Remember the 3 R's? - Enter the Edmonton Reuse Centre

Last Friday I was at the Reuse Centre in Edmonton, http://www.edmonton.ca/for_residents/garbage_recycling/reuse-centre.aspx. Now there's something to show off, please other cities in the world take a look and follow. The Reuse Centre is filled with shelves and boxes containing books, candles & candle holders, office tools, wooden stuff, lots of craft supplies or things that can be used as such e.g. leftover wall paper & fabrics, wool, needles, used greeting cards, papers, buttons, wrapping paper, posters, ... So you go in, look through as much stuff as you want or can, take whatever you want and however much you like, pay 5 dollars and leave. Great idea. The stuff gets dropped off by people who don't need it any more so people like me who like cheap crafts can pick it up. I say cheap crafts because I am not at all interested in e.g Stampin' Up which is basically an expensive form of card making because you ought to by the supplies from that company that also tells you through its self-employed demonstrators how to arrange the bits and pieces of the supplies. 

A little excursion of mine: 
I am not into hoarding so I can go into the Reuse Centre without wanting to take just about everything home. I always think first what I could need something for, or do my research before I go buy something to start with. I mention this because when I walk past book stores I sometimes get annoyed about the book titles and wonder who would buy such books. What a waste of paper! There is books on how to de-clutter your home - well, don't clutter it up in the first place. Worse than that, the book titled "The life you want". What does that author know about what I want in life? I suppose the assumption is we all want lots of money so we can do whatever we want but we don't want to work hard for it, if at all. Sorry, but life without a job is pretty darn boring to me. Well, I got a super adorable baby but that only helps so much. As a matter of fact, if I was not to work again I'd need a lot of money so I can go travel, climb mountains, swim in the ocean, ... I don't think my husband would be pleased since he will not come along because he needs to earn that money. Oh, but maybe the book can tell him how to get the money without working, then he could join in the fun. I think I go buy the book now .... just kidding.              

What's wrong with hemp?

I have been wanting to write about hemp because very often when you read about it (Go, google it) there's lots of pros to the plant, as food and material. It's very versatile in its uses and one of the earliest domesticated plants known. Hemp is a proven alternative to wood and other plants and can be used in the production of over 25,000 different consumer goods (I also found numbers as high as 50,000). Hemp is naturally resistant to most insect pests and can be grown with few (if any) pesticides and fertilizers. Hemp is used in cosmetics, composite car parts, building material (hempcrete), bio-fuel, animal bedding, jewellery, paper, plastics, ropes, just to name a few things ..., as well as fabric. Fabrics woven with hemp are stronger, more insulating, more absorbent, and last longer than cotton. Hemp in food is actually quite healthy, especially hemp seeds. Hemp seeds contain essential fatty acids, amino acids, Omega-6s, Omega-3s and protein that is more easily digestible than in soy.  They are a source of calcium, iron, antioxidants, chlorophyll and other micro-nutrients. There are no known allergies to hemp foods. Our local organic store of course has hemp cereal mixes which is yummy. 

If a lot of products can be produced from renewable sources why are we not making more use of this, I was wondering?   
With regards to fabric the qualities of hemp above sound good to me. I think these qualities are the reasons though why we don't have much hemp clothing today - it's too good! Clothing manufacturers only make money if we regularly, as in frequently/ often, buy clothing. If everybody was like Dave and I they'd go bankrupt. We were our clothes until big holes appear but others might consider the clothes worn-out much earlier or simply want to follow the latest fashion trends. Cotton is renewable too but requires large amounts of fertilizers, pesticides and water - it's the most pesticide-intensive crop in the world. Once it's turns into clothing and other cotton products (such as for our hygiene) lots of toxic bleach is used polluting our air and water. Really not that good.        
Other than that, I found the following: Because of its height, dense foliage and high planting density as a crop, hemp is a very effective method of killing tough weeds in farming by minimizing the pool of weed seeds of the soil. This can help farmers avoid the use of herbicides and support organic production. Now comes the big BUT: Due to its rapid, dense growth characteristics, hemp is in some places considered a prohibited noxious weed. Ah!
With cannabis prohibited in most countries the worry about a hemp field being industrial or for drug use is also an issue. The production of industrial hemp is therefore licensed in many countries. Industrial hemp contains next to no amount of the psychoactive agent that is needed for the cannabis drug.     
Well, although these are good arguments against hemp I am still not entirely convinced hemp would not be at least sometimes the better alternative to what's being used right now.

       
I leave it here for today. Last but not least, here's a website I like on the subject: http://www.hemp.co.uk/index.php                    

Did you hear?

Alberta's Premier Ed Stelmach is quitting. It's not sure yet if that's a good or a bad thing because we don't know who will replace him. But it's a beginning, and optimists as we are we hope things will get better ... ouch, my fingers start hurting from keeping them crossed. 

