The Great Lakes in trouble

Climate Change and the Great Lakes is a great article I read on the Weather network. The end of the article is what impressed me the most.

"Toxic algal blooms thrive in warm conditions, and they've been doing exceptionally well in Lake Erie since 2002.
 In fact -- "last year the algal bloom in Lake Erie was 2.5 times larger than anything we've ever seen in the past," says Dr. Jeffery M. Reutter, Director of the Ohio Sea Grant College Program at Ohio State University. "It covered the water intake [structures] for more than 8 million people in the Cleveland area."
... 
Phosphorus, a chemical element commonly found in household fertilizers and cleaning products, has exacerbated the issue. ...
Dr. Reutter says the problem can be curbed by improving agricultural and sewage treatment practices. He recommends choosing household cleaning products and fertilizers that are low in phosphorus and trying to keep water out of storm sanitary systems. This can be done by installing rain barrels and switching to low-flow toilets and showers."

If only North America would get away from its wasteful lifestyle and upgrade to what's already the norm in other developed countries before it's too late. I have trouble to keep up some optimism. North America can not afford the loss or collapse of the Great Lakes!

Gone to Europe - now homesick

About a month ago we spent two weeks in Southern Germany, Switzerland and France. I loved it. My husband wants to move to France now, into the foothills of the Alps not far from Lake Geneva. We have good friends there with young children, besides it was so beautiful. Our friends though warned us that it is an expensive area since lots of people like to live close to mountains and lake and work in Geneva, earning a Swiss salary. Oh well, we aren't so full of illusions that we don't realize that there will be obstacles too and we will not strike it rich overnight but if we moved to Europe, still I think we'd be happier.

Being back in Europe reminded me that life is possible without a car. Of course we had a rental car but in Switzerland and Munich I wished we had not but traveled by train instead. It's easier. In Munich we actually paid parking for the car and did not drive it in town, other than when we arrived to the B&B. The public transit was efficient and overwhelmingly busy for us who are now used to half empty buses even at rush hour. I don't know how many times I reminded my husband not to walk on the bicycle lane since cyclists hate pedestrians in their way. Sure, Germans are somewhat rude and the cyclists can't tell we are tourists from Canada but generally blocked cycle lanes are annoying. Anyhow, wherever we were we could walk to do the shopping we needed, to get a meal, or to sightsee. We'd even walk right into the store without having to cross a massive parking lot. 


Or imagine pedestrian zones. Kitchener had an art market twice on its main street King Street recently. They closed two blocks of the street for that purpose. I am sure drivers were annoyed although it's generally not a pleasant drive down King Street. Personally I think they should close the street for traffic forever. Uptown Waterloo has in summer an Open Street event once a month from 1-4 PM on a Sunday! I read an opinion piece on what a waste of money this event is since it does not actually draw more people into the uptown because, so the explanation, people are used to drive along King Street and pull up right in front of the store they want to shop at. Bah! What an attitude. It's time to get people used to walking again.

I sometimes think I am going insane over the fact that in Canada wherever we live I am stuck, unable to go anywhere without a car. My husband takes the car to work even though he does not like the drive but it's faster than the bus and he otherwise would not get to see his daughter during the day.  We both do absolutely not want a second car so I get around by bike and foot. I have the feeling I have been to every corner of KW now and sick and tired of the same parks and playgrounds. But trying to get out into the countryside by bus or train is not worth the effort since it simply won't work. 

When you tell people you don't want to depend on a car, in Canada they tell you to move into a big city like Toronto or Vancouver. Makes me choke. I'm a countryside person and moving into a huge, noisy city is the last thing I want to do again.

Anyway, once our family expands in a few weeks things will get even worse. No more cycling - just doesn't work with an infant. My husband thinks about finding a job closer to home so he can leave the car in which case we should almost get rid of it since it's too expensive. Unfortunately that would kill a considerable part of our social life and that is not extensive to start with. I hate this car-dependent culture.

I also dislike the throw-away culture. We walked the English Garden in Munich, a huge park with at least two beer gardens. They serve the beer in glass mugs! No, the park was not full of broken glass, in fact there was not a piece of broken glass anywhere. Upon returning to Canada I instantly noticed the paper cups and fast food containers lying around in streets, along strip malls, in parks, on playgrounds, sometimes just a couple of steps away from a garbage bin. It's so careless! 

In KW we walked on a beautiful but not too hot Sunday afternoon through a wooded park that borders with back yards. We did not meet anybody. I said to my hubby that in Germany on such a day people read books on the porch, have coffee and tea in their garden, stroll the neighbourhood ... what do Canadians do since we can't see any? He hesitated and answered, they enjoy the air conditioning in their house while watching football. Very disappointing!

We stayed at my sister's apartment, saw the holiday apartments of my parents and aunt & uncle, saw the apartment of our friends in France, stayed at a B&B in an apartment in Munich - they all had nice sealing windows although they were not brand new or posh, just ordinary apartments. Even more disappointed!! 

Do you think I wanted to come back to KW and our sauna of an apartment? Thought about taking my daughter camping for a few days but erased that idea from my mind. Ever noticed how expensive camping has gotten? - $35 per night minimum. Yikes! Camping is not what it used to be. Not to talk about the entrance fees one has to shell out when going to a lake since every lake that is not on private property or too polluted for swimming has been declared a conservation area or is part of a provincial park or such. We probably did most of our swimming this year while on holidays in Europe where one can swim for free in almost every lake there is. Oh what a joy!





 

Last Call at the Oasis

I watched Last Call at the Oasis (also http://www.takepart.com/lastcall/) recently at the cinema, the so called last part of the "Participant's Media Crisis Quartet" after Food Inc., An Inconvenient Truth and Waiting for Superman. It was a great documentary for sure and disappointing as always how few people came to see the show considering only one was scheduled. 

I am not running over all the details but I tell you about the opening scene  and a few bits and pieces. The film starts showing people in poor countries fighting over water. These people either regularly experience severe drought or floods but they all lack clean water for consumption, and their situation is not going to change. They have to live along polluted rivers, watch their livestock die and crops dry out while working hard to survive. The music then changes to Pink's "Raise your glass" in which she sings "Why so serious?" Next you see people in the First World waste water on public fountains, water their lawns, power wash driveways, splash around in pools, grow crops in the middle of the desert with irrigation water that has travelled 100s of miles through pipelines, and you see Las Vegas. Las Vegas depends on water imports especially now that the reservoir behind Hoover Dam is drying up and the years are counted until the water level is so low that the connected power plant will stop operation. While Las Vegas wants to steal its water from even further afield I think it deserves to go down and plainly dry out. The sprawl and wastefulness of this city is simply disgusting. And in a country like the USA people pay next to nothing for their water which is even more disgusting! The film also pointed out that California is the next Australia and we all know how dried up, burnt down and deserted Down Under is. The days of eating produce grown in California might as well be counted too.   
 
Unfortunately I can't find my favourite quotes from that film right now but I recommend watching the trailer at least. The quotes went somewhere along the lines of 'humanity is capable of committing infinite destruction of the Earth and still be ignorant about it'. In one part of the film a bunch of business people tried to figure out how to market "recycled water" that for example would come from recycling urine. Naturally most people's reaction was "yikes, no way would I drink this, that's disgusting". The technology exists and is being used on spaceships already. So these guys come up with some clever marketing and get people to drink the recycled water and most realise it's fine and tastes like any other drinking water. One woman proves herself to be bloody stupid and ignorant saying something like, why do you bother doing this, we surely don't have a water shortage considering the size of the oceans'. Dah! Time to wake up!             

