Taking shopping to a new level

I went to check out the Earth's General Store - you greener grocer (http://egs.ca) today. It's an independent store that opened recently not too far from us. "Not too far" is measured on the size of Edmonton. It's 20 minutes on the bus. It's a great store. They sell grains & cereals, body care products and laundry detergents in bulk, some of them also pre-packaged. But they encourage customers to bring their own containers - great idea. They sell mesh bags that have a pull cord on top - 4 for $13 - I better make them myself. Otherwise, for the dry stuff they have paper bags that cost 5 cents each but there's no containers offered for the liquid stuff. 
Apart from foods and toiletries, they have diapers and a few other baby products, worm compost boxes and worms, rain collection barrels and lots of information on all kinds of "green things". The owner tries to offer a wide range of products in a small space so there's only a few containers of each product on the shelves. I bought Dave a toothpaste with all natural ingredients for his sensitive teeth and it costs about 5 times as much as the cheap paste I usually buy - and it was still the cheapest tooth paste in that store. I bought soap, borax and cereal, one is hemp cereal - yummy - and one is a 7 grain mix that needs to be mixed with liquid and I hope it will work for Ruby. I would love to shop there regularly for everyday foods but for now I think it will stretch our budget a little but too far. Alone switching to organic produce had a remarkable impact on our food budget which might be because we eat mostly vegetarian. Anyway, I think it's worth  it and I think we have a good diet. I'll come back to organic food in another post.           

Walking & cycling versus driving - part 3

My boss at school comes sometimes by bike to work. It’s a 3.5 km ride and she does it purely for the exercise. Another lunch lady was shocked how somebody could possibly cycle so far. Far? I could not help but say ‘that’s the attitude of somebody who never walks or cycles!’ She also said that she’d be a lot less busy if she did not have a car. And she is the one that freaks out having to walk from her doorstep to the car in -30 degree C – because it’s freezing cold. I’m afraid there’s too many people like her in this city, in this province, in this country, in some other countries such as the USA. Persons like her have weird opinions about very simple things in life.   

Obviously, if she hopped on a bike now or walked for 3.5 km she’d be pretty exhausted because her body does not have those muscles. People like her don’t seem to understand that all things are difficult before they get easy. But people like her are also the ones that complain about the bad bus service even though they never take the bus. Oooh, I wished people like her would wake up, give it a try for a month or so and realize it’s not that bad. Not to say it’s better than living in your damn car.          

There’s been a very interesting article on David Suzuki’s website bout Vancouver showing that change is possible – but the more pitch in the better. http://www.davidsuzuki.org/blogs/science-matters/2010/10/making-cities-more-livable-may-save-the-world/

Walking versus driving - part 2

If you get caught jaywalking in Edmonton a Peace Officer will write you a note to either show up in court or voluntarily pay a fine of $250. Yes, $250! You can speed through an intersection 2-3 times or drive 40 km over the speed limit for the same amount of money. Or you can buy 3 monthly bus passes. Outraged, I emailed my city councillor. His staff found out that the fine was approved after “a scan of fines across the country for similar offences was undertaken, with a range of $60 to $300 in various municipalities for jaywalking” and after 4 jaywalkers had been killed in 2007 on Edmonton's streets. Nobody told me how many had been killed on cross walks. Anyway, I found several cities charging $30-80 but none anywhere close to $300. What annoyed me more is that “the fine for motorists failing to stop for a pedestrian in a crosswalk is approximately $550”. Really?! I could point out at least one driver every day. So why does the city not crack down on drivers? Because it's the police's job?! It would certainly increase the safety of pedestrians and make this place a bit more liveable. But clearly these drivers are hard to stop. 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against jaywalking laws or fines as long as they are reasonable. And when it’s statistically proven that 89% of the drivers in Alberta are distracted while driving I don’t think the few brave pedestrians on Edmonton's streets should get the tickets. Finally, just these days the Alberta government has introduced a law against distracted driving - we’ll see if it gets reinforced.    

