On Saturday March 23rd, 2013, at 8:30 pm, we celebrate Earth Hour. For one hour, people and businesses all over the world are turning off the lights, a symbolic recognition in support of action on climate change.

 


Turning off those light bulbs doesn’t mean ideas stop flowing. Gather a group of participants and put your heads together to brainstorm ideas on how you can protect the resources within your community. Ontario, think about how you can preserve the Eastern Woodlands; British Columbia, think about how you can help wildlife roam freely by protecting your natural wilderness corridors.

In September, 2012, we launched Big Wild, Big Water, a photo contest that asked Canadians across the country to submit their photos of water. We received more than 1,600 photos, each one of them uploaded and placed on a map of Canada based on where they were taken. The end result was a water map of Canada with photos reaching as far north as Ellesmere Island in Nunavut and down south to Point Pelee in the southern most part of Canada.

Susan R. Eaton is geologist, geophysicist and a science journalist and 'extreme' snorkeler. She sits on the board of directors of the southern Alberta chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, one of The Big Wild's founding partners. In 2010, Susan's explorations took her to Antarctica and South Georgia where she participated in the Elysium Visual Epic Expedition. Elysium's mission was to study climate change and to document, scout and record the flora and fauna — both above and below the water. Susan’s travels have also taken her to several marine areas listed on our Dare to be Deep campaign, including Haida Gwaii. You can read the first part of her interview, here.