The film was presented by Community Renewable Energy Waterloo, an organisation that I had not heard about but that certainly tries to make a difference here in the region. And while I see more garden signs here advertising that a house is "Bullfrog Powered" than in Edmonton, living in an apartment sucks in so far that we have no influence whatsoever about the effiency of our appliances, the quality of the building, the energy provider etc. The other day I spoke to someone from Reduce the Juice and she said they are trying to get the green bin (organics) into apartment buildings as well. Wouldn't it be nice. It's a lot harder to have a compost bin in an apartment than in a garden!  

The energy for your air conditioning

Are you dreaming of solar-powered air conditioning right now,  just like I am? If you live in Ontario you might be dreading the heat by now, at least I do. I long have had enough of summer. Ontario as it turns out has made efforts to produce more solar and wind power and reduce their coal power plants contribution. That's nice, but unfortunately, the government seems to be hesitant to switch the coal plants off completely. Besides, they are way too much into nuclear power plants which have already had a massive impact on the provincial debt and power rates for consumers. I'm not a fan of nuke power either. Japan has shown more than impressively what can happen when nature's forces strike and don't stop at man-made obstacles such as power plants. 

A brochure of the Clean Air Alliance states that "According to the Ontario Energy Board, rising nuclear costs are responsible for 45% of the increase in Ontario's electricity generation prices over the past five years. Renewable energy, by comparison, has contributed just 6% to the increase." On their website the Clean Air Alliance runs some interesting articles on both coal and nuclear power, for example:           


"Ontario now has a significant surplus of coal-free electricity. We do not need to wait until December 2014 to finish the coal phase out. ...  Meanwhile, Ontario Power Generation has been paid close to a billion dollars to keep unneeded coal plants open. Send a letter to Premier Dalton McGuinty asking him to shutdown unnecessary coal units today!"

We recently spent a few days around Point Pelee and noticed there the co-existence of oil wells and large solar panels and wind turbines. It was surprising to be honest. Definitely good to see the solar panels and wind turbines. I get angry when I see road signs urging people to fight wind turbines. It's total BS to me. They cause a lot less noise than the average Canadian city during its day-to-day operations of people driving everywhere, construction sites and so on. Those most be Conservatives that for any price and environmental destruction want to stick to traditional ways of energy production. Why else would the federal government investigates the effects of wind turbines but isn't very rigorous about the shortfalls of the oil and gas industry which is still operating and expanding despite more oil spills and gas leaks.     

Dirty Dash

There's quite a few things I have been wanting to write about recently but I don't get to spend much time at the computer. With the drought and heat we have spent tons of time outside, yes outside, because our apartment is like a sauna. So, in the shade of a park tree or at the spray park it is for me and my daughter most of the time. In the "cool" morning we have done a few bike tours too. Today we finally got some rain in the afternoon with lots of thunder and we were out for a walk and stop at the spray park, enjoying the wet. In the morning though I did the Dirty Dash run and for once it was humid as the rain was looming in the sky but simply did not come until hours later. 

The Dirty Dash is a 4 km loop in a park that for the longer option is run twice. It's got a man-made mud pit at the end with flags put up low across the mud so that one has to crawl, belly slide or whatever underneath. We ran mostly on grass and forest trails (the forest is awesome, cool and dark), through a creek twice and up and down a few hills. As a surprise by the organisers we also got to jump over a log, car tires, and three rows of straw bales right before the mud pit. Yeah! Besides, they watered an uphill section with a sprinkler to make it slippery. This race went over faster than any other one because the obstacles and change of scenery made it so much more interesting than a road race. Besides, spectators like my hubby are much more entertained since they can see the runners along different parts of the course including most obstacles.

The latest result list put me 50. overall from 177 runners, 12. women, and first again in my age category with a time of 45 min 13 sec. Not bad under the circumstances. Will do it again!        



By the way the fastest man finished the 8 km in 31 min, the fastest woman in under 36 min. The first guys to come in apparently still had the energy to make somersaults in the mud and one of them ran afterwards the 4 km. Crazy, suppose they train for that. I keep fit with a toddler, a bike and my two feet, so there's not much need to go running laps in the wood every other day (which still would not make me win the race).     
       

REEP House rocks!

I participated in a tour of REEP House for Sustainable Living (http://www.reepwaterlooregion.ca/) on Wednesday night. REEP House is located at 20 Mill Street in Kitchener and should be visited by anyone considering buying a house or renovating one. The tour is very informative to say the least and should direct people towards redoing their home in a more responsible way for the environment and their own health.

It starts outside with native plants in the garden, driveway paving that is 9 times more water-permeable than standard interlocking bricks and rain barrels capable of holding 2000 litres which are used for flushing the toilet and gardening. Besides grey water from the bathroom sink is collected to flush the toilet. The bathroom includes a 3-litre-toilet with air suction for superior performance. A water filtration system in the basement treats the water to eliminate chlorine and other chemicals that harm appliances and human health. Skin absorbs more chlorine through a shower then we take in from drinking tap water! The tankless water heater was not new to me as it’s been around in Europe for a while but it’s new to Canadians.

For heating they have a high efficiency boiler and radiant heater as well as a geothermal heat pump which the guide admitted is more useful in rural areas than in the city where natural gas is still cheap. The energy recovery ventilator became necessary after the house was sealed off with thick insulation to regulate moisture and condensation. The programmable thermostats to regulate the three levels of the house separately are again newish in Canada but leave me in disbelief, growing up with a thermostat in every room which I still miss since I don’t want my bedroom and kitchen as warm as the living room. The ceiling fans were a neat thing so simple and effective, especially since they opened up the ceiling of the upper storey into the attic which required the rising warm air to be spread out throughout the room in the winter.

The house features a variety of windows. Windows are usually the last thing they recommend people to replace while insulation is the most important part to save on energy and make a house more liveable. The reason is that windows are fairly expensive compared to all other eco-friendly, money-saving (in the long run) adjustments possible in a house – unless of course the windows are leaking as in our apartment.

For lighting and appliances REEP house features a lot of options that might seem a bit “too much” (sensor light switches) and aren’t often necessary, as behaviour changes are cheaper e.g. switch off the light when you leave a room, or unplug the computer when you are done with it. Since fluorescent light bulbs contain mercury only LED lights were installed. They last 50,000 hours, 10 times longer than a CFL bulb and are getting better too. The initial investment can be up to $100 per light fixture but it pays off to buy a high quality LED light. The refrigerator was super awesome as the compressor is on top (instead of underneath or behind) and warm air rises without reheating the fridge from the outside. The fridge was way more insulated and can be hooked up to the outdoors to use cold winter air for cooling. It costs $7 per year to run! Besides there was a steam washing machine, induction stove and high efficiency dish washer.                       

For furniture only solid woods were used, flooring, doors, stairs etc. were built from reclaimed materials, the roof is covered with recycled polymer shingles (including from used tires) that come with a 50 year guarantee. They are just as good as a steel roof but much better than asphalt shingles.    

