Dear Prime Minister Trudeau:

In Canada's wilderness, only one spotted owl remains—a stark symbol of a crisis. [1] This heartbreaking reality is directly linked to your inaction to create a nation-wide nature protection law. This morning, a friend on behalf of the lone spotted owl took a message to your doorstep: "Nature is in crisis, and your words are empty without action. Pass a biodiversity protection law before the next Nature COP negotiations; the clock is ticking! "

The spotted owl's decline to a solitary individual in Canada is intricately tied to the absence of adequate measures, during almost a decade in power, from your Liberal government. But the spotted owl is not an isolated case: with over 2000 species at risk in Canada, current laws are failing nature. [2] We need legislation that holds the government accountable and ensures that Canada actually meets biodiversity targets, especially after chronic failures to deliver on previous ones. [3]

The plight of dwindling species like the spotted owl has not gone unnoticed: over 60,000 people across the country have raised a red flag by signing our petition calling for the swift passage of new nature legislation. [4] Today, alongside activists, volunteers, and supporters from every part of Canada, we are reminding you, prime minister Trudeau, that inaction is no longer an option. You need to hear us loud and clear and help to pass a strong Nature & Biodiversity Act before this year’s Convention on Biological Diversity negotiations in October. Will you help the spotted owl deliver her message to all government politicians on both sides of the political spectrum?

Yes, I will help the owl deliver her message.

Over a year ago, your government actually signed a global biodiversity agreement then committed to passing nature protection legislation to make it a reality here in Canada. The Liberal government recently reaffirmed that commitment at the end of 2023. [5, 6] But words upon words and “formal announcements” amount to blah blah blah as the clock keeps ticking. It’s time for real action from you AND YOUR GOVERNMENT PRIME MINISTER JUSTIN TRUDEAU, not just words.

Urge your government to pass a law to protect nature.

If a lone spotted owl is a reminder of anything, it's this: we don't need to wait until species are on the brink to act. A strong nature protection law for Canada means preventing further losses. It's up to us to speak the words they cannot and bring those to the ears of our elected representatives.

Thank you for being a crucial part of this movement,   Léanne, Digital Campaigner, Greenpeace Canada

Sources: [1] ‘There’s Only One Spotted Owl Left in the Canadian Wild. Can She Be Saved?’, June 2 2023, The Walrus [2] ‘More than 2,000 wild species face a high risk of being wiped out in Canada, report warns’, November 30 2022, CBC [3] Report: Protecting Nature, Protecting Life, Greenpeace Canada, June 2022 [4] Petition: ‘Protect biodiversity in Canada: Urge Justin Trudeau to pass a law to protect nature before Nature COP this year’, Greenpeace Canada [5] Government of Canada takes action to restore and protect nature with commitment to introduce a nature accountability bill in 2024, Government of Canada, 9 Dec 2023 [6] Nature groups give high marks for Canada’s new commitment to a high ambition action plan to halt and reverse nature loss, Greenpeace Canada, 15 December 2022

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Dear Prime Minister Trudeau.   Thank you for joining us in our campaign to urge the Canadian government to be a leader in ratifying the Global Ocean Treaty – you are officially an ocean protector    The ocean faces many threats – from overfishing to extractive deep sea mining to climate change – and signing the Treaty into law is the next crucial step to giving the oceans the break they need: the creation of Global Sanctuaries.

Here's what you can do now:   Please share this petition with your friends and family by clicking on the buttons below:

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Does money make you happy?

