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In Macedonia, a country in which over 35,000 hectares of forests are estimated to have burned in 2006 and 2007 due to wildfires that were brought about by extremely high summer temperatures, the public has rallied around a major tree-planting initiative.
Perhaps "rallied" is too weak a word: in three short years, approximately 3 million trees have been planted on over 8,500 hectares, helping to support the ecosystem as it begins the slow process of recovery. This initiative was launched by Macedonian opera singer and UNESCO Artist for Peace Boris Trajanov and involves not only members of the public, but also the government, local authorities, non-governmental organizations, and businesses.
Having contributed to tree-planting activities with Trees Across Toronto in the past, I can attest to the fact that this is a powerful activity. While it may not promote large-scale environmental behaviour change in most participants, it is nevertheless a relatively simple action that clearly demonstrates the impact that a small activity can have when many people engage in it.
Does anyone else have good news to share?
Photo credit.
My good news is sorta incidental, but as I was flying into Toronto this week, I noticed something I've never seen before: Solar panels! A few of the big-box stores (a Home Depot was one, I'm sure) actually had that normally-useless real estate on their roof covered by solar panels! It's nice to see that Canada is slowly getting on the green-energy bandwagon!
ReplyDeleteThat's great news! I wonder if they advertise this fact in the store? On a warehouse like that, it would be hard to see the panels from street level!
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