Now I mentioned that insulation is the most important part in a home and we thankfully talked a long time about it. While different options (rockwool, fibreglass, cellulose, polyurethane foam) were shown and savings in energy cost calculated REEP house is almost entirely insulated with that foam. Insulation is measured in R-values and the building code requirement for new buildings just went from R-20 to R-26 while REEP House has an R-38. Thankfully the guide emphasized that polyurethane foam is, though best for insulation, terrible for the environment. It’s a petroleum-based product that causes greenhouse gases worse than carbon dioxide. So instead of putting in 6 inches of that foam he recommended not more than 2 inches of foam combined with 4-5 inches of another option. Rockwool is a by-product of the steel industry, cellulose is recycled newspaper and some other stuff was recycled too. More care needs to be taken to not squish these materials when installing them or the insulating effect gets partly lost but it’s also not as permanent as the foam, if ever repairs on the electric wiring or plumbing need to be done. Besides, the off-gases from spraying in the foam are toxic.

The EnerGuide rating of REEP House went from 49 to 87 after completed renovation. It becomes exponentially harder to get a higher rating and REEP is still aiming for an 89 with more changes. Our guide had never seen a house with over 90 though. Even 49 for a century-old home is more than usual but the previous owner had done some insulation. Most of the energy savings came from the insulation of the whole house and fixing air leakages (for example around the windows!).                     

If we ever consider buying a house I am sure to be back at REEP house for advice. The energy advisors there also do home evaluations with regards to the structure of a house and what could be improved at what cost. Before leaving I exchanged a few words with the guide as we talked about cycling (of course I cycled there) and home improvements. I mentioned I can’t understand why Canadians are so slow to catch on with both of these things and he totally agreed. Good morning, Canada, it’s time for a behaviour change!

Slow Death by Rubber Duck in more detail

In the last chapter of the book, the authors summarise each chemical again and how best to avoid it, even though it's virtually impossible to escape any of them completely since by now they are so spread around in our environment (water, air, soil) that only moving to Mars might help.

Phthalates – plastic softeners: found as perfume and fragrance in body care products, in PVC shower curtains and other PVC products, in air refresheners & toys – The EU, Japan, Korea & Mexico have banned phthalates in toys, but Canada & the US have not – www.healthytoys.org and www.momsrising.org/notoxictoys have databases for tested toys

www.stoptoxicimports.org is about a campaign to raise awareness of lead in toys and to help organise “Get the lead out parties”

Reduce your fat intake – many chemicals are stored in fat tissue and travel up the food chain that way. By consuming less fat through meat and dairy you’ll expose yourself less to phthalates, pesticides, PBDEs.

Perfluorochemicals (PFC’s, e.g. Teflon) – the non-stick stuff:

very persistant & indestructible, stick around the environment for a long time and are possibly carcinogenic; found in non-stick cookware, water-repellent clothing like Gore-Tex, Stain-repellent products like Scotchgard & Stainmaster to treat carpets, upholstered furniture and fabrics, food packaging such as fast food wrappers, pizza boxes & microwavable popcorn bags, also appears in some lipsticks, windshield wiper fluids and the like – read the labels!

No legislation in place yet to ban this group of chemicals, industry agreed to phase out PFOA (perfluorooctane sulphonate) by 2015 but that does not mean that the replacement chemicals will be any safer!      

Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs) – flame-retardants:

Found in clothing, furniture, mattresses electronics, PBDEs also accumulate in dust so vacuum & dust often            

Wear natural fibres like wool, hemp, (organic) cotton that are naturally fire resistant;  

Newer furniture tend to be PBDE-free, some companies changed to PBDE-free products e.g. IKEA, Greener Lifestyles, Essential; again electronic companies opted out e.g. Sony, Philips, Panasonic, Samsung – remember the 3R’s and responsibly discard of your electronics they don’t belong into the landfill!; National Geographic’s Green Guide lists companies that manufacture PBDE-free furniture, electronics & other products;

No significant legislation in place yet to stop PBDEs in consumer products  

Triclosan (2,4-dichlorophenoxy) – the anti-bacterial stuff:

Found in personal care products, cleaning solutions & tools, even in socks, sandals & underwear, toothbrushes, toys, cutting boards, knives, aprons, J Cloths – Triclosan is also marketed as Microban, nanosilver & nanoparticles has also been used as antibacterial agent but has not been proven safe  

Alcohol-based anti-bacterial products are fine, but those with Triclosan aren’t, check out the Skin Deep’s www.cosmeticdatabase.com or www.safecosmetics.org/companies/compact_with_america.cfm; clean with baking soda, borax & vinegar

Pesticides:

Found in food & lawns

Keep a chemical-free lawn, choose plants that are insect resistant, native and drought-resistant over grass, some municipalities have banned cosmetic use of pesticides on private properties, in schools & parks; Eat organic & local food, if not organic then wash your produce thoroughly and avoid the “dirty dozen”

Bisphenol A (BPA):

Lots of plastic food & drink containers, children’s products, epoxy linings of tin cans (incl. for infant formula), plastic bags, car parts, CDs, eyewear, building materials (vinyl), foam packing materials, coat hangers, electronics housing etc.     

When it comes to plastics check the recycling symbol and remember: “4 (LDPE), 5 (PP), 1 (PETE) and 2 (HDPE), all the rest are bad for you!” (3 (V, polyvinyl chloride), 6 (PS, polystyrene) and 7 (PC or other, polycarbonates) contain more harmful chemicals than just BPA) 

http://zrecs.blogspot.com created a directory of children’s products containing BPA;         

Opt for glass over plastic containers and fresh or frozen foods over canned; 

Don’t use plastic containers in microwave; BYOB (Bring your own bag);

Ban disposable water bottles even though most are made of PETE which does not contain BPA it’s best to avoid plastic altogether since most of it ends up in landfills instead of recycling

Mercury – the natural toxin:

Released majorly through industrial pollution especially coal burning in power plants and waste incineration!, it then works its way up the food chain

It’s found in fish, fluorescent lights, batteries, thermostats, contact-lens solutions, baby vaccines; Used to be used as mercury amalgam in tooth fillings, in bathroom, kitchen & hospital paints, in agricultural fungicides, in medication for tons of ailments

Mercury is found in nature e.g. rocks and soil but the right conditions will turn it from inorganic to organic and make it more absorbable by living things – but mercury in all its forms is very toxic, linked to a range of diseases and kills if exposure is high enough

Eat fewer fish & smaller fish – the bigger the fish, the more mercury it will have accumulated, especially predatory fish, avoid white albacore tuna, light skipjack tuna is better, check out www.seachoice.org or www.edf.org, if you fish yourself make sure the fish is deemed safe for consumption; return & recycle mercury-containing products to keep mercury out of landfills.

The chapter about Mercury/ Quicksilver was one of the most interesting ones in the book!

The Waterloo Classic Run

I did another run yesterday, 10 km this time, and I am waiting for the stats to be posted online. 
So far I came in 107. overall, 16. woman, 1. in my age category, in 48:43 min     

Slow Death by Rubber Duck

That's a nice book if you like to know a bit more about certain chemicals created by some clever humans to increase the convenience of daily life - and that at the same time harm or even kill you. It's written by two Canadian authors (Rick Smith & Bruce Lourie) and contains some Canada-specific data. I say some because often enough Canada won't take its own steps to research, analyse, and take legal action first but instead observes what happens in the USA or Europe. So there's a lot of US data in there too. 
The authors on purpose expose themselves over a defined period of time to toxins that surround us every day but that we can't necessarily see or feel or smell. Then they get their blood and urin tested to see how the badly toxins have accumulated in their bodies.  It's about BPA, Teflon, antibacterial substances and items (containing Triclosan), flame-retardants, pesticides, as well as mercury. Mercury is the only naturally ocurring substance in the list but it's highly poisoneous and although that's been a known fact to humanity for a loooooong time we still use it a bit too carelessly. 
It will make you rethink a lot what you eat, what you have in your home, how you care for your garden, what you are exposing your kids to.  
I have not finished the book yet so I better get back reading.                

