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Home My WebLink AboutGoderich Signal Star, 2017-03-29, Page 23Wednesday, March 29, 2017 • Signal Star 23 Guest speaker Pate on how microplastics threaten the Great Lakes CONTINUED FROM > PAGE 19 "I encourage you all to recognize yourselves as change makers because each and every one of us has a sphere of influence" As a consumer, you can drive positive change, she said: "You can vote with your voice, you can vote with your ballot, and you can also vote with your wallet - don't underestimate the power of yourself as a consumer to drive change" Pate has a BA in Geogra- phy and an MSc in Environ- ment, Science and Society (Distinction) from the Uni- versity College of London. She was Project and Events Officer for the UK Energy Research Centre in the Envi- ronmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford before moving back to Canada. Pate has extensive interna- tional public speaking expe- rience, appearing at seminar series, film premieres, and has delivered TEDx talks about being a Glocal, inspired by her home town and its initiative with the Council of Canadians: Blue Community Bayfield. The filmmaker's 40 -minute documentary: eXXpedition: Making the Unseen Seen, was premiered at the Royal Geographical Society in London (UK) in March 2015 as the finale of a wider event in celebration of women in exploration and field science. "While film is powerful it is only one way to tell a story," she told the attendees. That is one of the reasons she has increasingly focused on projects that are "inviting everybody who's taking part to tell their story as well." The speaker commended the actions taken by local people on local and global issues in Bayfield, Huron County, other Ausable Bay- field watershed communi- ties, and beyond. The eXXpedition Great Lakes event in August of 2016 was billed as "the world's largest simultane- ous sampling for micro - plastics in history." There were more than 1,000 peo- ple who took part across the Great Lakes. "I think this shows the power of community and the power and willingness of people to take part," the speaker said. The community began taking action, whether as groups in the hundreds, or a mother and her children, or a single individual. • They did shoreline clean- ups, they took water sam- ples, and "above all they started to talk to one another." "People want to feel a part of something and they want to he able to see others especially in this soci- ety we live in now where we're so 'connected' yet dis- connected," said Pate. "There are people around you who feel the same way and there is power in numbers." The speaker recounted how people responded when there was a call to help. Word of mouth started to spread and people started to sign up, said Pate. "We sent out a call to action and said to anybody who wants to take part: it doesn't matter where you are, or how you want to take part, if you want to take water samples, if you want to do shoreline -cleanup, or maybe you want to do a community plastic - free barbecue:' She said "we didn't tell them what to do but people had such, great ideas." The microplastics sam- pling project was an "over whelming" example of how people responded to an invi- tation to help and benefitted from meeting other people and no longer feeling like they were fighting alone. "It was really amazing,' the pre- senter said. "It snowballed into something I didn't expect ... they needed to see one another, they needed to see that other people were willing to act." Facing the challenge of fighting global issues with local action, people some- times feel alone. "Very quickly I realized that people want to act. They want to do things. They want to be part .of creating a healthier future, they just don't know how," she said. The Great' Lakes sampling and citizen science event allowed people "the flexibility to do what's mean- ingful to them." Ausable Bayfield Conser- vation Foundation was one of more than a dozen spon- sors of the eXXpedition Great Lakes Mission to raise awareness of toxic plastic pollution and its impacts on public health. The keynote speaker pre- sented her talk, Love Your Greats, at an event to honour the watershed community's Conservationist of the Year. 71i1virj YOUR ROADMAP TO ALL THINGS AUTO Let's do