Every July, millions of people around the world take part in Plastic Free July, a global movement that challenges us to rethink our plastic use. It’s not just about skipping a straw or bringing your own bag, it’s about making meaningful changes that reduce plastic waste in our daily lives and communities.
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.
In May 2017, my charity had a booth at the Canada-Wide Science Fair. People came by, I did some water testing with children, and it was an interesting event. Then, one man came by who was very excited to see our booth at the Science Fair. His name was Wilson, and the reason he was so excited to see our booth was that one of our water testing kits had been used by one of his students and that was the reason that student was at the fair.
In many ways the advancement of technology is partly responsible for the climate crisis. On the surface, it’s easy to see the correlation between increased consumer demand for electronics and the global impact those demands have. Everything from our desire to have the latest and greatest to just how disposable technology has become these days, drive up the amounts of things like electronic waste, production and shipping related emissions, precious metal mining expansion, greater energy demand to power our electronics… and the list goes on.
But beneath the surface, when we start thinking about how technology has enabled our mistreatment of the planet, we begin to see the whole picture emerging.
Recently, we spoke with Akhil Sivanandan, the co-founder of Green Story. Green Story is an environmental organization dedicated to helping consumers choose the more sustainable and ethical option. They do this be applying industry standard practices of determining a products environmental footprint, and making that information available to the consumer at the point of purchase.
Ben, Water Docs: Just to start, for people who haven’t read the article yet, what are Blue Spaces?
Dan: “Blue space is basically being in, on, or around an aquatic environment. We know that being in a natural place and being active, those things are good for us. They're good for our bodies, they're good for our minds. There's a whole body of research that's finding and showing that there are even more benefits to spending that time in blue space.”
