Out of order

Baby has been sick for a week and since I spend a lot of time close to her, especially when she's sick, I got the bug now, too. I really like her doctor. When we went to see him yesterday and he did not recommend any medication. Instead he suggested to make her inhale eucalyptus or rosemary or something like that by putting a few drops of oil on a cloth underneath her bed sheet. So I bought the 12 ml bottle of eucalyptus oil at Planet Organic (the price tag did not quite make me faint) and simply opened the bottle in her room. Wonderful smell! Anyway, baby is better, mummy is worse. Of course, I don't take medication. I believe my body should be able to straighten itself out. It's just a cold after all. And there's a lot of bad medication, not all of it but lots. Medication derived from plants, such as homoeopathic stuff, is okay from my "green perspective" because it's natural. But I have a very bad opinion about chemical medication - it's designed in laboratories, it's so highly concentrated that a tiny amount has quite an impact on the human body, and what the body does not absorb gets passed out and into the water stream because it will not be removed in waster water treatment facilities. Apparently there's almost no drinking water source on the planet any more that does not have antibiotics in it. Antibiotics are given to patients, real and fake ones alike, so readily that they are now a "natural" occurrence in water!? Feeding antibiotics to animals certainly does its part, too. But people not feeling well do tend to go to the doctor demanding antibiotics even though it does not cure at all what their problem is. Colds can not be fixed with antibiotics so why does no doctor tell the patient? Placebo effect maybe, patient believes it helps and bang he feels already much better. Anyway, I think doctors should always consider alternatives to chemical drugs first and patients need to learn to be patient. A plant extract might not kick in quite as fast as the highly concentrated chemistry cocktail but it will come with fewer side effects. And since most chemical medications have not been tested on how they work together with other chemical medications I suggest to apply the "better safe than sorry"- rule. Saves the planet, too, by preserving our water quality.                      

We've moved

We moved; I feel like living in a different city but it's unfortunately not the case. Our apartment looks pretty good already, everything is unpacked, stored, sorted ... I put a "No Junk Mail" -sticker on the mail box. All that advertisement is such a waste. I wished more people would do it because if nobody wants it box stores would hopefully stop printing flyers in the first place. If I am really keen to know what a particular store has on offer I go to their website.
Although we are not planning on living for years to come in Edmonton we threw out all our moving boxes (apart from those lent to us by Bob). Dave's workplace goes through a considerable number of boxes every day, they'll give us some when needed. Luckily, this building complex we moved to has recycling bins, yeah. We don't have the storage space for the boxes anyway. All our rooms turned out bigger than before, except the walk-in storage disappeared. Now we have a bike parked in the living room. Dave walked home from the office today and it took him only 25 minutes - about the same as by bus, unless he has to wait for it. He can cycle once we get bike lights to fight the winter darkness. Also, the second hand bike trailer did not work out. The lady who advertised it has obviously no idea that she has a Renegade bike trailer and not a Chariot bike trailer as per her ad. Chariot is as far as I know the best brand for child bike trailers but dead expensive too. Renegade is something cheap we can't even find on the web so who knows where we would get replacement parts or conversion kits if needed, if they exist at all. It did not look like the trailer would fold up either. Thinking now about a new MEC trailer...
Our new apartment was as hot as the old one when we moved in. The thermostat looks really old and needs adjustment with pliers. With patience and open windows we got the temperature down and to stay down. I don't understand that there's only one thermostat for a whole apartment. From Germany I am used to adjusting the temperature per room, right on the radiator. I don't need my bedroom as warm as the living room, nor do I like my kitchen warm because it does not help with the food storage. How someone could heat a whole apartment up to about 25 C/ 80 F I don't understand. 
On the way to look at the bike trailer we drove past refinery row between Edmonton and Sherwood Park. It's a horrible strip of land. What struck me that night was the amount of lights - like a massive (horizontal) Christmas tree. Flat buildings cluttered over a large area because land is/ was cheap and every building has half a dozen doors, every single door lit up by a lamp. Ever heard of motion sensors? In space and electricity use completely wasteful. With regards to the lights, Bob came up with the business explanation of "different budgets" (electricity vs. motions sensors) which might be true. In that case I suggest some business rules/ practices deserve to be chucked into the garbage bin if this world is ever intending to change for the better.                                            

Consumerism at its worst

It's Christmas and for lots of people December 24 seems to be THE day to shop for all gifts. Unbelievable to me how full the parking lots were all day today (we still across from a mall, 2 more days). According to a survey what people hate most about Christmas though is all the eating and all the shopping. All the eating involves to shop for the food to start with. So if those are the worst two things why the heck do we keep them up so stubbornly? Why don't we just tell our families "sorry, no turkey this year, we'll have a simple salad instead." A lot of people (especially women) are on a permanent diet anyway, so why bother with the effort of preparing this huge meal!? 

As for the shopping, keeping it small really shouldn't be an issue. Kids always want lots but they are attracted to just about anything that passes their eyes. But most adults live in a cluttered space already - why add on to this? At least that's the reason why I never buy anything materialistic for my parents. How about a service instead? The massage college across the road sells gift cards for massages. I can't imagine anyone would not enjoy this gift. Some might prefer a concert or cinema ticket or a voucher to a restaurant. Or make a donation on behalf of someone, preferably to an organisation that protects nature, contrary to what standard consumerism does. My husband 'bought' an acre of Canadian Habitat for me - he keeps joking my gift will arrive by mail (the piece of paper that confirms his 'purchase'). We decided to make donations more often anyway. Either way you will not have to elbow your way through the crowds in the box stores that in the end help fill up our landfills a bit quicker. After all, a considerable number of unhappy people will run to the store in two days trying to exchange their gifts, or otherwise throw it out, maybe after keeping it hidden for a while. 

By the way, in two days one of the most ridiculous events to me is going to happen. - Boxing Day Sale! That's for the hardcore consumer countries .... It's not happening in Germany. In Germany Christmas is still Christmas, a family-at-home event. Everything closes at noon on Dec 24 and does not open until Dec 27 again. Germany had for a long time shops close at 6 PM while Great Britain had 24-hour-stores. I agree open until 8 PM is not a bad thing but all night and day? Seriously? I don't think Christmas was ever meant to be a stupidly big shopping frenzy but it certainly does not sadden shop owners and economists. Marketing once more wins over the bit of bounded rationality of Homo Sapien.  