Only 29% of the Canadian military members have a normal weight. The rest is considered overweight or obese! OMG, what are they doing? Nothing obviously, nothing that would keep them fit, sitting in an office chewing muffins over some strategy considerations. Isn't it crazy that all the folks in jobs that used to be considered role models are quickly disappearing and losing respect. It's the same with police forces. When I see how many police officers are not fit looking at all I don't wonder any more why criminals are running around free. How should a fat policeman possibly run behind a thief? It's like having an obese teacher telling children about healthy living. Oh, and only 17% of Canadian men and 14% of Canadian women meet their weekly recommended exercise volume of 150 minutes. For kids the percentage is even lower although I question how they measure it. Watching the kids race around at school recesses I think they should easily get 150 minutes per week. In the end the ratio of sitting and doing other stuff is what matters to me. Even if I took an exercise class every day but sit (or sleep) the whole rest of the day it's not going to be as good as sitting for let's say 8 hours a day, sleep 8 hours and be busy with the kids, household, shopping etc. for the rest of the day. Sitting in the car would account as sitting obviously.                 

Do you know how to boil a frog?

We were recommended to watch How to boil a frog and after watching the trailer I definitely want to, but oh no our library does not have the film. Can anybody help? One of my favourite websites, the Energy Bulletin wrote about Jon and the film too. Alone watching the trailer one sentence struck me that I think should be plastered on every billboard in every country of this planet. Jon says climate change is a symptom. Human beings are destroying themselves. It's not our planet that is at risk, our very own species is at risk. The planet will make it somehow and move on to the next stage whatever that is but human beings might disappear just like dinosaurs did, only that we are shovelling our own grave and well, kill a lot of other species, animals and plants alike, in the process of wiping ourselves out. I know why I doubt so often human intelligence.     
http://howtoboilafrog.com/themovie/
http://www.energybulletin.net/stories/2010-08-29/how-boil-frog-movie-complete


The person who recommended that film to us wants to learn how to use a gun, to shoot and hunt. I first shook my head, rolled my eyes, and then thought, he's getting prepared for when there's no more food on supermarket shelves.  I joked to my hubby he'll have regularly his whole family over for dinner then. I mean who cares if we know how to use a computer once that thing stops working because cheap electricity is gone and we are fighting for mere survival by trying to have something to eat and drink. Who's going to sign up for the next outdoor survival course now? Me, me, me ...              

Yes, man

We watched a film on the weekend that has not much to do with the protection of the environment but it certainly deals with the state that our world is in today. It's called The Yes Men - Changing the world one prank at a time. Those men are awesome. They pretend to be who they are not and take off to represent the World Trade Organisation at conferences, talking about all kinds of issues in an outrageous way.  Believe it or not most often the listeners just swallowed the nonsense without asking questions and thinking they might be fooled! The Yes-men even declared the closure of the WTO because the organisation realised that it causes more harm than good in the world. I wished the WTO had actually said that.
So my favourite part was the speech about slavery which has been abolished a long time ago, right?! It has not. They give the speech in Finland so they list what it costs to have a slave/ worker in Finland: $250 for rent, $50 for clothing, $150 for food etc. (numbers not exactly as in film) per month. But if instead of bringing the slave to Finland you can leave him in its own country such as Gabon. Then that slave does not have to adapt to the new environment, can live off the same amount of money for possibly a year and will be happier because he's home. Now, you just need a medium to supervise your slaves on that distance production site and it's all good. They had a rather pervert tool to do so but we'll ignore this for now. What they told us is that globalisation only facilitated modern slavery by allowing companies from rich countries to move their production into cheap labour countries. Obviously, that goes along with often worse working conditions than would be accepted in the very own country of origin of those companies. Otherwise we would not need Fair Trade labels! That's a recent article in the Epoch Times. Which labels can you trust? In Canada there's no legislation on fair trade products, anybody could really call their products fair trade or ethical without that meaning anything. But there is Trans Fair Canada http://transfair.ca/  and the World Fair Trade Organisation http://www.wfto.com/ that you can trust. Otherwise, the article suggest to launch your own investigation - good luck.

I went to that great store again

I went to the General Earth's Store today, with empty containers to try their organic shampoo, conditioner and oil. At the cash register they have three boxes now with differently coloured stones. If you bring a cloth bag you get a yellow one worth 2 cents, for refilling containers you get a red one worth 5 cents and for biking, bussing or walking to the store you get a green one worth 10 cents. I got them all, yeah. Then they have three boxes each for a different project they support. There's the Edmonton food bank, a midwifery program in Haiti, and a bicycle ambulance project in Malawi. So you distribute your stones as you please and by the end of the month they count the stones and add up how much money they pay to each of those projects. That's a neat idea and a lot more tangible than the claims of big supermarket chains about how many millions they donated. Either way the money is somewhere in the price calculation of the products but maybe I don't want to support what Safeway gives donations to.

