Nice choice dickhead

Putting aside John McCain's obvious pandering to the religious right and stupid, gullible women who voted for Hillary because she has a vajayjay (vs because of her experience or policy direction), the GOP's newly minted proposed commander in chief waiting is a doozy. Not only does she support drilling for natural gas in Alaska's wildlife reserve, she also sued the Bush government for placing polar bears on the endangered species list, denies climate change, if it exists at all, has anything to do with humans, and she 'hunts' wolves by chasing after them in an airplane to wear them out, then shoots them after they're exhausted. Hail Jebus. That's the kind of gal many Americans would love to have as their next president, given that McCain is a cranky old man a hair away from a massive fatal coronary. Can we sever the 49th parallel and float as far away from these freaks as possible? I'm afraid...

I did it - BFD

Much to the embarrassment of my long-suffering but loving mate Stevo, I walked my talk. Yesterday, on a joint jaunt through our local hood, we noticed that yet again the evil polluters on Station Street put their garbage out way too early and way too public. This time, in the form of a busted up old vacuum cleaner on the sidewalk, in advance of today's recycling pick up. Recycling pick up, not garbage pick up. So, in broad daylight, I huffed said vacuum onto their front lawn. Steve suggests I may have an anger management issue. I personally think I demonstrated serious restraint by not throwing the GD thing through the super's window. Regardless, I didn't experience any retaliation today - only because my protest fell on silent ears. This morning - garbage, EVERYWHERE in front of the offending shit hole. I can't believe I touched that thing - probably full of roach chrysalis (do roaches even have a chrysalis ? dunno, but I like the word...) - and got nothing but a go-fuck-yourself in return. I hate them.

Golf Greens Suck

Our governments - federal and provincial - have a lot of nerve suggesting we take short showers and turn off the tap while brushing our teeth, when they continue to make side deals with mining and gas companies to dump tailings in ponds, and give 10 golf clubs enough water to hydrate 25,000 households. Fuckers. If I were childish, I'd run around my house turning on all my taps, laughing maniacally. But I'm not. I'm concerned. And I think golf sucks, and is just an excuse for bad fashion. And water wasting. I repeat. Fuckers. See what you make me do?

WTF People Throw Out

I've been walking recently. A lot. I don't stop for rainy days, and unfortunately, I don't stop for garbage days either. Poor me. In high July, it reeks. 

A couple of months ago I was appointed to a city committee charged with the duty of helping Toronto get to 70% waste diversion by 2010. That is, educate, berate, prod Torontonians through whatever (legal) means necessary to reduce, reuse and recycle vs buy and toss. Before being appointed I was moderately aware of what people pitched. Now, combined with my new morning walk routine, I'm hyper aware. It floors me every week. Especially when the generous citizens of Station Street in South Etobicoke put their garbage out a week in advance. I affectionately call it "garbage alley" and I navigate its resulting jumbo maggots by walking down the middle of the street pretty much daily. Thanks.

On any given day, people are throwing out so many things that can be recycled - boxes (and they don't break them down either), cans, bottles, paper, etc. They're pitching the stuff of compost gold - like rotting fruit and veggies, moldy bread, kitty litter, you name it - into (and more often in the general vicinity of) their garbage pails rather than their green bins. Most are unaware and can hopefully be enlightened. Unfortunately for us, and the planet, many others simply don't care.

So I'm on a mission. Though I haven't resorted to sorting garbage from recyclables on my morning rambles, I have spoken with people on said walks about what is recyclable and what isn't. It's staggering how many people think they should throw milk cartons in the garbage.

I've also secretly (so don't tell anybody) committed to relocating the garbage put out WAY TOO EARLY (we're talking several days here) by the local library and church to their respective front steps. For institutions so permanently attached to the public teat, they have a lot of nerve polluting my morning walk with their smelly shit. As Yosemite Sam used to say, "that'll learn 'em."

Hear Here, Timmy Ho Ho

Read on. I hope Tim does too. The bastards.  

How dum is we?

Recently, the BC government has been flirting with the idea of using trees infested with pine beetles to power the province. Since the wood is no good for sale, why not cut it down and shove it into an oven to create power? Um, maybe because doing so would generate thousands upon thousands of kilos of C02s, not to mention denude large tracks of vegetation that provide habitat to animals, birds and insects even in its decaying state. But hey, we need power, so cut em down and set em on fire.

This, juxtaposed with the debate currently raging in Ontario over the spreading of human waste of fields of green to fatten our broccoli and soy beans confounds me. We humans are stupid. We're spinning around, desperately looking for alternative sources of energy, and spreading something that is arguably sustainable - human feces - over the very stuff we'll put in our mouths at supper time. I'm no fan of incineration - I live in a part of the province that is choking already on the fumes of poorly regulated industry. That being said, I'd rather burn shit than eat it. And I rather burn it than burn the trees, dead or alive, that provide the cover and the habitat for increasingly threatened wilderness.

As an aside, it's a good thing we humans weren't around when the dinosaurs started to die. We would have burned their carcasses, no doubt, and then sadly (insert sarcastic intonation here) there would be no tar sands...

Carlin said it best...

