Oh you pesky water bottles.

I'm in for this "Federation of Canadian Municipalities" group who are encouraging municipalities from selling bottled water--in part just to educate people on how safe tap water is here, and how much tax money is spent dealing with water bottle waste.

When I strangely listened to my father, in Cegep, and took a MATH course (I still can't believe I did that!) and of course FAILED (though it was the best math teacher I'd ever had, and I enjoyed listening to the lecture part)... I had to take an extra course in the summer. A counsellor suggested Chemistry of the Environment, which I loved, so I've never regretted the math thing.

Anyway, he spent a whole section on bottled water. (This was in 1992.) He said the only thing to be found in bottled water, other than tap, was the minerals--potassium and such. If you're not checking that out, there's no other reason to be drinking it.

(He also dissed Brita filters.)

So I never got into the whole bottled water thing. Thanks to early Cegep science teacher brainwashing. Yay for higher learnin'!

Science applied, but maybe not so pure

From a piece in the New York Times science section, the Tierney Lab, about mixing politics with science:

What would honest brokers tell the president about global warming? Dr. Pielke, who calls himself an Obamite, says he’s concerned that the presidents’ advisers seem uniformly focused on cutting carbon emissions through a domestic cap-and-trade law and a new international treaty.

It’s fine to try that strategy, he says, but there are too many technological, economic and political uncertainties to count on it making a significant global difference. If people around the world can’t be cajoled — or frightened by apocalyptic scenarios — into cutting carbon emissions, then politicians need backup strategies.

One possibility, Dr. Pielke says, would be to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in the future. He calculates that it could cost about the same, in the long run, as making drastic cuts in emissions today, and could be cheaper if the technology improves. It could also be a lot easier sell to the public.

Yet research into this strategy has received little financing in past budgets or the new stimulus package because it doesn’t jibe with the agenda of either side in the global-warming debate. Greens don’t want this sort of “technological fix”; their opponents don’t want to admit there’s anything to fix. And neither side’s advocates will compromise as long as they think that science will prove them right.

No fish for kitteh!

This article is a little strange.

The author is talking about the use of "foraged fish" in the animal feed industry--they're fed to farmed salmon, pigs, chickens, and pets. Pet food constitutes 10% of the industry. So he concludes people should hesitate before taking in a dog or cat--we should instead have vegetarian pets, like hamsters.

Or, he suggests, feed your cat a vegan diet, with supplements. Meanwhile, he suggests it's still ok to feed fish to salmon, because that's what they naturally eat anyway.

Like... cats don't eat fish naturally? In a household with humans, dogs and cats--the cats are the only ones who are true carnivores. Wild cats do not eat carrots. It's my understanding that the switch to dry kibble, which is mostly made of grain and carbohydrates, is the cause of most kitty health problems.

What I don't get is why the dude would recommend making Fluffy a vegan, but not recommend humans become vegetarians (or eat less meat, or eat animals raised on proper feed) --since feeding fish to cattle constitutes a bigger part of the industry than pet food.

I can think of other moral arguments for not owning pets... and I care about the fishies (and those who depend on them to live) but... this article was just weird.

So depressing...

Ohhh what lovely news. Why are people so shortsighted??

[From a Thomas Friedman article in New York Times]

*

How many times do we have to see this play before we admit that it always ends the same way?

Which play? The one where gasoline prices go up, pressure rises for more fuel-efficient cars, then gasoline prices fall and the pressure for low-mileage vehicles vanishes, consumers stop buying those cars, the oil producers celebrate, we remain addicted to oil and prices gradually go up again, petro-dictators get rich, we lose. I’ve already seen this play three times in my life. Trust me: It always ends the same way — badly.

So I could only cringe when reading this article from CNNMoney.com on Dec. 22: “After nearly a year of flagging sales, low gas prices and fat incentives are reigniting America’s taste for big vehicles. Trucks and S.U.V.’s will outsell cars in December ... something that hasn’t happened since February. Meanwhile, the forecast finds that sales of hybrid vehicles are expected to be way down.”
*

Plant-a-card. So cute.

Well... often when we face restrictions, that's when we become more creative. So it's interesting to see the various eco ideas people are coming up with. Like the company (apparently from Manitoba) which makes cards (made of recycled products) you can then plant and get wildflowers.

What have they done to the paperrrr...

Uh oh... well... this is why the first R is REDUCE.

"The economic downturn has decimated the market for recycled materials like cardboard, plastic, newspaper and metals. Across the country, this junk is accumulating by the ton in the yards and warehouses of recycling contractors, which are unable to find buyers or are unwilling to sell at rock-bottom prices.
...