Something worth watching

I always want to write up another bigger post e.g. on hemp and then some small things get into my way. You got to watch this video about Earth and us, it's really beautiful:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY59wZdCDo0  Now, are you already helping the environment?
I'm on the email list or Facebook page of David Suzuki Foundation, The story of Stuff, The Big Wild, CPAWS Northern Alberta, Nature Conservancy Canada, and well the Alberta government. So it's very interesting, that's how I learn a lot and find out about what people like me currently complain about to some politicians or so. So in the newsletter of The Big Wild for example it was just pointed out that Alberta and BC are the only Canadian provinces without any endangered species protection legislation. A BC initiative of different environmental groups wants to change that: http://www.protectbiodiversity.ca/species/ They have 1900 endangered species after all, that's a big number, who would have thought. Did you know there are turtles in BC? I really hope theyt get the legislation. Well, Alberta, even if tried, would not get it, not with this government that tries to slash the Parks Act to get more industry in. Is it election time yet?   

More of garbage, cosmetics and toxins

A crazy German built a hotel in Madrid out of garbage. Unfortunately it's there for an exhibit only and will not actually host guests but I like the idea. One day when we run out of resources we might be happy to collect our trash back out of the oceans (if we can still recognize them as such) and build a roof over our heads with it, just in case it gets a bit wet, windy or cold. Take a look for yourself: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/20/madrids-beach-garbage-hot_n_811442.html#s226725


The Canadian government did a good deed but it's not enough. They banned phthalates only in soft plastic toys, but not in cosmetics. Well, maybe the approach is similar to our diets. They first allow industry to sell crab to the consumers that causes us harm and then they find another provider to treat you for it. Money makes the world go round, on the expense of the consumer. Weird though because the people that work for the industry are also consumers so they should care. The cosmetics industry insists their products are safe, of course. Anyway, it's up to the government to act on the issue but they have 3 months to do so, yawn. http://www.montrealgazette.com/health/Clean+shampoos+critics+urge/4136614/story.html


The other day I read in the paper about a scienties experimenting with animals to cure hangover. He gave the rats (or maybe mice) pure ethanol to make them drunk. It was pointed out that this obviously excluded the usual "toxins and additives" found in store-shelved alcohol.  I could not believe it was writen so bluntly as if that's an absolutely normal, not to worry about way of producing something that will be consumed by us, the readers. Makes me wonder if it was not better to legalize certain plants for drug consumption with "all natural ingredients" instead of creating toxic drinks that cause addiction. 


A friend told a story from the TV. They had a bunch of people swallow the content of a whole package of homeopathic medicine. They stood right outside a hospital in case stomachs had to be pumped out because the porbands weren't suicidal after all. Nothing happened, they all survived without reaction. The conclusion in the show was not though what we thought of. They concluded that homeopathic medicine is like a placebo, it does not do anything. Dave & my conclusion was more like, the active ingredients are not as highly concentrated per pill and it does not contain harming chemicals that at a high dosage can actually kill you. Should be could for suicidal patients. We don't know the details but I think even a placebo is better than harmful medicine.

More bits and pieces

It's winter in Edmonton, everybody here should have noticed by now. We noticed the icicles on the roofs of some houses but not on others. It's a matter of insulation. I spoke to an acquaintance yesterday who said her family of four lives in a rented non-insulated house. When they heat, the heat goes up into and out of the roof. That means the main floor is permanently cold and the upper storey is rather hot - even a crabby roof keeps some heat in. Why would anybody with some brain between the ears build a house without insulation in Canada?! Just another case where harming the environment harms the people, too. It can not be healthy to live in this house.

Do you like art? I framed my brother-in-law's art today. He always adds a drawing to the gifts her gives. I love it, not only because my husband (really the brother of that guy??) is not artistic at all. Anyway, life would not be fun without art and surely there's a lot of good and bad art around. I am not going to discuss environmentally friendly and unfriendly art supplies though because I don't know anything about them. But there's art even in lots of things we take into our hands on a daily basis - or at least part of these things can be turned into art. And it should be appreciated. I started making notebooks/ journals out of scrap paper and paper that's been printed on one side only. I got some scrap fabric and buttons from a friend, cut out pictures from the newspaper, use cereal boxes for the covers, but had to buy the glue from a store. Now that I pay attention it is impressive to me how much paper goes through a household and what it is used for. I have so much paper I don't think baby will ever allow me the time to turn it into notebooks. I keep trying though. See what you have in your place that can be turned into something useful, exciting, artistic ... have fun.

Oh that Michael Pollan - I finished his book - so one more comment about it. The American lifestyle is the culprit for the way Americans eat. That's a big statement but he sounds pretty convincing and well I agree, especially when it comes to holidays! He says that Americans work long days, 40 hours and more per week, with two incomes per household, and have only a couple of weeks holidays. But they also have the spare time to watch TV or DVD, play video games, shop, and in the rare occasion exercise for some hours per day.  I think that's due to marketing telling you to indulge in the pleasures of life instead of spending time on household chores. Hold on a minute, chores is the wrong word when it comes to eating. Pollan's comparison was mostly with the French and Italians who spend hours on food preparation and eating, converse while doing so and eat less at the same time. They eat until they are full, Americans shovel food into their mouths until the plate or microwavable package is empty. The French were one of the first to cut down on the number of hours they work. I bet they are still more productive than Americans simply because they are not burned out and sitting in the office recovering from their free time or holiday rush. Europeans don't need to rush much during their holidays they get at least 4 weeks per year. You get why we want to live in Europe sooner than later, right. My husband just asked for unpaid holidays. He's not entitled to holidays during his first year, never mind he worked in other jobs before he started this one so he's worked for over a year with one week vacation. His boss granted him the week but said they don't usually do that - well, we don't care if we are the exception to the rule if it works for us. Oh, flexible working hours would be a real advancement , too. That will prevent a lot of rush hour traffic, frustration, emissions blown into the air for nothing ... I think I just lost my topic but I wanted to say this. Last but not least, stop caring about advertisement - it is never right.          
       

