From Acid Rain to Yellow Warning!

I was about my granddaughter's wonderful age of 26 when I first crossed the border into Canada from the U.S. on a roadtrip to Nova Scotia. "Novy", the young man and I called it as he drove an iconic green and white VW bus around the pristine, bucolic island. I can still hear that distinct put-put engine pushing up inclines-- small inclines.

Shout out to Cliffy! Wherever you are . . .

Something else left its indelible impression on me. The border patrol handed out octagon-shaped red pamphlets with the black bold letters: Acid Rain. Two words that I had never put together before then.

Today the Canadian Government gives this definition:

Acid rain occurs when acid-containing precipitation falls onto the earth’s surface. Precipitation comes in the form of rain, snow, sleet, or hail. Precipitation collects acidic particles and gases and becomes acidic. These particles will have a pH level below 5.6.

Back in the VW camper, I read the pamphet and the warning and blame it assigned: pollution from the United States coal mines was making its way in the air across the Maritimes, Nova Scotia, included. My heart sank, stirring my budding activist self. I understood something should be done. It stayed with me long after the young romance faded.

Some years later when my daughter was born in 1991, the two border countries came to an agreement:The Canada-United States Air Quality Agreement signed by Canada and the United States in 1991 to address transboundary air pollution leading to acid rain. Both countries agreed to reduce emissions of sulphur dioxide (SO₂) and nitrogen oxides (NO_x), the primary precursors to acid rain, and to work together on acid rain-related scientific and technical cooperation.

The agreement has held for the past 35 years: While important results have been achieved under the Agreement, the covered pollutants (sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and volatile organic compounds) remain a concern and continue to have significant impacts on human health and the environment in both countries.The Agreement provides a proven and successful way for addressing transboundary air pollution that affects tens of millions of people. Canada and the United States continue to cooperate to address ongoing, emerging and future air quality issues.

That brings us to today as VW reintroduces its camper the Canadian environmentalists issue color-coded weather warnings on a daily basis. Most days, a "yellow warning" is posted with rising temperatures. Today will be a high of 87 fahrenheit in the "Great White North"!

Hazardous weather may cause damage, disruption, or health impacts

• Impacts are moderate, localized and/or short-term

• Yellow alerts are the most common

Visual symbolic icons stick in the mind reminding us that time and the world are one.

N'est-ce pas?

https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/air-pollution/issues/transboundary/canada-united-states-air-quality-agreement-overview.html

A Tale of Two Countries

This week marks the founding of two countries that share the longest border between any two countries in the world. Crossing that border two weeks ago was simple. With no line to wait in, I drove right up to the open window where the young Canadian border patrol officer smiled a friendly “Bonjour”. I was wearing my "Canada is not for sale" red t-shirt I bought last summer. As expected, there was a passport check followed by a few questions meant to trip up those harboring malintent.

“You’re from Florida? Do you have any guns? Knives? Pepper spray”? Non, non et non! Then I said: "I am originally from Massachusetts", as if to exonerate myself from a Red State’s reputation. “So, less inclined toward weapons”? She smiled. Oui! Then I drove over the border between my native New England and my grandparents' native Québec. Just like that.

It wasn’t so easy when my grandparents emigrated from their homeland to begin a new life in a foreign country. My aunts and uncles liked to talk about Mémère's and Pépère’s decision to leave their village. I always heard them say: “Papa wanted to have a farm”. I never thought to ask why he did not stay on the agriculturally rich land of Québec. I had imagined the winter was too difficult to farm with any success. Lo and behold, the answer lies in the history of this place where I have come to touch my roots. 

In the 1600’s, then New France, was beholden to the King of France. Few settlers had any means other than farming which was controlled from afar in a feudal system. The land was owned by landlords who leased it to the “habitants”, like my grandfather. There were strings attached like annual fees and limited rights over productive activity. There was no way for the farmers to get ahead. South of the border was an entirely different story at the turn of the twentieth century.