Black Out Speak Out

Oh those runs

As you may have noticed I have decided to do a few runs this year - a little trick to keep me exercising, haha. Every time I am at a run though I see tons and tons of garbage. There are water stations along the way, not just at the start and finish line, and food is served on paper plates. These paper cups and plates aren't usually from a supplier that produces compostable throw-away dishes. They are ordinary paper cups that once dirty go in the garbage - garbage, a word that should be made redundant but instead has become to signify a huge problem.


The races I have done had only about 300-400 participants so that's small scale but just think about the number of runs and walks that are on every week, and the size of some of them with thousands of participants. It's a fast growing mountain of paper garbage. During the Toronto marathon for example the water stations were so littered with cups that the runners had to run over them.


No, I don't have a solution for the problem other than that the organisers should use compostable cups and plates and runners should be encouraged to bring a water bottle (at least for use after and before the race) and reuse cups. The latter option is not going to happen during the race but could happen after and before the race if refill stations were provided. At one race I got quite upset actually about the teenage volunteers (who with little enthusiasm probably fulfilled their mandatory volunteer hours) that kept filling cups even way after the race had finished and runners were heading home, probably just because they were told to do so and still had cups left. I bet they ended up having to pour the water away and throw out the cups.What a waste for nothing. Personally I always take my water bottle to the runs and try to refill it or keep a cup to refill. Summer might be different but usually I do not require to drink during the run. Seems like it's going to be a hot and dry summer though and I am almost hoping it will rain on the next race day. 


And no, sporting events (unless it's motor sports) should not be erased due to the garbage they create, after all our society has become too lazy and fat to stop promoting physical activity.

It's great to be German - part 2

The DE Magazin had a article on the German love of cycling. It was a bit of an eye-opener to me but I also keep shaking my head at it, still. Why is it so hard to understand the advantages of a bike and the fun in riding it? And I mean riding it to commute, to run errands, to go from A to B, not just to ride around the park on a Sunday afternoon. When I still worked I cycled past avalanches of cars, lined up in the main roads of Kitchener that are currently under heavy construction, every single day. And every single day I wondered why these people sit like ... (well never mind) in their cars waiting for something to happen. A bike is so flexible in city traffic. Unfortunately lots of places in KW still do not have bike racks and I am left searching for a lamp post and the like to lock my ride. 

"Most non-Europeans who come to Germany find it hard to imagine that people voluntarily use their own muscle power to get around." - Human beings adjust surprisingly quickly to whatever they do regularly, may it be sitting around or cycling and walking. As far as I am concerned a bit of exercise has not harmed anybody, but not exercising at all has harmed a lot of people. Also I still walk a lot but with my developing belly I much prefer riding my bike. It combines sitting on my bum and exercising - how awesome is that? Sitting for hours in the car meantime just makes me stiff and I am only in my early 30s.

"What, even the rich ride them?” she asks. “Yes, even rich people ride them.” My aunt from Istanbul can’t believe it. “What do their customers think when they see their investment banker riding a bike?” I say: “They probably think – look at that big head, showing off his wealth. Riding an expensive bike while my shares are hitting rock bottom!” She says: “I would never trust a cyclist with my money.” 


I can't believe that this aunt can't believe the German cycling culture. I suppose it's one of those advertising scams that has taught us over many years that you have money if you drive a car but you are super poor if you cycle. Some bikes costs a fortune though. And I'd rather have a better, more expensive bike than a fancier car. I intend to get a bike for my daughter in a couple of years and hope she'll have the opportunity to cycle to school just like I did for 13 years, even though she does not grow up in Germany. I don't want her to be like one of these kids that expect to be carted around all day by mum or dad, and think there's no going anywhere without a car.

It's great to be German - part 1

Last Thursday during a trip to Toronto I picked up two publications, one called Canadian Wilderness from CPAWS and one called DE Magazin at the German Consulate. I read both cover to cover, especially since the DE Magazin had a special on sustainability. Well, Germany is pretty good on protecting the environment - even exceded its Kyoto target - and exports its ideas and skills as well. So I am all proud to be German considering the effort Germany puts in to do its share for the future of this planet and the next generations. Surely, this magazine aims to tell the public about the good things that happen in Germany while CPAWS aims to educate people about where there is still a need to take action in order to help the environment, besides pointing out one or the other success the organisation has achieved. So reading the CPAWS paper was rather depressing. The main focus fell on the unfortunate turn in the development of Canada's National Parks, away from putting nature first to implementing more theme-park-like attractions that might attract more people but impact flora and fauna negatively. Sigh, it's simply so wrong - how can the executives at Parks Canada not see that?
 
Today we received the newsletter from our local (Conservative) MP who did not even mention the word environment in any article, especially not the one about the 2012 Budget. On the comment card that we will return to this MP my husband noted as "issues that most concern you and your family": Protecting the environment. I have little hope though that it will ever sink in with the Conservatives that they are on a path or death and destruction.   

It's unecological to be pregnant

I am not going to talk about the environmental impact of a child growing up right now, it's huge no question. But the nine months leading up to having this child can already be an issue.

Being pregnant alone is a small environmental disaster if you get morning sickness, food aversions and strong sensitivity to smells like I did. We noticed that over the last weeks our garbage and recycling amounts have risen. That's because I am pregnant and buy and eat things I would otherwise avoid. My sense of smell makes everything and everywhere stink so cooking and baking are more torture than fun. I am totally off a lot of good foods but long instead for a lot of junk food. Obviously, to make cooking easier I'd use more canned food for example. I have to buy more bread, pizza, cookies ... baked goods because I can't bare to stand in the kitchen making them myself. Oh, leftovers have become a nightmare to me too so they end up in the garbage currently. 

I hate the first trimester of pregnancy. It's going to be our second and last child, for sure. Last time I was pregnant I was working on a farm so I did not have to cook ...  what a bliss. Obviously, we could have eaten out a lot recently but that costs a lot of money and it's against my good consciousness to spend so much money on eating out. There are better options to spend it on. Besides, our food expenses went up with buying more "convenience" food. So why is there the persistent opinion that cooking from scratch is expensive? It sure is not! 


I can't wait to return to normal eating behaviours and enjoy all those foods that I used to love, including bread. My husband already mentioned that our daugther eats too much junk (sweets, potato chips, sucking hard candy all day etc.)... because that's what she sees me doing. Sorry, honey, can't help it. And my apologies to the environment too. 