RIP George Carlin, who skillfully rewrote the lyrics to America the Beautiful to reflect the unfortunate environmental reality of not just our neighbours to the south, but cringingly (yes yes, I made up another word), us too. This is what our prime minister's stonewalling is doing for Canada.

"Oh beautiful for smoggy skies, insecticided grain. For strip-mined mountain's majesty above the asphalt plain. America, America, man sheds his waste on thee. And hides the pines with billboard signs, from sea to oily sea."

RIP George. RIP Alberta. RIP Ontario. RIP Newfoundland. RIP Saskatchewan. You get the picture.

G8 My Ass

"Yo Harper" was only the beginning. Congratulations to us for voting for a climate change denier. A guy who buddies up with W, and at the same time says that no significant movement will be made on the climate change file (climate change, I thought that was a myth) until W is but an unfortunate legacy. The same guy who says we shouldn't have to take any real steps in reversing the tide that is growing more ominous daily until the Chinese and the Indians do.

It's called leadership Stephen. And we've got at least a 100 years of wicked industrial polluting on them. It's time for us to take responsibility for our significant contributions to the problem, rather than waiting for everyone to line up and jump in together. Because that's leaders do. So, the next time you're pointing fingers at Stephane Dion, implying that he isn't a leader, you should take note of the rest of the fingers pointing back at you. Fuck stick.

Drink it up, yum.

You've already been informed of my piercing hatred for the National Post. I feel like a battered wife. I despise it and everyone who writes for it so much, yet it keeps showing up on my doorstep, and I keep letting it in. What is my problem?

The above the fold headline this morning was, and I quote "The Herbicide Report Nobody Noticed (It Said It Was Safe)." Unhuh. This coupled with the report Stevo showed me last night on the CBC, re: the federal government's decision to quietly allow mining companies to dump their tailings in northern lakes in BC, Newfoundland, Alberta and Saskatchewan, makes me want to vomit. Oh, by the way, on the last point, Mr. Baird and his pals in the federal environment ministry are bypassing the consultation and environmental assessment usually required to reclassify natural spaces into dumping grounds. That's reform party grass roots demon-cracy for ya. Grass roots if you have deep pockets and are willing to grease a few palms.

We are heading toward a world water crisis with the onslaught of global warming. And our friends in the federal government and at the National Post think it's A-O-K to dump herbicides on our green green grass (which by the way, will be brown brown when we run out of water) and surrounding groundwater, and tar sluice in our lakes.

Stevo has a great suggestion to perhaps snap them out of their stupidity - serve them all up a nice tall glass of water sourced from the very sites they wish to pollute, assuring them of the purity and continued safety of what they're about to ingest. I say let's just serve them a nice tall glass of shut the fuck up, with a chaser of get the hell out of my government.

Ed Stelmach is an idiot

I didn't think it was possible, but I think I despise Ed Stelmach more than I ever did Ralph Klein. Ralphy was a doofus. Ed is an evil, demonic idiot.

On Monday, Ed issued a plea to Albertans to make certain sacrifices to help address the issue of climate change, though I betcha he didn't use that term since it's a left wing myth. After giving himself a whopping 34% pay increase and giving big oil carte blanche to use as much water as they need to destroy northern Alberta in pursuit of bubblin' crude, he's asking Albertans, amongst other things, to limit their time in the shower.

As I mentioned in an earlier entry, it takes 8 barrels of water to extract enough bitumen to make a barrel of oil. The Athabasca River is dropping at alarming rates, Native Canadians in northern Alberta are suffering from rare, never-before-seen cancers, and 500+ ducks met their demise in a Suncor tailing pond in April. Ed's solution, take a shorter shower.

Ed is right when he says government is evil. Just look at what he and his gaggle of right wingnuts are up to. Insert expletive here.

Hidden Creeks and Streams

If you live in Toronto you probably live near a creek or a stream or a river. Of course some of those creeks and streams might be hard to find. Many of us live on or near waterways that have be filled in or buried. Look at the landscape around High Park in the west end or one of the many tributaries of the Don and you can get a taste of the ravines and streams that used to be a big part of this landscape. As many people know Fort York used to be bordered on its east and northern sides by Garrison Creek. In fact the gully of the creek was incorporated into the forts defenses. Sadly the creek was filled in as the cities growth turned it into an open sewer and garbage tip. You have to summon a lot of imagination now to imagine a clear stream of water flowing out of the forest into Lake Ontario on a shore line where the Gardiner expressway now stands.

Recently I checked out a creek in my own neck of the woods here in Mimico. Within a short walk of my own house is Bonar Creek, a small tributary stream of Mimico Creek. I’m not sure if Bonar Creek is an original feature or if it was created after the City of Etobicoke filled in most of the wetland around the mouth of the Mimico Creek to build a sewage treatment plant (later dubbed the Humber Filtration Plant) thus altering the course of Mimico Creek.

Bonar Creek follows what I think was probably the western edge of the traditional

Mimico Creek waterway, it disappears briefly into a culvert at the entrance to the now demolished filtration plant, reappears before disappearing completely under the CN railway embankment that runs along the QEW (another buried creek). I wish I could say that the water here was clear and full of life; sadly it’s an olive green colour with nasty goop dripping off the embankment outflow. I’m sure there is hope though. Mimico Creek itself, despite nasty storm water and garbage does have little fish in it and if you look at it in the right direction you can forget you’re even in the big city for just a few moments.

