Humans have devastated this Earth, in so many ways. We have decimated animal and plant biodiversity, pushing many many species to extinction. Rewilding, restoring the Earth to all the great biodiversity that it once was, is an exciting approach to conservation, and even the woolly mammoth could one day be reintroduced to its native land. Imagine living a life where you could see a woolly mammoth in the wild not just a cartoon one voiced by Nicki Minaj like in the cinematic masterpiece Ice Age: Continental Drift. But rewilding doesn't need tons of money and multiple people with PhDs, you can rewild literally everything in your life. We can rewild our diet (and gut microbiota in the process), our gardens, our parks, our architecture, our cities, our entire lives. We must value diversity in all facets of life. We can't keep forcing the environment to be exactly what we want it to be, let's provide it with everything it needs and let it determine its own future. We must not only rewild things in our control but demand that our cities rewild our urban spaces! This is not just our planet, all organisms have equal right to space on Earth.

I never want anyone to walk out of their home and see a thick white cloud of smoke that has descended upon their neighborhood, suffocating them and turning the sun bright orange-red. Climate change and other human effects have increased the frequency and intensity of wildfires. Not only do wildfires kill plants and wildlife, but they also decrease our air quality, burn our homes and cause spikes in fear. But we are not too far gone, people can once again live through a Vancouver calendar year without the impending doom of wildfire smoke. Science is coming up with novel solutions, such as mapping forests to calculate how they burn, controlled fires, and more! But we all need to support these efforts by participating in the research, educating ourselves on wildfire issues, and advocating for policy-level change.

As someone who grew up next to Niagara Falls and the Great Lakes, I never considered water availability an issue. Not for me, at least. In my blissfully ignorant, selfish youth, I thought the only places affected by the water crisis were historically dry places like Ethiopia, Sudan, and Eritrea. Until Flint, Michigan's water crisis less than 400km away. This led to my discovery that 73% of First Nations' water systems are at high or medium risk of contamination in Canada. Below is a picture of a bath in Neskantaga First Nations Reserve in 2021 (source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/30/canada-first-nations-justin-trudeau-drinking-water). The Canadian government has promised to invest money to fix this issue but is investing the only solution? We can't just give someone a stack of plastic water bottles, pat ourselves on the back and think yep, that solves it. We need a plan that incorporates: New infrastructure Breaking down the old barriers that caused this in the first place Sustainable, long-lasting changes Regulations on water quality in reserves (which do not exist pretty much at all right now), consistent and adequate funding, supporting household wastewater treatments, including more efficient rainwater collection, and actually asking what these communities want and need instead of deciding for them are just a few places we can start. Let's incorporate more sustainable water use methods so water access will never be a problem for these communities or the environment ever again. Water is a fundamental right. Not only is access to water an environmental issue, but it's a human rights issue.