He had a dream - it became a nightmare

Imagine you pack up your family and move out into a pristine countryside away from cities, noise and everyday hassles. Your family builds a house together, starts a garden and raises animals like goats and sheep to pursue self-subsistence, and generally lives a bit more simple to focus on things that matter more to you. After a few years a gas and oil company sends you a letter informing you that they'll start drilling for gas on your property next week. In no time you have a gas well next to your shed, without receiving compensation of course. In disbelief, you search for help but it turns out that you only own the top layer of your property and your government has sold underground rights to that oil & gas company without notifying you - because they don't have to. It also turns out that the gas is sour gas which contains some of the deadliest substances on Earth, including H2S - the colourless, highly poisonous hydrogen sulfide. Suddenly your animals abort, the women in your family miscarry and every family member falls sick. Oops, there was a yet undetected leak. Despite your struggles to live on your own property, neither the oil & gas company, nor a government body or the Energy Board cares about you. In fact, as you object and fight against what is happening to your family you become the suspect of  "eco-terrorism" and the law-enforcement body of your country repeatedly invades your property and searches every corner of it.

If this happens to you, you probably live in Canada. Feeling lucky?

I'm not making this up - Wiebo's War is a real story of a large family that wanted to get away from it all to follow their religious beliefs and live more acccording to how God wants them to live. They move into Northern Alberta, unfortunately right into the middle of a large gas reservoir that is discovered a few years later. Within a few more years a 100 wells are covering the land around the farm, some wells stand right on the farm. The gas production, including leaks, threaten the life of the family as it contaminates the air, the water supply of the family and the soil. Meantime, gas wells are being bombed in Northern B.C. Although no evidence has ever been found, the RCMP highly suspects the Ludwig family (Wiebo is the head of the family) to be involved and starts disrupting the family's life. The most shocking part to me was that nobody cares about the health issues that affect the family and their livestock ever since the sour gas drilling has began. Even the neighbours oppose the Ludwig's fight against EnCana as most of them simply start working for an oil & gas company that moves in to "develop" the area further. 

I don't agree with the bombings or with the family's religous beliefs but I don't get why the family is being attact for not submitting themselves to the regime of the oil & gas companies. Surfing quickly the internet on the subject, I read opinions expressing hate for him, saying he's a terrorist, he tore church communities apart in Ontario where they family moved away from, he could have just accepted an offer to be bought out by the oil & gas companies ... hang on a minute. Where do we end up if everybody just takes the money and runs and ignores the distruction that's being caused by greedy corporations that turn your once-idyllic home into an industrial site?  We need more people like Wiebo if we don't want this country to become the synonym for apocalypse.

The film, a production of  Canada's National Film Board was recently shown  at Waterloo Library and there were a "whopping" 12 persons in the audience. Sigh.

The Freedom Train against Pipelines

This is an interesting website about First Nations fighting the Enbridge Pipeline from Edmonton across Northern Alberta and B.C. to Kitimat. It comes with a petition too:  Freedom Train

To charge or not to charge

We went with our local hiking group today to Webster Falls Conservation Area in Dundas (near Hamilton) , part of the Niagara Escarpment and the Bruce Trail goes through there as well, of course. We hiked 10-12 km, saw Tew and Webster Falls and enjoyed the scenery. It's very beautiful out there, the trails are interesting enough and even partially hilly and with staircases. Yeah!      

The downturn was the entrance charge. Last year $8 per car, they are now already charging $10 per day! In order to avoid that we parked the cars at a school less than a km down the road. At this conservation area's main parking lot they don't trust people to use the parking ticket dispenser and instead have a cashier who happened to start working at the time when we gathered in the parking lot. Smelling that we must have gotten there somewhere she grumpily told us we all had to pay $4 per person. Dave and I had come in a pedestrian entrance though that said $2 per person. I must say the majority of the group was annoyed about the charges that hike every year considerably and this woman even seemed to make them up out of anger. So we cramped 8 people into a car, laughed ourselves stupid (this was stupid after all) and paid $10 for the load. The woman mumbled something about calling the cops. Blabla.

Note that there are at least another 5 entrances to the conservation area, especially when you come along the Bruce Trail or enter through a residential area where there is not even a sign mentioning a fee. If you stick to the Bruce Trail you will not even get close to the ticket booth.     


Here's what angers me: I hate paying to enjoy nature. But here the conservation areas (CA) are run by municipalities. So even if we bought an annual ticket that gives us access to a bunch of local CAs we pay extra every time we visit one a little further away. Bah. Go to a Provincial Park and the province wants your money, go to a National Park and the feds (Parks Canada) want it. Boo boo booo!!! Stupid system. Why don't they introduce a single annual ticket for ALL protected areas in the country and that's it, if it really has to be. 

In Germany all this access is covered by our taxes already, nobody would dare to charge a per day user fee. Besides we don't have too many fences around farmland so you walk, cycle, ride horses there. In the UK they have a Public Right of Way which allows everyone to cross private farm property on foot, sometimes by bike if you don't mind lifting it over fences with steps. That gives people access to the countryside just about anywhere, totally legal and nobody has to bother driving to a conservation area, provincial park etc just to go for a hike. They've created a trail system that basically covers the whole country!! In Iceland you can go just about anywhere. In Canada there are fences, everything's private and nobody wants to have you on their land (after all, you may bring a stupid ATV or snowmobile). So unless you stick to city parks you pay to get access to a trail, waterfall or whatever. Nonsense! Besides, the fees are too high.

EndurRace

In Elmira: 5 km flat ground, 303 runners, I came in 88. overall, 9. women, 4. in my age category, 22:58 min (22:50 chip time) 
Part 2 is next Saturday at 6 PM - Stay tuned.

303 runners finished that race, 404 started although some of those would have done 2.5 km only. They took 584 photos and I am not on a single one :-( 


Part 2: 8 km at 6 PM (that's too late for racing, for future reference). I came in 68. overall, 37 min 20 sec which I think is a bit faster than in February but really  I was so tired all day I could have fallen asleep at the start line. Anyhow, 9. women I think (not too sure on that one), 2. in my age category. 


Both races combined: I was 46. overall, 4. woman, 2. in my age category again. They called out all participants that finished both races and I had the impression my age category (women 30-34) was the largest with 6 or 7 runners finishing both races.


I bet I was the best pregnant runner ;-)   not that there is such a category ...


The results from the February race have by the way been corrected (not sure how some runners got missed?!) but I'm now 39. overall, 5. women, 2. in my age category. Oh well.

Earth Day

What did you do yesterday? I volunteered at an event in Huron Natural Area, in the south of Kitchener, where I also had a chance to plant 10 trees. Due to the weather, 5 degree C and a bit of wind, the turnout was not as big as last year and there weren't enough people walking out to the planting area to get the 550 white cedars, birches and black cherries into the ground. I love tree planting, it's not hard, especially not when all materials are provided. Fingers crossed we get rain soon to water the little fellows. 
The event also included a birds of prey presentation, snakes and turtles, a butterfly display, bird silhoutte crafts, bird box building, fishing (for foam fish) and searching in the pond for aquatic insects. The Kitchener Trail riders, part of the city's bylaw enforcement unit, explained their jobs to keep the city's parks safe and sound. REEP was present too. All in all it was a very excited event, given one was dressed for the weather.           
The downside of the event: the shuttle bus that connected several Earth Day Events in the city came and left repeatedly empty, while the road and parking lots of surrounding businesses were choked with cars for the entire afternoon. Preserving hte planet by pumping more emissions into the air.   