By the way, pedestrians do not jaywalk because they are suicidal; obviously pedestrians lose out against vehicles. Dave for example tried to catch his bus which only runs every 15 minutes. And of course he made sure there was not a car coming.           

Greening my baby

Ruby does not have any choice but she also does not care as long as she gets food, sleep and a clean diaper on a regular basis. Babies are so simple, but they can be a huge garbage producer. Diapers, change mats, nursing pads, wet wipes, formula and baby food packaged in small portions to stay fresh are just the beginning of a disposable life. Ruby wears mostly second hand clothing, her crib, sled, change table, most toys, bathtub, high chair, bed sheets are all second hand, too. Her room's decoration I made myself from recycling.A towel covers the change table, wash cloths clean her bottom and I use cotton wipes as nursing pads. Ruby eats organic produce, grains and oats, organic yoghurt. Sometimes cooking baby food seems a lot of work but it's worth it and since we've got a manual food processor even Dave helps because he likes to crank the handle around chopping up carrots & Co.            
Here's something I really love in Canada that we don't have in Germany: I-have-it-outgrown-sales, garage sales, second hand store like Goodwill, Salvation Army and Value Village, as well as Once-upon-a-child and several independent consignment stores. The way to go, treasure hunting at its best. We still ended up buying new car seats and a stroller. 
The worst about her simple, easy to wash and dry cloth diapers are the plastic pants that cover them up. For the next baby I'll get nice fabric diaper covers. Ruby wears disposable diapers only when we go out for more than two hours. I dread carrying the dirty cloth diapers around. Actually, lots of public change rooms do not have a toilet so it's difficult to dispose of certain diaper contents. Browsing www.grassrootsstore.com which has tons of eco-friendly products I found a wet diaper bag that is "designed and constructed to be durable and absolutely leak resistant". Hey, I was given one of those before Ruby was born but did not quite know what to do with it. I guess it's time to dig it out. 
I found something else on that website that I once thought about. What did women do before disposable menstrual pads were invented? They most likely used cloth. It's the same as with babies but nobody talks about it! But imagine my husband's face which I think represents a lot of people in their thinking: Yuck baby poop; yuck, blood -while I'm more like 'it's just baby poop, it's just blood'. Those are natural products after all. I think we've lost the connection to our very own bodies. Using disposable, non-recyclable products to catch and contain these biodegradable substances is contra-productive because they likely prevent the substances from decomposing while our landfills fill up quickly. That's yuck!     
 

Greening my husband

Dave has a choice in the issue but he's still living with me and I'm the boss in the household. He rolls his eyes at recycled toilet paper, handkerchiefs, shortening his shower or showering cold - the latter two I have not even seriously tried to sell to him but we ended up with an interesting conversation this morning. He says he'll go back to taking a bath then. Oh no, you'll think, usually it's recommended to shower instead of bathing in order to save water. But Dave bathes in an inch or two of water. So that's potentially less water used than a 15 minute shower. I don't shower for more than 5 minute and I hardly ever take a bath. Dave asked me to plug the bathtub and see how much water I need for my shower. Comparing it to the way he bathes he can then decide what's better, bathing in a puddle or shortening his shower. We'll wait with lowering the water temperature until next summer. 


Talking about showering, if you read the news recently you will know that a new trend is emerging - to skip showers. Even business people do not shower daily any more. The article recognized the benefits for the environment such as less water needed, energy savings from heating less water and pointed out that it's better for your skin and hair - yes, your skin and hair have the capability to self-clean! Most of us do not have the patient to wait until this function kicks in though. Having camped in NZ for 6 weeks in 2008 with about 1 shower per week I know it works kind of. Surely my skin and hair would need even more time to redevelop their full potential. Anyway, I like my daily shower but as mentioned I keep it SHORT.                        

Updates Parks Act & LRT

The new proposed Alberta Parks Act has been withdrawn by the parks minister for "further" consultation with the public and will not be brought back before the Legislative Assembly until in eight months. Yeah, we did it! Big thanks to everyone who called or wrote their MLA, Premier Stelmach or the parks minister to express their concerns! The Parks Act wanted to dismantle current protection for Alberta's conservation areas and instead allow more industry in.  

