Cleaning up Beijing for the Olympics Games, one of the world’s worst polluted cities, was always going to be a herculean effort. In the last week before the games, authorities have seen the particulate matter content of the city’s air yo-yo back and forth, from an optimistic clear sky on the weekend, to a return of heavy haze by the time of the opening ceremonies.

The IOC has been monitoring the situation and has been impressed with the lengths that the Beijing authorities have gone to ensure a safe games. UNEP has also been working with the Beijing Olympic Committee as noted in this IPS article. On the whole, despite the pollution caused by the heavy construction ahead of the games, the Olympics will be a net positive for China’s environment, focusing attention on a grave problem.

“Every one of us does things in the course of a day that adversely affect the health of the planet. We don’t decide to, we just don’t give it a thought.” It’s true, I see people doing it mindlessly every single day. Sometimes even I still do, out of habit or lack of other options. Most people don’t notice because there are no immediate noticeable consequences of our actions. Patagonia Inc.’s dedication to awareness has launched an interactive mini-site, called ‘The Footprint Chronicles‘ which allows you to track the impact of ten specific Patagonia products (yes they’re a store too) from design through delivery. They also have a ‘Footprint Library’ of PDF files which describe their efforts and policies.

Their mission statement is to “Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, and use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.” This almost seems like a bit of an understatement when you visit their website and see that the shop is only a very small part of what they do.

I am currently in Boston (well Cambridge really), my old residence of years past. Like my subsequent five year sojourn in Toronto, I never needed a car in what Prevention Magazine cited as the number one walkable city in America. Indeed, this fact is proclaimed quite proudly with a sign in front of Cambridge City Hall. Moreover, the fact that Boston’s Logan Airport itself is connected to the subway system makes an even bigger regional difference when you realize that Pearson Airport in Toronto is one of the traffic epicentres of the entire country.

The Walk Score web site puts Boston as a whole at number three behind San Francisco and New York City on its walkability index. Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Seattle, Long Beach, Los Angeles (!), and Portland round out the top ten. Not surprisingly, these are also the top American cities that I could live in.

At HuffPo, the least walkable cities are also highlighted.

With the inspiring assistance of Aaron Maxwell, a recent graduate of York University with a passion for astronomy, the YSTOP students spent two evenings viewing the night sky.

In the rural environment of the King Campus, they braved very cold weather to take turns looking through the telescope, and also used a sky chart to locate constellations. Following on their afternoon experience of learning to find their way with a compass, they were intrigued to find the north star that can help them find their way after dark. They also discussed the effect of light pollution on being able to view the sky.

In the urban environment of the York campus, they attended the Wednesday public viewing session at the York observatory, and were amazed to see the rings of Saturn, which one student pointed out that he’d only ever seen before on TV.

Mist nets were not new to the YSTOP students. They had helped Brian Hickey set them up at dusk at on their first night at the King Campus to try to catch bats, though despite their patience no bats flew in.  But this time, with the mist nets set up as part of a session with Dr. Bridget Stutchbury in the woods behind their York classroom, their patience was rewarded with the capture of a chickadee. The students were delighted to have a chance to hold the bird in their hand, before it was released. Urban and rural students marvelled at the tiny, resilient creature, with a growing respect for the complexity of the environment we share with them.

Bridget also shared information about the Birds in the City project, and explained the technologies that are used in tracking and identifying individual birds to understand their migratory and reproductive behaviours. It was another example for them of how field work is connected to laboratory studies.