I love spring

Did I mention I love spring, really really love it. Not too hot yet but everything is fresh green. No other season can beat that. I want to go camping and hiking and BBQ and sit in the garden that we don't have. Sitting on the balcony is not the same. Mornings and evenings are especially beautiful. Unfortunately, we are very strict with getting our child to bed which is currently way before sunset so we don't get to enjoy evenings outside often. We still dream of the evening walks we used to take, because we don't have a garden.
I started our balcony garden, put seeds for parsley, chive, radishes and spinach in those long planting pots. We need more soil now and more hooks to mount the pots on the balcony railing since I don't have space for the pots to stand on the balcony floor. Nor do they get much sun and rain there. Our local hardware store - th one we can walk to because it's not in those endg-of-town-malls - had only two hooks left though, sigh.
I also take an hour lunch every day to go for walks or cycle to that one park nearby which has meadows and woods. So nice. Can't get enough. Spring should last 6 months. The old neighbourhoods in Kitchener, those with tree-lined streets, large front yards and garages set-back past the house front (all contrary to the new neighbourhoods), are beautiful now too. Hope you enjoy the spring as well!

A comment on the previous post

I just wanted to add a bit more to the last post even though it's not very ecological. Of course, it's not all that black and white. As long as you work in the Alberta tar sands or you are a computer scientist you'll make a lot of money at a young age. In KW my husband has met again quite a few of his university buddies, most of which studied computer science and now work for Google, RIM, OpenText and the like. They earn a lot of money, seriously. Half of them do not work 8-hour-days though, something that for us is paramount because we have a child. I am not giving up that little bit of time that I see my daughter now every day for longer work days. No thanks. I spoke once to an event organiser not much older than myself and she said she loves her job but it will not ever make her rich. She said all her friends have  6-digit incomes. Really? Not sure how they do it but I know I can't relate to people my age that own a big house and two cars and lots of fancy stuff because they can afford it. 

My husband still says his best job ever was in Scotland. His boss realised how clever he is and made him let him do the year-end report. Ever since, his career has gone downhill and the experience we have made is that we get hired for jobs we are overqualified for and since we do them well and have spare time left from the 40-hour-week we are given even less appealing tasks. So much for motivation. If it was not for that bit of money that makes such a difference in our bank account I would not do the job. Can't wait to be done with it though in a month. Besides feeling deprived of fresh air and sunlight from sitting inside all day I am not happy with the tasks given to fill in my time, including being asked to take out the garbage that I am not creating because I don't bring in Tim Hortons three times a day.

All the baby boomers I know, and those are not too few due to certain clubs and committees I have joined being full of them have a lot. I don't think they realise, they just take it for granted. Says that article that expectations have changed over the years. Sure, they have. When you leave the house of your parents you are not going to go from having it all to having nothing and live on a mattress in an empty room. You may detest the materialism you have experienced over the years (or you love it and overspend until you are hopelessly in debt) but you still want some things. Besides, if you were to put a child to sleep in a dresser drawer now and anybody finds out you probably have social services come and take your child away. 

Anyway, I can't relate to those people either, even though it's nice talking to them once in a while.   


One more story of I can't relate to them. We met a couple recently, very nice smart people, whose both kids are off to university now. She complained how expensive it was and I agree with her there. But they have a combined yearly income of $170,000!!! What are they talking about? I mean what would you spend so much money otherwise on? The education of your kids seems a decent idea, although I still believe the kids should have to pay part of the expense themselves.   

Do you hate the Baby boomers?

Did you read the Globe and Mail last weekend? I did not but I just found two articles on the web from that issue. We had it all and still do talks about the spoilt Baby boomer generation and We'll pay for your retirement but we won't be happy about it talks about Generation Y, and kind of X as well because we are pretty much in the same boat. Then there's a discussion about both articles. Reading the articles you can't help but end up hating baby boomers. The discussions helps a little bit to put things straight.

My most disliked comment comes from the stupid conservative baby boomer who writes "Young professionals from around the world will be clamoring to come to Canada because we have the best quality of life and a stable, relatively prosperous economy that will remain strong because of our good governance, educated people and our bonanza of natural resources. We're the envy of the world and that's not going to change any time soon." Canada with the new budget is running into deeper and deeper environmental disasters waiting to happen ... It's really not attractive to me but I suppose most immigrants come from less developed countries anyway. By the way, has she ever left the North American continent?

The Generation Y rep writes instead "I've heard from a lot of millenials who think boomers don't care at all about the environment since they won't be around to suffer through the effects of climate change. May not be the case, but when things like the environmental review process for natural resource projects are scrapped in large part in the budget, theories like that take shape..." Can you blame anybody for coming up with those theories, after all the government is run by baby boomers. They do not care about much else but their own comfort that they have acquired and don't want to give up. And if it will be the minority of boomers who care and do something to change their own environmental impact, without losing that comfort of course.

Did I mention the story where an acquaintance (she's a baby boomer) congratulated me to getting a car. And I thought, it's not an achievement to have a car in this country, it's an achievement to live without it! A couple of weeks later she asked me how life is going with the car now and I said we don't drive it much, we are not used to having a car and can't be bothered to take it everywhere. She was a bit speechless.

Anyway, there are lots of interesting comments in the discussion about for example, preventing over 70 year olds from voting to youngster get more power to shape the world they'll live in, and the controversy of keeping decrepit people alive at a high cost who are obviously not going to make it anyway, and young smart people going overseas for their education because it's cheaper, and so on. Read it, it's worth it.

Sustainable neighbourhoods - the new way of life?

Recently I read at least two articles about chosing a neighbourhood that supports sustainable living. These articles are geared towards home buyers and we are not going to buy a home soon but it's never too early to get informed. There are certain criteria that characterise these type of sustainable neighbourhoods and you can for example read up on them on the website of the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation. It's about being close to shops, school, community centres and work. It's about being able to cycle, walk or take the bus easily. It's about energy-efficient homes and finding a home that fits your needs. Just think about the health benefits once you have all those advantages! 

There might be articles about this but I would like to see statistics on how many homebuyers do look for these features. I think, there are not many of these neighbourhoods available yet and people don't mind. Looking around  KW the new neighbourhoods are farther away from stores and work places than ever before. They are like ghettos with illogical street systems that don't allow shortcuts by bike or foot, some of them don't even have sidewalks but they all have double driveways out the door and minimal garden space. The next bus stop is often many blocks or miles away. But these neighbourhoods seem pretty well populated, the houses sell. I would not want to live there, never ever. Such a move could only make my life more inconvenient. But my husband and I are also not addicted to driving. And to be honest, how many people would actually want to live in "walking distance" to amenities? What is walking distance for most people, a 100 metres or so, before they jump in the car and drive instead? How many people would be willing to carry their shopping home for a simple single kilometre, 1000 tedious metres? Can you imagine doing shopping for a family or three or four by foot or bike or bus? I can in Germany, I can't here in Canada. And don't forget, once you have a store nearby they'll be a fast food outlet or coffee store too and bang you have the litter with it. Want to live close to it? Surely not.    

My parents live half a kilometre from a supermarket, bakery, flower shop, drugstore and a bank. And other stores are about 1 kilometre away. It's safe and easy to walk and bike there, with sidewalks and bike lanes and quiet residential roads. That's how I grew up. Sure enough, once in a week or two we'd go by car to a bigger supermarket and stock up there but my parents don't do that anymore. Now my mum shops more at the farmers market and supermarkets near work during lunch break. I wished. What do we do currently? We get our produce delivered which I love apart from the fact that the man rocks up at 5:30 AM on Wednesday. Otherwise I go shopping with the stroller in the evening or early Saturday morning, once a week. Occassionally I pick something up during lunch break where I spent an hour strolling the neighbourhoods of my office. But I can make it far enough to get to shops. Never mind our car in the parking lot. Depending on where I go shopping it's not pleasant to go with the stroller when everyone else around you drives but I still prefer the exercise over blasting out emissions.Would not it be nice if others did the same?   By the way my dream home is located in the countryside,away from the buzz of the city. Yes, we will depend on a car but who says I am going to leave my home and garden every day. I know what you think, we have a child that will have to go to school. That indicates just how long I might have to wait for my dream home. Unless we find a pleasant little village with a job opportunities. That would do too.