Barking Up The Wrong Tree January 22nd, 2024 Before we commence with the festivities, I wanted to thank everyone for helping my new book become a bestseller! To check it out, click here. This Is How To Spend Your Money To Maximize Happiness (Click here to read on the blog) Money can't buy happiness? Please. We all know that's just something rich people say to stop us from robbing them. Money might not buy lasting, profound joy, but it can undoubtedly rent some pretty good times. We all fantasize about the kind of happiness that comes with six zeroes, a gated community and a butler to iron your money for you. Even if vast wealth doesn’t buy happiness, it’s better to have a Birkin bag to keep your sadness in. But seriously -- can money really buy happiness? The latest research shows, yeah, more money = more happy… usually. The effect varies but there are some people who are rich and unhappy and more money doesn’t fix it for them. Plenty of things could contribute to the inconsistency but we’ll focus on one here that’s well established by the research, and something we can use: how you spend your money. Some things we buy make us very happy, other less so. We may not have limitless piles of green rectangles but we can all spend what we have in better ways to increase our joy. We’ll get scientific insight on the type of spending that increases smiles from the books “The Myths of Happiness” and “Happy Money”, along with the study, “If Money Doesn’t Make You Happy Then You Probably Aren’t Spending It Right” by Harvard happiness expert Daniel Gilbert. Let’s get to it... Buy Many Small Pleasures Versus Fewer Large Ones You save up for the big TV or the big vacation thinking, “Yes, I’ll take the Costco-sized bundle of joy, please.” But turns out the pleasure we get from these things has the shelf life of an open carton of milk. The research here is consistent: when it comes to happiness, frequency beats intensity. It's like someone finally looked at life's instruction manual and said, "Wait a minute, we've been assembling this happiness thing all wrong!" Small pleasures? They're the unsung, miniature heroes of joy. Why? We’re less likely to adapt and take for granted all these little things than we are the one, big rare event. Splurging on a string of small delights is like giving your mood a constant, gentle nudge upwards. Okay, you’re turning life into a series of mini-Christmas mornings. But what kind of stuff should you purchase? Buy Experiences Instead Of Stuff It's long been said that experiences are the spice of life, with material goods trailing behind like a bored sibling on a family road trip. This is true. When studied, 57% of people derived greater happiness from experiential purchases while only 34% got more joy from buying things. Why? We quickly take material goods for granted. Research shows this happens more slowly with experiences. Also, we anticipate and remember experiences more, savoring them for longer and squeezing more enjoyment from them. You share photos and stories from vacations. Do that with a 4K TV and you’ll seem insane. Now nobody’s saying you need to shun the material world like a monk with a trust fund. And there’s an exception worth noting here. Material purchases can make you very happy – if you turn them into experiences. Use that TV as the centerpiece for an awesome Super Bowl party, and you get better returns. If buying that new car means more roadtrips with friends, it might be an excellent happiness investment. This next one may sound uncomfortable, but you know it works... Delay Consumption, Increase Anticipation Planning a vacation is like scripting your own fairy tale. You're the star of your own travel show, where everything goes perfectly, you always look fantastic in photos, and the locals find your inability to pronounce street names endearing. The reality often involves sunburns, flight delays, and lost luggage. The vacation is still good, but it's no match for the blockbuster you directed in your head. In the dark comedy that is our pursuit of happiness, there's a twisted little truth: the joy of anticipation often eclipses the actual enjoyment of whatever we've spent our hard-earned money on. It's like our brains are the ultimate bait-and-switch artists, hyping up future pleasures only to shrug nonchalantly when they finally arrive. Study after study demonstrates this effect and we can extract two clear lessons: extend the anticipation period, and take more mini-vacations vs fewer big vacations. Simply put, structure your life so you’re always looking forward to something. This next one is often ignored... Consider The *Full* Effects of Your Purchases Maybe you want to buy a new TV. Oh, and it’s not just a TV; it’s a gateway to other worlds, a window into the lives of more attractive people with more interesting problems. You imagine a sleek, shiny behemoth of technology gracing your living room. But here's the kicker: that TV, as magnificent as it is, might just turn you into a hermit. Your social life dwindles to the point where your most meaningful conversation is with the pizza delivery guy, and even he's starting to look worried for you. The farther things are in the future, the more abstractly we view them. But we often do better when we consider how our purchases will affect our future use of time and day-to-day lives. The idea of going camping can inspire adventurous fantasies in the gorgeous wilderness. But a little self-awareness might tell you that the great outdoors, uh, is only great in theory. Because nothing beats spending a week pretending you’re homeless, fighting off insects, and discovering new, exciting ways to burn food over an open fire. Sleep on the ground outside? I can do that for free if I forget my keys after a night out. It's less “Walden” and more “Why am I doing this to myself?” Know thyself and think concretely about the future results of your purchase. (I prefer my wildlife in HD and my bathrooms not to be synonymous with “behind that large bush.”) Time for a tip that you don’t hear encouraged very often... Following The Crowd Can Be A Great Idea Sorry, you’re not always the unique snowflake you think you are. Popular things are often popular for a reasonand we do ourselves a disservice by ignoring what brings others pleasure. Study after study shows the best way to predict how much one person will like something is to see how much other people enjoyed it. Hardly shocking, but all too often we think we’re special, and that’s not the safe bet when it comes to happiness. Usually, the secret to happiness isn't in some esoteric, hard-to-find experience, but in the shared joy of humanity's greatest hits. But what about when we have a few choices in front of us? What’s a good litmus test to find the joy-optimizing option? Spend Money On Fundamental Feelings We spend a lot of money “keeping up with the Joneses.” Buying things to impress others. The research shows the