There is the occasional exemption of course to both, eating and shopping. My husband can eat anything and does not put on weight. I am not that type of person but I can't wait for the Christmas dinner to come since I want to put on weight again. Thanks to baby and no car but lots of activity I have become too slim. And last year when we just started up our own household we were happy and lucky to get Christmas gifts that helped us fill this household with the basic items. But now we have got those and we take care not to need replacements on a yearly basis.                           


Last but not least a suggestion - second hand! Buy gifts second hand, maybe add your personal touch to them, or turn Christmas into a swap. Family members could consider what they have but not really need and that might be exactly what somebody else is looking for. You never know until you have tried it. Remember Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.    

Getting ready to move

We'll be moving in a few days. I'm not going to analyse how "green" this move will be. Bob's renting the vehicle because he's the driver so we'll see what he brings along. All boxes are used, we kept the packaging of stroller, car seat & Co - yes, we anticipated  to move soon again. We have considerable more stuff than a year ago but we still have little compared to almost anybody I know. And it's too much. Packing the boxes I got mad at every book we have and all the baby clothing. The baby clothing we can't really help because a baby changes size so frequently you need to have some variety handy. Luckily, it does not weigh tons either and if we weren't planning on having another child I'd given some stuff away or sold it. Mind you, my mum dared to send already clothes that will not fit baby until she's 2 years of age or so. Grrrr! The books we can help. While we still travelled we had a strict policy of not buying books. We still hardly ever buy books, especially not novels or anything related to that genre. We fit all of our books on 4 shelves that are 40 inches wide (that's the rough measurement of my better half). Their weight is enormous though. I'd prefer not to compromise our space any further. Terribly enough we have to keep many things - including books that aren't board books - at above 40 inches/ 1m of height or else baby will take them apart. Conclusion: Books belong into libraries, to be shared and to save trees. And we'll have a book sale before the next move. 
Don't get me wrong I still prefer books over TV, Kindle and other entertainment technology but please not all in my place. Who is going to give me a back massage after carrying all those boxes on Monday? We'll keep up moving, too.                         

The run off we cause ... - part 3

A few more facts from Crapshoot:

- Pharmaceutical compounds in Canadian effluent are among the highest in the modern industrialized world.

- 80 % of Canadian coastal cities dump their sewage untreated, raw, into the ocean where the waste piles up on the ocean’s ground – In St John’s, Newfoundland, the harbour is a huge bowl which is already covered 16 feet deep in waste from the sewage pumped into the harbour. 120 million litres of sewage every day!  120,000,000 litres every 24 hours!

- 80% of Canadian sewage goes through waste water treatment. Treated water is not necessarily safe! Treated but still contaminated water goes back in our water bodies inhabited by wildlife. Even small concentrations of something might cause huge damage in fish and other wildlife. Part of this wildlife and fish gets eaten by us. It does not hit us like a bang but it might come with long-term effects on us. Therefore it’s time to seriously consider the connection between our waste and how it - steps later - could affect us.   

Abby Rockefeller, President of the ReSource Institute for Low Entropy Systems (RILES), calls for a revolution of the system. To her the sewer system is the “peak of irrational”. She advocates a policy change that moves away from the mixing of wastes and using water as medium to carry waste towards on-site-waste-recycling and waterless meanings of dealing with waste. The main cost of the sewer is to connect the communities with pipes that transport the sewage away. On site systems do not require this infrastructure. Waste does not get spread out but is dealt with where it’s produced. If a company was unable to safely recycle its own waste or keep the material in the production loop it would not be operating. For the individual the composting toilet is an obvious solution. A composting toilet does not smell. While the solids, human excrements and kitchen waste, are composted by microbial and earth worms in a container in the basement of the building, any water goes through to a separate container for use as grey water. The compost from the solids is safe to handle, comes without health concern, smells and looks like soil.

I just found on the RILES website a post by Abby about the sewer, also under consideration of the septic system: http://www.riles.org/musings49.htm

The run off we cause ... - part 2

This is still referring to the things I learned from the documentary Crapshoot: 

 

We are looking now at sludge. Sludge is the solid waste after water is removed; it’s also called bio-solids even though that’s not quite right if you remember the list of substances going into sewage. As mentioned before, sewers were never meant to be clean and chemical-free. The use of sewers was not meant to result in safe and beneficial products that could be reintegrated into the nutrients cycle. In Canada half the sludge is still spread on farmland. Sludge is often free of charge to the farmer and even labelled as soil enhancer!

Example: In rural Ontario, where food is grown and cattle grazes, sludge is taken onto fields without notifying residents. The sludge gets dumped 1 to 5 times per day.  Afterwards plastics and waste products can be found on the fields. A resident started asking questions and got no proper answers from government authorities or the treatment plant. Instead she was threatened that she would have to shut up about the issue in order to not cause worries amongst other residents. Water tests come back with E-Coli contamination. Looking forward to your farm fresh produce now?

In Sweden and other European countries (Belgium, Netherlands) sludge spreading on farm land has been banned, not by government but by agricultural entities. One reason was that flame retardants in sewage were spread on fields and later found in food and breast milk – the concentration of flame retardants had doubled every 6 years in Sweden. These flame retardants are linked to causing cancers. In Sweden sludge has since been used as a land filling material in motorways and non-critical places.

The state-of-the-art waste management facility in Edmonton includes a huge composting hall. The resulting compost was initially sold as Nutri-Plus but not everything that goes into the composting hall is just organic waste. In the meantime it’s sold as compost enhanced top soil to residents and agriculture.

The run off we cause and its problems - part 1

The National Film Board of Canada made a film about sewage – S  E W A G E. I did not think there’s a film about this subject and I came across it accidentally but damn was that film interesting, an eye-opener you may say. It’s called Crapshoot: The gamble with our wastes. The films answers questions like: Where does the sewage go, what happens with it then, what does it do to us?

