Columnists
A week for billions
It’s been a week for absorbing numbers in the billions. To start off with, I came across the following headline in the National Post: “Your cup of tea could contain billions of microplastic particles, McGill study finds.” Wow; that doesn’t sound so good.
A closer examination of the article reveals that the offending cups of tea were steeped with ‘silken’ tea bags, rather than a paper teabags. Silken tea bags are made from food grade plastics. The study concludes that 11.6 billion microplastic particles (each about the diameter of a human hair) and 3.1 billion nanoplastic particles (about 1,000 times smaller) are released in your average silken teacup—which is at a level thousands of times higher than for any other food.
The researchers followed a simple process. They bought themselves some silken tea bags at four shops around Montreal, took out the tea leaves, and steeped the bags in the laboratory. The concentration of plastics was then measured using electron microscopes.
The researchers say that while they have no evidence that the plastic particles are harmful to human health, consumers “may” want to avoid using silken tea bags, on the basis that they are already out of bounds as a single use plastic. Most tea bags—like the industrial strength stuff I ingest—are made from paper. For once, my lowbrow tastes have spared me from risk.
The next headline to grab my attention had to do with birds. More than a quarter of all birds have disappeared from North America since 1970, according to a study conducted at Cornell University and reported on by Vox online magazine. Our total continental bird population, to put the conclusion in starker terms, has declined by three billion during that period.
The most affected species are American sparrows, wood warblers and blackbirds. So, the way things are going, we will soon be witnessing Tilley-Endurablesoutfitted birdwatchers with high-powered field glasses descending upon the County in search of the now elusive red-winged blackbird. On the plus side, raptors such as the bald eagle, and geese and ducks have increased their numbers. News of the increase in the goose population will come as no surprise to West Lake residents with lawns.
There is a website devoted to the ‘what can I do about it’ reaction (#bringbirdsback). It lists several steps, including putting reflection reducing panels on windows, keeping your cat indoors, drinking shadegrown coffee, avoiding pesticides, reducing littering and the use of plastics—presumably including silken tea bags, although they are not singled out for criticism.
It also suggests planting trees in the place of lawns (lawns are of no use to birds). And that takes me to my third encounter with a big number. Prime Minister Trudeau has promised that, from the profits from the yet-to-be-expanded Trans Mountain pipeline, Canada will plant two billion trees over the next decade. (I have already opined about the needless linkage of the pipeline to the funding of environmental measures, so I will keep my mouth shut on that one).
Trees, writes Diana Beresford-Kroeger in the Globe and Mail, “offer us the solution to nearly every problem facing humanity today from halting global temperature rise to defending against drug resistant bacteria.” Michael Christie, also writing in the Globe and Mail, states that a tree is a “highly advanced, solar powered automaton, one that captures carbon, protect watersheds, streams and rivers, increases its own mass incrementally each year, prevents soil erosion and desertification, manufactures a wonderfully biodegradable building material, and even self replicates.” Sounds like the wonder plant.
But two billion trees: even over 10 years, that’s a lot, isn’t it? Well, it depends on your benchmark. The Scots, with one seventh of the population of Canada, planted 22 million trees just in the last year. If you do the math, it equates to a Canadian target of 1.5 billion or so trees. In Ethiopia they recently planted 224 million trees—in a single day. So while the target might seem like a stretch, it is doable.
Mr. Christie exhorts individual Canadians to do something useful, like planting a tree or three—or taking a family vacation at a tree planting camp. His article was published the day after Mr. Trudeau announced his two billion trees promise, and he probably didn’t have time to update it. But I’m sure he would endorse the target and retain the ‘I can do something to help rather than letting the government do it’ spirit behind the proposal. Is Andrew Scheer reading? It sounds like the sort of ‘don’t rely on government to do everything’ proposal he could get behind.
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