The LRT extension in Edmonton will still go ahead but now with costs savings because the time pressure disappeared now that Edmonton will not bid for the Expo 2017. The time frame has already been extended by a couple of years. Oh well, better late than never.          

The pleasure of looking good

Sometimes it seems like everything in the European Union is over-regulated but when it comes to cosmetics/ toiletries I wished it was everywhere like in Europe. Dr. Daniel Goleman writes in his book Ecological Intelligence “How regulators think about toxicity makes a difference in what goes into the products we use.”

The European approach is “better-safe-than-sorry”, also called the precautionary principle. That means that as soon as European toxicologists suspect potential harm to human beings in a substance this substance is banned. Contrary, in the USA the approach is that a chemical with inherent toxicity might still be safe for use under normal or certain conditions, whatever that means. With other words, unless there is definite evidence that a substance severely harms you they do not bother taking it off the market. Proud to serve the industry, as usual. In the USA the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was founded in 1979. It immediately “ruled that the use of about 62,000 substances could continue without testing any of them, including some chemicals that were known to be harmful such as ethylbenzene.” Ethylbenzene is an industrial solvent that causes damage to the brain. Thirty years later the EPA has still not required testing for most of these substances.   

Back in Europe a program called REACH (registration, evaluation, authorization of chemicals) aims to test and evaluate tens of thousands of chemicals, not only those that were allowed to be used in everyday products by the EPA but also new ones that have come up since. “REACH will generate a new kind of periodic table, tabulating hazardousness rather than molecular structure.”  

Dr. Goleman points out that the number of man-made chemicals with potential danger to us is estimated at 104,000. This includes chemicals used in food as well as any non-food products we might be exposed to. He continues that of these chemicals “10,000 are used each year in volumes greater than 10 tons.” and “Only a fraction has been tested for toxicity in adults, let alone on fetuses or infants.”

The situation for cosmetics in Canada is similar to the USA. Imagine washing your face with substances used to clean roads and heavy duty factory equipment that’s soiled with oil and the likes. Frequently used harmful ingredients in cosmetics have been compiled into the dirty dozen list – for details check out:  http://www.thegreenguide.com/personal-care/dirty-dozen  

Do a quick check, if you got sunscreen handy: See if it’s got oxybenzone in it. This is the active agent that’s meant to protect your skin from the sun but it has also been suspected of having carcinogenic properties when exposed to sunlight.  

Last but not least the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association reckons “that more than 1000 flavouring ingredients may pose respiratory dangers to workers.” 

For information on cosmetics' safety go to Skin Deep http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/ 

Inspiration and Experience

I just got an email from a friend telling me I was a great role-model for my child. Thanks! I want to be able to tell Ruby one day I tried to change things, I did not ignore the destruction of nature and climate change warnings. As Vanessa Farquharson put it, it's better to pollute and do good deeds instead of polluting and doing nothing about it. So for a little inspiration it’s helpful to read her book or blog (Green as a thistle) as well as any of the stuff from Colin Beavan aka No Impact Man. What it comes down to is the trying. "Probieren geht ueber Studieren" we say in German, meaning trying is better then studying. It's about being creative too and how many of you would admit to not being creative now? 

C.B. and V.F do try a lot of things, they find out what works best for them, they realize it’s not all that hard and bad to go green and hey, they keep plenty of the things up even after their one year trial is over! Colin's wife is a hard core city person living off take away and Starbucks coffees, she shops until she drops, she is totally disconnect from nature, has no idea where her food comes from and can't cook. She did it, too!       

A little story from home: Last night I told Dave that V. F. had a really great idea: She cut up an old bed sheet into handkerchiefs because she had given up on Kleenex and did not want to buy new handkerchiefs. - Somebody stared at me blankly, not showing any understanding for my excitement. Then he said he has never had handkerchiefs; I grew up with them but without Kleenex (Tempo in Germany). Next came the conclusion: he grew up in a throw-away society, I grew up in a country of permanent shortage of just about anything. Yup, not everything was bad in the GDR. I think we should fake a nation-wide supply shortage to keep people from shopping and wasting so much. I think we all value and take care of our stuff more if we know it can’t be easily replaced.  Also, when I was a kid, things got repaired not thrown out. And yes, I do use handkerchiefs again, still the ones from my childhood days.

