The pygmy marmoset (Cebuella pygmaea) is the smallest monkey in the world, about five to six inches tall, not including the tail. And when they eat a piece of macaroni, they are just the cutest things ever!
May18
Category Archives: Animal Life
Mar12
Earth Hour 2013: Join me and make your own pledge to STOP, START, CONTINUE
What is Earth Hour?
Earth Hour is when everybody turns off their lights and their electronics to show awareness and concern for climate change and the environment. It is sort of like celebrating an environmental new year. This year Earth Hour is Saturday March 23 from 8:30 – 9:30 pm.
Cool Facts about The History of Earth Hour.
The WWF (World Wildlife Fund) founded Earth Hour which I think is totally awesome. The very first earth hour was held in 2007 in Sydney, Australia. Over 2000 people participated. The next year Earth Hour was participated in all around the world – 371 cities and towns in more than 35 countries. 36 million people turned their lights out that second year.
I am proud to say that Toronto was the first city in 2008 to sign up for Earth Hour. Wow! Since then, more than 15 million Canadians participate in Earth Hour every year. In 2012 more than 6950 cities and towns across 152 countries and territories took part and made a change. That is amazing! It’s amazing that you can see how many people are concerned about the environment and their future.
Take the Stop, Start and Continue Pledge. Make Earth Hour last all year.
I have a project, a challenge and a goal for Earth Hour 2013 and it needs you.
This year when you turn of the lights off, take my pledge by yourself or together with your family, and commit to your Eco-resoulutions!
When you power down for the hour, I want you to spend that time and think about what you can do, what you change – what you can stop, start and continue. Three things.
I always say that every little thing adds up to make a change and the more people and families that take this pledge and make their commitments, the more change there will be. The earth needs it. The earth needs us.
To Do:
- Choose and print your Pledge Certificate below.
- Browse the list I made (below) to inspire you to choose your own personal commitment.
- Write down your commitments for each action – Stop, Start, Continue.
- Sign it with your name.
- Decorate and colour it. Make it special.
- Find somewhere in your home, office or classroom to display it so that you will always be reminded of the commitment you made.
- When your friends and family see it and ask you about it, tell them to come back to my website and take the pledge. It starts on Earth Hour, but it can be done anytime.
Choose, Download and Print your Pledge Certificate:
Suggestions for what you can pledge Start, Stop and Continue:
STOP:
- Littering
- Using plastic water bottles
- Leaving lights on when you leave the room
- Using plastic bags
- Being silent about my concern for the environment
- Pretending that there is not a problem
- Using the washing machine during peak hours
- Throwing out what can be donated or reused (clothes, toys, books)
- Stop using disposable cups, plates and cutlery
- Stop using pesiticdes on my lawn and garden
START and CONTINUE:
- Using my voice
- Unplug electronics when not using them
- Use biodegradable products
- I will organize a cleanup in my neighbourhood
- Get involved with local causes
- Recycling everything I can
- I will pick up garbage whenever I see it
- Buy more local
- Use only eco-friendly cleaning supplies
- Learn more about the real problems facing the environment
- Grow a garden and try to plant some of my vegetables
- Compost
- Conserve water by getting a rain barrel
- Drive less, and walk more
- Get outside more
- Learn about animals that are being endangered
- Form an eco team with my friends
- Continue to read up about people that are making change
- Turn off the water when I’m brushing my teeth
- I will learn about how to dispose of waste safely
I would love to hear what you are pledging. I hope that you’ll leave some comments here and let me and everyone else here know what you have committed to.
A big special thank you to my friend Lindsay Brewda of Everyday Grace for designing the Pledge Certificates for me.
Feb22
You know where my friend Posy isn’t going? Marineland. Me neither.
This is a special guest post by friend Posy. My mom and Posy’s mom have been friends for a long time. Posy and I hung out at the Digital Family Summit. I heard that Posy was doing her speech about the treatment of the animals at Marineland and I wanted to share it with you.
I thirst. I thirst for freedom of certain animals. These are the animals you think are happy. The animals you pay a lot of money to go and see. I’m talking about the animals at Marineland. I thirst, for them to be treated well. You may think of Marineland as a fun place for families to gather and enjoy amazing animals. But, have you seen what they look like up-close – the terror and horror in their eyes? What happens behind the scenes is not what you think. How they are treated will not be a secret after you listen to me. Today I’m going to tell you about a place where beautiful animal life starves and dies.
