nature and environment

Disaster in the Gulf

Like many people I’ve been following the never-ending slew of mishaps that have unfolded in the Gulf of Mexico. It’s been over 40 days since the BP oil pipe exploded and gallons upon gallons of oil are still pumping out into open water.

As the BP spill surpasses the effect of Exxon-Valdez from March 1989, the media is documenting every step (or should I say misstep?) that is being taken. We’re getting the story from every angle — what’s being done, what’s not being done, and how every aspect of the ecosystem is being affected.

Living in a place that is so far away, it’s hard to think of how that disaster is going to affect us, aside from the obvious impact it will have on the cost of crude oil and gasoline. (Sidenote: there is a really awesome website called If It Was My Home that shows you the size of the spill and the area it would cover in your own geographical location… it’s scary. Really scary.) But I got to thinking this morning on my commute. This is a timely opportunity for Canadians to educate themselves on the conservation and environmental issues facing our own terrain.

So I logged onto the Dundurn website, and category searched our nature books to see what we have to offer. Turns out, we have tons of different titles related to the environment, but one specifically entitled, Changing Parks. It was published some time ago, but it offers a wealth of information on the fluxtuating state of our national parks and rural areas.

For a country like ours that is known for our vast terrain and dense wildnerness, we owe it to ourselves to know more about our landscape and what needs to be done to protect it.

Before it’s too late.

© 2010 Defining Canada.