One reason prices slid so rapidly this time is that demand from China, the biggest export market for recyclables from the United States, quickly dried up as the global economy slowed. China’s influence is so great that in recent years recyclables have been worth much less in areas of the United States that lack easy access to ports that can ship there.

The downturn offers some insight into the forces behind the recycling boom of recent years. Environmentally conscious consumers have been able to pat themselves on the back and feel good about sorting their recycling and putting it on the curb. But most recycling programs have been driven as much by raw economics as by activism." (NY Times)

Selling out like a rock band baby!

I'm a big believer in gradual change. I didn't become a vegetarian or vegan overnight, and I don't believe that if I'm not doing something Perfectly (being vegan or eco-friendly etc.) I should just throw in the towel. By tuning out, we don't have to change a thing about the way they live -- wee!

The argument against making small changes is that the changes we make won't make a difference (to animals, the environment, poor peeps....) I've never understood this argument for two reasons:

(a) What if--in theory--everyone else also wanted to make these changes to their lives, but didn't because they think the same way you do. It's silly. Be the change you want to see in the world;

(b) What about having principles? Why can't you do something because you just know it's right, even if things never change? It's called having integrity--trying to bring your actions and beliefs in line with each other.

Again, I think it's just an excuse we give ourselves so we won't have to be Uncomfortable. If you're not at least trying to live a life in accordance with how you wish the world was, then you're--in rock and roll terms--selling out.

Instead of swinging between the extremes of Perfect Person and Slacker Dude, try what the Green Living Tips blog calls: Transitional Ethics. I think it's better to make little compromises that get you closer to the end goal, than the one big compromise of trading in your values for material comfort.

"I've gained the world and lost my soul
Maybe it's because I'm getting old
All the people that I know
Have gained the world and lost their souls"

Next up for corn--kangaroooo

Apparently you can save the planet by eating kangaroos instead of cows, because they produce less methane gas. As opposed to just... eating less meat in general? If there's some sort of Kangaroo Ranchers Association, I can only assume the dude recommending this (Dr Wilson of the Australian Wildlife Services) is *in their pocket*?

"Dr Wilson is keen to see that population dramatically increased to produce the same amount of kangaroo meat as that currently produced by conventional livestock."

Sooo take an industry that is probably already functioning at a reasonable level--at the kind of level other meat industries should be at--and make commercialize it further? Not cool, dude. Not cool.

Save the bees!

Just read an article on the bumblebee decrease in North America. As usual, industrial food production is one of the suspects. There's a pathogen killing native bees, introduced by imported European bees used "to provide industrial pollination services. Wild bumblebees, which have never experienced this pathogen before, began declining severely by the late 1990s."

Researchers from U of Toronto found higher numbers of infected bees near these imported bee centers (we import bees??) And apparently the solution is pretty easy--to fix any of the little gaps where bees can escape or get in. So. Easy-solution-happy-ending for once.

Where is all my peeps?

I haven't attended church in many moons... maybe about 10 years? I've always thought I'd go back to one--or to some spiritual gathering type meeting up thingy--if I ever came across Just the Right Thing. I'm not going to go looking at this point.

But I'm starting to feel, for the first time, like I need a Hippie Gathering. Where are all the old hippies, and gray-haired vegans? I know lots of people in their 20s who are concerned about ethical issues such as extreme income disparities and such (I was studying developing areas after all--the campus is full of them) but where are the people who are still trying to live with these ethics in mind in their 30s? 40s?

When I told a school friend that I was vegan she was surprised because: "I've never met someone over 25 who was a vegan."

I know they're out there. They write cooking blogs.

Stop sending me paper!

The "no flyers" sign on (and in) my mailbox seems to be working. Yay! But it took three emails to get Bell to stop sending me "come back to us!" begging mail. Oh well... Bell is capable of worse. I'll probably start getting someone else's letters.

*

EMAIL NUMBER 1
Please stop mailing me requests to sign up with Bell / return to
Bell's service (or any other kind of mail.) It's a waste of paper.
Thank-you.

Miss Mabel
my address


THEIR REPLY:

Greetings Miss Mabel,

Thank you for visiting Bell's website. My name is X, from
the
Bell Canada eContact Centre and I am pleased to help you.

I read your e-mail with interest concerning to stop mailling in
order to
sign up with our compaign.

However, the form you completed did not transfer your telephone
number
and without your telephone number I cannot access your file. Please
provide me with your residential telephone number and I would be
pleased
to address your e-mail.

I hope you will find this information helpful. Should you have
additional questions or concerns, please send another e-mail to my
attention. Your business is appreciated and I look forward to serving
you again.

