The Rio +20 Earth Summit and the Emerald Ash Borer beetle infestation on Earthgauge Radio tomorrow
On tomorrow’s show, we’re taking a look at the recently concluded Rio +20 Earth Summit and discussing the increasing problem of the Emerald Ash Borer beetle in Ottawa. Earthgauge Radio can be heard every Thursday on CKCU radio 93.1 FM in Ottawa or online at http://www.ckcufm.com. You can also download the podcast right here on earthgauge.ca.
The Rio Summit was of course a huge international United Nations meeting that came on the 20th anniversary of the original Rio Earth Summit back in 1992. And how things have changed since then. 50,000 participants from governments, the private sector, NGOs and other groups came together from June 20-22 to try to shape how we can reduce poverty, advance social equity and ensure environmental protection on an ever more crowded planet to get to the future we want.
And this was in fact the slogan for the Summit: The Future We Want. However, expectations for the summit were quite low and many feel that Rio +20 accomplished very little. We’ll take a closer look at what happened in Rio first up on tomorrow’s show.
Also on the program we’ll be discussing Ottawa’s Emerald Ash Borer beetle infestation with Meg Sears, who is an Environmental Health advocate and Sean Barker of the Eastern Ontario Arborists. They’ll both join me in the studio around 7:30 or so to discuss the increasing problem of the Emerald Ash Borer. This is a beetle that is originally from northeastern Asia but has been causing havoc in North America since its arrival in 2002. The beetle has had a devastating impact in the decade since, spreading across 14 US states, southern Ontario, and now the Ottawa Valley and Eastern Townships, killing at least 10 million trees. It has now been unleashed in Ottawa so we’ll find out just what the city is doing about it and what needs to be done.
