Back from our week in Nova Scotia. It's a beautiful country, friendly people, and by some miracle, the weather was absolutely perfect. The only cold, foggy, rainy day was our day to rest, so it didn't bother us that it was only 14 degrees outside (celcius, I think that's in the 50's).

Even though I didn't have a chance to post anything to the blog, I did do a lot of thinking about global warming.

The level of awareness of global climate change up there seemed much higher than in the US.

At a small tea house/gift shop named Tigger's in the settlement of Marion Bridge, I noticed that all of the lightbulbs were compact flourescents. And later, while talking with the owner (a wonderful woman named Marlene MacDonald), we learned that she is a big Al Gore fan, and is so happy that he is trying to wake the world up to the effects of global warming.

At every pull-off on Cape Breton (where we spent most of the trip), there was a bin for recycling beverage containers. Apparently, they are very strict about recycling all across Nova Scotia. I would guess that it is because of a reluctance to mar the landscape with landfills, but the diligence also helps to reduce the carbon emissions from manufacturing items from raw ore or trees.

In the grocery store, I noticed that all of their produce price tags also listed the country of origin. So, I chose not to buy grapes from Chili. Unfortunately, the store we were in had very little in the way of local produce, although we did get a nice head of hydroponic lettuce that had a Canadian origin. Sadly though, when I looked at the large display of "Canadian" nick nacks (mounties, stuffed animals like moose and whales), they were all made in China.

While talking with a couple from Ottawa a couple of days later, we learned that the labeling is to increase awareness about the origins of food, and to help people make choices to buy Canadian items. The husband was shocked to learn that fact - he had assumed that it was done to help the consumer learn which countries' produce they preferred. As in, he hates the grapes from Chili, so won't buy them because of the taste. His wife kindly pointed out to him that the reason they don't taste as good as other, more local grapes, is because of the amount of time they have to travel from the time they are picked until they are put onto the grocery shelf.

The wife mentioned the local food movement, and the husband did acknowledge that he had heard something about how it was best to eat food produced within 200 kilometers (about 100 miles) of where you live. They were both very interested to hear about Barbara Kingsolvers book Animal Vegetable Miracle (which I almost finished on the trip).

At the Knotty Pine Cottages at Ingonish Ferry, where we spent six of the seven nights we were there, we talked with Howard MacKinnon, the owner, a man in his early 50's who grew up at Knotty Pine because his parents ran the place before he took it over 14 years ago. He has observed the change in weather during his lifetime. He said they don't get snow in the winter anymore. They get ice instead. As he put it, "there's no snow to shovel, so people get fat over the winter." Additionally, the local ski run, Mount Smokey, closed last winter. Even with a snow-making machine, they couldn't produce anything ski-able. He even lamented that the outdoor ice rink doesn't stay frozen, and you can forget about cross-country skiing or snowmobiling.

And, at our last night in Parrsboro on the Bay of Fundy, we heard from our hostess Pat at the Bed & Breakfast that many of their spring flowers come much earlier than in the past. Like Howard, she grew up in Parrsboro, and in her nearly 50 years, she has seen the changes first hand.

Canadian coins feature the Queen of England on one side, and a representation of some natural feature on the other. The dime has a tall-masted sailing ship on the back - presumably to represent the nation's many seas and large waterways. Their dollar coin is called "the Loonie" because it has a loon on the back. I was interested to see that their two dollar coin has a polar bear on the back.

Perhaps that's another reason they seem to be taking climate change seriously. Not only are they experiencing the effects first hand, but one of their national icons - something they care enough about to place on a coin! - is suffering greatly.

For folks in the continental US, the polar bear is something far off in a distant land. For Canadians, he is their neighbor.