What’s so bad about Marineland anyway? I mean, they have rides, marine shows, and lots of wildlife to look at. While we are having of fun, we now know that Marineland’s owner, John Holer, illegally catches wildlife and now, Marineland has only 1 Orca Whale left: Kiska. She had to watch 26 of her own kind die, 5 of which were her own children. She is now sad and alone living in a small tank her own blood trailing from her tail. The secret behind Marineland is slowly being exposed.
The natural habitat of some of the animals that live at Marineland is the ocean. When they arrive to Marineland they are welcomed into tiny pools of salt water that are made out of table salt and water. That’s the kind of salt you put on your eggs- not what they really need – which is marine salt. The land animals also suffer. There have been many complaints about the bears like how they are always fighting and killing each other’s babies. You’ll also notice that they never have the chance to hibernate, which isn’t natural to bears.
Many people lose sight of the animals while they are having fun, but MAD- Marineland Animal Defense-can clear your mind. They work to educate the public about what is really happening at the park. I was lucky enough to meet one member from MAD, Mrs. Sephton, who is also a teacher at our school. Mrs. Sephton has written blogs about Marineland to raise awareness . MAD also protests in front of Marineland and was created in early 2011. It was made up of citizens who were concerned about the welfare of the animals. Their main goal is to protect the animals by telling people about what happens to the animals at Marineland.
One particularly sad story is about Junior, an Orca whale who didn’t like performing so they kept him in a ware house with 2 dolphins who he watched die then died himself sad and alone, with no one to say good bye to.
Male orcas spend their whole lives with their mothers and live in big family units. Clearly, this does not happen at Marineland because they get split up. Orcas swim hundreds of kilometers every day, which is very hard to do in the small pools
So what can we do about this? What can we do about what is happening to the animals at Marineland? Don’t go! My family stopped going to Marineland 5 years ago when we learned about the treatment of the animals there. If people don’t pay to go, then they can’t keep the park open.
Are you going to do your part? I ask you – for the sake of the animals that do not have a voice. Don’t go…
For the justice of these animals – I thirst.
Here are the links to Mrs. Sephton’s blog posts about Marineland:
Not Everyone Loves Marineland and Please Help Animals of Marineland
Feb14
Happy Valentines Day from me, Dr. Jane Goodall and some chimpanzees!
Dr. Jane Goodall put together this MUST SEE video to celebrate Valentine’s Day. The video features chimpanzees from the Jane Goodall Institute’s Tchimpounga Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Center in the Republic of Congo.
This video makes me happy and I hope that it makes you happy too!
Jan2
Wordless Wednesday
Dec22
Joe Strummer – One of the first Eco champions in music
Joe Strummer from the band The Clash, one of my dad’s favorite bands, died 10 years ago today. My dad told me that Joe was the first musician to make the distribution of his albums carbon neutral by planting a lot trees. He also made the cases for his CDs from water bottles.
So, what does it mean to be carbon neutral? The idea of being Carbon Neutral is very important for the world and our environment. To put it very simply, it means trying to replace what you take from the environment. It also means taking steps to repair any harm that you do to the environment.
To understand what this really means, I had to figure out what Carbon Dioxide is and why it’s a problem. Carbon Dioxide is one of the most simple molecules in the universe. It is very important for all living things in our environment – plants, animals and people. The Carbon in Carbon Dioxide is what plants are made of and they release the oxygen that we and the animals breathe. Carbon Dioxide is created in our environment in natural ways – such as when plants die or burn. But Carbon Dioxide is also produced when we drive our cars, travel on airplanes, use electricity or burn coal or oil. We are producing too much Carbon Dioxide and it is one of the biggest causes of Global Warming.
Joe Strummer was passionate about the environment and wanted to take good care of the earth. At a campfire in 1996 he came up with the idea of starting an organization that would help people to be Carbon Neutral. It was first called Future Forest, and today is known as The Carbon Neutral Company. There are many great musicians and bands that are following his lead and are all doing what they can to help.
Barenaked Ladies eat organic and local food while they are on tour and they keep all of their broken guitar strings that get made into jewelery.