 

 

         

Blame the cows and sheep?

Here's another contribution from Goleman's book: "Researchers in NZ mapped the genome of ruminant animals like sheep and cows to discover the genes that regulate flatulence, in order to develop a vaccine that will greatly reduce “flatulent emissions” from livestock  -which now account for 28% of human-related methane buildup. Meanwhile plant-breeding geneticists in the UK are attacking methane emissions via genetic improvements in digestibility, sugar content, and protein-breakdown enzymes in grazing grass." 

Methane is apparently a worse greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide and it's produced largely by sheep, cattle and growing rice. Something in the whole development of the planet's biodiversity did not prevent this from happening. Evolution did not think there is anything wrong with that methane production. But evolution never expected to have such huge numbers of cows and sheep roaming the planet because humans chose to domesticate them and start a mass production of these creatures in order to provide us with tons of meat and dairy products. Nor did evolution calculate on so much rice being grown to feed billions of hungry mouths. So to go and mess around with the animal make-up is a cruelty to me. Those animals can't argue or defend themselves, they are like slaves and we therefore think we can do with them how we please!? OMG! Why don't we change instead something in the human body that will stop us from say being so reproductive (reaching 7 billion people on Earth this year should do, shouldn't it) , or digest meat and milk. Seems creepy does not it?












Michael Pollan points out in his book In defense of food that way back in the days, like centuries ago, human beings were not able to consume dairy after they had been weaned off mummy's breast. It was evolution that eventually gave in and made dairy products digestible for the human body. Vegetarians live a healthier life anyway, so away with beef burgers and bacon. I'm not a vegetarian but once or twice a week a small piece of meat is all that ends up on our dinner plates. If we all ate less meat the number of cows and sheep would automatically go down, that's demand and supply logic. No need to get rid of them completely though. They've been around for at least as long as we have and they deserve it but in small numbers there's less harm, it's more sustainable. Therefore eat quality over quantity when it comes to meat.   

Mistakes times 32

Here a paragraph out of Daniel Goleman's Ecological Intelligence: "A great injustice of global warming is that the world’s poor will suffer most even though they contribute least to the cause. The habits of the rich most intensely fuel the planet’s global warming – and so the rich bear the greatest ethical burden to change. The one billion denizens of the developed world consume at a rate 32 times greater than the world’s poorest citizens. This vast share of humanity’s impact on the planet means a 32 times greater rate not just in using limited resources like oil, lumber and fish, but also in producing waste like greenhouse gases, plastics choking marine life, and a sea of other stuff moldering in land fills. With countries like China and India reaching for the life style of the world’s affluent this is completely unsustainable." 

I don't think the fact that the poorer peoples suffer more than the richer is new to you. But the 32 times is a horribly big figure that is probably not that well known. I sometimes think half of the rich folks are also 32 times more ignorant to the damage they do. Small (and often poor) island nations asking the rich countries to stop their bad habits so the islands don't sink in the process of rising sea levels has not changed much. The striving of countries like China and India to reach the living standard of the richest is scary to me but also shows that they have not learned anything, that they do not look critically enough at the way we live, that they do not realise how destructive for the society and environment this life style is. That's something quite typical in the human being I think. We want to make our own mistakes. learning by doing. The terrible aspect in the case of a whole nation making a mistake is though that those mistakes happen on a very big scale and are not easily if at all reversible. Once you chopped down the boreal or rain forest it's gone forever. Nobody is going to make the effort to replant and resettle the variety of plant and animal species that use to thrive there. We don't have the ingenuity to do this and we don't have the patience to wait for the results which is obviously going to take many generations. Money, as capitalist nations might think is the solutions to just about anything , is not going to help either. Yes, you can spend money on research, foreign aid, reforestation (mainly done for the lumber industry though) and who knows what but money can't buy an intact eco-system. The Metro newspaper did a survey and asked people which advice they'd give to the next generation. Besides flossing and sleep lots there were comments like look after the environment or care for the planet and even apologies saying sorry for the state of the planet we are passing on to you.  Great, but I still believe the importance of changing our life style has often not even reached our neighbours, these people next door to us. That's probably why I feel like slashing tires when I walk down a road with lots of (big) cars. So how is the next generation meant to score any better?  I suggest to add "ecology & environment" to every school's curriculum, right next to maths and reading. If it is not explained to the next generation early in age, before they develop bad habits, they will not be any better than us.                              