our part, please recycle GODERCH Canada's prettiest town NOTICE REGARDING TOWN COUNCIL MEETING BRODCASTS ON EASTLINK Starting March 22, 2017, the rebroadcasts of Goderich Council meetings have moved to OnDemand with Eastlink. This will allow interested viewers to watch the broadcast whenever they like. To access, press the OnDemand button on your remote and choose these menu options: Eastlink Tv > Ontario > Council Meetings > Goderich Council Meeting. If you do not have an OnDemand button. press Menu to access OnDemand titles. More details can be found at http://www.goderich.ca/en/ townhall/council.asp Town of Goderich 519-524-8344 townhall@goderich.ca J NEWS / Ili** REVIEWS / 414 COMPARISONS/ NEW OFFICE IN LONDON SAVINGS AT ALL LOCATIONS! ELLJ[ON TRAVEL & TOURS LTD. Est. 1980 Chris In travel since 1979 Sherri Karina In travel since 2000 In travel since 2010 OPENING SPECIAL! Book any vacation or cruise package over $1000+tax and save $25-$100! 311 Main St, Exeter,ON I Phone: 519-235-2000 or 1-800-265-7022 www.ettravel.com TIW4'2392471 TVA vaCsb n portage a muse nd4ry at any Eason Travel & Tours P ca*on by May 31. 2017 am saw S25 8100 P,4vq 81000 value nares not mcludsd( - save S25 ' 82000 .aeve !tarot nor .+luded) • gave !SA ( $3000 (taros not )(bled) save 875 • WOO (tares not rckeisd(. save $100 The speaker congratulated this year's winners, Mels and Ruthanne van der Laan, and told them: "You are what we aim to be," she said. The presenter urged peo- ple to make positive changes in their 'backyard,' whether that backyard is the Atlantic Ocean, Lake Iluron, or a pond or creek. She invited people to "think blue" as well as thinking green. Can- ada has Great Lakes to pro- tect and the country also has the shorelines of three oceans to think about and to protect. Roger Lewington, a Direc- tor with the Ausable Bayfield Conservation Foundation and Chair of the Huron Tract Land Trust Conservancy, introduced the speaker. Mari Veliz, Healthy Water- sheds Supervisor with Ausa- ble Bayfield Conservation, thanked the speaker for her hopeful message of identify- ing opportunities that trans- late people's love of the Great Lakes into grassroots community initiatives that make positive changes. She thanked the speaker for her energy and for being "extremely inspiring" and reminding people of the power of a community to make a difference. Children and adults can protect the health of people and birds and aquatic ani- mals by using less plastic and fewer reusable contain- ers. Instead of using plastic bags, plastic wrap, or paper bags, students can carry a reusable lunch carrier and reusable containers. They can say 'No' to single -use juice boxes or cans and switch to a vacuum flask (such as Thermos -brand bottles). "Plastic debris of many sizes, including microplas- tics, have been found in sur- face waters as well as sedi- ments of all of the Great Lakes, comprising quantities at least as elevated as in high concentration areas (gyres) of the oceans," according to a presentation by Hans Durr, of the University of Waterloo, as cited in the Microplastics in the Great Lakes Workshop Final Report of September, 14 2016 by the International Joint Commission of Canada and United States. • To learn more about the Love Your Greats initiative visit loveyourgreats.com. To learn more about Jen Pate and her work visit jen- niferpate.com. goderichsignalstar.com PUBLIC NOTICE Contract 2016-3021, Highway 21 - Maitland River Bridge (Site 12-102) The Ministry of Transportation is undertaking improvements on Highway 21. This work will commence shortly and be completed in November 2017. • The General Contractor is Facca Inc- Contract Administration is being performed by HwyTec Inc. Throughout the construction period occasional delays will be necessary in order to protect the safety of the construction workers and traveling pubic. - PLEASE DRIVE WITH CAUTION AND OBEY ALL CONSTRUCTION SIGNS AND FLAGPERSONS My questions a concerns regarding thus Notice can be directed to: Sean Cook • Mike Ifabumuyi Contract Administrator Project Manager HwyTeC Inc. Facca Inc. Cell: 519-280-4716 CeN: 519-796-9023 Email: scook'-hwytec com Email: maker-facca.com aale0111 Mee .10.0.. 1131111111111P Of 1 Wave eve leen Leeel MEM t ,orw or 000o1101 I 444„ aea..el ROMP r - Mlle I .I.o.atn,a • . .. -