 
         

Do you have native plants in your garden?

The other weekend I attended a workshop hosted by the city of Kitchener and Evergreen about native plants for gardening. I don't have a garden but I am very interested. So the dozen people or so that came heard about weeds, noxious weeds, invasive species, non-invasice, native and non-native species. Evergreen has actually compiled a list that gives people a native, non-invasive equivalent for common introduced plants that are put into gardens here. Shockingly, they end up there because garden centres sell them. Why not, if there's demand for it, it makes money, right. Without a garden I almost never go to a garden centre so this note came as a shock to me even though it may seem obvious to you. So, unless people investigate for themselves I'd assume they would not even be told at the garden centre that "this beautiful plant will spread quickly and once covering your garden will expand into nearby properties including woods and parks." Not so great. 
   
If I ever get the pleasure of tending to a garden I shall pay much attention to what I plant there!       


Here's the link to Evergreens details on native plants. Hope you care!  
http://www.evergreen.ca/en/resources/native-plants/index.sn

Tim Hortons, cars and litter - one very bad combination

I wanted to write about litter and cars. I hate both. It's April 6 and the garbage bins in the parks in KW have still not returned. Never mind that we have not had snow for weeks but since I sit on the Kitchener in Bloom committee which is also attended by a superior from Parks and Recreation I also understand now better why things in the parks here are the way they are. Anyhow, only because there are no garbage bins that does not mean littering is okay. There is tons of posters around the city advocating "The only cure to litter is you" and "people notice when you litter" but opinions on how effective this campaign has been vary widely. In my opinion it all starts with coffee shops and fast food outlets which there are plenty of in this country, not to say chokingly too many. I can't believe the drive-thru line-ups at Tim Hortons every single day for example. No, I really don't get how so many people seem to drink (other liquids than water) and eat in their cars and need to get their food and drinks from drive-thrus. To me it's appalling. North America, grow up, become cultivated, use proper dishes and consume foods at a table. You can tell where all those paper cups and paper food containers end up, not in the garbage bins because there are no drive-thru options yet. The litter along main roads, even in front yards of residential areas, especially close to strip malls and main roads, and in parks of course is not beautiful. But with everyone driving who can be bothered? 

After St. Patrick's Day the picnic table that is located right next to the playground in our local park was plastered with fast-food containers. Obviously, a bunch of people had a meal there, maybe even a party, and left everything right there to be spread by the wind because how could one take it home - it would probably overload that car. So I went and picked it all up - why? Because I walk past there every day with Ruby on the way to daycare and we play on this playground. It's disgusting, but not unusual. The park I jog in is very popular with dog owners for example. Apparently, dog owners have called the Parks & Recreation guy and asked where to put their dog's poo bags in the winter. Being told to take them home, some feel fooled and say, they weren't nuts. So what do they do instead? There's a pile of stinky plastic bags in this park I mentioned exactly in the spot where in summer there's a garbage bin standing. Can you believe it? Yes, these dog owners (not all of them) are nuts! 

Dog owners aside (you'd think they care about the environment since the take that four-legged buddy of their's for walks every day, but far from it) I think there is a strong connection between restaurants and coffee shops that sell their products in throw-away containers, the habit of people here to drive everywhere, and the litter in public spaces. It's not a pleasant connection though. It's one that makes me say, North America throw away your throw-away culture! 
Or suffocate in your very own garbage.                    

Gas war starts May 1st

Booh, I have not been on this website for a while and it has all changed, not for the better I think. Anyway, here's an email I got that is very interesting to read although I do not share the opinions expressed in it. While I believe that gas companies get far too rich with their business I do not support the upkeep of the current driving habits of most Canadians.  Gas needs to be expensive to get people out of their cars and onto public transit, or our environment is going to choke in no time. But go ahead and find out for yourself what this is all about.  

 

GAS WAR STARTS MAY 1st

 

 THIS  IS NOT THE 'DON'T BUY' GAS FOR ONE DAY, BUT IT  WILL SHOW YOU HOW  WE CAN GET GAS BACK DOWN TO   $1.00 PER  LITRE. 

This  was sent by a retired Coca Cola executive.  It came from one of  his engineer buddies who retired from Haliburton.  If you are  tired of the gas prices going up AND they will continue to rise this  summer, take time to read this  please. 

Phillip  Hollsworth offered this good idea.  This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than  the "don't buy gas on a certain day"  campaign that was going  around last April or May!   It's worth your  consideration.  Join the resistance!!!!

I  hear we are going to hit close to $ 1.50 a litre by this summer and  it might go higher!!  Want gasoline prices to come  down? 

We  need to take some intelligent, united  action.   The  oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn't  continue to "hurt" ourselves by refusing to buy  gas ... 

It  was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for  them.  BUT, whoever  thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can Really work.   Please read on and join with  us! 

By  now you're probably thinking gasoline priced at about $.99 is super  cheap.  Me too!  It is currently $1.28 at SUNOCO and ESSO for regular unleaded in Hamilton and Ottawa and climbing every  week.

Now  that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to  think that the cost of a gallon of gas is CHEAP at $.87 to .99, we  need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the  marketplace..not sellers. 

With  the price of gasoline going up more each day, we consumers need to  take action. 

The  only way we are going to see the price of gas come down is if we hit  someone in the pocketbook by not purchasing their gas!  And, we  can do that WITHOUT hurting  ourselves. 

How?   Since we all rely on our cars, we can't just stop buying  gas. 

But  we CAN have an impact on gas prices if we all act together to force a  price war. 

Here's  the idea: For the rest of this year, DON'T purchase ANY gasoline from  the two biggest companies (which now are  one), SUNOCO(PETRO CANADA) andESSO. 
If  they are not selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their  prices.   If they reduce their prices, the other companies will  have to follow suit. 

But  to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of SUNOCO(PETRO CANADA ) and  ESSO gas buyers.  It's really simple to do!  Now, don't  wimp out on me at this point...keep reading and I'll explain how  simple it is to reach millions of  people!! 

I  am sending this note to 30 people.  If each of us send it to at  least ten more (30 x 10 = 300) ...  and those 300 send it to at  least ten more (300 x 10 =  3,000)... and  so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth group of people, we  will have reached over THREE MILLION  consumers .
If  those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each,  then 30 million people will have been  contacted! 

If  it goes one level further, you guessed it.....  THREE HUNDRED  MILLION PEOPLE!!! 

Again,  all you have to do is send this to 10 people.  That's  all! 

How  long would all that take?  If each of us sends this e-mail out to  ten more people within one day of receipt, all 300 MILLION people  could conceivably be contacted within the next 8  days!

Acting together we can make a difference. 

If  this makes sense to you, please pass this message on.  I suggest  that we not buy from SUNOCO(PETRO CANADA)/ESSO UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE  $.99 RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN.  THIS CAN REALLY  WORK.  