First it comes up with a list of what sewage involves: food leftovers, cleaning chemicals, detergents, toiletries, hair dye, paint thinners, pharmaceuticals, excrements, industrial solvents, paper mill residue, oil, cleansers, radioactive material, dental & hospital wastes, petroleum products, heavy metals … keep going, what else can you come up with? There’s almost nothing that’s not in sewage. Sewers have become super highways of toxic waste and hazardous components. Now think about what goes down your drain every day and what should not and why.   

    

The film points out that water is being used to transport a lot of waste somewhere else where we don’t see it any more and simply forget about it. But whatever gets mixed together in sewage can not be simply taken apart again! Sewers were never designed to treat the water to a stage where it becomes as clean as before. They were only designed to get rid of grey water. The most modern waste water treatment plants can not separate all the stuff that’s in our grey water so the water goes still contaminated back into water bodies, our rivers and lakes and oceans. Considering our dependence on water for drinking and food purposes alone it’s ridiculous how we waste water for purposes like sewage, as a medium to quicker transport waste “away” from us. Remember, our planet Earth is still roundish – it will all come back to us.    

Would you swim in the North Saskatchewan River?

At a meeting of my moms & tots group mum A said she’d take her child fishing because that’s what she used to do growing up in a small village in Alberta. Living in Edmonton now they fish in the North Saskatchewan River but they always release their catch and never eat the fish. They think the river is too polluted. Nobody swims in it either here. I mention this because living in Basel, Switzerland I noticed that residents swam in the Rhine that goes right through town. It’s legal and safe and fun. I tried it. There’s even an official river swim event once a year where hundreds of people take to the water and swim together through town. Since you usually do not return swimming to where you started you can buy a waterproof bag for your clothes that will float along with you.

Mom B then mentioned that her parents had a cottage at Wabamum Lake that used to be busy with fishing and recreational activities. But things have changed since the oil spill in August 2005 when a Canadian National Freight train derailed losing up to 1.3 million litres of heavy bunk oil. Over 700,000 litres are estimated to have flown into the lake. In addition, “hazardous chemicals” escaped as well but lake residents weren’t told until 4 days after the incident. Since the oil spill the consumption of fish has been limited; actually one should not consider eating the fish at all. CN was fined and ordered to clean up. That alone does not do the trick though! Money and more chemicals will certainly not “clean” the lake up to its previous beauty.

Talking with members of Edmonton’s Newcomers Club I hear again and again how dirty the lakes are in Alberta, unlike BC and Saskatchewan (and excluding the lakes in the national parks). Wonder why? I’m not 100% sure but I bet it’s got to do with oil drilling and coal mining and everything that comes with these dirty fossil fuels.  

Love to shampoo your hair?

Did you know? 

Every shampoo contains 4 basic types of chemicals. The first is surfactants, cleaning agents that strip dirt of the hair, usually harsh and leave the hair dry and brittle. Conditioning agents are added to rectify the pH balance. Foaming agents make it bubbly. Fragrances give shampoo its unique identity. Shampoos can have dozens of ingredients but they all fall into one of these groups. 

As mentioned in an earlier post about cosmetics, it's best to understand the ingredients list not only for the food you eat but also for the cosmetics you use, including shampoo - everything else might proof to be more harmful than good for you and your hair. 

Check out your shampoo on Skin Deep, the website with hazard-rating for cosmetics.http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/

Time to put a cap on bottled water

When 100% Canadian Bottled Water states to be “the real environmentally friendly company” then that is a bold lie to me because the business of bottled water alone is a far cry from environmentally friendly. Here's why: I bought a BPA-free water bottle recently. A little leaflet on the bottle stated that the energy required to manufacture, fill, and transport a chilled disposable bottle of water is equivalent to filling the bottle ¼ full of oil. Bon Appetit! Plastic bottles take up to 1000 years to decompose. In North America an estimated 70 million bottles are dumped in land fills each year, and buying bottle water costs up to 3000 times as much as tap water - the willingness to pay that price (in a developed country) pis stupid to me.  

An article in today's paper refers to a new book called "Bottled and sold" by Peter Gleick. The author underlines that every second in the US 1000 people buy a bottle of water and another 1000 throw an empty bottle away. Terrible, alone the thought of so much plastic used to bottle something that comes tasty right out of the tap, at least in developed countries. I have drunk tap water for many years now, my parents don't like it. Advertisement did the trick for them, they think it's not as good as bottled water but that's not right. They surely would not do what I did - drink water out of rivers in New Zealand and Iceland when hiking and camping. Water should be safe to drink or we "smart" human beings have screwed up once more!  ...  Oh yes, we have screwed up big time again. 

Europe is pretty good at recycling, some countries more than others. In Germany you take your bottles back to the store where you bought them and receive your deposit back. In Edmonton we have to make all the way to the Bottle Depot which not everybody does. I do it and the stroller comes in handy even though others think I'm crazy. Oh no, I'm not, it's for a good cause. But I return milk jugs and the odd wine bottle, never water bottles.

The European Federation of Bottled Water says that the recycling of PET bottles has been rising and has reached 41% in 2008. Sounds disappointing to me! That's still 59% that don't get recycled and possibly end up in landfills. I strongly support the stand that there should not be such a thing as bottled water. But drinking fountains in the city that's a good idea to me. Basel in Switzerland has them.       
 

May the sun shine

My aunt and uncle in Germany now have solar panels on their roof. Hip, hip, hurray! It did cost a bit of money and depending on the sunshine they get or not it may take 20 years to amortize the expense. Since they produce most energy during the day when they are not at home the power gets fed into the network. They still receive their electricity as usual and pay the bill for it. From the power company they get a cheque in return for the power generated from their solar cells. I asked them about their power bill but it's difficult to compare to ours because it is set up differently. They pay an annual fee and then for their monthly or bi-monthly usage. Since 1 KWH costs them 19 Euro cents I assume part of the fees might be included in the unit price. They receive 33 Euro cents per KWH solar energy. I'm sure it's subsidized. Next time I go to Germany I'll try to check out their power bills in order to understand them better. I remember reading a headline early that year announcing that Germany's power prices had gone up due to more renewable energy fed into the system which I am not too opposed to because with the unit prize they pay there's incentive to track your energy consumption and reduce it.                       