Imagine there were railways

Kneading my bread dough I just had a thought. Do you remember all those pioneer films where hard working folks laid tracks across the Canadian vastness to move the transport of goods and people onto rails? They had a vision and it was not a bad one, until the cars and planes came along. Surely, across the flatness characteristic for the prairies trains could go at a speed much faster than the current speed limit for cars and the trains in Europe. Ontario and Quebec are still flat enough for trains too. Through the Rockies the train would obviously always be slower. The current situation is though that trains are used for freight and wealthy tourists. The train ride from Edmonton to Toronto would take more than 2 days each way, with 10 days vacation a year that's no good.       
Generally, the challenge would be to fill the trains in a country with not too many people. But instead of subsidising the oil industry the government could surely subsidies high speed trains. In Alberta those 89% of drivers that are distracted while driving could leisurely sit on the train chatting, texting, putting on their make-up, reading the paper, eating, drinking - without being a danger to others. Considering how many people commute between Calgary and Edmonton, also for reason such as visiting their dentist or hair stylist!, at least this connection must be worthwhile.
To me trains are the most comfortable way of travelling. You can do so many things while being on a train and especially with kids it's much nicer than a car, air plane or a bus.

Edmonton's Light Rail Transit

Edmonton was apparently the first Canadian city to have public transit on rails. Unfortunately, the city had no motivation to create a network of lines so they left it forever with the one established line that connects the university campuses with the city centre and the stadiums. Good if you are a student or attend a sports event but pretty useless otherwise. The most recent change involved extending that line by two stops to the south. Then Edmonton started planning more lines a while ago because they were wanting to apply to host the Expo 2017. The convenience of their residents obviously was not strong enough of an argument, but the invasion by tourist for an exposition did the trick. The dream shattered two days ago - the federal government is unwilling to contribute $700 to 800 million to Edmonton's bid, so there will be no bid. Two things bother me here. 

1. A bloke from the Taxpayers Association said he was glad that somebody showed fiscal responsibility. What? Did he just refer to the same government that decided early this year to spend $16 Billion on military air crafts, the government that gives the by far biggest chunk of its foreign aid to the second most corrupt country in the world, Afghanistan, and the government that considers every year refugee claims from US citizens, costing taxpayers millions of dollars, even though none of the claims ever gets approved since the US is a democracy? That's not sanity. Spending the money instead on renewable energy, fighting poverty and  well, maybe even on an Expo would show sanity. 

2. I'm worried the two suggested LRT lines will not be built, not at all, or at least not until 2017. I'm pretty sure the money from the feds was meant to be used on that project as well. So will Edmonton not have ever fast and reliable public transit? What a misery. 
   

Rick Mercer on Bill C-311

You know I don't watch TV but thanks to David Suzuki Foundation I came across Rick Mercer ranting and raving about the killing of the Climate Change Accountability Act. Well done!      

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yV8zEjgZ8VE

Walking versus driving

I'm still reading that book of Vanessa Farquharson. She interviews Peter Tombrowksi, resident of Calgary, who got rid of his car and walked everywhere ever since. She finds it uncool to wear Gore Tex, running shoes, take a backpack to a party in order to swap clothes & shoes, and haul home somehow everything you buy. He mentioned that one becomes less self-concious, something Vanessa surely still has to learn. Also, Peter says he found freedom in moving slower, talk, look around, reflect, and interact on the way. But the heightened awareness can be depressing, he admits. The strange feeling of walking alone on the side walk, nobody in front or behind but with lots of cars passing, that's depressing, and I know exactly what he's talking about. The argument that changes Vanessa's attitude at last is that our first big accomplishment in life is to learn how to walk. Humans are made to walk, no to push a gas pedal. That's right, we are just now very much looking forward to see Ruby learn how to walk. It's exciting!