Stupid American Tricks

This past week I spent some quality time in Ohio as ma mere was under the knife. I'm happy to report that she's okay, and that thankfully the Doc that worked on her was not the subject in the title of this blog. He's from San Francisco, so practically Canadian.

Anyway, the stupid American in question here was the dude filling up his SUV at the local SuperAmerica gas station. Yanks are up in arms about the $4+ a gallon price tag of precious crude. Clearly not this guy. He proceeded to fill the tank on his guzzler while it was running, with the door open, air conditioner on full blast. WTF? Reminded me of the bear Stevo and I encountered in Killarney a few years ago, eating mountain ash berries then barfing them up immediately. Shovel in, shovel out. Only the bear was smarter than this dude. Hope he enjoyed his $100+ bill. And choking on his own C02s. Assburger.

Change or Dry

This morning I learned that if you want to buy a hybrid (to be clear, we're not in the market at the moment) you should check with your insurer first. Seems most insurance companies are charging higher rates for insuring hybrids than your regular, run of the mill polluter. In fact, in many cases, they're charging more for insuring hybrids than they do for sport or luxury vehicles. Why? They're concerned the cost to repair in the event of an accident or vandalism will be too high.

I'm at once gobsmacked and not surprised at all by this revelation. It's understandable, given that they're pretty risk averse. At the same time, isn't ignoring the fact that our oil reserves are peaking a bit risky too?

Seems to me that insurers might want to skate in front of this puck, rather than following behind with their nerdy clipboards. Because just like the oil we all use to fill up our cars, if they don't start courting the growing numbers of consumers who are buying hybrids (the Prius hit 1 million this week) their traditional and most lucrative market is gonna dry up. 

Bring on the carbon tax

I really hope Stephan Dion has the nads to do it. I really hope a key platform in his election plan is a carbon tax. After the Conservatives finishing making hay with something Canada should have done a long time ago, we can get down to the business of implementing a progressive rather than regressive tax.

Carbon taxation is definitely the way of the future. The idea is to reduce exponentially the tax we already pay on things that are good for us (like our incomes) and increase significantly the tax we should be paying on things that are bad for us (like carbon emissions, gasoline, plastic packaging, etc.). I'd gladly pay a carbon, or sin tax on the bad stuff to get a break on my income tax. Then it's in MY control what I pay taxes on. If I want to drive a big ass gas guzzler, I can; I just have to pay through the nose for it.

What's the problem? This is elementary, and a long time coming. Bring it on.

PS. I've had it to here (picture me with my hand over my head) listening to that little troll Jim Flaherty go on about Liberal tax and spend. Way to rewrite history. For anyone who has forgotten, it was the Liberals that got Canada out of debt (after years of major debt started by my beloved Pierre - who did much for our country, less for our coffers - and exponentially increased by much despised (rightly so, sorry Justin) Brian Mulroney) and into surplus, not the Conservatives. I'm not afraid of Liberals, even though I never vote for em. I am, however, afraid of wacko right wing Conservatives who think the future of our country rests in the destruction of boreal forests in northern Alberta...

Cathy's First Post

You look at the cost of gas when you fill your car; frightened about oil or gas for your home and the growing cost of food. It’s all tied in somehow you know that you can't sit and watch- that you must take action. Luckily there are many easy things we can all do to make a difference. Plant a tree, your own garden, bring your lunch, ride a bike or walk, take the stairs.. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Tar, ducks and screw-ups

In a previous entry I made note of the fact that there really isn’t anything that we can do that we won’t eventually screw up. Well here we go again. Now let me preface this entry by saying that I think the entire tar sands development in Fort McMurray, Alberta is one colossal screw up; a huge boreal destroying, water polluting, air fouling mess on the landscape, driven by greed and the insatiable appetite of our neighbor to the south for oil. Amid this great green house gas making disaster are the little disasters like the news that broke this morning that 400-500 ducks and waterfowl are dying in oil contaminated Syncrude Canada Ltd. settling ponds.

The ponds are the environmental horrors left over from the extraction of the oil from the bitumen impregnated sand that surrounds Fort McMurray. The water comes from the nearby Athabasca River, 359 million cubic metres of it per year according to 2006 numbers; that’s twice the amount of water that is used by the city of Calgary over the same period. Only 10% of the water used in the oil extraction process (that’s up to 4.5 cubic metres of water to extract 1 cubic metre of oil) is fit to return to the Athabasca River. The rest is lost as steam or is pumped into vast settling ponds that surround the site, contaminated by oil and silt. It was these ponds that ducks, migrating north to their spring nesting grounds, unfortunately, landed in.