Thank you for using Bell's Online Customer Care Centre.
Sincerely,
X
Bell Canada eContact Centre


EMAIL #2 (my phone number)
xxx-xxx-xxxx

THEIR REPLY:

Dear Miss Mabel

Thank you for your reply. This is X again, from the Bell
Canada eContact Centre, and I am happy to be of further assistance.

After having verified your account, I noted that your service has been
deactivated for a long time. So, I couldn't process your request
relative to signing up in electronic bill.

I hope you will find this information helpful. Should you have
additional questions or concerns, please send another e-mail to my
attention. Your business is appreciated and I look forward to serving
you again.

Thank you for using Bell's Online Customer Care Centre.
Sincerely,
X
Bell Canada eContact Centre

EMAIL NUMBER 3:
My original request was not for electronic billing.

Your company keeps sending me letters, asking me to re-sign up with
Bell. I do not want ANY letters sent to my home address anymore please.

THEIR REPLY:
Greetings Miss Mabel,

Thank you for your reply. This is X again, from the Bell
Canada eContact Centre, and I am happy to be of further assistance.

We have removed your adresse from our Bell Offer's data base. In
further, you will not receive any other letters for this subject.

I hope you will find this information helpful. Should you have
additional questions or concerns, please send another e-mail to my
attention. Your business is appreciated and I look forward to serving
you again.

Thank you for using Bell's Online Customer Care Centre.
Sincerely,
X
Bell Canada eContact Centre

Shame on you Bell!

Well I put up the no junk mail sign on my mailbox a week or two ago, and so far the Post Person hasn't left anything. They're not supposed to, but I've heard of people having trouble with it, so it may be Post Person Dependent.

Because I'm in an apartment building, I read that you should also put a sign on the inside where the PP will see it when they open the face panel. And of course I made it bilingual... French first. No sense pissing off the postal worker!

I also emailed my credit card company to stop sending statements. My next step is to email Bell and tell them to stop wasting paper trying to GET ME BACK. I've had only bad experiences with Bell, I'm not interesting in re-signing with them. Yet they keep sending these stupid letters, apparently written by beavers. They're not fooling me with their Animal Cutesiness!

I should add that they always use unmarked envelopes, I assume because there are some laws about contacting ex-customers that they've been constantly tiptoeing around.

Lavage Vert

While I was still in school this past year I bought two "greenie" products from Presiden't Choice, even though they were more expensive: laundry detergent and toilet paper.

I wanted the tp ("TP for my bunghole! Bungholio!") because it was made of 100% recycled paper, and also the rolls are doubled up so less of those cardboard rolls used. One week The Husband bought regular cheapee and paper, and I was all: But it's not the recycled stuff! Then I looked closely at the label. 100% recycled. And cheaper. Hm.

So this week (now that I have tiiime lovely time on my hands) I examined all the different papers, and found the one that was recycled, double-rolled, and cheapest. It was NOT the Pres Choice brand.

Which made me suspicious about the laundry detergent, which has the following advantages: can use in cold water, phosphate free, perfume free, and concentrated (so less packaging.) This week I examined all the different concentrated brands, and found (1) they're all phosphate free; (2) I use any detergent in cold water, so I didn't look at that; (3) the cheapest one was also perfume free: Sunlight for sensitive skin.

Ahh! The Devil Corn strikes again! Ah! Ah!

To get the low-down on whether biofuel is a good idea, I thought I'd turn to my old friend Michael Pollan. After all, studying corn has been his Thing for a couple books now. I easily found a NYT article on the subject. He basically points out that making biofuel from corn requires a lot of fuel to begin with (both to grow corn, and then to process it).

"So why the stampede to make ethanol from corn? Because we have so much of it, and such a powerful lobby promoting its consumption. Ethanol is just the latest chapter in a long, sorry history of clever and profitable schemes to dispose of surplus corn: there was corn liquor in the 19th century; feedlot meat starting in the 1950’s and, since 1980, high fructose corn syrup. We grow more than 10 billion bushels of corn a year in this country, far more than we can possibly eat — though God knows we’re doing our best, bingeing on corn-based fast food and high fructose corn syrup till we’re fat and diabetic. We probably can’t eat much more of the stuff without exploding, so the corn lobby is targeting the next unsuspecting beast that might help chomp through the surplus: your car."

I Don't Wanna "Grow Up"

When I see the price that you pay
I don't wanna grow up
I don't ever wanna be that way
I don't wanna grow up

12 years ago I was rooming with a friend, and we both made just-above-minimum wage. I always had money.

