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!