Being the good corporate citizens they are, Syncrude deploys noisemakers that are supposed to discourage waterfowl from landing on the ponds. But with all the snow that Alberta had last week they just hadn’t managed to get them up and running yet. They say it’s the first time in 30 years that these noisemakers failed; too bad for the ducks and too bad for us. The gutless environment ministries in Ottawa and Alberta are of course threatening investigations and possible fines but does anyone actually think anything will happen??? Do we really believe a plan to deal with the environmental fallout will be drafted? Oh no, I think we can probably count on bigger and better noisemakers! Let’s face it; a few people are making a ton of money on this oily mess so promises will be made that this will never happen again. Right. All while the settling ponds grow in size and number as even more water is pumped from the Athabasca; 50% more just to service the expanded tar sands development plan currently on the books. That means a lot less water will flow through Wood Buffalo National Park and the Peace Athabasca Delta, the species rich wetland system that just happens to be the only nesting grounds for the Whooping Crane, just down river and to the north of this blot on the landscape.

Thank god we can all settle back into complacency and inaction, confident that the next screw-up is just around the corner.


Sources: Oilsands activity threatens water supply: study
by Dennis Bueckert www.energybulletin.net

My Campaign Against PET

If our romps through Sam Smith Park have taught me anything, its that PET bottles are a scourge on the landscape. They're everywhere, and I've really developed a hate on for them. The only thing more prevalent are Tim Horton's cups (they are so evil, but at least they have a better chance at breaking down). And I've already turned my back on those evil things by 'hiring' my own personal barista (his name is Steve) or picking up my coffee at the local Birds 'n Beans which serves up java in either ceramic mugs (how novel) or recycled and biodegradable paper cups AND lids.

Now, I'm setting my sites squarely on plastic bottles. First, this whole leeching thing is a real turn off. If Bisphenol A is unsafe for consumption, what's next, and is it in those nasty flex bottles? Second, water tastes way better coming out of a Sigg metal bottle than out of something derived from petroleum. Finally, they're a symbol of excess. They're overpriced, and designed for people too lazy or too unprepared to get their water out of a tap before they head off to work or school. And they're really easy to throw on the ground. Just ask the hundreds of people who seem to do that regularly at Sam Smith Park, or on any street around the world. Take a look. Next to cigarette butts and Tim Horton's cups of course, I bet ya you'll find a crushed water bottle before you'll find a can.

So, no more plastic bottles for us. If I want a Diet Coke (I know, I know, but only an occasional sin on my part) or a pomegranate juice, it's gotta be in a can or a glass bottle, or I don't buy it. Why? Because glass, aluminum, even cardboard tends to have way more post-consumer recycled material within than PET bottles. And they are way easier to recycle. So nuts to you PET. Who knows, next I may even turn my back on fleece...  

“Das Boot” is now cleaner, greener and earth friendly

If you’ve been patiently waiting for a hydrogen fuel cell car and just can’t understand why it’s taking the automotive designers so long to come out with an engine design that works take heart; the military is way ahead of the curve.
For nearly four years Germany has had a prototype hydrogen fuel cell powered attack submarine in its arsenal and now has another three under construction. Dubbed the ‘type 212A’ this sub features a traditional diesel/electric power plant with a new silent running 50kW Siemens proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell plant, which produces electrical energy from oxygen and hydrogen, and permits the new class of submarines to cruise under water for weeks without surfacing. Unlike the reactor power plant of a nuclear powered submarine, the hydrogen fuel cell produces no heat thereby eliminating the tell tale detectable wake of warm water that nuclear boats release into the ocean. Needless to say the navies of the world are very excited about this new development with Italy, Greece, Portugal and South Korea either ordering or building their own versions of the sub under license. An improved fuel cell is also under development that will deliver 120kW per module that will permit even longer submerged operations.
This sub is the child of the traditional diesel/electric submarine that has been around since World War I that featured an air gulping, exhaust spewing diesel engine for surface cruising and a battery powered electric motor for underwater operations. Unfortunately the batteries were huge and heavy and never delivered enough juice to allow the sub more than a few hours of slow underwater prowling. The nuclear power plants that were developed during the 1950’s seemed to solve all of these problems. They offered an engine that could run independent of the atmosphere and could keep things humming along underwater at high speed for as long as the crew had food or could stand not seeing daylight. It was a perfect solution until navies developed even more sophisticated detection technology to track the little sounds that reactors gave off (think Hunt for Red October) and of course there was that warm water. Oh, and then there were the series of at-sea accidents that the Soviets had as reactors failed, boats sank and crew members were exposed to lethal doses of radiation.
But I digress from my opening; waiting for the auto industry to muddle through the hydrogen fuel cell development mess. Kind of amazing that they can develop something to push a submarine through the water, but can’t move a car with the same technology, technology that is both clean and affordable. But then again the military has never been affordable has it? Governments will pour billions into quiet submarines, but what are they currently investing in clean alternatives to the internal combustion engine? Oh right, there was an electric car once, wasn’t there?
Sources: www.fuelcelltoday.com www.deagel.com

Glamourous Green

Being someone who is passionate about environmental issues, I often find myself faced with the burning question: How can I open people’s minds to adopting a greener lifestyle? The environmental movement is in full force and awareness is at an all-time high. Yet still, people continue to freely commit acts of environmental assault and battery. Chucking old electronics into the wastebasket. Choosing disposable coffee cups over mugs at the office. Liberally spraying pesticides and herbicides on front lawns.