Organic Food and other things we eat - Monsanto

The DVD cover for the documentary The World according to Monsanto reads like this:

“With operations in 46 countries, Monsanto has become the world leader in genetically modified organisms (GMOs), as well as one of the most controversial corporations in industrial history. Since its founding in 1901, the U.S. multinational has faced trial after trial due to the toxicity of its products. Today, it has reinvented itself as a “life sciences” company converted to the virtues of sustainable development.

Calling on hitherto unpublished documents and first-hand accounts by victims, scientists and politicians, The World according to Monsanto pieces together the story of an industrial giant that, thanks in part to lies, collusion with the American government, pressure tactics and attempted corruption, has become one of the world’s leading seed manufacturers, spreading GM crops worldwide with no real monitoring of their effects on nature and human health.”

The film made by Marie-Monique Robin, 2008, is a France-Canada co-production with co-operation of several TV stations from Germany, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland and others.

-         Canada did not approve GM crops after Health Canada staff raised concerns about its safety to human health - BUT three Health Canada staff members got fired for raising concerns. In the UK something similar happened.  Scientists working for the British Health Services who were asked to assess GMOs from the USA got fired for raising alarm. One of the scientists later figured out that there must have been intervention from the UK and US governments and the UK gave in after the US warned them of what’s at stake. After all one of the largest corporations in the world spent a lot of money on developing these crops and wants to make profit of it.                   

-         In India Monsanto crops have been called suicide seeds, ruining lots of small farmers. They bought the seeds at double the price of regular seeds but the seeds required Monsanto’s fertilizers and pesticides to actually grow well. The little money earned from selling the harvest still left the farmer with a mountain of debt from the initial investment. Monsanto does not allow farmers to save seeds either so farmers have to buy them again next year.     

-         Monsanto’s pesticides are so strong their run-off from fields during a rain period killed 60 geese and ducks of a Paraguayan farmer. This farmer lives close to the GM crop fields. Although never planting GM crops himself his fields have been taken over by the GM crop. He has trouble planting and growing other foods for his family, therefore losing his subsistence. In addition, his boy who walks across the GM crop field every day to the market has developed skin eczema that the family can't afford to get treated.

-         Mexico’s variety of corn is being contaminated with GMOs as seeds spread naturally and changes the DNA of traditional corn breeds. Mexico is very proud of its corn varieties and a healthy environment needs biodiversity.  

-         Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH) is widely used in the USA to increase milk production in cows. The United States is the only developed nation to permit humans to drink milk from cows given this artificial growth hormone, marketed as Posilac. Posilac was banned from use in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and all European Union countries by 2000 or earlier. But in Canada, bulk milk products from the US produced with rBST are still allowed to be sold and used in food manufacture (cheese, yogurt etc.). In the EU, both meat and dairy products from the US are banned from import.

 Monsanto bought up about 50 agricultural companies worldwide making it difficult to track what’s a Monsanto product, even for the ordinary person that goes to the store to buy pesticides and seeds. The USA, conveniently for Monsanto and contrary to Europe, does not require labelling for GM food because it’s considered ‘safe’ for consumption. Corn for example is found in a huge range of foods and  when it comes in the form of starches, sweeteners or syrups it’s not all that obvious to the consumer.   

Type "Monsanto Suicide Seeds" into Google and you'll find out all the things you have never dared to think about with regards to food. I noticed that the term suicide seeds is more often used in association with the Terminator gene. In order to enforce the farmer's dependence on Monsanto crops seeds will be sterile and unable to reproduce once the plant has grown. Monsanto then can demand any price and the farmer will have to pay this price to be able to grow this crop again. Considering Monsanto's worldwide influence this corporations is able to control large parts of the food market - food that we all depend upon. Unfortunately, although there is protests and resistance Monsanto mostly gets its way and faces no major repercussions for its actions. All the law suits aimed at the giant have not stopped it. The following article http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,990111-1,00.html  explains quite well the details behind the Terminator genes. I do not agree with the tone of the article though since it plays down the risks far too much. How can anybody say "it's not going to be that bad" when a similar seed has not been there before. The interference of such seeds with our environment can surely only be based on guess work and small scale lab tests. Note that the article is dated 1999!! There's something going on that's very well covered up from the public and it stinks.             

Food seeds are just one thing that Monsanto is involved in. There are tree seeds, animal testing, Agent Orange, DDT, Aspartame, recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone and much more - check out http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Monsanto  

   

           

Made somewhere, sold elsewhere, all for money

By the way, Bummi diaper covers are made in Canada, so are Ruby's Stonz boots. That does not necessarily mean made locally since Canada is huge but if had the choice between made in Montana (US), just South of Alberta, or Ontario I'd still go for the Ontario item. Just saying. Talking about it, I just checked where my laptop was made: Malaysia. That's not around the corner but I prefer that over China. China to me equals human rights abuse big scale. That's why I try to avoid Dollar stores - too much Chinese throw-away stuff that seems to be produced by slave labour or sold below cost and adds to the landfills. Logically, if I buy less I can buy better quality at a higher price and produced under good working conditions and still not end up being poorer. Unfortunately this logic does not work because lots of expensive garment labels produce cheaply in sweat shops overseas, mostly Asia, and add a huge mark up so they can fill their own pockets. That's unethical to me. Tragedy. Makes me not want to buy anything at all, not more than absolutely necessary anyway. 

Two things about the above paragraph: Poor - Poor is actually the wrong word because we don't feel poor. But when it comes to government money we don't mind to take what we can get, child tax benefit, GST refund, child  health benefit etc. Better we get the money than the government supporting some super rich US company with a 0% interest loan of $300 million so they  build their research facility in Canada and apparently create 200 jobs with that - those jobs might or might not be given to Canadians. Hello! I know the government wants to get the economy rocking again but please support Canadian companies not US company that already swim in money. 

