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- DEN Enews
DEN Enews
Fourth Week after Pentecost
Diocesan Environment Network
June 18, 2024
Welcome to the Enews
The Celebration Guide has finally been published and we pray you discover what your parish can do in September before the summer takes our focus away to leisure…as it should, mind you. You can find it here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/12M3weSD4D2mvjCiI3Mxen3JQZ5Rrazz3/view
The Episcopal Church also has liturgical resources, podcasts and much more. https://www.episcopalchurch.org/season-of-creation-and-st-francis-day-resources/#:~:text=The%202024%20theme%20is%20To,worship%20service%20or%20ministry%20event.
To add to your Season Of Creation Celebrations, Sunday, Sept. 22 is World Rivers Day.
“It highlights the many values of our rivers, strives to increase public awareness, and encourages the improved stewardship of all rivers around the world. Rivers in virtually every country face an array of threats, and only through our active involvement can we ensure their health in the years ahead.”
“In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.” Margaret Atwood
How sad. We have nothing to share with you from parishes around the diocese. We would love to see photos of your gardens. We know for a fact, there are parish vegetable gardens and other landscaping projects. You might just be the inspiration another group needs!
A recommendation from Grandmother Birch in her newsletter:
Black Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis).
Long considered an important immune booster, the common elderberry, black elderberry, or American elderberry is indigenous to Atlantic Canada and is often found growing along the edge of waterways (including road-side ditches). Black elderberry is easily distinguishable from the red elderberry (Sambucus racemosa), which blooms much earlier in the spring and forms clusters of red berries that are quickly devoured by birds, long before black elderberry even blossoms. The berries of the American black elderberry are delicious in pies, juices, syrups, and jellies, but must be heated/cooked to neutralise a compound called anthocyanin, which can upset your stomach if eaten raw.
Sambucus canadensis is a beautiful landscaping bush that likes to grow in open, sunlit spaces, but can also handle partial shade. In my humble opinion, every household that has a yard should have at least one black elderberry bush growing as a handsome garden centre-piece, and a source of your family’s wellness and happiness.
Congratulations to Nova Scotia Nature Trust
“Nature Trust announced that our campaign to protect Twice the Wild has crossed the finish line! With your support and love for nature, we have achieved the inspiring target we set in 2020 to double the protected lands under our care across the province in just a few short years. The Nature Trust’s network of protected lands has now reached more than 30,000 acres, a major milestone in nature conservation and an exciting win for all Nova Scotians.”
To read more of this achievement: https://nsnt.ca/blog/twice-the-wild-protected-forever/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR2fS0A0rRCrrMdBHNnU8aqOj9EUAsFa7cuHPPA0mNEq1N1wxDdFzy28ioI_aem_AT4CnSdCpIZdylJ23l7n4jeFcgYbHBeavDlkvEK_PjFk6N5lbiC4hY35YAvfRr-E7j9NX-pbrlR7hk2ynB79G9W4
with thanks to Eva Evans and Jesse Hamilton
“Though she be but little, she is fierce." This quote from Shakespeare could also fit the country of Liberia on the West Coast of Africa. Nova Scotia is about 2 times larger than this small country, but Liberia has a treasure many other African countries have already lost. It has lush tropical rainforests. They cover millions of hectares and provide a home to creatures like western chimpanzees, pygmy hippos, and forest elephants. Hundreds of thousands of people also live in these forests and depend on them for their livelihoods. Liberia is currently being deforested at an unprecedented rate. There is a deal being worked on between their government and a company from the United Arab Emirates. This fossil fuel state has plans to vastly expand oil and gas production. They are looking to control 10% of Liberia’s territory for the next 30 years, where they will “harvest” carbon credits and sell them to offset climate-damaging emissions. This petition is calling on countries of the global North to actually reduce their emissions to a “real zero”.
Forest destruction for beef production is occurring around our globe and fuels the extinction crisis. Deforestation in Australia kills 50 million native animals every year. 130,000 hectares of endangered koala habitat is destroyed each year for beef production. This petition is for McDonald’s. They are a major buyer of Australian beef and hold significant purchasing power and influence in shaping industry practices. Despite their global pledges, they fall short on the deforestation front and lack clear and transparent policies. Add your name to call on McDonald’s to rule out the destruction of forests and natural ecosystems from their supply chain and to commit to only sourcing deforestation-free Australian beef by the end of next year.