I am pretty sure Calgary is not much different to Edmonton. People here think it is impossible to live without a car, unless you are single and student. Or, if you are in that situation you are literally stuck at home. Dave heard lots of comments from his co-workers being like "what do you mean, you have baby but no car - that does not work". It's not true. We prove them wrong every day. Peter Tombrowski made a movie "To Costco and Ikea without a car" and wrote a book "Urban camping". Learn more at http://www.pressplus1.com/cdnfilm-interviews/going-to-ikea-without-a-car.html

Really now, does your car like to idle?

Edmonton’s air smells especially bad from October to April, that’s when people most idle their cars, when they drive the most because of the weather and when trees don’t have leaves. Idling and driving contribute to smog. Smog can kill you. But there is no fine for idling in Edmonton – the city counts on education. Education? Then there are a lot of uneducated people out here! The city ran a competition recently where kids were asked to make a 3 minute video to educate drivers about idling. They all argued with the cost of gasoline. The problem is comfort is more important to people than the money they waste on gasoline – unless gas prices were to double overnight, but that’s my wishful thinking.

When gas prices doubled in NZ in 2008 we did not drive our car. We walked all winter to work, 30 min each way for me, 45 min each way for Dave. We were fit, did not get sick, did not pollute. Yes, we could have taken the bus instead but walking if more fun. Okay, we'd have walked anyway. I have always walked or cycled ... to school, to uni, to work, with one exception: Cozumel, Mexico where the hotel sent a bus around town to pick up all the staff. I need a good dose of fresh air before trying to accomplish something.    

Back to idling: In Calgary you might get charged $10-40 for idling your car more than 3 minutes, more than 3 minutes! Ever walked across a car park with a bunch of cars idling? It’s horrific. As a pedestrian I have to walk across parking lots regularly because malls are designed to be accessed by cars. I know it’s not good for me to breathe in the emissions, not to talk about what it might do to little Ruby. But honestly, I would not be walking around outside at -20 C or lower temperatures if there was not appropriate clothing available for those temperatures. Surely there's is plenty of clothing to keep you warm in your car. And your car is still going to warm up within a few minutes, even without the idling.

This can't be energy-efficient

We live in an older apartment building. At the start of the winter last week, when the first snow fell, our management company sent us a letter advising us not to open the windows when temperatures are below zero degree Celsius. I wished I could! The windows consist of two single panes each in a metal frame. The outside pane froze the day the temperatures dropped. With current highs of - 20 C we have ice on the inside of the inside pane! That's how cold the windows are despite the fact that the thermostat is constantly on + 20 C. In the living room we have only one single pane window but the balcony outside seems to protect it enough from the cold that it does not freeze. The condensation on the windows reminds me of Dunedin, New Zealand, only that Edmonton has an arid climate and Dunedin a humid climate and temperatures don't usually drop below zero. 

Either way these windows can not be energy-efficient. What we experience does not seem uncommon here with heating costs in winter being the major utility expense for lots of people. Why these windows were put in in the first place is a question I can't answer. Maybe it was the standard of the day but technology has improved. Why don't the buildings get upgraded then? Surely, instead of paying hundreds of dollars every month in heating cost it must be better to put in proper windows, better for the wallet and the environment. Lack of funding can't be it then. Human inertia? Wrong priorities? Meanwhile I open the not quite yet frozen balcony door every day for 10 minutes to allow some of the stuffy air  to be replaced with fresher air. I simply can't breathe the same air over and over again for 5 months.    
   

It's all killing us

Have you ever noticed that almost everything we produce nowadays and the way we live actually harm us, are making us sick! – There are toxins in cosmetics, toxins in electronics, pesticides & herbicides in foods, greenhouse gases in the air from the use of fossil fuels, antibiotics and heavy metals in water, ... we produce tons and tons of waste and it's wrong how it's dealt with … the list is endless. Most of these things are somehow connected to human greediness and corporate profit-seeking, to people losing contact with nature and to the loss of community spirit.  Marketing, glossy magazines and TV shows suggest we better go shopping frequently, indicate what we must have, who we are when we own or not own this or that item, wear this or that brand, and so on. They reinforce thinking in status symbols, too. For our own sanity and the functioning of this planet we have to get away from that!

