The Bedeque Bay Environmental Management Association (BBEMA) has partnered with Maritime Electric to offer the Generation Conservation Program -   

designed to help teachers and students (and their families) learn how to conserve the electrical energy they use in their daily lives.

 

The program offers an opportunity for hands on investigation, media literacy and cross-curricular connections and consists of three lesson plans developed around energy conservation that are consistent with the Physical Science: Electricity in Grade 6 “Electrical Energy Consumption and Conservation” curriculum.  Lessons are interactive and include cross curricular connections to language arts, mathematics and social studies. 

 

The program includes a 30 – 40 minutes in class presentation – that will introduce students to understanding energy consumption, identify factors and activities that would help conserve energy in the home and school and how this helps to protect the environment .  Additionally, students are asked to complete a take home audit to discover their families personal energy use.

Climate Change      

Global Warming or Climate Change?

Climate Change is a change in the "average weather" that a given region experiences. Average weather includes all the features we associate with the weather such as temperature, wind patterns and precipitation.

Mistaking weather for climate is a common tactic used by those who deny climate change, who say- “I don’t see any global warming.”.  A common phrase is “Climate is what you expect, weather is what you get.” Climate can relate to a region or the whole planet, and the time period is usually 30 years - although now, with data from tree rings, ice cores and the fossil record, climate can be measured over thousands or even millions of years.

So you can think of it this way-weather is what you see out your window every day; climate is the weather averaged over a period of time.  

However, the pattern is not simple. In fact, you don’t tend to hear the term “global warming” much any more. Scientists prefer to use “climate change”. Because, since the Earth’s atmosphere is so complex, change can involve cold as well as warm. That means cold days or even cold years. But when viewed over the long term, the trend in the Earth’s average temperature is still up.  It is predicted that up to 30 per cent of the Earth's species face an increased risk of extinction if the average rise in global temperatures exceed 1.5 to 2.5 Celsius.

What could Climate Change mean to Canada?

• Worsening heat waves in major cities.
• Increased flooding from storm surges in coastal areas sensitive to sea-level rise, such as Charlottetown and the Fraser River  Valley delta in B.C.
• Water shortages in the Prairies, the result of rising temperatures increasing evaporation rates and affecting glacial sources of water.
• Lowering of the Great Lakes from evaporation, with implications for marine transportation, sewage and water-intake systems and marine ecosystems.
• Changes in the Arctic climate affecting the region's unique ecosystem, threatening many of the species in the North, particularly the polar bear.  
• Expansion north of the ranges of various southern bird species

The Impacts of Climate Change on PEI

• Higher sea level would threaten dune habitats, which are critical to migratory shorebirds. 
• More extreme weather events (drought, heavy rainfall, storm surges) would damage crops, increase flooding and cause losses or reduction in beach areas.
• Warmer, muggier, more polluted air would negatively impact human health (especially for Islanders who have asthma or other breathing problems)
• The introduction and colonization of pests and disease that would normally not occur on PEI, which would be particularly detrimental to our agriculture industry).
• A decrease in favourable habitat for some fish and aquaculture species, as well as other wildlife