Half of the British population of badgers has been killed; more than 230,000. These iconic native wild animals are being wiped from the landscape because of the badger cull. The UK government has focused on the ineffective and unproven ‘sledgehammer’ of badger culling to end bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in English cattle herds. They do this regardless of public and scientific opposition. The truth is cattle spread over 94% of bTB, and yet badgers are being blamed. The cull is an unnecessary and wasteful policy that has created a wildlife tragedy during a time of critical nature depletion. Canadians can stand for the badger and badger the UK government into ending this cruel cull.
The climate crisis is here and people are already suffering the consequences. Drilling and mining more gas, oil, and coal, along with building more infrastructure, is an existential threat to our society and the nature that sustains us. This petition is about Europe’s over-reliance on fossil gas which leads to rising energy bills, sickness, deaths, destruction of nature, and climate chaos. Join in on calling the European Union to ban all new fossil fuel projects, stop all public investments in fossil fuel projects, and completely phase out fossil fuels in a fair and timely way.
Unite the Swifties is an opportunity for Taylor Swift fans to win a pair of tickets to one of her Toronto or Vancouver shows. This contest is open to all Swifties ready to speak now about RBC’s funding for fossil fuel projects and companies that cause the climate crisis and violate Indigenous rights.
with thanks to Claudia Zinck
Repurposing
Repurposing means to adapt or utilize one thing for another purpose. We do it all the time when we use a butter knife to tighten a screw instead of getting the screwdriver. Most of our garden work involves using something we saved to accomplish a different job than originally intended.
Magazines and websites have these long-winded projects, usually involving dollar store items and always quoting how inexpensive the project was. I thought I would show you my spring re-purpose project.
Once upon a time Grandma and Nana changed their front doorstep from two steps to a ramp. This involved removing the “nothing wrong with it”, top step. Grandma flipped the step upside down, screwed leftover pieces of wood from the ramp project to the step and painted it brown. Adding fabric weed kill to the bottom of the step compartments, she filled them with ground and planted an herb garden. The End.
Oh, the price, we can’t forget that. Probably was a dollar’s worth of screws to put on the legs. The ground was from my dump truck load so maybe pennies. The expensive item was paint. If I had bought it new it would have been around $20 worth, but I had part of a can left over from painting the trim on the sheds.
I think pictures tell the story better. Re-purposing is not rocket science folks.
What was your favourite repurposing project?
A Nature Oddity Sometimes nature just surprises us.
Back in 1997, two Princeton graduates (Daniel Janzen and Winnie Hallwachs ) saw juice companies pay high fees to dispose of their orange peels in Costa Rico. They also noticed a barren area just inside a national park nearby where little if anything grew.
The ecologists convinced the Costa Rican government and a local juice company (Del Oro) to dispose of the orange peelings on this barren land. After about a thousand truckloads had been dumped, the government shut down the project. A rival juice company went to the media that a national park was being used as a landfill
Daniel Janzen was in Costa Rica some dozen years later and went to see if all those orange peelings did make a positive reaction on the land. He had difficulty finding that barren spot because it was now filled in with plants.
Organic materials placed anywhere may cause a small problem while they rot and turn into soil, but only good things come from it.
Last year I found a company that turned coffee grounds into a medium to grow mushrooms.
Then personably near home gravel pits are abandoned. It may take several years but nature will come back. Add nutrient-rich compost and the growth happens faster.
There are numerous stories of people stopping desertification. Let’s bring back land before it gets that bad.
Crafting
Grandma has been painting (walls) this week so little time to craft. I wanted to show you a couple of things I found during my computer time.
Put a terra cotta planter upside down on a table. Stick a solar light into the hole in the base. The planter could be painted or decorated so many ways.
Something to eat
Again, busy but I found a neat activity for kids, especially if going on a hike. You make snack necklaces before you leave.
For Flowers That Bloom
For flowers that bloom about our feet;
For tender grass, so fresh, so sweet;
For song of bird, and hum of bee;
For all things fair we hear or see,
Father in heaven, we thank Thee!
For blue of stream and blue of sky;
For pleasant shade of branches high;
For fragrant air and cooling breeze;
For beauty of the blooming trees,
Father in heaven, we thank Thee!
- Ralph Waldo Emerson