Date	Kms	Time	Route	Type
2010.2.4	22	00:57:00	Glenbourne to Dal, Return	Road
2010.2.2	5	03:00:00	Search	Search
2010.2.2	22	00:59:00	Glenbourne to Dal, return	Road
2010.2.1	7	00:20:00	Home to Sobeys Clayton Park, return	Road
2010.2.1	21	00:59:00	Glenbourne to Dal, return	Road
2010.1.30	16	01:00:00	Bridge Terminal to Tobin, to Glenbourne	Road
2010.1.29	8	00:32:00	Glenbourne to Downeast, return	Road
2010.1.28	21	00:53:00	Glenbourne to Dal, return	Road

Full 2010 Journal

Ok ok, it's February and my last post was the end of December. Thanks to twitter for neglecting my blog. January pedaled by at incredible rates. I have been cycling a lot more this Winter than last. By the end of January I had logged almost 500km on the bicycle. I've had to make a few small purchases to continue cycling in the cold temperatures of -19 to -5. I got pogies, different gloves, a new jacket and some layers for the upper body.

On new years day I camped on Cape Split and woke to a good snow storm. Besides that I don't know what other exciting things have occurred in the last month that I'm willing to write about.

I should try to keep this more updated.

This year started by figuring out how to study, and learning to scale back when needed. My first year biology mark had to come up for me to continue in biology and so it did. I surpassed the average by a considerable amount which was against the trend of all my schooling.

At the end of the semester in the winter I attended the Environmental Science Field School where I met many people with whom make up the best of my friends right now. The field school was the best educational experience to date. In this short class I got to participate and practice what I want to do for the rest of my life. We surveys turtles, frogs, and snakes, in Kejimkujik National Park. We also learned about old growth and how to measure it.

After my experience in Keji, I went back to volunteer with the nesting blanding's turtles, then went back with the Fall field school to help out because it was just too much fun. My experience in Keji with the turtles marks the highlight of 2009 and I hope this can follow me for the rest of my life as I pursue a career in wildlife conservation.

The end of my summer was also an experience like no other. The day before I left to go to Keji with the Fall field school, I returned from Maine. I had cycled from Halifax to Carea, ME on my old Diamondback Topanga. I loaded it up with my camping gear and took off on the longest cycling trip in my life. Touring was something that intrigued me but until this time, I had never pursued. Building up the bike was challenging and required me going to every bike shop in Halifax to acquire the parts I needed, but by the day before my depart, the bike was finished. I cycled through he hottest day of the year in the Valley, and also cycled through a hurricane which turned out to be a dud. To this point, this bike ride was the ride of my life, and not so much of just 2009.

The school year started with many new friends from the field schools. These were some of the most dedicated and passionate people I had ever met. Come October I choose to go to Ottawa with some of them to a conference called Powershift run by students at the University of Ottawa. This is where we learned about community involvement, activism, climate issues and our governments role. We met with our members of Parliament and our senators to discuss climate issues. While in Ottawa we were able to attend the largest climate protest ever held in Canada.

Upon our return with new motivation and momentum, a large group of students kept up the pressure on government with many smaller protests with great creativity. Every Monday presented a protest, and as Copenhagen came closer, they became almost daily. Four of us also attended a weekend of training from Greenpeace to learn the most direct and effective ways of protesting and how to deal with the law.

This part of 2009 has the most effect on the future of our world and combined with national campaigns may be the beginning of the largest resistance to our governments inaction.

My 2009 has been defined by my experiences in Keji, and by environmental activism. I hope the world can be made a better place because of both.

I can't have a holiday break without some outdoors in the snow! Takuya, Liam and I went into the woods on December 28th with our backpacks. We headed from the house on Beamish Road into the Uniacke Mines. We headed to Mud Lake but were unable to reach it due to the water. the rain had been steady and the temperatures up so water was a big issue in these woods. There was snow, but not enough to warrant using snowshoes.

We saw a spruce grouse on the side of the trail and heard many others.

We made our way through an area with massive white pines after leaving the trail and bushwhacking. Some rivers gave us some trouble but upon going up river to find a good place to cross was found a new road cut through the forest and promptly used it's river crossing. the road didn't last long and we were soon forced to bushwhack once again. We saw many more massive white pines and a few more rivers before settling down for the night. We stopped before dark and started to build our tent bed from fur bows. We cooked, setup the tent, and a tarp for the entry to the tent and an area for eating and our packs.