So I tried to imagine myself in their shoes – the shoes of a regular Mary-Lou or Joe-Shmoe. Ok, ok. You can’t really impress your date by asking for a glass of tap water, instead of imported bubbly eau. Participating in the Community Clean-Up and picking garbage isn’t very sexy. You will get weird looks if you bring your own container to the local fast-food joint.

But, I’m here to tell you blog-readers that ecofriendly CAN be cool. I’m not talking about getting on the waiting list at Holt’s for that highly coveted “I’m Not A Plastic Bag” purse. No, that’s just excessive and gross, and a whole other blog post. I’m talking about…

- Vintage clothing and salvage furniture. Find one-of-a-kind pieces that will make your friends green (with envy), without contributing more ‘stuff’ to the earth.
- Bicycling around the city. Eliminate your transportation emissions, and look cool doing it. There are a countless number of occasions where I received fashion inspiration from an ultra stylish woman riding a bike.
- Vegetarianism. I do not know a single vegetarian that does not have beautifully radiant skin and a shiny personality. Perhaps its all the
- Farmers Markets. A great outlet to find fresh, locally grown produce, which cooks into flavourful dishes you can amaze your dinner guests with.
- Living downtown. Be in the centre of the action, and flip the bird to urban sprawl.

But it doesn't stop there. Tons more environmentally sound lifestyle choices are out there, waiting to boost your cool credibility. Green is the new black, and it’s groovy, baby.

Shouldn't every day be Earth Day?

For the last week, Stevo and I have been on a mission to pick up recyclables on our walk in Colonel Sam Smith Park, at the base of Kipling just south of Lakeshore Blvd in Toronto. On Sunday alone, we picked up over 50 water bottles and cans strewn on beaches, pathways and caught in grasslands. We didn't have enough bags to pick up all the Tim Horton cups (a real bee in my bonnet I might add), straws, bottle tops, fry containers, etc that also polluted the landscape. The overwhelming message - people are pigs.

Post our blitz on Sunday, we managed to pick up at least another 25 more, in the very same spots. It's like empty water bottles are a winter crop. If only this were true, then one pass through the park on Community Clean Up Day (this Saturday) would solve the problem. Unfortunately, litter has no seasonal preference. It appears, surely not due to any questionable human behaviour, regardless of the time of year. And it's bullshit.

Wherever we find litter, we also find garbage and recycling bins. It seems it's too much to ask students at Humber College's lake shore campus, or its sister high school, to take an extra two steps to drop their junk in a bin. Lazy little bastards. It's their world they're polluting. I feel guilty about the legacy I'm leaving, then I see the way tomorrow's generation behaves when it comes to litter. The crying native had an impact on me. Perhaps this PSA needs to make a comeback.

Tomorrow, we'll head out, like we do every year, to clean up the crap left by people who don't really give a rat's ass about the future they're building for themselves. You can rest assure that within the week, we'll be retrieving yet another bottle (these things need to be banned, or at least have a deposit attached to them) from a water or path way.

At least our hands will be clean...after we wash them, after we pick up other people's garbage. But I'm not bitter...

Discovering Another Threat

While channel surfing last night I came upon a program on the ironically named Discovery Channel. I say ironically named because when this cable channel first came out I seem to recall that its content was focused much more on the discovery of the natural world. Nowadays the Discovery Channel is all about “discovering” the latest choppers or hotrods or weapons and technology that the human race has cooked up to make its existence more bearable. Last night’s episode of the show “Mega Builders” entitled Arctic Ice Crusher, featuring the construction of an oil super tanker at the Samsung shipyards in South Korea, was no exception. Alright, very impressive stuff, big pieces of steel, lots of people all working together under tight deadlines to create a big honking ship. What really hit me was that this particular super tanker was the first of its kind to be constructed with an icebreaker bow. Yes, an oil super tanker capable of transiting Arctic waters. At this point I felt a hollow form in the pit of my stomach. Was I the only person watching this show that felt the same feeling or was everyone else glorying in our accomplishment? There aren’t too many places left on earth that we haven’t messed up due to our greed and hunger for resources. The high Artic was one of those places that was getting off lightly due to its inhospitable temperatures and ice covering. Now thanks to global warming the Arctic ice pack is shrinking; the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center has reported that Arctic sea ice has shrunk to a record low 4.14 million sq km (1.6 million sq mile), more than 1.2 million sq km -- or the size of South Africa -- less than the previous low in 2005. A Norwegian study in the Barents Sea has found that sea ice thickness has shrunk by half since 2001.

I think most of us will have realized by now that there isn’t a ship, plane or structure we can build that won’t eventually crash, sink or collapse. It’s bound to happen eventually to anything we create; we’re not perfect beings after all, as much as we might want to convince ourselves otherwise. One day in our future this technological marvel will run aground, or sink and disgorge its cargo onto this fragile ecosystem. The mess will be chalked up to human error, or maybe instrument failure or perhaps even, irony of ironies, environmental conditions.