Bits & pieces

Are you like me in doubt about what you buy at the supermarket then go and read In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan - you will not want to go to a supermarket again but instead move onto a farm and grow your own food, just to be on the safe side, and to contribute to the survival of the still remaining animal and plant species. They really have a hard time with modern agriculture and food science. Although it did not appeal to me to start with, it's an interesting book, especially the science behind our food industry and what food scientists forget, neglect, ignore and hide when they tell us what to eat or not to eat.        

If the Western Canadian Rednecks thought it's all leftist eco-freaks in the East they  have just been proven wrong. My hubby dared to tell me that the new Toronto mayor decided to lower taxes for cars and raise those for public transit. Dumbhead! Prime idiot Harper appointed Peter Kent as new environment minister and after Kent's first comments, especially the one that caused a media outcry about tar sands oil, I wonder which stance he takes towards the environment - protection and conservation can't be it. Someone who promotes the tar sands oil as ethical because it apparently does not support "terrorism, injustice or tyranny" seems to support the exploitation of our environment and is therefore in the wrong job! He's pretty uninformed too, I guess, because it's known that Canada's biggest foreign aid goes to the second most corrupt country in the world, Afghanistan. And surely, that's a terrorist-free and fair country, isn't it. Maybe I'm getting confused here.

The city of Edmonton has 100 pieces of equipment of their own and another 100 from contractors out on the streets to clean up the snow. Really? I wonder what those pieces are, shovels? snow blowers? at the best bobcats? The excuse for the lame removal of the recent snow fall was the fact that it's been the biggest snow fall in 6-7 years and that the city does not pay any longer to be prioritized by contractors. That means that contractors first clear snow where they get paid more and private businesses, especially malls, seem to be much better off - or not as cheap as - the city of Edmonton. Never mind, you might not be able to get out your own door but once you pushed and shovelled your car to the mall it's all easy driving from there. Not everybody is as cynical as I am about the whole issue. A survey on our neighbouring community league's website showed that 23% of residents are happy with the service. Where did they live before - the North Pole? Or maybe they belong to the weird part of the population that has lived forever in Edmonton - they just don't know it any different. 
             

Wild or not wild

In the book "Bicycle Diaries" by David Byrne the author cycles around different cities all over the world and writes down his experience. In Germany he fusses about manicured landscapes. As a matter of fact there's no wilderness left in Europe he says. Personally, I don't have the feeling that all landscapes are manicured in Europe. Sure, forests have been managed for wood and sometimes been replanted but where has not that happened. At least Europe has forests and has them near and in cities, at the door step to be enjoyed. What do I care about wilderness that is hours and hours of driving away from where I live, such as in Edmonton, and in some cases, because it's wilderness, it's totally inacccessible? Instead Edmonton is surrounded by miles of 'man-mad wilderness' of industrial plots that alone are so neglected  and partially left to rot (because land is cheap) it's very ugly to look it. I'd prefer a manicured forest there.

Considering the population density in Europe I think we are doing really well for nature. If North America had the same population density I bet there would not be a single tree left here. German autobahns are not as space wasting as the American Highway system either. Besides, American wilderness is found where people have (had) access difficulties but even those are disappearing. Just think about the oil and mining companies and how they move further into the last great wildernesses of North America - ready to chop them down! Land Brandenburg, the federal state of Germany that I am from, is famous and infamous for its tree-lined roads. Famous because they are so beautiful and infamous because reckless drivers crash and die since the trees do not give in where a field would. By the way, Iceland and Scotland, just asa examples, have surely areas left "to be wild" but they are mostly still in reasonable reachable distance for people like me. If you don't pay attention you might end up in a bog or geothermal pond though!       



           

Stuck in cheap snow and decrepit age

We went to the Banff Mountain Film Festival screening last night in Edmonton. The host from Banff was asking if the roads in Edmonton do not get ploughed because he had so much trouble getting around with his little Toyota. Oh no, we are really cheap here, don't pay taxes, don't need any services. We are all born survivors! A  second plough is in the ten-year-plan, joked my hubby.  F*** this place, is my opinion. Edmonton has 4800 km of roads, double this for two lanes and you have 9600 km, right. In a city that has winter for at least 5 months a year they should keep a depot with 20 ploughs, each of them would have to plough 480 km. If you have them out on the roads once it starts snowing and keep them running 24/7 until is stops snowing (480 km in 24 hours seems feasible to me, if you don't allow any build-up) no single road should be covered in snow to the point where cars get stuck and need to be shovelled out! I mean, once the charge for this service is in your property taxes, it is in your taxes - people moan once and then forget about it. With the current system though people moan every time it snows ... and don't get anywhere either.  With regards to the environment I can't tell for sure what's better. On one hand you get fuel burnt by "many" snow ploughs but cars driving on clean roads require less fuel, on the other hand you get fewer ploughs burning fuel but every car out burns more trying to get through and people drive bigger cars in order to make it through the winter. I think buses are not too much affected because even if people can't drive poor road conditions don't help transit be effective. Buses get stuck in snow too or are behind schedule. The safety perspective clearly requires ploughed roads. 