I’m afraid my child will be an outsider at school because I don’t take her to junk food restaurants, I don’t let her watch TV and play for hours in the internet, I buy her clothes at Value Village, I don't drive her everywhere … Do I want to do this to my child or will I have to give up on my values and give in to all the consumer frenzy that causes more damage than benefits? 

The green rule of consumption, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, is not going to work until we get back to basics and remember what we really need to be happy in live. Uhm, we might have to become one big bunch of hippies - without the drugs, please.  Love's a nice thing, if not the greatest thing ever.

Unfortunately the environment as an argument does not seem to cause much change in the behaviour of our society so I think that we have to argue with “your health is at stake” in order to make people rethink their actions. It's not even a lie! I am afraid though that some people have a bigger problem to believe this argument than to believe what marketing tells them and what politicians tell them. One solution would be to introduce a school subject called "Ecology" or "Environmental thinking" and brainwash kids right from the start. They would grow up to be the healthiest generation ever. 

    

Why people can't go green

I am currently reading "Sleeping naked is green" by Vanessa Farquharson, a Toronto-based journalist who took on the challenge of doing one more green thing everyday for a year. It's not quite as radical as Colin Beavan, aka No Impact Man, but it gives me a good insight why some people have a hard time to act in a greener way.


I was wondering if I could get a list together like hers but lots of the things on her list already do not apply to me. Changing to recycled paper towels - there are no paper towels in my household. Switching to eco-friendly make up - I don't do make-up. Using tote bag - done that for many years, in fact the first thing I say to every cashier is 'I don't need your plastic bag'. The list goes on but let's stick to the tote bag. Apparently for lots of people that's like a big fashion faux pas, does not look cool, all tote bags are generally ugly, they don't show off the expensive label I just bought - that's a few of the issues Vanessa and her sister have with tote bags. Get over it, is all I can say. I don't care what's written on my tote bag, what its colour is or what other people think about it. That's just one of the problems that society has created for itself, we care too much about what other people think about us, that we have to maintain a certain image of ourselves, the latest advertisement campaign just told us we have to get this not that and so on. We are not going to safe this planet if we concentrate so much on ourselves! Any tote bag will do but do skip the plastic. I can't believe there's still supermarkets in Canada that do not charge for the plastic. 

Of course, the tote bag is only an example of where people have trouble to go green but in my opinion it's not a huge sacrifice. Now image these people had to get rid of their car. Let's face it cars in Canada are a bigger addiction to many than alcohol or other drugs. It's going to be a loooong therapy.             

Don't know what to do today?

Go to this website and get inspired. You will not be left bored! 
http://live.tcktcktck.org/take-action/actions/


Amongst a lot of eye-catching headings for how one can help the planet and do a good deed I came across this one which for obvious reason caught my attention: 

Help get Germany to 100% renewables by 2050

I knew Germany is pretty good at going green but I did not know that's the big goal. Awesome!
Boohhh Canada, Yeah Germany! 

Got to talk to my husband now about moving into a cleaner climate.

Where to start?

I wanted to start this blog with my pet peeve the Alberta oil sands but currently there is two other things that keep the media and my mind busy. Alberta is "reviewing" its Parks Act and introduced Bill 29 as the potential law-to-be. This bill does NOT state the conservation and preservation of Alberta's parks (provincial park, areas of ecological importance, wilderness areas) as the prime purpose of the Act. In fact, it wants to give one minister the power to decide on any development in any of the current parks, such as tourism infrastructure. Even though I used to work in the tourist industry I still consider the protection of nature as far more important than the tourist industry. It would probably not stop there anyway. Next thing is big industry moves into those fragile areas for mining or drilling.