The Roots print their posters on recycled paper and they autograph and give away compost bins to their fans.
Radiohead would win my ‘superfriend of the earth” award. Every machine and car and truck with Radiohead while on tour runs on biofuel. They don’t ship their equipment by air, either. Instead of flying their gear, they bought two sets of guitars, drums, amps, everything and at one point even threatened to quit touring altogether because of their concern for the damage to the environment.
Here’s my dad’s favourite song from Joe and The Clash – London Calling.
Sep23
A great day for my team, Keep It Clean, in The Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup
Today was a great day for me, my family and friends, my neighbourhood and the environment. Today was the day I participated as a site-coordinator in The Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup. The Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup is an initiative of The Vancouver Aquarium, the World Wildlife Fund and Loblaws Inc. to get Canadians out to their local shorelines and cleanup neighbourhoods all across the country. I called my team, Keep It Clean.
The area I chose for my clean-up site is a trail where my family take my dog for walks, it’s where we ride our bikes and walk to school. There is a stream that runs through it. It is so beautiful there at all times of year. I especially love it during the fall when the leaves are changing colour. When I’m walk along the trail I always see who lives there. Birds, squirrels, fish, chipmunks, rabbits and all kinds of insects make this space their home. It’s important that we keep our neighbourhoods clean and ecosystems healthy.
Our clean-up was hugely successful. In less than 2 hours we collected 8 huge bags of garbage. Some things that we collected included: plastic bags in the stream, coffee cups, a lot of styrofoam, small pieces of garbage like food and snack wrappers, cigarette butts, broken toys, plastic bottles and some long pieces of string. We even picked up a huge tarp and a rug from the stream!
My friend Cayla, who is 4 years old, said “we’re making the earth happy by doing this!” My friend Kiera said “it feels good helping the environment”. It made me so happy to see that my friends were getting involved and seeing that it feels good to be eco-friendly.
I want to encourage everyone to cleanup your own neighbourhood. When you’re walking down the street and see litter – put it in the garbage. What I’m also trying to teach people don’t ignore the garbage that’s on the ground and don’t be that person who’s littering. It doesn’t need to be a special day to clean up your neighbourhood, park or schoolyard. You don’t have to do it for an organization, just do it – help the environment that you live in. If we all took care of our own neighbourhoods, imagine the difference we could make.
Small things add up to make a big difference.
I want to send out a special Thank You to my friends and neighbours who came out to join us today. I also want to thank my friend Dave for the Jogi reusable water bottles Donated by Entertainment One which can be found at Loblaws. We gave everyone who came out to participate one. I want to especially thank my dad for sending out all the letters to our local grocery store, starbucks and he delivered them to all the mailboxes of our neighbours. I want to thank him for always caring for me and helping me.
Sep21
Join me this Sunday, September 22nd for The Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup
Hello! I just wanted to write and let you know I have joined the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup. It’s a truly unique event across Canada with over 300,000 people have already signed up to participate in, and where 30 minutes or so of volunteering not only has a direct impact on the health of our neighbourhood, but also makes us feel really good to know the environment is being watched and cared for by us, too!
The Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup, is presented by Loblaw Companies Limited, is a conservation initiative of Vancouver Aquarium and WWF and is one of the largest contributors to the International Coastal Cleanup, making our participation part of global effort.
I volunteered to be the site coordinator for a cleanup locaition right here in our neighborhood – the trail and water between Castlerock and Weldrick. You might know what I’m talking about, it’s where my family and I take my dog for walks, it’s where we ride our bikes and sometimes my mom and I walk to school there. It’s important to me that we all keep it clean, my team is called Keep It Clean and I hope you’ll join me!
When: SUNDAY September 23th 2012
2pm.
Where: Richvale Greenway Park. We’ll be meeting at the main sign on Castle Rock Drive just west of Kitsilano Cres on the North side.
What to bring: Garbage Bag, gloves, rainboots, wear clothes that you don’t mind getting dirty
Where to register: http://shorelinecleanup.ca/en/og/use-code/98B68D-79360
I hope that you want to come and if bring a friend too. It will be a great day and we will together feel good about taking care of environment so close to home.