I worked 5 days a week, but it wasn't a job I took home with me, literally or mentally. I made a fair amount of homemade food and ate simply. When Roomie and I moved into a new apartment, we used cast-off furniture, we decorated the walls of the livingroom with photos from a discounted book, and instead of buying curtains for the kitchen we hung up a line and clipped colourful scarves to it. When our second hand TV broke, we didn't miss it.

We tend to refer to this kind of decorating as "first apartment" decorating. It's not for Adults. Adults buy their furniture new. They don't rent, they buy. And they don't own bus passes, they own cars. And they don't work part-time.

It's funny that we see these things as adult-ish, though, because cutting money and trying to live a healthier life requires (1) a lot of initial work, and then (2) organization. The time I no longer spend in either a stressful management job, or being a student, I spend on researching homemade cleaners, cooking homemade food, and reorganizing my apartment. And while I'm concerned about saving up money for retirement, there are two ways to collect money--you can make more, and you can spend less. I'm re-focusing myself on the latter.

This Childish lifestyle of mine is better for my health, better for my pocket-book, and better for the environment. So in the words of the Great Tom Waits: I don't wanna grow up.

You gotta spend money to lose money: organic veggies

Current Problem: How to set up organic veggie delivery from the Jardin des Anges.

This is one of those services that source organic produce--local or otherwise--and bring you a mixed bag of fruits and veggies for a set amount each week. I like the idea for two reasons:

(1) I always need to eat more F&V and I figure, if I'm paying $35 a week, I'll be motivated to eat/cook it all. If not, I can always cancel the service.

(2) Even with time on my hands, I don't tend to shop with specific recipes in mind. I usually just buy whatever I'm in the mood for, and look for recipes that I have the ingredients for. So I'm not bothered by the Veggie Surprise! element of this system.

But they need you to leave out a cooler somewhere, in case you're not home when they deliver. I'm thinking a cooler outside the door of my apartment, in the hall. Fernando only agreed if it was locked, so I think I'll need a trip to Canadian Tire to pick up both a cheap cooler and a lock that I can install on it.

Hmph! Getting off the Military Industrial Cornplex costs time and money!

Humus for the Masses

As I walked home last night, singing "Bat Out of Hell" because my ipod battery was dead, I figured out the answer to my composting dilemma.

Throw the compost out with the garbage.

If I put it in biodegradable bags (I know they exist for the leaves you rake up) then... not too much harm done to the landfill, methinks. A little rich humus here and there. Can't hurt. Might help.

So when I'm ready, I'm going to go ahead and get a composting system. Between that, my recycling, and my re-using, I should have very little actual garbage.

Composting still requires some work, though, and doing it indoors or on the balcony can pose some problems (Eg. needing a place for water to runoff.) The tidiest solution is, well, the manufactured one: The NatureMill, which is $400. A composting robot! Uh ya. I'm not that rich.

Anyway, I'll either think about this later in the summer, or next summer. My current dilemma is getting set up for organic veggie delivery.

My Carbon Footprint in Cute Graphics

The most detailed carbon footprint calculator I've yet seen. I'm not doing too badly... if everyone were to live my lifestyle, we'd only need half another planet. (Though Fernando's response was: "Ya, but where are you going to find it?")

Visiting my folks in Vancouver/Nanaimo always kills my footprint. But I fly standby, so it doesn't really count right? BrotherPablo says I can transfer that part of my footprint to the people who bought tickets.

Book / Site recommend: For ecologikizing

Skimmed through the book Big Green Purse at work the other day, and as enviro books go, it was really good--lots of tips, interesting, easy to use format etc. But, better yet, she has a web site which is also attractive and well organized. Here is its purpose:

"We're unique in our focus on women because women spend $.85 of every dollar in the marketplace. That's a lot of power packed in a purse...but only if it's used in a way that can't be ignored. That's why Big Green Purse is encouraging A MILLION WOMEN to shift at least $1,000 of money they already spend for an initial $1 billion Big Green Purse impact. Want to join us? Here's how.

Added bonus:

Big Green Purse saves you time. We've strolled the shopping aisles and browsed the search engines so you don't have to. We've found products that are really green (not just "green washed") at prices you can afford. Where possible, we've pinpointed goods that are not only green but "fair trade," meaning people are paid a fair wage for their work and no child labor is involved."

Those nutty environmentalists

What the-!

You can donate your cut hair to clean up oil spills! Apparently human hair is great for making mats to clean up these spills. Much easier (and less traumatizing) then the whole Locks of Love concept. And they collect old nylons, and fill them with hair, to contain the spills.

They also collect old french fry oil to run school buses. These crazy environmentalists... what will they think of next!