Hey Discovery Channel, while I think it’s important to know about the threats to our planet, could you be oh, I don’t know, a little less enthusiastic in telling us how super cool they are? The next time I would appreciate a show on how we are trying to save this planet rather than how we are creating a machine that will help destroy it. That’s the kind of discovery I appreciate.

Poisoned Darts and Self-Congratulating Laurels

Okay, I'm blatantly plagiarizing the Toronto Star's Darts and Laurels approach, but I just have to say this.

First, congratulations to Toronto for exceeding the expectations of the WWF and Toronto Hydro. We rose to the challenge and blew through the target for energy reduction during Earth Hour. Good for us.

Second, a rousing BOOOO to Stephen Harper. Don't even try to hide your blatant disregard for the environment. While parliament and the official residences of the leader of the opposition and the governor general went dark to show recognition and support to Earth Hour efforts, the PM made sure the lights in his office on the Hill and at 24 Sussex were burning bright. You suck.

The Do's and Don'ts of Earth Hour

Earth Hour is quickly approaching, and we thought we'd provide a bit of a primer on how to celebrate. Remember, Earth Hour runs from 8-9 pm on Saturday, March 29 and is designed to raise awareness around the very real threat of climate change. So, here is GangisGreen's list of Do's and Don'ts to Celebrate Earth Hour

Do:

• Celebrate by shutting off your lights and unplugging 'sleeping' appliances like TVs and computers from 8-9. It's okay to leave your main fridge plugged in, but perhaps tomorrow's the day to unplug the inefficient 'beer' fridge and leave it that way.
• Remind your friends of this event and encourage them to celebrate.
• Plan fun activities for the whole family that don't include the draw of electricity (eg. candlelight scrabble, strip poker, whatever).
• Eat and drink local. Seems pretty bizarre to toast Earth Hour with some fine Australian Shiraz or Russian Vodka...how far did that have to travel to get to your table?
• Get outside.  Evidently the sky will be very clear tomorrow; take advantage of the lack of city lights for 1 hour, and do some urban star gazing.
• If you haven't done so already, use this as your first foray into living greener. View this as a step on a path to more sustainable living, not just an isolated event.

Don't:

• Use this time to gap the spark plugs on your Hummer.
• Light up grandma's funeral pyre. Did you know that the ancient ritual of funeral pyres, still practiced today in many eastern countries, generates over 7 million tonnes of CO2 annually?
• Fly anywhere during Earth Hour.
• Idle your car at the Tim Horton's drive thru.
• Spark up your air conditioner.
• Celebrate by cranking the hot tub up to 32 C.
• Deep fry a turkey or barbecue a big fat steak.

You catch the drift. Be thoughtful, from front to back, about what you're doing to celebrate this event. And extend that consideration further, as you start to turn the lights back on, and go back to living your life. Because, let's face it, every hour should be Earth Hour, every day, Earth Day. Enjoy.

Another Canary in the Mine?

Buried back on page A21 of the Saturday March 22, 2008 Toronto Star was a story about a new disease that is killing bats in the U.S. Northwest. White-nose syndrome as it has been dubbed typically appears as a white powdery dusting on the animals’ nose. In most cases the bats that have it become dehydrated and die. It first appeared last winter in New York State and has since spread to Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut this winter. This new disease, previously unknown to science, has a mortality rate of 50% to 90% in all infected animals. Last winter 8,000 to 11,000 over wintering bats in the Albany, New York area died of this disease, perhaps half of the total local population.

A lot of people don’t like bats. At best they think of them as flying mice, at worst they get to be bit players in our darker fantasies. Despite this unearned reputation bats play an incredibly important role in the ecosystem, eating literally tons of insects every warm summer night, controlling populations of moths, flies and mosquitoes. We might want to think about that this summer in Toronto when there will undoubtedly be yet another series of dire warnings about the dangers of West Nile Virus, the potentially fatal condition carried by, you guessed it, mosquitoes. As far as we know white-nose syndrome hasn’t affected bats in southern Ontario yet. We better hope it doesn’t because if it does we will have a lot fewer allies out there controlling mosquito populations for us this summer. What will we fall back on then; aerial spraying, pesticide in ponds and wetlands?

At this point no one knows why this disease has started to kill the bats of the U.S. northwest as they hibernate in their caves. But like the fungal infections that have begun to attack amphibians in North America, or the collapse of honey bee colonies, we need to be paying attention to this. Something is happening to these little canaries in the coal mine and we ignore their fate at our own peril.

Recession - good news for the environment?

One measure the US Federal Reserve uses to judge whether or not the economy is in recession is...garbage. Yup, when people throw lots out, times are good. When people stop putting out fridges, couches and computers with their potato peels (for shame - compost!), it's time to stuff whatever savings you may have in the mattress you were about to throw out.

As a society, we're getting pretty good, though not great, at embracing the concept of recycling. We still have a ways to go in our single family homes, but especially in our businesses, and in our apartments and condos. What we're far less good at is reusing, or even better, reducing. Recessions may force us to be better at the latter two.

I'm not suggesting a recession is a good thing. But perhaps the silver lining is that it's a good reminder that maybe we don't need that new couch or computer after all. Maybe we can turn those scraps into stock for soup, rather than dumping them in the trash. Maybe, just maybe, economic recession, or the threat of one, causes us to be conscious and therefore more responsible consumers.