Unethical - that's the word I used yesterday writing yet another letter to Stephen Harper and this time the Quebec government. The owner of the Jeffrey Mine in Quebec is seeking help form the government to expand extraction of asbestos. Yes, asbestos! It's banned in Canada due to its health hazards and I remember a very well-known building in East Berlin, Germany, being torn down for being built with asbestos. Asbestos is banned in Germany, too. But Quebec happily mines it and sells it to India where people are not informed about the dangers and the Indian distributors play down the risks because they too make money of that business. I told Harper & Co. it was unethical to produce asbestos and sell it for profit to other countries where the citizens don't know any better - the government damn should not dare to even consider helping this mine.  What's wrong with us? Since when is it acceptable to knowingly expose others to hazardous materials and cash in it? It's been like this for a long time though, standard business practice for those keen on money. Ethical values gone downstream, never to be fished out of the deep again.  Not to talk about the impact on the Quebecois countryside due to mining.    


         

persistence or perseverance ...

I don't know the difference but it pays out. I have tried to get a BecoPotty for Ruby for 3 months or so. It's a UK manufacturer, http://www.becothings.com/, but they changed their Canadian distributor recently and this one seems somewhat incompetent. They finally promised me my local baby store, http://www.birthsource.ca, will have them by the beginning of next week. PLEASE! BecoPotties are made of waste plant material and will biodegrade once you dig a hole for them in your garden. Great!  That's the only damn potty I want for my baby. This Birth Source store also has now disposable diapers in stock that will decompose. Since a box of 28 in Ruby's size costs $23 I opted for a Bummi diaper cover for $15 instead. The issue is that in the snuggly (carrier) Ruby's current diaper covers leak, Bummi does not, at least not today. If Bummi keeps it up I will not need any disposable diapers any more. Hurray! The diaper boxes are really sturdy though and come in handy now that we need to hide more and more things from Ruby. Oh well, I'll find some alternative that's not plastic or course. 
       I have recently also reused Ruby's bath water. She's got a little bath tub and in winter we bath her once a week or so. She does not really get dirty. Her bottom and face get washed several times a day, that's most important. So the bath water comes in handy too. I soak my jacket or one of her sleeping bags in it over night, with a little Borax added, scrub if in the morning and voila it's done. The other day I then used the water to wash the floor in the hallway. Perfect. 


   
                     

Organic Food and other things we eat - part 2

When I am at school supervising my first-graders during lunch it occasionally makes me shiver what parents give their kids to eat. Junk food, that’s what it is. That name is there for a reason. Kids bring sandwiches made from white bread, dry buns with chicken nuggets in between the bun halves, 2-minute soups, macaroni and cheese, and worst of all, “lunch mate” kits - lots of packaging for a few DIY-mini hot dogs or mini pizzas. Some bring fruit but unless it’s chopped into bit-size pieces they take a bite or two and throw it away because the whole apple is too much for them. If I catch the kid on time, I tell it to take the fruit back home or finish it later. I dislike food waste. Ruby only gets food that I would eat. We had once packaged organic baby food that gets mixed with water – it tasted like water. Of course, I don’t add spices, salt or sugar to Ruby’s food.      

The food of most school kids is low in nutrional value and high in fat and salt and that’s because a lot of it is processed food. I don’t believe the claims that processed food from the store is cheaper than preparing meals yourself. We’d be bankrupt if that was the case because I avoid processed food wherever I can. At a recent food fraud talk the speaker, a dietician, pointed out that when you read the ingredients list what you don’t want in your food (e.g. salt) should be less than 5% and what you want (e.g. carbohydrates or fibre) should be at least 20%. Good luck finding something with less than 5% salt! I am notorious for reading ingredients lists and I put a lot of stuff back on the shelf because of its high sodium or sugar content. Processed organic food is not necessarily better than non-organic. I held an organic vegetable lasagne in my hands the other day – it had 30% of my recommend daily amount of salt in one serving! Oh no!         

That’s still not where it stops. Remember Monsanto – I mentioned it before. It’s a chemicals-company gone agriculture. They developed genetically modified organisms (GMO’s) – corn is the best-known example. I’ll write more about it later because I watched a DVD about Monsanto but they also got these GMOs approved by the US American Food & Drug Administration (FDA). It makes me very suspicious about foods from the USA. How they managed? Oh well, the same people that work for the FDA have at some point worked for or with Monsanto or have otherwise ties with the company. No questions asked; the crops were not properly tested for their food safety before they were approved and today Monsanto has spread its crops in 46 countries - and in my understanding these crops have become pests themselves. Alone the name makes me sick: Monsanto – Mon Santo – My Saint, there is nothing saint about this company, it should go to hell, the faster the better.     

Organic Food and other things we eat - part 1

Have you wandered about the organic movement that’s taken off in recent years? I have. I always though food is organic matter, biodegradable, compostable. I thought all that we eat derives from plants or animals that are fed plants, apart from salt of course. But it’s obviously not that simple. So I looked up “organic” in the Canadian Dictionary of the English Language from 1997. Besides other explanations I found the following meanings for “organic”:

-         using or produced with fertilizers or pesticides;

-         free from chemical injections or additives, such as antibiotics or hormones;

-         simple, healthful, and close to nature

If I interpret this my way then non-organic food is unhealthy, far from natural and stuffed with antibiotics, hormones, and chemicals for example from fertilizers. And we eat it? Help! Obviously, at some point chemical fertilizers and pesticides meant huge progress, raising yield enormously, seemingly the solution to hungry people (if only the food was distribute evenly) and we would not have to worry about ever running out of food despite the rising number of persons on Earth. Sweet deal, right? But I am still sceptical about all that non-organic food, it just does not seem right.  There’s for example the food at McDonald’s that does neither decompose nor rot, not for months and maybe not even for years but we’ll have to stay tuned for updates since the person who put a McDonald meal on her shelf only did  this about 9 months ago. The article I recall from the news dates back a while now.