In the place where I was born, the Industrial Revolution was booming. The so-called “mill barons” went North to recruit struggling French-Canadian farmers and their families to leave their homeland with the promise of something better. The story takes off from there when millions of French Canadians with many young children settled in what has become Little Canada, in Lowell, Massachusetts. 

Those were hardscrabble times for these immigrants, my ancestors, who like so many other immigrants hope for opportunity and prosperity, and some small slice of the American Dream pie. The story unraveled over a century with me caught somewhere between two worlds as a Franco-American.

This week, here in Québec City, there will be celebrations of Canada Day, July 1, the national holiday to mark the anniversary of the Constitution of 1867 when the original three colonies united into a single self-governing country within the British Empire then in 1982 gained full legislative independence from the UK. On July 3, Quebec City will celebrate its founding in 1608 with its unique culture and unmistakably proud heritage of the Quebecois and French-Canadian people from whom I descend.

The following day, July 4, the United States will celebrate its 250th anniversary of its Declaration of Independence written by freedom-seekers whose forefathers and mothers once crossed an ocean with the same hopes my grandparents had when they crossed a border for a new life. 

When the two flags are raised during these holidays, it must be with hand over heart-- not for what is--with all the flaws and shortcomings in plain sight-- but for the hope that inspires people everywhere to strive for something better. God bless America! Vive le Canada!

Happy 1st, 3rd and 4th of July to all of us! 

AI and I . . .

Last week's blog* generated more comments than any other of the 142 that I have written since I launched this missive into cyberspace exactly three years ago on June 9, 2023!**

At the time, I felt a bit nervous about putting my own thoughts into words that might come back at me. I thought the crazies might latch onto it or the cyber police would follow me. I tried to guard against both by selectively sending it through a secure email list. I asked readers not to repost on social media where I am not an active participant. My wishes, to the best of my knowledge, have been respected.

These weekly blog posts spread without social platforms by "word of mouth", if you will. Each reader who "shared" within her own select circle enlarged the readership way beyond Florida within the U.S. to Canada to the UK and Europe and as far away as Australia and New Zealand ---WITHOUT social media! Of course, the marketeers remind me all the time how many more people the blog would reach if only I turned to platforms such as theirs.

In early days, I sat down and sorted my thoughts without asking AI to write for me. Three years on, by human standards, is light years for technology when one sneeze sets off the next and the next all around the globe like an AI pandemic! That's what we have to look forward to.

When I began to write today, I looked back to my original blog and discovered serendipitously that this is the third anniversary of my first blog---how amazing! AI will never capture the meaning of a serendipitous moment like that one, offering only a definition: "Positive Value: The accidental discovery is beneficial, useful, or delightful".

Dry explanation of a purely delightful discovery demonstrating the many connections that are ordered not in cyberspace, but in the larger Universe---larger than the human mind or AI can fathom. There is no hope for human beings if we give up on the big U in favor of AI.

I am not the Pope, big P or small p, but I think his message points to the existential threat that looms if we humans acquiesce to the data world instead. Do we dare give up our precious gifts for a quicker answer, or an abundance of information, to save time to "live life" as one reader wrote?

In an effort to make work or school more efficient is it worth sacrificing serendipitous discoveries? Old school thinking was by-and-large independent thinking. I remember a few of my best teachers made room for experiences not in the text book, but by opening up possibilities. If the answers come with the keystroke what are the chances for an eye-opening, mind-blowing moment when the Universe shows itself? Venus and Jupiter in the night sky cannot measure up on a blue screen.

Everyone reading this, young and old, might turn toThe Three Princes of Serendip,*** an ancient tale of three brothers whose father, the King, sends them out into the world to have real time experiences in addition to what their tutors taught so they will come to see first-hand how serendipity adds a whole other dimension--- that AI cannot and will not, no matter what.

By now, you know that it was I and not AI writing each and every one of the blog posts over the past three years including last week's. Your comments inspired me to say more. Sharing within your sphere of the Universe helps to spread some genuine thoughts which may generate other ideas. Wouldn't you agree?

*https://www.marielaureauthor.com/post/thanks-a-lot-ai

**https://www.marielaureauthor.com/post/your-title-what-s-your-blog-about