra-violet rays of the sun purify the water. Families using this system are free of water-borne illnesses and are much healthier. I saw this same process being used while I was in Bolivia.

In a recent article I read by Sister Sue Wilson, she writes “Water is indeed for our use and to sustain life but from an integral ecological perspective it is more than an “object for human use.”

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH WATER?

Sister Sue quotes Denise Nadeau who writes “my journey to unlearn this objectification of water and experience water as a living relative continues to be a long one.” As Sisters of St. Joseph, we are called into deep relationship with all creation, and I think of St. Francis of Assisi who addressed water as “Sister Water.”

Mary Mettler, CSJ
On behalf of the Federation Ecology Committee

The Federation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Canada is made up of three Congregations: The Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada, The Sisters of St. Joseph of Sault Saint Marie and The Sisters of St. Joseph of Toronto.

 

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Step Aside Blueberries: Here Comes Haskaps

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A new Canadian species of fruit has shown up in our Farmers Market last summer—haskap berries. Haskap is the Japanese name of the Ainu people of Northern Japan for fruit meaning “berry of long life and good vision.” The berry has a very high anti-oxidant level (higher than blueberry), high in vitamin C and A, and also high in fibre and potassium.

The species is native to the boreal forests of Asia, Europe, and North America. When the fruit was introduced to Alberta, Canada in the 1950’s the fruit was very bitter and not palatable. The University of Saskatchewan took on a big initiative of perfecting the species and making it more adaptable for Canadian growing and usage. Today the berry has a unique raspberry/blueberry flavour with a bit of zing to it. The fruit of the haskap plant is oblong in shape with a dusty indigo colour. Besides home usage like juicing, baking, and berry preserving, the food industry is also interested in getting in on the prize for their marketing. It can be used as food colouring, for textile dyes and perhaps someday you may even find it sold as a really good burgundy wine.

The plant attracts few pests, has no thorns, no suckers, tends to fruit when young and ripens very early in the spring even before strawberries. What is interesting about haskap is that it is drought and cold climate friendly. There are at least five varieties of haskap seedlings available on the open market. It is important to know that when planting haskap there must be a pollinator plant close by. For example, say you want to plant five plants of the Tundra variety. There must be a different variety like Boreallis to act as the pollinator for the other five plants. Bees and insects will carry pollen from one flower to another once that arrangement is in place. Because haskaps are the first spring plants to flower they provide a major source of food for bees, flies and other insects.

It is hopeful that someday this berry can grow as plentiful as the blueberry. Wouldn’t that be great if this new species could grow in areas most needed where good nutrition is lacking.

HASKAP VINAIGRETTE

*½ cup crushed berries
*3 tbsp. cider vinegar
*½ cup olive oil
*½ tsp. sugar
*1 tsp. Dijon mustard
*Salt to taste

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend well. Pour into a container and serve on greens of any kind or try it on a wild rice and walnut salad.

 

Rita Godon, CSJ
On behalf of the Federation Ecology Committee

The Federation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Canada is made up of three Congregations: The Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada, The Sisters of St. Joseph of Sault Saint Marie and The Sisters of St. Joseph of Toronto.