Similar as for cosmetics there’s a dirty dozen list for fruits and vegetables too because in the meantime we know that especially non-organic produce is not all that safe, neither for our health or our environment. Fruits & veggies tend to receive a lot of fertilizers and pesticides to keep bugs away and they can’t just be washed off. A recommendation I read on how to wash a non-organic peach went like that: wash, peel, wash again, eat. Would you bother doing it? And what’s that ripe peach going to look like once you peeled and washed it. Root vegetables can absorb a lot of “junk” from the soil, too. Thanks to our baby we switched to organic produce. We receive the Organic Box which sources as much produce as possible locally. Fruit tends to come from Southern B.C. and California. The quality is much better than the organic produce at our local supermarket that has a small range of organic produce to start with. There’s another problem though: Labelling. Most certified organic are certified by one or the other organisation and they might have different standards. With the Organic Box I trust the company here in Edmonton to check out there suppliers. After all, they tell you for every product which farm it comes from so I can also check out the farm’s website.                        

I remember asking someone I know if they were eating organic. No, it’s too late for us, she replied (They are 50-60 years old). But she works in the health sector too and attended a talk about harmful substances in cigarettes and foods. It did the trick, they eat almost all organic now, not just produce but also meet and sugar and … we can’t afford that yet. Unbelievable! Healthy, naturally grown food costs close to a fortune! I understand why but to me it’s just another example of science and economy gone astray.

Anyway, she said that one eats more consciously once you have paid a lot of money for that loaf of bread or that cookie. Yup, I think so. You don’t just shove it down your throat while driving or in front of the TV, bad habits altogether. It’s back to almost forgotten and abandoned table manners. The other profit from organic food should be less food waste – buy only what you need soon, plan meals ahead of time. A Canadian friend said once that it would be smarter the European way – have smaller fridge and shop more often for fresh food in smaller quantities. Without a car you don’t even get tempted to buy lots of food without knowing what to do with it.           

to be continued ...

Saving water big time

Recently at the Telus World of Science I learned that in space astronauts are allowed 23 litres of water each which is very little compared to the 300 litres that a North American uses and not quite so little compared to the 130 litres that a German uses per day. Anyway, it's hard to imagine but the technology is there to recycle urine and turn it into drinking water. In today's newspaper there's an article about Don Pettit from the International Space Station. The daily allowance for hygiene and food is 3.5 litres per person. OMG, how do they do it? They wash themselves with wet wipes and have a water-recycling machine that collects even breath, sweat and water from a damp cloths which then can be used again. The most fascinating part is the urine-diversion toilet I'd say. Cecilia Ruben from the Stockholm Environment Institute says that there's 2 million of these toilets in China. Germany, South Africa ,Vietnam and Sweden have some as well. Combine them with a compost part for faeces and it's all been taken care off.                      

More facts on water use in Canada: http://www.janegoodall.ca/project-blue/WaterinCanada.html 

Oh, oceans ... and that fish that's left

Here are a few ocean-related facts that I found in the Epoch Times newspaper about 6 weeks ago:

-         About 80% of the world’s fish stocks are fully exploited or overexploited and thus require effective and precautionary management. 90% of all tuna and sword fish are already gone.--- If that's right I wonder why tuna & sword fish aren't a luxury yet. They should be dead expensive, or subsidised.      

-         Oceans absorb more carbon dioxide than the land. This absorption causes the ocean to become more acidic which leads to the dissolving of shell organisms that form the skeleton of coral reefs that will therefore die.

-         Higher biodiversity enhances the functioning of the deep-sea ecosystems which is vital for the sustainability of our biosphere. --- Having species die out never seemed a good thing but with the economic desire to uniform food so it looks and tastes the same no matter where and when you buy it biodiversity is on the losing end. It does not matter if that's the banana or beef burger or fish. Due to companies like Monsanto biodiversity will disappear ever so fast. I'll come back to that.    

-         By 2015 50% of the world’s population will live along coasts, adding pressure on coastal and marine biodiversity. --- This fact in in fact no surprise at all. Just as an example: With Canadian coastal cities happily dumping their waste raw (untreated) into the ocean, what do you think is happening in poor countries? Lots and lots of water pollution ...  

David Suzuki Foundation also had a lot of fish-related articles on the website recently:   

1. Did you know that Canada's Atlantic longline swordfish fishery kills tens of thousands of sharks each year? To find out more and take action got to http://www.friendsofhector.org/

2. Killer whale wins court case for Canada's marine species at risk! http://bit.ly/gVLaZh

 It's a good start but the article points out there's a BUT. It's nice to have laws but laws have to be enforced in order to make a difference and the Canadian government is not famous for enforcing laws that protect anything related to the environment.   

3. Saving Pacific salmon is possible and profitable! Profit is possible on all fronts with closed containment salmon farming

Again, it's a beginning but there's still a study in progress and change tends to happen slowly ... I hate to say it but "better late than never" has developed a sour taste for me. It might be too late for one or the other species at risk. Read also http://bit.ly/eYcWNU   

 

4. For the reading enthusiast a whole book's been written about fish: Four Fish: The future of the last wild food, describes our profoundly changing relationship with the world’s oceans. Learn about the fascinating lives of four fish - salmon, sea bass, cod and tuna – and why overfishing and biotechnology are serious threats to healthy marine ecosystems. http://bookclub.davidsuzuki.org/

 

       

Addicted to cheap power - continued

I was not trying to say that we should get rid of electricity completely. I like my computer, stove and washing machine and life would be tedious without them. Since we should not run out of renewable energy sources it is totally fine to use the electricity produced from these sources. We should reconsider human power though. I think that the cheap power from fossil fuels prompted a development of too many tools making lots of activities too easy, inventing even new ones and making people lazy. Physical exertion now derives from heaving one's own body over-weight in and out of the car seat. My husband, a keen reader of newspapers (on-line) read an article to me the other day that claimed that the treatment to reverse the ageing process has been found: exercise. Who would have guessed! Exercise used to come automatically with whatever one did during the day. Think alone of staircases versus escalators or elevators. Gardening was such an activity, certainly more fun than running around the block or worse on a tread mill, until power tools took a lot of physical effort out of it. Household chores were such thing before bread machines and food processors. Shorter distances were once covered by foot, bike and horse wagon - now conveniently replaced by cars. Long-haul is a different story although I insist it should be mostly trains as long as no water crossing is involved. When flying within Europe is cheaper than the train there's something wrong. Entertainment is were things totally escalated - Radio, TV, Video-, DVD-, MP3-players, game consoles, Wii, home theatre, sound systems for car & home ... there's so many options that seem to have made conversation obsolete. And socializing seems to die out - when my grandma is keener on watching a soap opera than talking to her family  I wonder what's wrong. Personally, I think people like her have a boring life. If you don't, you shouldn't need soap operas. 
Two weeks ago we went to the Festival of Trees. It's a display of Christmas trees, wreaths, gingerbread houses and such which get rated by visitors. There's also games and crafts for kids, a show and shops. All proceeds go to the hospital foundation - so far so good. Considering the number of Christmas lights on the trees and other items though we did not understand why they had to have disco lighting on top of that. It's not only a waste of energy, it was an overload for the senses as well.    
  
