Sustainable Halloween treats: Better for the planet and just as sweet

Hello, people!This is our weekly newsletter on all things environmental, where we highlight trends and solutions that are moving us to a more sustainable world.(Sign up hereto get it in your inbox everyThursday.)

This week:

• Sustainable Halloween treats: Better for the planet and just as sweet
• Election 2019: Tools to help you sift through each party's climate policies
• Take a look at where carbon is stored
• Birds and tall buildings: A deadly combination

How to buy sustainable Halloween treats

It's a given that Halloween treats are a little scary when it comes to kids' dental health. But they can also be scary from an environmental perspective: Manycontain palm oil, which may be produced in a way that causes deforestation and horrifying outcomes for endangered rainforest animals.

In September, the Toronto Zoo, the largest in Canada, launched a social media campaign asking people to "choose treats that protect rainforests," listing brands that use certified sustainable palm oil.

Those include:

• Mars (Twix, 3 Musketeers, M&Ms, Snickers, Dove, Skittles)

• Hershey's (Reese's, Turtles, Whoppers, Twizzlers, Jolly Ranchers)

• Frito-Lay (Lay's, Ruffles, SunChips, Tostitos, Cheetos)

• Quaker

• Ferrero

• Kraft Heinz

• Lindt & Sprungli

Kelly Bentley, supervisor of volunteering and engagement at the Toronto Zoo, said the campaign comes out of the zoo's commitment to conservation and education, as well as the fact that it's home to many species from palm oil-producing regions, such as southeast Asia.

"We have orangutans here, we have tigers, we have rhinos these are all affected by a lot of this destruction of the rainforest in Indonesia, and a lot of this destruction has been for palm oil plantations," she said. In fact, Indonesian officials said more than 80 per cent of the devastating wildfires raging through its rainforests in September were intentionally set to make room for palm plantations.

Toronto Zoo staff members' personal relationships with the animals at the zoo are another motivator, Bentley said. "They have that connection and they want to do everything possible to have an impact in the wild."

According to the World Wildlife Fund, another conservation group that campaigns for environmentally friendly palm oil production, more than half of consumer products in the U.S. contain palm oil, from lipstick to soap to ice cream.

But Bentley said it can be hard to identify, as it goes by many different names, including generic ones such as "vegetable oil." Even brands that use certified sustainable palm oil don't tend to label it.

"When we started to research the issue, we found it frustrating," Bentley said.

In the end, the zoo used progress reports posted on the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil's (RSPO) website to grade different manufacturers, including producers of Halloween treats. It gives out a broader orangutan-friendly shopping guide that it has since posted online.

The good news is companies dragging their feet on sustainable palm oil could soon be more motivated to change in November, the RSPO will implement new rules and start to fine members that don't increase the share of sustainable palm oil they buy.

In the meantime, consumers can also help, Bentley said.

"People want to do the right thing," she said, acknowledging that it's not always easy to get the right information on complex issues such as this. "What we're trying to do is make it easy for people to make those sustainable choices."

Emily Chung

Your voting toolkit

Last week, we asked you what was the most important environmental issue facing Canadians. Based on the responses we got, it was clearly reducing carbon emissions.

The federal election is on Oct. 21, and we know that climate change is a decisive issue for many Canadian voters this time around. We also know that there are still many undecided voters out there. If you are one of them, we've assembled some of CBC's best climate-related journalism here, in the hopes of helping you make your ballot decision.

• The party platforms: Comparing where they stand on environmental issues, from carbon pricing to pipelines

• Which party's policies get us closest to the Paris emissions targets?

• Environmental economist Andrew Leach picks apart each party's plan

Emailus atwhatonearth@cbc.ca.

Old issues of What on Earth? are right here.

The Big Picture: Where carbon is stored

Much of the talk surrounding the management of carbon emissions focuses on what goes up into the atmosphere. But as the chart below shows, the amount of carbon above ground is only a fraction of all the carbon stored on Earth.

Hot and bothered: Provocative ideas from around the web

• It is a time of great uncertainty and anxiety when it comes to the environment but it's also a time of tremendous progress. To wit: In the third quarter of 2019, renewable energy for the first time overtook fossil fuels in the percentage of power it provided to the electrical grid in the U.K.

• There has been a push in recent years to capture electronic waste, such as old smartphones and computers, so it doesn't simply end up in landfill. There is now a UN-supported campaign afoot to raise awareness of the plastic involved in the making of electronic devices, and to push manufacturers to use recycled plastic.

• The future of the oilsands has been an ongoing issue in Canada, particularly during this election campaign. But at a time of growing concern over climate change, as well as low oil prices, our colleague Don Pittis asks: "If you are saving for retirement should you be investing in oil and gas?"

A simple solution to save birds from windows

Up to 25 million birds die in Canada each year after flying into windows.

"When you hear that sickening thud of a bird hitting a window on your house, you just feel really bad," said Bridget Stutchbury, a professor of conservation biology and ecology at York University in Toronto, who studies migratory songbirds in North America. "Even if it flies away, it might not survive."

(FYI, the brown creeper pictured above did in fact survive a collision with a window.)

Birds don't perceive windows the way we do and will instinctively fly toward them when they see trees reflected in them or believe they provide a clear passage. Stutchbury said birds are also attracted by lights at night because they use the stars to navigate.

This fact makes cities problematic, especially if they lie in a migratory corridor or "bird superhighway" that these creatures use to fly south. Stutchbury said Toronto is the first major obstacle for many birds migrating from the boreal forest up north.

But the large majority of annual Canadian bird deaths as a result of window collisions 22 million actually occur around houses and low-rise buildings, said Kevin Fraser, a professor at the Avian Behaviour and Conservation Lab at the University of Manitoba.

"We used to think that this was only a downtown, tall-building problem," he said.

There have been efforts recently to tackle the problem of window collisions, including bird-friendly building designs, landscaping and lighting. Regulations in Toronto, for example, now require bird-friendly glass on new buildings, Stutchbury said.

A simpler solution is the installation of white dots on windows that signal to birds there is an obstacle in their way. They've recently been installed at York University, the University of British Columbia and at Toronto city hall. You can also buy these dots cheaply online to solve the problem at home if you're in an area prone to bird accidents.

"Some people may know that a particular window is killing 10 or 15 birds a year, but they don't know what to do about it," Stutchbury said, adding that blinds and paper cutouts of birds don't actually work.

"I think most people who have a problem at the cottage or at home would want to do something about it if they just knew what to buy."

Fraser said the solution doesn't have to be anything particularly expensive. "Homegrown solutions," he said, work just as well.

"I myself have just taken a bar of soap and drawn on the window during a peak time during migration when the threat is higher, and that breaks up the reflection on the window," he said. "And you can wash it off easily afterwards."

Adam Miller

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Editor: Andre Mayer | Logo design: Skdt McNalty