Wild Wednesday: Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary is keeping wildlife wild and bears beary happy
Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary is going big things with big wildlife! Since we featured the Sanctuary last year on Wild Wednesday, the team has built new enclosures for some of their furry permanent residents, including three adorable bears named Clyde, Paddington, and Honey Pot. I dusted my paws off and caught up with Linda Glimps, Executive Director at Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary to learn more about their appropriately named bears and other recent achievements since the last Wild About Wildlife Month.
Happy International Polar Bear Day!
Take the #ThermostatChallenge
It is
perfect polar bear weather here in snowy Ontario! February 27 is International Polar Bear Day
and this is such an important day because it’s about so much more than these
beautiful bears. Climate Change is destroying these animals’ habitats and
glaciers are melting at a faster pace than ever recorded in history. These polar bears need our help.
Polar Bears International is asking everyone to take a
stand for International Polar Bear Day by taking the Thermostat Challenge to save energy
for polar bears. How do you take the Thermostat Challenge? I’ll let Polar Bears
International tell you how below:
-
“Turn
down the heat a degree or two and enjoy hygge, or winter
coziness, for polar bears- put on your fuzzy slippers and a comfy sweater,
light candles, sip a hot drink, or bundle up for a walk in the snow.
- In summer, set your air-conditioning thermostat higher.
- Install a programmable thermostat for year-round savings- and take additional energy-saving steps like insulating your home and weather-stripping windows and doors.
- Show how you're taking part by posting photos on social media with #PolarBearDay, #ThermostatChallenge, and #Hygge. You can also share our special pre-made images!
- Make it a community-wide challenge! See our Thermostat Challenge Toolkit for tips and ideas.
- Also check out our Heating and Cooling Infographic, which shows how individual actions scale up to make a BIG difference."
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Photo by tableatny via Foter.com CC |
Polar
Bears International also urges people to sign a petition for “A Fair Price for Carbon” explaining
that “we need to greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions to solve the problem
of climate change- a problem that extends beyond polar bears and the Arctic to
affect all wildlife and people, too.” According to their experts, the surest way
to achieve this is to set a fair price for carbon pollution.
The petition states that “by including the
true cost of carbon in the price we pay for fossil fuels, we can speed up the
transition to a renewable energy future. Not only will this reduce the
greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming, it will improve human
health, reduce pollution, and strengthen the economy at the same time.”
Fossil
fuels appear to be cheaper than they actually are and if the cost of fossil
fuels was truthfully reflected we would have no choice but to make a global
change to renewable energy. The renewable technology already exists but our
ability to use it on a global scale won’t happen if fossil fuels are so easily
attainable. I am signing the petition- will you? This International
Polar Bear Day reminds us how much we all rely on each other to survive on this
planet- and that we need to make a change for the future.