  

Look at that!

Do you need a bit more inspiration to save water, some facts and tips and how-to-fix-videos, then check out www.bluebucketcrew.ca by Epcor.   

Do you know Metro? I love their opinion pieces and cartoons. Here two to share with you - Canada and the environment, like fire and water.  Oh, for those who don't know, the big truck is the type of vehicle used to transport the oil sands from the pit to where ever it's being dealt with. Those "trucks" are monsters, simply massive.    

  

home sweet home - last but not least

Randy Florke, author of Restore, Recycle, Repurpose – Create a beautiful home, is pretty good of putting into words what I think so I'll so cheap as just to copy it from his book:

At the beginning of the book he says: "Our very notion of “home” has been supersized, everyone seems to covet a “great” room and a master suite, a six-burner chef’s stove and a two-car garage. Are we losing our ability to live simply and responsibly? Questions like these are why I think sustainable living truly begins at home. It’s where we eat, sleep, dream, and dress; it’s where we cook, clean, nurture, and nest." --- Looking at the houses in newer suburbs of Edmonton I see lots of huge buildings that should accommodate at least ten people. As a matter of fact, they are single family homes, some even without kids. And I don't want to think about the amounts of interior decoration and where it comes from! A good New Year's resolution would be to consume less and more wisely, and to add less to the landfill. Talking about landfill, the average American produces 4.5 pounds of garbage per day! We don't: We have a small 14 litre garbage bin and take it out at the most once per week. In addition I take out one bag of recycling each week, in a cloth bag which I empty out right into the recycling container. How much garbage do you have?          

 

At the end of the book he concludes: "Possessions have a way of imprisoning those who think too much of them, but when I talk about being liberated by having less, I’m not simply referring to the things we acquire. Fewer things do mean fewer worries; it’s less to maintain and upgrade, to protect and insure. Beyond that, though, it’s the liberating feeling that comes with no longer having to keep up with the Joneses.  We teach our children crucial lessons when we show them that we value thrift, economy, quality, and an environment left for them and their children and future generations to enjoy. The American dream becomes about ingenuity, not about the almighty dollar.

home sweet home - good to know

Here a few more things from the same book, Restore, Recycle, Repurpose – Create a beautiful home, by  Randy Florke with Nancy J. Becker. Some of these issues I will write more about eventually:  

-         According to American Water Works Association 26.7 % of the water used daily in a single-family home is flushed down the toilet. --- How terrible is that! In Germany dual-flush toilets or toilets where one can stop the flow of water any time as desired are standard, meaning almost everywhere. In Edmonton and you guess how much further geographically they are still RARE and the old water tanks are huge. We do it the old fashioned way, not with a brick in the tank but a 2-litre jar to save some water. And as long as you are well-hydrated and alone at home you don't have to flush every time.     

-         According to Howtocompost.org, home composting can “divert 700 lbs of material per household annually from the waste stream”.  --- Impressive number isn't it. Half of Edmonton's residential waste is organic matter despite the fact that if composting is done properly it will not smell or attract rodents. And with worm composting it can be done quickly and easily in any apartment. No, we have not got the worm box yet but I am thinking about it. Still trying to figure out how to keep it out of baby's reach and within my reach.     

-         According to the Aluminum Association, Americans throw away enough aluminium every three months to rebuild the commercial air fleet. Randy suggest the logical, to stop using aluminium foil or buy 100% recycled foil. Rinse off after use and put it in with your recycling. --- I have tin foil at home but we only use it for the BBQ which we should properly clean instead and put the food right on it.   

-         Wood-burning fireplaces and stoves are not always energy-efficient, the burning of wood is considered carbon neutral, since no more CO2 is released than if the wood were to degrade naturally. Learn more at www.woodheat.org

-         Mattresses: may contain petrochemical-laced vinyl coverings, softeners such as Phthalates (carcinogen), polyurethane foam that emits VOCs, and potentially toxic chemical fire retardants like Polybromenated diphenyl etners (PBDEs), according to Healthy child, Healthy world. Look for mattresses without PBDEs, without foam interior that contain petroleum products, coverings made of organic cotton or wool instead of vinyl. Flame-resistant barriers made of fibre are better than sprayed-on-fire-resistant chemicals. Consider an organic encasement to put a layer between you and potential toxins in the mattress.  ---- very interesting indeed. Maybe an air mattress and sleeping bag are the healthier alternative. But I better find out first what the air mattress is made of.   

-        High-efficiency tank-less water heaters, though considerably more expensive, eventually pay for themselves in energy costs, which are up to 20% lower than those of traditional storage tank models. It might take up to 22 years to break even though.    --- We had one in Edinburgh for the shower and loved it. We did not bother switching the storage tank on at all, heated the water for washing the dishes in a kettle. The toughest part was for Dave to shave with cold water.

-         According to multiple sources, laptops use 25-45 watts of electricity when running, while the average desktop computer uses 60-250.

