Editorials - March 15, 2024

This winter’s “weirdly warm weather” has sent scientists off in a new research direction, according to a report in the National Post. After record warm temperatures on the planet in January (now for the eighth month in a row), researchers from Michigan Tech University are beginning to collect data on how that will affect the Great Lakes. This winter saw just three per cent ice over on the world’s largest freshwater system - the lowest since 1973, when records began to be kept.

 

For lakes accustomed to long, cold winters under ice, these changes could have dramatic environmental, economic and cultural impacts. Scientists do not know how the warming of the planet will affect everything in the immense Great Lakes basin, including harming certain fish species, eroding beaches, fuelling algae blooms and clogging shipping channels. Iceless lakes could open up longer fishing and shipping seasons, but, without ice cover, scientists speculate the lakes will absorb more sunlight and warm up sooner. This could result in large algae blooms and thermal stratification, both of which would cause large die-offs of plankton and other organisms, and smaller fish populations.

 

Winter storms and extreme weather events would make it harder to fish commercially and wreak havoc on shipping lanes, and damage shorelines, docks and infrastructure. All of these impacts would increase costs of food and other goods that rely on the Great Lakes. Climate change has costs and the sooner we understand them, the sooner we can evaluate the costs of taking steps to mitigate that change and the cost of doing nothing. The iceless Great Lakes are a powerful barometer. – DS

On consecutive days last week, we lost two giants of, not to put too fine a point on it, things that are important to The Citizen, its readers and the communities it serves. Ron Walker, co-founder of the Blyth Festival Art Gallery, passed away on March 7 and the next day, March 8, Jack Ryan, host of the 2017 International Plowing Match, followed.

 

One year after James Roy, Anne Chislett and Keith Roulston founded the Blyth Festival, Roy approached Ron, a painter and teacher, and his wife Bev, an accomplished printmaker who passed away last October, about creating an art gallery to complement the new theatre. Next year, the gallery will mark its 50th anniversary, just one year after the Festival celebrates its golden anniversary.

 

In the years leading up to 2017, The Citizen ran several features on the Ryan family as their Walton farm would be the focal point for the IPM Huron County was to host. Rather than the farm, it was the Ryan family that was the focal point. The tight-knit group of Jack and his children - Stephen, Joe, Peggy and Monica - was missing Marianna, Jack’s wife of 43 years, who passed away in 2012 at just 65.

 

These champions of community were not just emblematic of what it means to be caring members of society, they shared love stories the likes of which we should all admire. Bev and Ron, and Marianna and Jack so loved one another so they could then share that love with us.

 

Huron County will miss these four, knowing they cannot and will not be replaced. To remember them, we have art and a gallery, we have memories and we have an event that captured the hearts and minds of residents for years. You are all deeply missed. Thank you. – SL 

Finding bad news is easy to do in 2024. Tragic scenes flash endlessly across “doom scrolling” screens, imprinting awful and horrific images of atrocities, autocracies and hypocrisies onto fragile minds and psyches without reprieve. It can sometimes feel like there is no escape from the harshness of the human experience. For too many unfortunate souls, hope is usurped by sorrow and things are looking like they might only just get worse from here. But then again - Ryan Gosling.

 

London’s very own “Mousekateer” performed at the Academy Awards on Sunday. The Breaker High star strutted his silliest stuff on Hollywood’s biggest stage with undeniable charm, incredible confidence and colossally abundant comedic capability. An instant Oscars classic.

 

The Barbie heartthrob was joined by fellow Barbie heartthrob and Mississauga-raised Simu Liu, among others, for a subversive song-and-dance number and cheeky homage to legendary buxom bombshell Marilyn Monroe’s memorable performance of “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” from the Hollywood classic Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. 

 

To begin his performance, the pink-clad Gosling crept and crooned playfully behind star and producer Margot Robbie, before he perambulated onwards to sing along with co-star America Ferrera and director/mastermind/visionary/genius Greta Gerwig. A gleefully beaming Gerwig was clearly elated by the rousing rendition of “I’m Just Ken” by the FranKENstein’s monster she created.

The movie Barbie only took home one Academy Award for a song that wasn’t the one Gosling performed. Nevertheless, it was quite obvious who actually won the night. – SBS