Our fire didn't work out so well, due the damp cold environment so we headed to bed. The fur bedding was extremely comfortable. It felt like a huge pad was under our tent. We did not get a sense that we were on a cold hard ground.

The next day we pack up and head towards South Rawdon. We ate but were still feeling weak. We stopped at Sheepskin Lake to refill our water and drink some water without the worry of running out. One of our bottles had gotten left somewhere. But being in Nova Scotia, there is no need to worry about being far from water.

We found a survey line cut through the woods and followed it to a clear-cut. From there we crossed another river and wondered up the road through somebody's yard. We arrived a Sue's place just as my father had shown up to drive us back to East Uniacke.

15 km

I shoot a lot of pictures and look at many more. Some hold a great power with their meaning. Two photos do this for me. One is of the Obama's family on a stage in front of many thousands of people after being the first black elected to office in the United States (Clicky), and the other photo is this. It reminds me of the scene at the end of "Milk" when tens of thousands came out to show their support.

This is an image that should sink in the minds of politicians. This image show the world in solidarity for the most important crisis to humanity and the bio-spear in world history. The people in this photo are from all over the world, and they converged on Copenhagen for a solid cause.

Although the quality is poor, and it's clearly a shot of a tv screen, it's meaning is not foggy. This is the most powerful image I've ever seen.

We got on the front page this morning!

And we were interviewd by CBC's Mainstreet program which airs in the afternoons in Mainland Nova Scotia.

Good Job!

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/1155457.html - Front page in the Halifax Chronicle Herald

http://www.metronews.ca/halifax/canada/article/383792--students-march-for-environmental-action

Nine of us stayed up late painting in the hall way of an office building in Downtown Halifax last night. We planned, purchased, drafted, sketched, outlines, mixed, painted and tested this massive 14.8 meter long banner!

Today we deployed it with twenty people in Halifax, Canada!

Our momentum is going strong and were not stopping there. Across the country people are lobbying as hard as they can. Affinity groups in universities and cities have been doing some really creative acts to bring some attention to media and Parliament Hill. People have been dancing, singing, phoning, marching, making human windmills, dropping their pants, and dancing their near naked bodies in libraries to bring attention to the most pressing issue ever to face our generation.

The worlds top atmospheric scientists have come together and said that Anthropogenic Climate Change has been overwhelmingly supported by the science.

Having known that, what has our Canadian Conservative minority Government done about it? NOTHING! We have done less in Canada than any other developed country on Earth. The planets largest, dirtiest, most destructive polluting project is in Canada!

This NEEDS to change.

Our efforts across the country have not gone unnoticed. The minority Conservative government is now on their own with their plan for the Copenhagen Conference early in December. All other political parties now want a real treaty signed and want real targets set, based on science. Seventy-five percent of the people in Canada are now represented by this demand. The Conservative Government must stand up and LISTEN!

The lobbying won't stop.
The phone calls won't stop.
We won't stop.
We can't stop.
We have no choice.

Severn Suzuki (1992) - We know how to fix it now, but Canada refuses to this day.

After the Powershift 2009 conference in Ottawa, a number of students have kept up the momentum here at home. Every Monday we have a flash mob of some sort. We have a great following of concerned citizens who care about their planet enough to take down their pants to prove a point. In the latest flash demonstration everyone dropped to pants to show that it is less embarrassing than our Governments climate change policy.

All across our great (great in size, not policy) country at schools and universities people are standing up to climate change. In calgary some concerned people occupied Jim Prentices' office to get some media attention on the state of our future in the hands of the Conservative Government.

Across Canada, Greenpeace have been holding workshop camps to help people take non-violent direct action. teaching them about the legal system, media, and different tactics to take to engage the world in our cause. Their last camp was in Tatamagouch and in its attendance were four people from Dalhousie University with energy, momentum, and and urgency to take action on climate change with individual repercussions taking second place to the our future on Earth.

Together we must stop anthropogenic climate change and prevent the Canadian Government from cock-blocking the negotiations in Copenhagen in 14 days!