Top 5 Reasons Why We Need To Keep It Clean
1. We live here. This is where we walk, run and bike.
2. Shoreline litter can harm the ecosystem and reduce the cleanliness and quality of the water.
3. Litter can kill – literally. Small animals can get trapped in pieces of net, plastic and wire.
4. Animals can eat litter thinking that it is food. It makes them sick and they don’t know better. They cannot always tell the difference.
5. The animals aren’t the ones littering. We are. The animals can’t clean up. We have to.
Looking forward to seeing and meeting you there!
If you need more information, please visit www.shorelinecleanup.ca or email me at Hannah@callmehannah.ca
Sep2
My Week at Camp at The Toronto Zoo
This week I went to camp at The Toronto Zoo and I had so much fun! I learned so much about so many of the animals. These are 10 cool facts that I learned:
- Apes walk on fists and do not have tails, monkeys walk on their hands and have tails.
- Elephants trunks can pick up a blade of grass and can also move a car.
- Moose can dive up to 18 feet in the water.
- Camels don’t spit on you, they actually vomit.
- Chameleons don’t change colours because they want to. They change colours because of what mood they are in. If they are bright green they are happy and if they are red they are angry.
- One of the Kangaroos that they have at The Toronto Zoo gets mad if you’re loud. There’s even a sign that says “be quiet!”
- Male peacocks are the ones who are colourful, the female peacocks are the ones who are grey.
- Cheetahs can run 120km an hour, that is faster than the average speed limit on the highway.
- Sharks skin looks smooth but it’s actually rough. Stingrays are smooth. I know this because I touched them.
- Flamingos turn pink when they eat shrimp. If you feed it a blueberry it won’t turn blue.
Now I have a story that I want to share with you. It’s sad but true.
One day a family was at the zoo and they threw a piece of popcorn for the baby orangatang and the dad orangutan wanted the popcorn and by accident he knocked baby. The baby fell into a moat and because orangutans can’t swim, the baby drowned. A firefighter came to try to rescue him, but it was too late. This is why you should not feed the animals at the zoo. When the signs say, “Do not feed the animals,” please listen. These rules are rules for a reason. They protect the animals.
Here are some of my favourite photos that I took during my week at Zoo Camp.
From the top left going clockwise: Flamingoes, Tiger “Vitali”, Grizzly Bears, Organgutangs, Monkey, Jellyfish, Female Peacock with her chicks, White Lion, Elephant. Center photo is a mom and baby Orangutang cuddling – so cute!
I also learned about some of the things that they are doing for the environment at The Toronto Zoo. There is a lot of information at the zoo about things that you can do to help the environment and the animals. At many of the exhibits there are signs that tell you if the animals are endangered or if their homes are in trouble because of littering and pollution.
Aug24
How my love for animals taught me about caring for the environment
I just did an interview with the Toronto Sun! It will be in the newspaper next week! One of the questions she asked me was, “Why are you so passionate about eco issues?” I thought a lot about this and want to share my answer with everybody. Here it is:
When I was a kid my favourite place was the zoo, and it still is. I’m going to zoo camp next week and I know it will be so fun! (I’ll post about it next week) At the zoo I was taught about how the animals relied on humans to help the environment. I wanted to help animals survive and make them have the best life because I love animals so much. I started learning about what we can do to help save the animals and the environment at the same time, and I learned learned about the 3 main rule: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. The animals aren’t the ones polluting and littering – humans are. The animals can’t recycle and can’t clean up – we can and we have to make the world better for them and us.
Last year in school I was on the Eco Team! We went around to all the classrooms and checked if they sorted their garbage the right way. It was really fun! We also had a assembly where the Eco Team held up items that were from the green bin, blue bin and garbage. We picked people from the students in the audience to put that item in the right bin and it taught them what item goes in which bin. The Eco Team made recycling fun! I really liked being on the Eco Team and helping my friends learn why and how to recycle. Now I’m doing that with my blog.
In June I started my blog for the same reason. I wanted to teach everyone about environment. On my blog I give tips that are easy to do at home and school. Through my blog I show passion, concern and tips and I hope that people will be inspired enough to do little things to help the environment. All the little things that people do add up and help save the environment.
Thanks for reading and if you have good tips on what we can all do to take care of our environment, please share it with me.