Climate Change was Re: [NatureNS] Slowdown & Wildlife

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From: Patrick Kelly <Patrick.Kelly@Dal.Ca>
To: "naturens@chebucto.ns.ca" <naturens@chebucto.ns.ca>
Thread-Topic: Climate Change was Re: [NatureNS] Slowdown & Wildlife
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Date: Tue, 31 Mar 2020 15:45:51 +0000
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Electric vehicles are another way. Alberta is currently home to Canada's la=
rgest wind farm and is about to became home to its largest PV array. Both a=
re in Vulcan County... which is only logical :-) They could easily do the s=
ame in Saskatchewan.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/largest-solar-installation-alberta-g=
reengate-1.5261539

I also came across a story a few years ago of a fellow who is converting di=
esel farm tractors over to electric ones. (Google electric farm tractor) On=
e side benefit that one farmer noticed right away is that they are so quiet=
 he can actually talk to people while he is using it!

Pat


On Mar 29, 2020, at 10:18 PM, Lois Codling wrote:

CAUTION: The Sender of this email is not from within Dalhousie.

Hi Dave,

My husband is from Sask., and this is his comment:
"What Dave proposes is easy to do in Europe, where distances are short
and population dense. What kind of public transit helps a Saskatchewan
farmer whose nearest neighbours are about a mile away?"

Even here, we are about 1/2 hr. from the Halifax hospitals, and we spent
over 6 yrs. driving my father there for dialysis 3 times a week.  Public
transport was not an option for him, even by Access-a-bus.  Unless
Canadians live in a large city I think we do need our cars and thus our
roads, though I have a lot of sympathy for your good reasons for doing
away with highways.

Lois Codling
L. Sackville

On 3/29/2020 12:26 PM, David Webster wrote:
Hi Burkhard & All,

   You open the door to some important topics.

   While the rapid response to Covid-19, in most jurisdictions, shows
that governments can respond to an 'imminent hanging', Covid-19 is a
Sunday School picnic compared to the consequences of run-away Climate
Change. It has been obvious for at least 60 years that Climate Change
was the only real problem the world faces but action has been limited
to vague promises to meet targets by some future date. Many European
countries have acted responsibly but on a per capita basis Canada and
the USA are slackers.

   And the solution is self evident; replace 90% of auto and truck
traffic with efficient public transit and rail respectively. The big
question is--- How does one convince a corruption of cheerful liars,
AKA politicians, to act responsibly ?

   And this high volume of vehicle traffic, in addition to the
release of fossil carbon, has a huge impact on the natural world;
directly and indirectly. Brooklyn St. in Kentville runs West from
Cornwallis St. along the North side of the Cornwallis meadow. I often
have walked along this road over some 50 years. Road kill Painted
Turtle were fairly common there shortly west of the Hospital road
until  about 2000 (guess); none since. So I have concluded that the
local PT colony has been exterminated.

   Small man-made barriers are huge for small animals. A highway cut
in that same area has generated a Toad barrier. They can not get where
they think they must go. Some decades ago a grader had generated a
ridge of gravel, about a foot high, in the middle of the rail trail. I
watched a fair sized Garter Snake attempting to cross that; not possible.

   If small changes have such impacts one should contemplate the
enormous impact of the 100 series highways which have fragmented the
landscape into untold numbers of isolated shards.

   The typical back country road  had no ditches to speak of until
urban sprawl forced 'improvements', so in spring there was a necklace
of isolated pools each with numerous tadpoles; which in turn became
frogs or toads. Back about 1942-50 when I helped mow swails, which
were too wet for the horse, with a scythe the swails were alive with
frogs. Plop, plop, plop with every scythe swing, and the same when you
carried a fork load of mowed sedges to dry ground. One year in
college, ca 1952, the usual frogs for dissection were unavailable so
the proff. asked me to collect 25. No sweat. It would be difficult
now. Fred somebody, at Acadia, did a survey of amphibia populations
but refused to allow historical comments; how useful.

   We had a cottage at Sunken Lake from 1970 to 1991. Initially, the
wave lapped beach gravel swarmed with penny toads in season and at
night the cottage wall was covered with insects. Long before 1991 the
toads were gone and by 1991 one insect on the wall was an event. The
public road, where there was never more then slow and light traffic,
fresh road kill snakes and Dragon flies were predictable.

   So I am absolutely sure that motor vehicle traffic is very
destructive of the natural world, both in the short and long term. The
solution must be to somehow renew public transit so it displaces the
lure of wall to wall motor vehicles.

 Yt, DW, Kentville

On 3/29/2020 10:15 AM, Burkhard Plache wrote:
Given the current slowdown of life,
vehicle traffic has been reduced significantly.
It is likely to early to say if this has an impact
on vehicles killing wildlife. Also, many birds
have not arrived yet, turtles have not emerged yet, ...
Simply curious,
Burkhard



Patrick Kelly

159 Town Road

Falmouth NS  B0P 1L0

Canada


(902) 472-2322


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<div>Electric vehicles are another way. Alberta is currently home to Canada=
's largest wind farm and is about to became home to its largest PV array. B=
oth are in Vulcan County... which is only logical :-) They could easily do =
the same in Saskatchewan.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><a href=3D"https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/largest-solar-instal=
lation-alberta-greengate-1.5261539">https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/=
largest-solar-installation-alberta-greengate-1.5261539</a></div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I also came across a story a f