Bubblin' Crud

I hope Alberta is happy. For years they sucked off the teat of Ontario, accepting millions of dollars in 'equalization' payments until they struck it rich in natural gas, tar sands (nice try on rebranding to oil sands...it's tar ya bastards) and everything else that is bad for the environment. Then, they circled the wagons and refused to share their new found wealth with the rest of Canada. Except, their new found wealth isn't really wealth after all. It's an illusion. And as far as I'm concerned, they can stuff it up their bitumen.

Say these three words to any Albertan over the age of 20, and watch the veins pop out of their forehead - national energy policy. No way were they gonna share their royalties with the rest of us losers. But look at 'em go now, selling themselves, along with OUR WATER down the river to America. All those pipelines they're building...they run to the good ol' US of A. And for every barrel of oil produced, the Alberta government collects a whopping royalty of $1. $1!!!! Oil is selling for over a hundred bucks a barrel! Even worse, for every 1 barrel they produce, they use 8 barrels of water, OUR WATER, to extract crude from that crud. If that weren't bad enough, it takes 1 barrel of oil to produce 2 barrels of oil from the tar sands. WTF? Who the hell is doing the books in Alberta?

Clearly, no one with a sense of sustainability. Or who can add for that matter.

Alberta's all about the tax base. It's all about those feeder industries - pipe makers, heavy machinery builders, Tim Horton's and Wal-Mart - that are helping fill the coffers with money, as their natural wonders are rapidly being turned into moonscapes. Never mind that the number of homeless is growing exponentially in this boom province, that thousands are living below the poverty line while Suncor and Exxon rack up profits. Never mind that dozens of native people living in remote settlements in northern Alberta are contracting rare, never before heard of bile duct cancers. It surely has nothing to do with the open pits of water and bitumen sluice that dot the landscape along the newly paved highway into their villages. We should be ashamed that it took this kind of environmental degradation to pave a lousy highway.

Well, this too shall pass (how naive a statement is that??!!). But when it's over, and you're all living with Mad Max in your self-constructed dystopia, don't coming knocking on Ontario's door. Been there, done that. You're on your own. 

Boar in the Forest of Dean

I picked up a story recently on the BBC website. It dealt with the re-introduction of Wild Boar in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire in Britain.

The Wild Boar is the indigenous wild swine of Europe. They are hairy, tusked, fierce animals; and a full grown boar weighs in somewhere between 80-100 kg. The beast appears frequently in medieval heraldry; King Richard III of England chose the Boar as his personal insignia no doubt because of its traditional reputation for ferocity and orneriness.

This reputation placed the boar at the top of the must hunt list. After all real men in the medieval world wanted to hunt something that might fight back. Hunting boar was carried out on horse back with spears and dogs, it was bloody and dangerous. There was no honour in blasting away at something with a sniper scope from several thousand yards back then. Needless to say Wild Boar have been extinct in England since the 13th Century and despite attempted re-introductions by various Kings for hunting stock the beast has not been seen tripping through the forest since the 1500’s. Of course it warmed the heart of this greenie to hear that this creature was once again to be found in English forests. Apparently a few years ago several animals escaped from a game farm near the Forest of Dean, a modest 110 km2 of mixed forest in Gloucestershire. Another group of animals may have been illegally dumped in the area as part of a guerrilla re-introduction. There are now estimated to be over 100 animals in the forest; a stable breeding population that is doing what boar do best, routing through the forest floor eating acorns, invertebrates, plants, and anything else they can find (they are pigs after all), sounds idyllic doesn’t it?

Recently a young boar wondered out of the forest and into the play yard of a local school. The beast was no doubt just looking for food but was shot as a hazard to its human neighbours. Most of us love the woods, and wild spaces, I know I do. We think of them as nice safe places where we can re-connect with a sanitized, non-threatening form of nature but are we prepared to share the space with 100kg of bristled swine. With no natural predators left alive in the UK the boar of the Dean are at the top of their little food chain and could potentially continue to reproduce and build their numbers as long as food is plentiful. Already local land owners around the forest are becoming concerned because their chrysanthemums are being routed out by animals emerging from the woods, and of course there is always the fear of a boar/human confrontation. Wildlife, even in the animal friendly UK, will only be tolerated up to the point where a single human might be threatened. It has been suggested that some management is needed, a hunt perhaps, we can’t have these animals overpopulating and threatening their ecosystem (and us) through their unrestrained breeding, can we?

These hundred or so Wild Boar share a piece of geography that has one of the densest human populations in all of Europe, 57million human beings according to 2001 numbers. One hundred against 57 million; I’d say given the limited space in the UK the boar may have topped out already

There are of course no restrictions on our growth, we are happily breeding and spreading about the planet. There is no wise overseer of our population expansion to insure we don’t wreck havoc on our ecosystem or threaten the other creatures we share the planet with. As long as food is plentiful we shall prosper and multiply. The only predator we need fear is ourselves.

I’m happy the boar are back, even if their environment is a somewhat artificial reconstruction of what it once was. Call them a romantic symbol of what once was, a time when the forest was held in awe and respect because it could also be dangerous. If we can recapture even a small piece of this past it will be worth it.

