DEN Enews

Nearly 20% of the wolf population that calls Yellowstone National Park home have been slaughtered by hunters over the past few months. The entire remaining Phantom Lake Wolf Pack was killed in just two months. It is thought that there are only 94 wolves left in all of Yellowstone. Wolves are protected from hunting while inside the park, but when gray wolves were removed from the endangered species list in 2020, it became a free-for-all to any wolf who goes outside the park borders. Now hunters lie in wait, set traps, and lure these creatures out of their protected area. In February 2022, federal protection was restored to wolves in 44 U.S. states. However, protections were not restored to wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountain Region where over 80% of the slaughter occurs. Instead of protecting their wolves, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming have passed laws allowing hunters to kill up to 90% of their state’s wolves. Please ask Deb Haaland, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, to restore protections for gray wolves.

Scientists have been sounding the alarm about the risk of releasing more than 2 billion tonnes of CO2 from Ring of Fire development. Ontario is racing to mine the peatlands of the Hudson Bay Lowland in the name of electric vehicle batteries. Indigenous peoples have been clear: no business in their traditional homelands without free, prior, informed consent. Financial analysts have been calling out the lack of proven economic numbers, and Canadians are rightly wondering why they should pay billions for a mining road that would carve up a carbon sink and jeopardize our path to net zero by 2050. Ontario has options for critical minerals that are more in line with a nature-positive future. Electric vehicles don’t have to come at the expense of our best natural weapon against climate warming. Add your voice to help protect the ancient peatlands of the Hudson Bay Lowlands.

A destructive rail and port project is taking shape in Brazil’s Amazon region. The goal is to transport millions of tons of soy and iron ore to places like China, Europe, and North America. The 520-kilometer private freight railway would cut deep into the rainforest and through six Indigenous territories. It would run through the region of the Amazon basin most threatened by deforestation. The port would be located in 2 protected areas. One area features the world’s largest continuous and intact mangrove belt. The other protected area is home to a breeding colony of 2,500 scarlet ibises, as well as being a wintering area for migratory birds. For eight years, the project has been formed without informing the public and without accepting the rights of locals. Germany's national railway, Deutsche Bahn (DB), is involved. This petition is going to them, demanding they withdraw from this Amazon project immediately.

Science informs us that we must protect nature to limit global warming, but exploitative industries continue to destroy it. Old-growth forests and creatures like mighty whales are struggling to survive. What could help change this is a strong federal nature law that protects Canada’s rich ecosystems, respects Indigenous sovereignty, ensures public accountability, and establishes firm nature protection targets. The Nature Accountability Act (Bill C-73) was introduced this year to address the biodiversity crisis. This Bill is in its early stage, but lacks specific targets and has gaps, including missing the legal force necessary to drive real change. There are about 30 days left before the Nature COP negotiations in October. Use this petition to urge our government to pass a strong Nature Accountability Act that can actually protect biodiversity. 

Brilliant

It is said that pictures are worth a thousand words. This week my green ideas come in pictures. New inventions or just adaptions, are just plain brilliant.

This is titled “My local park has a swing where Moms and Dad swing with their kids”

 Next is a water fountain that delivers fresh water for your dog when you have a drink.

A fence that is also a bicycle pump

https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/bxiild/this_fence_that_is_also_a_bicycle_pump/

The abandoned underground or subway lines in Paris are recycled into public swimming pools

https://www.reddit.com/r/LiminalSpace/comments/xxulj8/abandoned_subways_in_paris_are_bring_repurposed/

https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/a70p8h/my_local_park_has_a_swing_where_momdads_can_swing/

Crafts

This one is so simple and was another great hit during sermon time (Sorry, Rev. Trudy)

You will need a boxboard and a template for a small bird. Perhaps someone at your house could draw the bird image. If not, try https://earlyplaytemplates.blogspot.com/2014/10/printable-free-simple-bird-templates.html?m=1

I repurposed an older twin pocket portfolio for the bird shape but any cardboard or box board would work.

Cut a slit in the middle of the bird's body. With white or any colour paper, fanfold the paper and stick it in the slit in the middle of the bird's body.

 If anyone has kids that love dinosaurs, and in particular the T rex, here is a template to make one using a toilet tissue tube for a base.

https://www.dltk-kids.com/t.asp?t=https://www.dltk-kids.com/animals/image/btrex.gif

 Something to Eat

Does anyone else still have more zucchini than they need? I do have a good amount in the freezer for winter, but two more zucchini arrived. Then I found a recipe for zucchini cookies.

Zucchini Cookies

In one bowl mix

1 cup shredded zucchini

½ cup margarine (or vegetable oil)

½ cup brown and white sugar. (Grandma did brown sugar and some honey)

1 egg

1 tbsp maple syrup (or pancake syrup syrup)

1 tsp vanilla

In a second bowl mix

2 cups rolled oats

1 cup flour

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp baking powder

1 tsp. cinnamon

Mix the two bowls. Drop by spoonful and bake for about 10 minutes per pan.

As you can tell they barely caught their feet when offered to guests.

^{Creator God, We lament the ways in which we have failed to care for your creation and the times we have ignored the suffering of our global neighbors. We ask for your forgiveness. We ask that world leaders be filled with compassion and take measures to care for the whole of your creation. We ask your will to be done. Amen}

^{www.episcopalrelief.org/let-us-pray/season-of-creation-prayers}