Home
***********
Sage Newsletter for December 2013 is here!
************
MORE THAN HONEY
Over the past 15 years, numerous colonies of bees have been decimated throughout the world, but the causes of this disaster remain unknown. Depending on the world region, 50% to 90% of all local bees have disappeared, and this epidemic is still spreading from beehive to beehive – all over the planet. Everywhere, the same scenario is repeated: billions of bees leave their hives, never to return. No bodies are found in the immediate surroundings, and no visible predators can be located.
Scientists have found a name for the phenomenon that matches its scale, “colony collapse disorder,” and they have good reason to be worried: 80% of plant species require bees to be pollinated. Without bees, there is no pollinization, and fruits and vegetables could disappear from the face of the Earth. Apis mellifera (the honey bee), which appeared on Earth 60 million years before man and is as indispensable to the economy as it is to man’s survival.
Fifty years ago, Einstein had already insisted on the symbiotic relationship binding these pollen gatherers to mankind: “If bees were to disappear from the globe,” he predicted, “mankind would only have four years left to live.”
**********
Wildlife in the Wind
The Alberta Chapter of the Wildlife Society will provide the third of this season's
Wildlife in the Wind Talks on:
Wednesday 4 December, 12 noon
Lethbridge Public Library Community Meeting Room (downstairs at north end of library).
The Last Goldeye?
Cumulative effects and the loss of Alberta's small rivers
Dr. Michael Sullivan
Alberta's small rivers, like the Battle River, once supported popular fisheries for native fish like goldeye and walleye. These are fish are almost gone. Looking further afield, rivers such as the Beaver and Beaverlodge have lost their fishes like grayling and walleye. Their landscape and habitat is radically changed. People no longer drink, swim or fish in these rivers. What happened? Why? What will it be like in another 50 or 100 years? What can people who like fish, flowing rivers, and clean water do?
Alberta's vibrant grassroots watershed groups like the Battle River Alliance and the North Saskatchewan Watershed Alliance have looked at these questions, and hope the answers will provide advice and direction for the public and Alberta's decision-makers through processes like the Water-for-Life and Land Use Framework strategies.
Dr. Michael Sullivan continues to nurture a life-long love affair with Alberta and its furry and finny residents. He is employed by the Provincial Government as their Fisheries Scientist (Fish and Wildlife Division) and is usually found near the University of Alberta campus, where he is lucky enough to earn a living finding ways to make peace between fishermen, developers, and fishes.
Click here for a free pdf poster.
**********
The Milk River Ridge is under threat from Oil and Gas Exploration.
Animals like pronghorns, water birds, fescue grasslands and wetlands are
potentially threatened in the Milk River Ridge.
Read our letter to the Alberta Minister of Energy @ Letters to Government
**************************************
Changes to the Alberta Wetland Policy
are opposed by many environmental groups, including SAGE.
Read our letter to Minister of Environment and Sustainable Resource Development,
Government of Alberta @ Letters to Government.
****************
****
*****
Sacred Spirit of Water
Free Documentary Film of Idle No More's continuing fight
against the Harper Government's omnibus Bills C-45 & C-38
For more information & water related activism, go to Lethbridge and Area Events
************
SAGE endorses
Environment Lethbridge Strategic Plan.
Read more on our Lethbridge & Area Events Page.
*******************
The last Annual General Meeting was held:
Profile
The Southern Alberta Group for Environment (SAGE) was established in 1984 by a small group of citizens in the greater Lethbridge community concerned about the state of the environment. Founding members identified the need for an organization which, through collective action, would work to protect and restore the health of our environment – water, air, and land – in southern Alberta. In 2012, the goals of SAGE are similar to those over twenty years earlier. SAGE is a leading voice for a healthy and environmentally sustainable community through informing citizens, participating in public processes and supporting sound environmental initiatives and actions.