Have you noticed there's more and more people with walkers and crutches around? I was wondering how all those people get around in winter. My husband remembered an article in 2008 that pointed out while we gained 10 years in life expectancy we only gained 2 years in health. The desire of medicine to keep us all alive seems to backfire as our health systems get more and more overwhelmed and more and more people end up in long-time care unable to look after themselves. Having old people drive is not a good idea either. Traffic, especially in cities, is so busy and crazy that old people can't possibly catch all that's happening. That's my impression when see them driving across pedestrian crossings without blinking an eye on those pedestrians. Having them take the bus is not great either, there's only so many spots for people with walkers, crutches and strollers. In Edmonton they are frequently occupied. The over 90 years of age, somewhat confused mother of a friend of mine once almost burnt down her house when her daughter was gone because she had the idea of wanting to cook something. Since then her daughter has almost never left her alone. That's a huge commitment, one that not many people are willing to take anyway. Life's meant to be a joy not suffering. Once dead, cremation should be the way to go - there's not enough space for coffins of 7 billions people and more.     
                         

Buying more local

I went to the Farmers' Market at our new mall the other day - it had only 3 stalls that sold honey, preserves, cookies and knit wear. I was extremely disappointed since this is not of help for getting local produce so we consider ordering our Organic Box on a weekly basis now. But I checked out a locally owned supermarket that sells the same products as the big chain stores and does not cost any more. We also walked around in the neighbourhood to see what we can get near us without going to the big box stores. I'm often surprised myself how small shops survive. Some are super specialized (needle work, pet treats bakery, ..) and probably get their customers talking about it but others still compete against the big box stores at the malls that everybody knows and has membership cards for. We will try to support them more and see how that goes because I noticed that I don't like shopping at most chain stores any more. The recent announcement of a large US dollar store chain coming to Canada made me choke. Considering the already existing amount of dollar stores I wonder who needs more cheap crap to start with. Hopefully they don't make it. Stick to your local dollar store if it needs to be such store at all. 
On New Year's Eve we had pizza from our local pizza & junk food restaurant. We don't often have take-away but I was feeling so sick and my husband did not fancy cooking (after the move there was not much food in the fridge) so take-out pizza seemed a reasonable idea. I was glad it turned out that this local store was closer than any Pizza Hut or Boston Pizza. Did I mention I have never been to most junk food chains. I used to know McDonald's well because I worked there as a student. I went a few times to A&W, always on the way from the airport to my in-laws. And I had to try Tim  Hortons in Canada - that is with Subway the only fast food chain I really like. Their food is not too "junky" but the service at Tim Hortons often sucks (slow!). At Tim Hortons one even receives proper plates and bowls instead of plastics dishes!                       

Food has become a nightmare

This morning I had a another fit about American food. Oh yes, I miss German food. We don't add vitamins to our pasta and we don't colour our cheeses orange or marble. I hate cheddar in the meantime because it seems to be the only cheese for under $20 per kg and I don't understand why. What's so difficult about making other cheeses - why can only cheddar be produced so cheaply? Gouda, Edam and Co taste much better. When I was pregnant I was always asked at the doctor's office if I was still taking my vitamins. No, and I never have been. I eat a healthy diet so what do I need vitamins for? 

Do you know Michael Pollan? If you care a little bit about what you eat you will have heard of him because he writes one book after the other about food, American food or the Western diet as he calls it. Actually, the Western diet for him consists of "food-like substances", not actually food itself any more - I agree. Due to very strong lobbying groups in the American food industry nobody dares any longer to say you should not eat red meat, dairy, avocados or what ever. Instead they boiled it down to nutrients - don't eat saturated fats, carbohydrates, MSG (which I recently found on a shelve in the spices section of a shop - who would buy that?) ... and so on, but do eat Omega-3-fats, vitamin D, fibre, blablabla ... now go figure where you find or not find these nutrients. Of course, the food industry can manufacture lots of the "good" stuff now into almost any processed food and then advertise it big. Try HARDER! We eat very little processed foods so I don't care. Besides, everything seems to be about calories and reducing fat and sugar and ... we don't all want to slim down so again, I don't care, but I'm tired of this nonsense. Did I mention yet that I found a super yummy yoghurt the other day, produced in Quebec it's called Liberte - in fact, it's liberating to eat because those 8% fat and lots of fruit are very satisfying. Besides, we received organic lentils from Saskatchewan with our Organic Box and they smelled like fresh from the field!           


Of course, there's lots of processed and junk food in Germany, too. Europe takes on too much stuff from the USA anyway and crap food is part of this. Meat also is sold wrapped in styrofoam and plastic wrap and lots of food is packaged in single portions and there's too much fat and sugar in food products ... but we have decent cheeses and chocolates that taste better and are cheaper. There was a hint in the last sentence - watch for the packaging of your food, less is better.     