Almost done, only a few more no-brainers, just in case: 

-         Refill printer cartridges, unplug what you don’t need, use multi-purpose appliances (printer, scanner etc. in one appliance), print only if absolutely necessary, print on both sides and on recycled paper

-         Do not use pesticides or chemical fertilizers in your garden, there are organic options 

-         Use push lawn mowers and hedge clippers – does not cause as much noise either

-         Donate stuff you don't need any longer, try not to add on to the landfill, buy used

-         Buy a Christmas tree with the root ball on and plant afterwards, mulch or compost a live cut tree otherwise

home sweet home - flooring

I got this book from the library: Restore, Recycle, Repurpose – Create a beautiful home, It is a Country Living Book by Randy Florke with Nancy J. Becker, published by Hearst Books. Even though we don't have a country house or any house at all it has lots of information on decorating, sourcing your materials, furniture,and lots of other household items. It is trying to give sustainable options for every room of your home. Here is what Randy says about several flooring materials:    

-         Bamboo: considered environmentally friendly, grows quickly, needs little fertilizer, not as durable as hard woods, but typically from far-flung places so the shipping has a big foot print

-         Stone: durable, water resistant, renewable but takes millions of years to degrade and the excavation is damaging to the environment – slate and sandstone require a less intrusive form of mining than marble or granite that lie deep within the earth

-         Cork: more renewable resource than many woods because the trees are not destroyed when the cork is harvested. Insulating, microbial, with sound-proofing qualities

-         Reclaimed Wood: from trees that have fallen naturally due to storm or age and wood savaged from razed structures

-         Renewable Wood: woods like bamboo, cork and eucalyptus but consider the foot print of shipping, local maple or oak might be the better option

-         Concrete: manufacturing process creates large quantities of carbon dioxide, one source suggests that 7% of global CO2 emissions come from concrete. Hydrochloric acid is typically used as the base for concrete stain, but there are eco-friendly solutions available, like low-VOC acid-free soy-based stains. Check out Eco-Safety www.ecoprocote.com

-         Linoleum: is a natural product made from linseed oil solids. Durable, install with low-VOC adhesives, water-based adhesives are better than solvent-based

-         Marmoleum: looks like linoleum but it’s made of linseed oils, rosins, wood flour

Can we find an energy-efficient apartment?

My hubby asked that question recently as we embarked on the mission of finding a different place to live - closer to Dave's office, that's the main issue. His commute is too long, his time spent with his family too short. The answer to the questions is maybe. There's apartments with new and old appliances, lots with the same stupid windows, one place had new double glazed windows but it's on the third floor with a narrow staircase. Oh bugger, once you have a baby and a stroller the entrance to the building and apartment is as important as the apartment itself. Since we can't just move our current place it's got to be a compromise. We'll be giving up space, either in room size or in storage space, the easy access to several river valley parks, the balcony, the basement storage. Unfortunately bike storage is not common inside or outside many buildings, this fact goes hand in hand with the car culture here. The thought of keeping my bike outside in every weather does not please me though. May I build a shed? We gain a quieter location and the chance to have lunch with daddy, daddy will be fitter since he'll walk or bike to work, we are still close to library, leisure centre, shopping, health centre and buses, including a direct bus to one of my favourite parks in town. 
I will be miles away from my favourite mums & tots group but we'll just take the bus back to the other end of town once week - urban sprawl sucks. We'll also get a different city councillor who might or might not be as great as our still current one who showed up to our monthly community league meeting yesterday. 
Anyway, our Christmas party on Dec 19 might almost be our home-leaving-party as well, if there's such a thing. We are off on an adventure, as one of the best persons in Ed would say.    

It's sad

I started the continuation of yesterday's post but have not gotten it ready yet. Instead I fitted in a few pages of still the same book while watching baby. Vanessa meets a bloke, environmentalist of course, and at some point he says something like "what we really need is an apocalyptic environmental catastrophe to wipe out  a significant amount of the world's population and then finally people might be willing to stop driving SUVs and actually live responsibly." It sounds more than harsh I know but I agree. It's sad to see hundreds and thousands of animal and plant species die because human beings interfere with just about anything on the planet that's been here way before us. It's sad to see oceans and waterways collapse under the burden of pollution due to the waste dumped into them every day. It's sad to see forests chopped down for fields that will erode anyway, to see land depleted under ever-growing cities, to see soil suffocate under the chemicals of big-scale agriculture and the machinery used for mining. It's sad to see the Earth's resources exploited due to the greediness of industries, economies, consumers, and for the quick buck. Being the "smartest" creatures on Earth we have still no right to trash the planet - so the planet might as well pay us back one day. I hope it wipes out all the SUV drivers and those that live stubbornly in ignorance and denial about our environmental problems. I'm not trying to be overly pessimistic - it just happens to be, kind of looking out the window.  

On some other issue: I came across an interesting article in the Edmonton Journal about the low approval ratings of Alberta's Premier - http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/Rising+from+deep+unpopularity/3930721/story.html. 
So when do we get rid of him?   

Addicted to cheap power

I started admiring Mennonites who live without electricity because in the long run I think they might be better off than our ‘advanced’ society. Their way of life does not kill them but has a lot less impact on the environment than our wasteful,automated and motorized life style. Besides, I don’t think I have ever seen an obese Mennonite. One day, if not already, they might laugh at people who need leaf blowers and snow blowers, all kinds of power tools for gardening, a miniature tractor for lawn mowing, air conditioning and humidifiers, and lots of other electrical appliances in order to cope with daily chores. In Edmonton humidity is so low that I can watch my laundry dry. There’s no decent reason why clothes dryers are sold here at all – impatient people and money making are bad arguments. I always air dry the laundry and it helps humidify the air in our apartment. No big deal.

In Mexico black tanks are set on roofs of houses to provide hot water. This is a logical, very easy way to heat water. Meantime, in “developed” countries energy is produced in a power plant, usually in a dirtier way than through sunshine, and then transported to where the water needs to be heated. Consumers seem even happy to pay for this service and, as mentioned before, there’s little or no motivation to save energy because the biggest chunk of the bill is administration and distribution costs. Obviously, for places like Edmonton it will not work in winter but for the rest of the year - cheaper than solar panels.  Mexico is only an example, I am sure there are numerous other countries that use similarly simple methods for simple things. They should laugh at us too, or realistically, get mad at us for the pollution we cause by burning fossil fuels. It does not need to be, not at the current level anyway.