happiness this brings isn’t very lasting. It's a never-ending cycle of "Look at me, I have things!" And let's be real, the only person who's actually paying attention to your new things is you, while you lie awake at night, wondering why your credit card bill looks like a phone number. The spending that really pays emotional dividends fulfills deep emotional needs like competence, relatedness, or autonomy. Pay money to develop a skill you’re passionate about. Or use that cash to buy a bunch of tacos and share them with your friends in the park. Or spend that money to get your life in order and feel like you’ve got control over your world. Speaking of autonomy, that leads us to our next insight... Buy Time Maybe money can't buy happiness, but it sure can outsource some misery. Working fewer hours or paying someone to handle errands can free up time for things that really make you happy. The key issue is how you spend that new free time. If you just watch mindless TV or scroll social media, the happiness benefits will be miniscule. But use that time for wiser activities and life can be grand. You can start picking up interesting hobbies like you’re an 18th-century aristocrat. Learn to play jazz, read classic literature, go Salsa dancing, take cooking classes. You attend operas and only fall asleep twice. You're turning into the most interesting person at any party, and you don't even have to exaggerate your hobbies anymore. Paying someone to clean your home can be a wiser purchase than a new computer. It's about embracing the fact that life is short, weekends are shorter, and you don't want to spend either wrestling with a vacuum cleaner. And our final tip is one that you don’t want to do but makes life so much more enjoyable... Make It A Treat Remember when a trip to the ice cream shop was a monumental event? Now, as an adult, you can stroll into any store and buy a tub of ice cream. You can eat it for breakfast if you want. But does it feel special? No. It feels like you're an adult who's given up. It’s the oldest lesson in the book: we want what we can’t have. And when we’re denied something for a while, we appreciate it so much more when we finally have it. This strategy turns every little joy into a mini celebration. You're not just living; you're an event planner for the exclusive party that is your life. Eating your favorite food is no longer just “Tuesday night dinner”; it's “I Haven't Had This In Ages And Oh My God I Missed It So Much”. Bingeing TV is fun but, as we discussed earlier, there’s a perverse fun in anticipating the next episode. Yeah, this might sound like an exercise in self-inflicted psychological torture or an adult version of the marshmallow test, but you know it works. It’s about finding that sweet spot where you appreciate the things you love by not overindulging in them. Okay, time to round it all up – and we’ll learn one more way that spending can boost smiles. And it may be the most important of them all... Sum Up Here’s how to spend your money to maximize happiness... Buy Many Small Pleasures Vs Fewer Large Ones: Don’t save up all year to buy one colossal, wallet-destroying item. Spread the cash around for lots of little boosts. Buy Experiences Instead Of More Stuff: More amusement parks and vacations. Fewer gadgets and TV’s. Delay Consumption, Increase Anticipation: Looking forward to something is often more satisfying than actually getting it. The anticipation, it turns out, was the main event. The actual product is just the merch you buy on the way out of the concert. Consider The *Full* Effects of Your Purchases: Going on a hot air balloon ride looks great on Instagram, but they don’t show the part where you’re praying to every deity you can think of because you’re essentially in a wicker basket 10,000 feet in the air with a giant flame above your head. Next time you're about to make a big purchase, consider the full picture. Following The Crowd Can Be A Great Idea: In our quest for happiness, we often forget a simple truth: looking at what makes others happy can be a cheat sheet for our own bliss. Spend Money On Fundamental Feelings: Forget the suburban gladiator arena known as "keeping up with the Joneses." Instead of status, buy competence, relatedness, and autonomy. Buy Time: The sweet paradox of modern living: we hustle for those almighty dollars, yet find ourselves too strapped for time to enjoy them. (And if you do want to inspire envy in others, lots of free time can have a far greater effect than money.) Make It A Treat: We're living in a world of instant gratification, where pleasures are as easy to come by as bad decisions at a high school reunion. So create artificial scarcity. It’s like playing hard to get with yourself. Suddenly, those simple pleasures become as tantalizing as a forbidden romance in a Victorian novel. You're about to splurge on the latest, shiniest thing you definitely don't need when suddenly, a wild idea appears: "What if I buy something for someone else?" It's a thought so alien, your brain almost files a restraining order against it. We're supposed to spend our hard-earned cash on other people? What is this, opposite day? Yes, research confirms the old saw: it’s better to give than to receive. A 2008 study found, “Although personal spending was unrelated to happiness, people who devoted more money to prosocial spending were happier, even after controlling for their income.” Why? Giving improves relationships and our relationships are the bedrock of happiness. And then there's the joy of watching them open that gift. It's like a real-life unboxing video, minus the monetization. They’re excited and you get to watch with the smug satisfaction of a cat who's just knocked a vase off a shelf. So go buy something for someone who is not you. Altruism is the express lane on the happiness highway. It’s like playing Santa Claus, but without the breaking and entering. ***If you are one of those lovely people who bought "Plays Well With Others" please leave a review on Amazon here. Thanks!*** Email Extras Findings from around the internet... + Want to know if "love languages" are real? Click here. + Want to learn how helpful those workplace wellness programs are? Click here. + Want to know a fun way to keep your brain young? Click here. + Miss my prior post? Here you go: This Is How To Keep Your Brain Sharp As You Age: 5 Secrets From Research. + Want to know which behaviors increase and decrease your social status? Click here. + You read to the end of the email. I don't know how you're spending your money, but I'm flattered you've spent that much time here. OH BOY, OH BOY, OH BOY -- it's Crackerjack time: The wise and wonderful Bob Sutton of Stanford has a new book out January 30th. If you're curious about leadership in the modern age, definitely check it out here. Thanks for reading! Eric PS: If a friend forwarded this to you, you can sign up to get the weekly email yourself here.

