Summer is a season of sunshine, play, and unfortunately, excessive water use. As temperatures climb, our reliance on water increases, from watering lawns and filling pools to cooling off with long showers. While these are natural parts of summer life, they also offer an excellent opportunity to teach the next generation about one of the planet’s most precious resources: water.
As World Ocean Day approaches (Sunday, June 8, 2025), Canadians have a unique opportunity to reflect on the incredible role oceans play in our daily lives and the health of the planet. For Canada, whose geography is defined by its extensive marine borders, this day holds exceptional significance. Bordered by the Pacific, Arctic, and Atlantic Oceans, and with over 243,000 kilometres of coastline, the longest of any country, Canada's environment, economy, and cultural identity are deeply entwined with the health of its marine ecosystems.
Every March 22, the world celebrates water in all its myriad forms. This year’s World Water Day theme is Glacier Preservation and protecting our frozen water resources for future use. While this theme is important to life all over the world, here in Canada it is vital, as our country is home to the Canadian Arctic and the Rocky Mountains, both landscapes that rely heavily on the conservation of this frozen resource.
For the 2024/2025 academic year, the Cinema Studies department at the University of Toronto launched a new experiential learning course called Sensory Ecologies: Theory and Praxis in Environmental Studies. Led by Professor Nadine Chan, our class has explored how media helps us construct and understand the concept of environmental degradation. Through scholarly research, various forms of media, and even experimenting with making our own media projects, we have seen firsthand how important storytelling is in conceptualizing the environment, and stoking passion for climate justice.
Every time I enter the ocean, it shows me something beautiful and unexpected. I’m looking for sharks, and a fin whale surfaces, breath bursting into fine mist. Sea lion pups encourage me to play, spinning in the water, swimming fast then turning on a dime and blowing bubbles. Floating at the surface, a comb jelly mesmerises me with rainbow bands of bioluminescence.
Like everything on the planet, our lakes, rivers, streams, oceans and the water cycle itself are heavily impacted by climate change. It is important at every step of the way to remember that climate change = water change. Anyone who is interested in protecting our waterways must also be aware and vocal about the impacts of climate change.
As the momentum builds around the movement to rid our planet and our waterways of the endless stream of plastic generated by our throwaway society, community beach cleanups have gained in popularity in recent years. An opportunity for people to come together and clean the trash - big and small - from their beloved beaches, there’s nothing more satisfying than restoring a litter strewn environment back to its pristine state.
World Oceans Day is just around the corner - and so is the Canada G7 Leaders Summit held in Montreal this June where world leaders will be meeting to discuss the global plastic epidemic and what to do about it. After Justin Trudeau's lukewarm response to the UK's call for all Commonwealth countries to join them in banning certain single-use plastic items, we figure the Canadian Government could use a little push.
We already know that waste - and specifically waste generated by the single-use plastics industry - will be a major agenda item during the G7 summit hosted by Canada in June of this year. After Justin Trudeau's politically neutral response to UK Prime Minister Theresa May's call for other commonwealth countries to join the UK in implementing strict single-use plastic bans, it is now more important than ever to make our voices heard loud and clear on this issue