Busing around

I am terribly in love with our new jogging stroller but I still prefer to go to bed with my husband. Sleeping by the way is a very green "activity" because one is not consuming anything else but air. Anyway, with our new stroller we can really enjoy fresh snow since it simply ploughs through the white stuff. That consumes some of my energy but with a few home-made cookies, so I know what's in them, this is not a problem. On the bus I still take the old smaller stroller. 

I take the bus across the city to school now and my colleagues are worried about that. It takes so long and the service is so bad ... amazing what picture there's about public transit in Edmonton especially from residents that never use it. Others think it is just plain crazy to commute so far by bus (45 min). I know mostly stay-at-home-mums and non-working-women-whose-husbands-earn-a-fortune in Edmonton so they don't have to commute at all. In Edmonton these people do not leave their neighbourhood very much because the city is set up so that everything is relatively close-by (malls, leisure centres, libraries, certain medical services). The important word here is relatively because people still feel like they need a car to be able to live in Edmonton due to its sprawl. This is a controversy to me, one I have trouble getting over, too. I have not ever seen such an attitude in any European city before. In fact, having moved to the other end of Ed turns into starting all over again - might as well have moved to Calgary. 

Public transit has for sure an image problem in vast parts of North America. In Edmonton it is for poor people: students, homeless, old and decrepit residents with walkers or crutches, a few weirdos and us. But I’m a European and I don’t see what’s wrong with public transit. Living in a city should not require a car. Apart from driving gas-guzzling cars – I have never seen so many pick-up trucks and vans as in Edmonton - 89% of all drivers in Alberta are distracted while driving. Besides the majority of car rides in Canada cover less than 5 km. So why on earth do people not walk, cycle, and take the bus, if they are not only harming the environment but also endangering their own life and the life of others? It's an addiction that has not made it yet as far as prescription drugs - a professional needs to sign that it's good for you.

Here another attitude in need to be erased. Drivers here think gasoline is expensive, especially for living in an oil-producing country, but happily buy that bottle of water or pop that costs more and by itself has negative environmental impacts. In 2007 having a Cavalier-sized North American car would cause its owner costs of around $9,000 per year (including depreciation), with the average Canadian driving 18,000 km per year. Considering that most households have two cars out the door, this cost is obviously not high enough for city-dwellers to demand better public transit, or at least try it as it is currently. There's a reason why Edmonton Transit advertises "the every day way to save $5500 a year".

A visit of a different kind

In autumn we visited the Waste Management Centre in Edmonton  which claims to be the most sophisticated in North America. At the facility they recover 6 out of 10 garbage bags through recycling and composting, the rest still goes to landfill. Additional facilities to recycle more materials are under construction with the goal to recover 9 out of 10 garbage bags. I never really thought about the ratio of garbage that gets recovered but I was honestly a bit shocked by the small ratio of recovery that apparently is a big one. I mean, other cities seem to stuff even more garbage right away into landfills and don't further think or care about it. Urgh. 

Edmonton’s Centre has been a huge investment that lots of communities are not willing to take, but that’s desirable. Coastal cities that dump waste into the ocean, incinerators that produce the most toxic man-made substance on Earth (Dioxin), and exporting waste to places like India because countries like the USA create so much waste they can’t cope with it are not good for our future. Getting industry to design products that last would be a huge progress but we also need to remind ourselves that everything that gets dumped stays on the planet, no matter what. In order to keep this fact in people's minds it should be part of every school's curriculum to take the kids to a waste management facility ... and make the facility an operating exhibit. Just like in Edmonton, only that here they do it with proud which cities with incinerators will not do.   

http://www.edmonton.ca/for_residents/garbage_recycling/edmonton-waste-management-centre.aspx

Read on and make use

I wanted to mention a few interesting websites: 

The Good Guide website, http://www.goodguide.com/, scientifically rates a vast range of every day products according to established health, society and environment criteria. You can filter products with the help of these categories depending on what you care most about, search by product or simply look at the best and worst products in each category. The down turn is that it is for the US market so if you do not live in the USA it might not have products you use.    

The Outdoor Industry Association has an Eco-Index, http://www.outdoorindustry.org/gov.csr.ecoindex.html, that "is a ground-breaking environmental assessment tool designed to advance sustainability practices within the outdoor industry." I think that is a great idea because companies that make their money thanks to the 'great outdoors' ought to protect exactly those spaces. All other companies should do that to but as always  somebody needs to make a start ...   
The Energy Bulletin, http://www.energybulletin.net/, is a website I stumbled upon accidentally but it's just bursting with great articles. If only I had more time to read.