Beware of the Ides of March...

Every year, around March 15, my grandmother used to brace herself. She had an unnatural obsession with the Ides of March, and equated it with death day. Her brother and sister both died on or about that date, so I guess her phobia was understandable. Anyway, this site is dedicated to those things green, so in the event you have a family member or friend who recently took a dirt nap, or are planning for your own, check out the new, green ways of dealing with the carcass. No need to use nasty chemicals to do the dirty deed. There are better ways...green in life, so to in death...

So you think you're a greenie?

Why not join in on some enviro social networking? Or, at the very least, measure your carbon footprint, and make a pledge and a plan for reducing it. All at www.toronto.zerofootprint.net. 

Pencil this in

March 22, 2008 is World Water Day, which promotes water as a public good, versus a source of profit. Tell that idiot we call our prime minister (I won't use his name, since I might get sued by him if I do) that water is for people, not for profit, by clicking here and signing an already conveniently penned letter from the Council of Canadians. And remember how precious this resource is the next time you turn on your tap.

Also, March 29, from 8-9pm is Earth Hour. Turn off your lights and snuggle with your significant others for an hour to demonstrate your commitment to taking action on global warming. Everybody else is doing it; why shouldn't you? Check out the Earth Hour site for more details. It's as simple as flicking off for one whole hour on a Saturday night. I'm sure you can find something to do with your time that doesn't require illumination!

A celestial message...

Referencing my note about CFLs (compact fluorescent lightbulbs); from those clever folks at Greenpeace.

Sucked into the vortex

Somewhere between San Francisco and Hawaii, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean resides the North Pacific Gyre, aka the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch." This is the place where household plastic goes to die. Or, more accurately, goes to live forever and ever.

Water bottles, plastic bags, straws, pen caps, you name it, much of it ends up here, bobbing around on ocean currents, a testament to our wasteful, consumerist ways. How does it get here? Well, some idiots deliberately throw it off their speedboats, but more often, it's from thoughtless little gits who throw their trash in the streets. Eventually, it gets washed through the storm sewer system, and out into our rivers, lakes and other tributaries, and then it's on its way to the island of misfit trash.

Studies put the annual count of garbage that makes its way into our water sources at 6.4 million tonnes a year, 90% of that being plastic. The nasty, non-biodegradable kind that lives forever. Another frightening statistic, in some regions, the plastic outpaces the plankton 6 to 1. This crap traps turtles, chokes sea mammals and kills birds who try to eat it.

My point? We're being sucked into the vortex, by contributing to the problem. We sit by complacently as manufacturers continue to overproduce products and packaging using this junk. Or, we do very little to ensure what we do wind up buying gets disposed of properly once we're done with it, be it packaging, or the products themselves, many of which are also made of plastic.

Thankfully, the City of Toronto is moving ahead with its plan to offer recycling services for things like plastic bags. Take advantage of it when it comes to your neighbourhood. Or better yet, decline the offer of a plastic bag at your next purchase - use a cloth one instead.

Here are some other tips you can use to reduce your unhealthy reliance on plastic:

• Avoid bottled water. Get a Sigg - it's made from metal, will last forever, and doesn't leach nasty chemicals into your water. Also, water always tastes better from a Sigg. I don't know why, it just does.
  
• Buy in bulk to reduce the packaging you bring home.
  
• Buy loose, rather than prepacked (eg. produce, bakery, etc.) whenever you can.
  
• Don't litter. And earn yourself some karma. Pick up 3 pieces a day. It'll make you feel superior, and does a world of good for your community too.
  

For more interesting information, or to read the article that got me onto today's rant, check out this link.

Sometimes the media is so stupid...

I read an incredibly ridiculous article in the business section of The Star this morning, about incandescent light bulbs, and how we've maybe given them a bad rap. The premise of the article? Incandescents are bad for folks trying to cool their homes - given that only 5-10% of the energy it takes to power them actually lights them up; the rest is used to heat them up to burn bright. But, they're maybe good for people who live in cold climates, who burn fossil fuels to heat their homes and businesses. Are you kidding me? Maybe someone should provide a pointer on the science of hot and cold air. Hot air RISES. So, I guess if you turn on the bulb in the basement, your living room floor might warm up? WTF?

This reminds me of another ridiculous article I read in the National Post (aagg, sorry, I just vomited in my mouth while writing that rag's name) a few weeks ago. About how we're all kidding ourselves re: the value of recycling because recycled paper doesn't hang together quite as good as virgin boreal forest paper. So, it isn't really great for printing newspapers. I have an idea - quit buying or for humanity's sake, even reading the National Post, and you'll be doing your part to save our precious boreal. 

Timing is everything

Seems only appropriate to start an enviro blog on St Patty's day...the greenest day of the year. Though, this blog has nothing to do with green beer. But I may be able to squeeze something in about rotting potatoes...

Testing my resolve

I get pissed off about the stupid things we're doing to kill our planet. A lot. I'm prone to moments of despair, anger, disbelief, rage. But, am I agitated enough to write about it regularly? I've started this blog, just to see...