I will choose planet friendly, low carbon outdoor activities this winter. Research shows that spending time in nature helps us sleep better, reduces our blood pressure, and boosts our immune system. Besides producing physical health benefits, nature helps improve our minds, too. Source
Make the effort to get outside more. Ski, skate, snowshoe or even just walk the sidewalks. No motorized vehicles required. If you choose to drive to a maintained trail or ice surface look for facilities close to home to keep your driving to a minimum. We are fortunate there are a lot of options in Muskoka.
And what about the kids?
This year the “Family Literacy Day 2022 Theme” is “Learning in the Great Outdoors”. Check out their great list of resources and news.
“There’s a lot we don’t know about what life will be like as we all learn to live with COVID-19. But there’s one thing we can say for sure: active, outdoor play is exactly what our kids need right now.” Source
Get the whole family outside to exercise both bodies and minds.
Playing outside in the cold is not the reason kids get sick. It is the poor air quality indoors.
- How to improve education: move the classroom outdoors | CBC Radio
- Frontiers | Do Experiences With Nature Promote Learning? Converging Evidence of a Cause-and-Effect Relationship | Psychology (frontiersin.org)
- Benefits of Outdoor Winter Play(upenn.edu)
Inconvenient truth department
And the carbon footprint of motorized outdoor fun? Here’s an estimate from the Sierra Club for the US. “Motorized amusements require a fairly staggering 2.2 billion gallons of gasoline” a year. (That’s 8.3 billion litres.)
What Is the Environmental Impact of Motorized Recreation? | Sierra Club
And some good news for sledders
Coming to Muskoka soon – hopefully – electric snowmobiles. Experience nature on a silent and emission-free eSled.
Silent Electric Snowmobile – eSled Safaris and Excursions in Rovaniemi Finland (auroraemotion.com)
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