Paperless New Year's resolutions

David Suzuki Foundation asks on Facebook "What is your green New Year's resolution?" I wonder how many people have a green NY resolution at all. My skepticism says not too many and surely not enough. But I hope that losing weight and watching less TV aren't top of the list for millions again that will give up on their goal within a month. Both of these goals could be achieved by living a greener life, walk - don't drive, eat veggies not processed foods and lots of meat, exercise ... Despite growing concern for the environment amongst us I think most people still think of themselves not the planet when it comes to New Year's resolutions. Personally,  I don't have any resolution - I don't need New Year to change something.When I come up with something, a change for the better for myself or the environment, why shelve it until New Year? If I had one of those great ideas today does it make sense to wait 362 more days to implement it, 362 more days to neglect the environment or myself? Nope, it does not. But I don't want to demotivate anybody who does have NY resolutions because usually it is something worth pursuing so it's better be done sometime rather than never. 

Living at the new place we wanted to sign up now for Bullfrog Wind Power. Mountain Equipment Coop is bullfrogpowered, too, I noticed today. Yes, we live closer to this store now and just bought a bike trailer that is collapsable and converts into a stroller with lots of space for shopping and big wheels for snow. :-) Back to Bullfrog Power, it turns out they want the site number of the building we live in. It happens to be on our EPCOR energy bill but of course we have not gotten one for this place yet. We'll wait but not forget about it. Today I also signed up again to receive our energy bill online instead of by snail mail. That EPost option via our bank account needs a little practice but maybe I got it right this time. All our other bills come already by email. If we could now receive our pay check by email too that would be great but to be honest I have had this option only in one job so far, that was in New Zealand through Adecco.  Do companies have green New Year resolutions? That would be a good one.

   
  

A few recent occurences

Dave was given by his dentist a tooth paste for sensitive teeth with "instant relief" guarantee. Reading the small print it turns out this stuff is highly dangerous, recommending users to call Poison Control if they happen to swallow more than the amount needed for brushing their teeth! How did this stuff get on store shelves?

Our new apartment also needed some serious cleaning and I was recommended to get CLR, a cleaner that removes stubborn stains from calcium, lime and rust. Reading the packaging I was shocked about the aggressiveness of this product and considered not to get this near my household, not only because we have a baby but also because this stuff should stay where it is - safely in its bottle, unopened.


Have you wondered how our bath versus shower water consumption turned out? My husband uses more water for his bath than I use for a simple shower, that is without washing my hair. So maybe his bath comes to about the same as my shower with washing my hair. He still uses less for his bath than his shower.  The last days I have taken a few bathes in a puddle because our new shower head is terrible and needs to be changed, the sooner the better.

I hate urban sprawl, once and forever

Walking around our new neighbourhood today we thought once more about the wasteful way Edmonton has been built over many years. Edmonton has the second largest urban sprawl in North America which is obviously due to large residential lots, one-storey houses (bungalows), wide streets and roads as well as back alleys, and of course malls with lots of big box stores and huge parking lots. 

Back alleys seem a convenient thing for the city to pick up garbage and residents to park their vehicles instead of using the already spacious street in front of their houses but they sometimes more resemble a landfill, depending on the neighbourhood. I'd love to see Edmonton shrink in a computer simulation that cuts out all those back alleys - must make a huge difference. In my opinion it's a lot of public land that's being used poorly and that keeps neighbours separate. With everyone going out the back door where the car's parked the front streets tend to look deserted and if you were lost you'd have trouble asking for directions ... maybe that's why everybody has a GPS here.  

In the newer suburbs city planners learned from the past - there are no more back alleys. Instead there are often walkways now, especially when the neighbourhood borders one of the many ravines in town. But the streets are not logical any more. There are crescents, dead-ends, curves and bends, a far cry from the simply grid system that once started off the city. I guess they try to prevent through-traffic but in the end they get people lost, driving around searching, wasting gas in the meantime.  

Urban sprawl is fine when it's for the sake of parks. I, and hopefully nobody else, would ever complain about the river valley being park land instead of residential lots because the river valley is for Edmontonians the biggest recreational space. We just moved away from it but come summer I know I will miss it. Get the bikes out, honey!           

I know we chose to live close to a mall for the convenience of shopping with baby by foot. From our new home I have to walk further but we can't see the mall which is very nice. The layout of malls always bothers me, not much space for pedestrians but instead car drivers can stop right outside the shop they are aiming for. Worst of all, there might even be a drive-through to the shop. When I first came to Edmonton I noticed drive-thrus that until then I had no idea they existed, a drive-through for  ATMs and pharmacies for example. Excuse my language but for me that's for lazy fat-asses. Your car is not your home, get out of it once in a while.

A Bylaw in Edmonton requires parking space for any facility. Right next to the apartment buildings in Terrace Heights where we used to live is a little park. The South East Edmonton Community League Association would like to build a Skateboard park there. Great idea. But the fact that they have to put a parking lot in where there is terrible road access already kind of screws up the layout. When they had an Open House on the proposed park we let the city know it's a stupid idea. There's lots of parking space already due to shops, more shops and a mall across the road. For the proposal SECLA was not required to have a bus stop, a bike lane or a pedestrian walkway included in the project. Since the skating area will be incorporated in a park with new trees and benches the architect put a walkway in but that's about it. A fine example showing how stiff some of Edmonton's regulations are, harming progress more than helping it.