April is dedicated to global awareness about the state of our planet. Worldwide there are events focusing on cleaning up plastic, reducing methane emissions from landfills, increasing carbon capture out of our atmosphere, protecting our water resources, to name a few target areas of concern.
Did you know an estimated eight tonnes of plastic finds its way into Earth鈥檚 oceans annually? And don鈥檛 think just because you live inland your plastic waste is not contributing because about 80 per cent of the eight tonnes is carried seaward by the artery of rivers crisscrossing every continent.
According to the website, there is anywhere from 68 to 180 tonnes of plastic in the world鈥檚 oceans. By 2050 they estimate there will be more plastic than fish, by weight. That is a scary thought.
Then there are the landfills. According to , over 26 million tonnes of waste was sent to landfills in our country alone last year, after almost 10 million tonnes had been separated for recycling. Good to see the recycling happening but I think we need to do even better. Especially in the electronics section it seems.
Globally, two billion tonnes of non recyclable waste is sent to landfills annually according to . And they estimate it will reach roughly 3.75 billion tonnes by 2050 if we don't change our recycling capabilities.
But the problem does not stop at just the size of the garbage mounds at your local landfill. There are consequences from how even unsustainable waste products react with air,moisture and soil. The result is greenhouse gas emissions and in particular, methane鈥ll contributing to changes in our atmosphere which in turn exacerbates weather patterns.
Unfortunately, there is not much hope of easing the greenhouse gas emission situation when almost 7.5 million hectares (18.5 million acres) of forest are cut down every year. Extremely sad to learn almost half of our planet鈥檚 tropical rainforest is now gone. Did you know one mature tree can absorb roughly 22 kg (48 lb) of carbon dioxide annually? That number depends on the species, age, size, location and health of the tree, of course.
It seems fast-growing evergreen trees can absorb CO2 quickly while deciduous trees potentially store more CO2 long-term. All interesting facts on a single tree鈥檚 ability to sequester carbon dioxide in their wood.But, with approximately 42 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide being emitted into the atmosphere annually, we need a heck of a lot of trees to deal with that volume. Cleaner oceans would help too as they are also good sequesters of carbon dioxide.
This next item may be a new one for you 鈥� snowpack pollution. Many of us have noticed the receding line on our famous Comox Glacier and put it down to global warming. Did you ever think some of the reason could be due to air pollution though? I should have twigged having tested particulate emissions as a technician in a pulp and paper mill.
Makes sense though when you realize how much particulate can be carried on air currents from substantial distances and accumulate on surfaces over time. When they land on snow surfaces like our glacier, they darken the surface and effectively speed up the snowmelt. This is one environmental issue.
The other is the increased levels of metal pollution now being found in particulate tests being conducted in the Rocky Mountains. Contamination levels are still within allowable safety limits set by the government but these metal pollutants are being carried in the melting snow from the mountain tops down to our drinking water reservoirs. Some things to think about this month. What can you do, what changes can you make that will help our planet? It is ours to save, after all.
Leslie Cox co-owns Growing Concern Cottage Garden in Black Creek. Her website is