How To Get The Best Sleep Of Your Life: Six Secrets From Research/ By Eric Barker.

Sum Up

Here’s how to get the best sleep of your life:

• How much sleep do you need?: Aim for eight hours. Yes, sleep is a twisted game of freeze tag where you're “it” for an entire third of your life.
• Consistency: Want a blissful journey to the Land of Nod? Wake at the same time and go to bed at the same time every day. This is the single most important tip.
• Substances: Alcohol, sleeping pills, and caffeine all reduce sleep quality. Booze is the worst. Trying to perform at your best after a night of drinking is like trying to find a needle in a haystack, except the needle is also made of hay, and you're not entirely certain what a needle is.
• Light: I know, the digitally addicted Gollum inside your head is clutching your phone and whispering, "Precious. We needs it." Sorry. Avoid screens and darken your home before bed.
• Temperature: A room that’s a little chilly helps you pass out. You’ll sleep so hard you’ll wake up in positions the Kama Sutra doesn’t cover.
• Naps: There's nothing quite like the pure decadence of a fully clothed, middle-of-the-day, under-the-covers bed nap. That's right, full bed. Not messing around here. Keep it short so it doesn’t stop you from getting to sleep that night.

Dear Jagmeet Singh:

 I'm sorry to hear Ed Broadbent died.

 Mr. Broadbent was a good man! He was not anti anything and he always tried to help Canadian citizens. He was a great politician and I believe, however, not a deeply religious person. Are you so deeply religious you can't change? You can be a good person without all the religious acrutements.

Without power good men are helpless and for you to win power in Quebec, you have to follow the deeply engraved ideas of the people living in Quebec. We are a multicultural province with a core of deep French Nationalism.  We are a blend of French nationalism, corporate business, subtle racism and plenty of rock and roll all linked by smart phones. Science has become our new God.

   In the past, Quebec culture was based on politics and the Catholic church. That changed when Canadian citizens and the world learned how the Church treated Native children. Religion is no longer a part of the political concepts in Quebec, however, outside of politics, everything goes. The problem is, are you a good man and a politician and how long do you want to remain outside of politics in Quebec?

 I recommend you follow the lead of our Quebec Prime Minister Legault. One of the hardest things he had to do was remove (the cross of Jesus Christ) a religious symbol of the Catholic church, from the wall of his office. Guess what you have to do if you want the smallest chance of winning a political victory in Quebec. Don't try! Do.a haircut, a shave, a business suit and French lessons. For shock value, do it publicly in Quebec. Divest yourself of religious symbols and fight for human rights and a clean environment for everybody here and around the world! It takes plenty of courage. Do you have courage?

If you can't do it, forget Quebec!

Who am I to tell you this....just your average citizen. The kind of man who deeply respected Tommy Douglas and Jack Layton and Ed Broadbent....and who was born in Montreal and lived in Quebec all his life.

Nelson Joseph Raglione.

human4usbillions@gmail.com