The other even more annoying issue is the downturn of Bill C-311, the Climate Change Accountability Act, by the Senate. After this bill has been a proposal only for far too long Senate voted on it without any discussion or any notice of the upcoming vote, practically ensuring that the people in favour of the bill - everybody but the Conservatives - is not present. Very democratic indeed. That's betrayal of the Canadian people, too. I bet Mr Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, was  well aware of what was going to happen. It's obvious that this government avoids being held responsible for the environmental damage their actions cause. A very impolite way of chickening out of a major problem that effects the whole world. Unsurprisingly, this downturn leaves the Harper government once more in a bad light. At the upcoming summit on climate change in Mexico Canada will proudly appear as the world leader in increasing greenhouse gas emissions, Canada against the rest of the world! I wonder what Mr Harper's excuse is for the failure of the Climate Change Accountability Act.     
  
I have written my letter to Ed Stelmach, Premier of Alberta last Friday and my goal for today is to write one to Mr Harper.       

Who am I, who’s my family? How do we live?

We are a family of three, one baby, my husband and I. We live a pretty low-key life: don’t have two cars, we don’t even have one car, we recycle, when we moved to Edmonton we bought furniture second hand (thought that was convenient with a baby joining the family), we buy clothing second hand (it's quality or it would not sell again), we get our books from the library, we take the bus and walk a lot, we plan to cycle once baby is big enough, we only use about half a dozen toiletries on a regular basis, we don’t have chemicals at home, not even for cleaning, we don’t watch TV, only the occasional DVD, we avoid as many processed foods as we can, cooking from scratch, baking our bread, eating organic fresh produce. I started crafts from recyclables, I have always enjoyed crafts.  I hate car races, big cars, and idling. We believe in reduce, reuse, recycle. We believe in a low-impact life because we are a great family that has lots of fun together. We are happy together! I promise it’s got not much to do with living on half the average income of an Alberta household. We did it before, both working full time, putting half of our income in the bank for, don’t laugh, camping holidays. Oh, the good old days! Our biggest foot print: flights to our families and holiday destinations, sorry, we’ll have to keep those up. 

I will go into a bit more detail on some of the above things during the next posts.        

Here's why I started that blog

My first anniversary of living in Edmonton is coming up. It’s been a few years since I have lived in on and the same place for so long. And my conclusion is: I’m living in the wrong place! And I have had enough of it. For somebody like me who loves the outdoors, is young, healthy, and a recently-turned mum of a very cute, active little girl it’s difficult to live in Edmonton, oil-country Alberta, Canada. I have become an environmentalist.

After lots of bureaucratic hassles and constant head shaking about Alberta’s (provincial) and Canada’s (federal) politics, especially on environmental issues, writing letters to my mayor, city councillor, ministers and representatives of the provincial and federal government has become my hobby. It’s not a pleasant one but I believe nothing will change if nobody does anything. It’s time to act, it’s getting really late.     

I don’t want to raise my child in a country that refuses to sign any paper on the protection of the environment, whether that is in the form of a federal law or through the United Nations, a country that puts the economy above anything, where government is industry’s best friend, acts short-sighted and does not seem to realize that you can’t eat money and you can’t drink oil; a country that destroys vast stretches of beautiful countryside to dig up oil; that mines asbestos for the import to India; that allows tons of chemicals being used in everyday toiletries/cosmetics knowing that there are potentially harmful, a country that is so car-obsessed and has too many gas-guzzlers on the roads.

Watching “Being Caribou” last night, sequences of both Bush presidents were shown, with a 10 year lapse in between, where both of them said that they did not care about protecting the caribou and their habitat, they only cared about the American people and jobs for these people. The deal is that the US wants to drill for oil in the calving grounds of the caribou in North East Alaska. Why I am mentioning this? I think that attitude also applies to the Canadian government – not for the caribou itself which is surprisingly protected in Canada but for the habitat. But then it’s only an example. I wonder: Who do they want to create jobs for when people suffer from floods and droughts, when people come down with cancers, pulmonary and heart diseases because all warnings about climate change and pollution have been ignored and denied, when people are so obese that they can’t move? Suggestions, anyone? I don’t think they think that far! 

I hope this blog helps to let others know what's going wrong in Edmonton, in Alberta, in Canada and maybe I find some like-minded people willing to confront those in charge.