I want to share two things that caught my attention this week. One is a sad and a surprising reality and the other is an alarming perspective that is slowly but surely creeping up silently and quasi-invisibly in every society. In some places, it might be already too late to solve, because it is very difficult to teach people to be clean and practice good manners and self-respect. But even more difficult, is to stop human greed.

1.)   This first point is related to what I read in two different articles. These are:

1.a.)   Sierra Club BC report prepared by Jens Wieting (January 2019) an article entitled “Hidden, ignored and growing: B.C.’s forest carbon emissions.”

1.b.)   The other article was written by Robson Fletcher and published in CBC Analysis this February 12th of 2019. The title of his article is “Canada’s forests actually emit more carbon than they absorb — despite what you’ve heard on Facebook (Our managed forest land hasn’t been a net carbon sink since 2001).”

In summary, both articles confirm that as beautiful the Canadian forests are, they actually contribute with more CO2 into the atmosphere than the carbon sink we thought they were. Our forests have a net contributor to greenhouse gases emitted since 2002. They actually produce more CO2 than what they actually suck in. Unfortunately, due to an international agreement, the Canadian government has excluded the CO2 emitted by our forests in our country’s calculations. Why? Because this would have placed us as one of the top countries that contributes to global warming. Bottom line: we produce a lot more greenhouse gases because our forests do not contribute to a positive net carbon sink due to the following main reasons:

• Forest fires
• Destructive pine beetle outbreaks
• Uncontrolled mining and mountain top removals
• Deforestation (destructing logging)
• Mismanaged farmland
• General decomposition of harvested lumber and general forest debris

Regardless of what many people believe, Canadians need and ought to promote more favourable climate actions, due to their misinterpretation on the negative net participation of our great Canadian forests. What is even worse, is that similar situations are happening around the world in rainforests in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brazil, etc. In these countries, they have an added negative activity, which is the clearing the land to raise cattle or for oil palm plantations. No wonder we are experiencing extreme and destructive weather patterns all around the world.

For more information, the reader can visit the following two links:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/canada-forests-carbon-sink-or-source-1.5011490

https://sierraclub.bc.ca/wp-content/uploads/SCBC-Forest-Emissions-Report-Jan-19.pdf

2.)   The second point I want to bring to your attention is the amount of overconsumption and litter all around the world. Instead of explaining this issue in detail, I would rather ask you to read the following poem, which explains itself.

LITTER POEM

by Levi Tafari

“Well hello everybody how do you do?
I‘d like to introduce myself to you!
My name is LITTER I dwell in the gutter
I’m comprised of glass, wood, metal, and paper
I’m getting larger hour after hour
you’ll find me lurking in your area.”
“I move around the city
I make it untidy to human beings

I’m very unhealthy
I’m not very pretty in fact
I’m quite ugly some people even say I’m dirty
So I do what I can
to upset man
I’m unpopular
I’m not a part of his plan
A menace to society

I’m very naughty
I’m like poison
I’m quite deadly
Vermin love me
I make them feel secure
I’m produced by the rich thrown out by the poor

I’ve been around
yes a real long time
even though you’ve made dropping me a crime
and if you think I’m rough
you ain’t seen nothing yet
I’ll get up to your neck
and make you sweat

Well this is a promise
it is not a threat
yes you can call me names
say I’m no good

but it won’t stop me
messing up your neighborhood.”
“Because My name is LITTER
from the gutter
and my mission
is to make you SUFFER.”