REMEMBER – STARTING MAY 1st NO GAS FROMESSO / PETROCAN/ SUNOCO!

(why wait till then, get into the habit by starting now)

All cars are evil

My hubby started a new job on March 5. His office is in the next city and the bus connections leave something to be desired. So we bought a car. Insuring it turned out to be a big hassle and very expensive but we got it sorted. Now we got the car … and don’t drive it. Noticed that the weather has been terribly awesome recently? That’s why. My hubby is not allowed to drive on his own yet so I would have to go with him and then go to my workplace, back in the city we live in. For me, it’s much easier though to cycle to work, 20 min on a trail that avoids traffic lights and cars. I love it. Taking the car does not get me to the office any faster even though I only have to turn twice! There’s like 2 dozen traffic lights on the way and an avalanche of cars at rush hour. My husband figured that walking 15 min, taking the Express Bus and walking for another 15 minutes is, without a car, the fastest way for him to get to work. And in good weather it’s no big deal. I am terribly disappointed again anyway. I thought with the weather people would leave their cars and cycle instead. Forget about it! Not here. People have it hammered into their brain that they can’t go places without a car. A bicycle is not considered a mode of transportation but merely a sports article that needs to be driven (not ridden) to the park and then one can circle around the park for a bit. What a waste of energy. Where I come from we use bikes to run errands, commute to work and visit friends in our town or city. I love my bike even though it’s a crappy one. I wished I was not such a lonely cyclist. I miss home.

So we did drive the car last weekend to get out of town. We drove from Kitchener to Guelph Lake Conservation Area. I am disappointed again. Sure, putting a fence around a piece of countryside and calling it conservation area will prevent it from having houses built on top of it. Great! Suburbia really does not need more spreading. But, building a road right through it and having lots of camping spots along it does not necessarily protect the land or wildlife. In fact, this land is heavily used (and probably polluted to a certain degree) every summer. Call it a campground then, which also justifies the entrance fees. I am not a fan of having to pay for a picnic spot or a walk in the park. I said to my husband, let’s go and visit conservation areas outside the season. At least our daughter can roam around freely without us having to watch for vehicles and protect her from being run over. Don’t get me wrong though, we rather give money to Parks Canada (although now that they approved that Brewster theme park nonsense I like them less) or other nature conservation efforts and organisation than any other cause. And, after all we might have to pay the fee just so we can swim in a lake in summer, since most of the lakes around here seem to be part of a conservation area. Sigh.

I come back to the evilness of cars ... and litter ... and lack of community spirit.        

Organic Booze??

I have not thought about that before because we rarely drink alcoholic beverages but of course it exists. 
David Suzuki's Queen of Green wrote about the Pemberton Distillery in her article Is the organic in your vodka? 
Very interesting indeed! 

Nature's Gym or how to stay fit

The David Suzuki Foundation published an article the other day about joining nature's gym to hit your fitness goal's this year. Not a bad idea. Better still is to live a lifestyle that keeps you fit. I know that from experience and I happen to have proven it recently too.

On Sunday I ran the Re-Fridgee-Eighter, the first race of the year in the Waterloo Running Series. I chose the 8 km over the 8 miles. I took running up again since coming to KW but I still at the most run twice a week for half an hour. Luckily, I have a toddler and no car (and no sitting-around in the office job either (yet)) which seems to keep me on my toes very well. I finished 39. overall, as 5. woman, and 2. out of 19 in my age catergory, in just under 38 minutes (my chip time was even less but gun time counts) Re-fridgee-Eigther results. I was surprised myself. After all we had -5 C and gusts of over 20 km/h which thankfully only blew into our faces on the last mile. I never run that fast on my own but once I am in the group I can't help, got to go. By the time I crossed the finish line I was pretty much out of breath but two minutes later I was back to normal. I did not even get sore muscles! My "secret": I walk and/ or cycle every day many kilometres and I take the stairs whenever possible and stay active in whatever way possible. On a regular day you won't see me sitting around much.

The one thing that did annoy me though was the fact that the location of the run is not served by buses on Sundays! Start and finish were at a huge sports complex with at least 6 ice rinks, several indoor hockey, baseball, volleyball and other courts; and on all the courts and rinks competitions were taking place at the same time. All these people had to come by car! The closest bus stop was 4 km away which I know so well because we had run that way and km-markers showed the distance. So I walked to the bus stop afterwards but in the morning because there weren't buses to get me there early enough I had to ask a friend to drive me. Oh yes, it did piss me off a ton. I am not mad at Grand River Transit though, I am mad at all those people driving!                 

Nestlé Chair Brabeck-Letmathe doesn’t deserve an honorary degree

Another email I received that makes me shake my head as usual at the stupidity shown. You wonder who comes up with this BS. What does this man get a degree for? For setting bad examples!! Once a water market anywhere in Canada is privatised it will set the path for more of such privatisations and soon we compete with big, rich (because they don't pay taxes) corporations over our daily water! Once water prices explode it will surely stop people from wasting water but it will also cut us off from one of our most basic needs - no water, no life.  But hey, I just had an idea: If you work for one of those corporations who want to buy water rights and profit big from what comes out of your tap, go to work with as many barrels as you can fit into your car (for once it will come in handy if you still drive a big one) and fill them up with water at work and then distribute in your neighbourhood. Want to see the look in your employer's face. 

There's a link, it's in your hand too:
            

Dear supporters of Our Water Is Not For Sale,

Please take a few minutes for this important action alert from the Council of Canadians: “Tell the U of A that Nestlé Chair Peter Brabeck-Letmathe doesn’t deserve an honorary degree.”
The University  of Alberta has announced that on March 1, 2012 it will award an honouary degree to Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, the Chair of Nestle, the world’s largest multinational food and water corporation and the largest bottled water corporation in the world.
Nestle has been a leading force in pushing the privatization and commodification of water globally. They have also been pushing water markets in Alberta. Peter Brabeck-Letmathe has bragged that Nestle is “actively dealing with the government of Alberta to think about a water exchange.” His comments come at a time when our network and many Albertans have been raising concerns about the serious problems with water markets and pushing for the government to consult with Albertans.
Please click here for the full action alert with more information. Or use the Council’s online form to email the University.

One just can't trust that government

This is an email from the David Suzuki Foundation that I received:    

Tell the government to honour its commitments to our oceans

If a panel of doctors told you to take better care of your health, would you listen? Ten leading marine scientists with the Royal Society of Canada just told Canada to take care of its oceans before it’s too late.
With the budget speech just weeks away, now is the time to tell Finance Minster Jim Flaherty that our oceans desperately need proper investment. Rising ocean temperatures and increased salinity in certain areas are just two of the serious threats they face. In last year’s budget speech, the government promised to create six new marine parks by 2012. That hasn’t happened yet, and they only have 10 months left to meet their commitment.

Join the thousands of Canadians telling the government to listen to its doctors and honour its commitments to the oceans.




You see the link, it does not take long to send that letter. Considering the government's stance to the environment I can't believe that they made such a promise. Probably with their fingers crossed behind their backs. To say "Six marine parks" is a bit of a vague statement anyway. How big is each of them going to be? The ocean around Canada is incredibly vast and protecting an inch here and there will not make a difference. Will the fishing industry stop being short-sighted and support marine parks? I doubt it. But keep the number in mind and we'll see what happens by the end of 2012.