This is first in a series of posts I’ll be making over the next couple of weeks about food security and the current food crisis, permaculture, and community spaces. (This post replaces the usual Monday lunch blog as I have a lunchtime meeting tomorrow.)
On a brief walk around the neighbourhood today, I told Paul about my idea for a community garden on a vacant, grassy lot. He urged me to write a post about it, and given that I have a few other related issues to bring up, I decided to split it over a few posts.
Brown at the time of this photo, the grasses are growing greener now that it’s spring
Continue reading Community solutions for food security and urban health, Part 1 »
Via No Impact Man, thanks to my mother for the great link
Today Al Gore launched the We Can Solve It campaign, “a $300 million, 3-year campaign to educate the public about global warming and urge action from political leaders.”
Continue reading Great design facilitates another climate action campaign »
CBC reported today that the “board of Metro Vancouver has voted for a plan to send the region’s garbage to Washington state, if the provincial government authorizes the shipments.”
The long-time dump in Cache Creek is expected to reach capacity by 2010, so they’ve been looking at other locations and settled on WA.
“Sending the garbage to Washington is a short-term solution, said [Metro Vancouver waste committee vice-chairman Peter] Ladner. Eventually, the city hopes to burn the garbage to generate power.”
The article doesn’t offer the most sensible, sustainable solution (of many), which is to reduce waste.
Continue reading Waste issues swept under the 49th Parallel rug »
The North Shore/Stanley Park skyline
Someone asked me recently about my interest in environmental conservation. I replied that I’ve always been interested in it. In recent years, however, this interest has come to fruition in ways I couldn’t have predicted.
Growing up, my parents taught me to turn lights off when I’m no longer using a room, to keep dimmer lights on lower, to compost and to recycle. It was part of our everyday lives. School programs from BC Hydro drilled energy savvy and safety into our little brains through fun performances. TV shows like Captain Planet and the Planeteers made earth-saving fun. I couldn’t understand people who brought themselves to litter (and still don’t), and used to make faces at semi-truck drivers for their polluting vehicles. In the summertime, the evidence of pollution in the Lower Mainland manifested itself as “hospital gown green” haze in the corner where Mt Baker sat behind the Valley. Mom took her library books home in a cloth bag and brought her plastic Safeway bags back to the store for recycling. She encouraged me to wash clothes on reduced energy settings and in the summer we let the sun take over for the dryer. (Eventually all my clothes needed to be washed in cold water and hung to dry.) From a young age I was aware of clear-cutting, Amazonian deforestation, and acid rain.
All this culminated in an unquestionable responsibility toward the environment: keep it clean, reduce/reuse/recycle, plant trees, and conserve energy.
Continue reading How I became an eco-crusader »
Who knew saving the planet could be so self-serving.
I’ve been thinking lately about how good I feel when I’m using or eating something that’s healthy for me and/or the planet. Now, “good” is a very broad term, but in this context it encompasses feelings of excitement, reward, self-satisfaction, accomplishment and wellness. (In other words, opposite of the dental pain and regret I’m feeling after having eaten a naughty piece of Toblerone. Glad it was the last one.)
I think it’s important to emphasize the personal benefits of doing good for the earth, and oneself. There are, in fact, many opportunities and I’m always looking for more.
I feel good when…
Continue reading Green at heart: feeling good starts with doing good »
It’s Monday. It’s lunch time. It’s the Monday lunch blog… Do I need a catchier name?
Lately I’ve been thinking about where I want to be in my career in the near and distant future. There are so many things I would do aside from design if I had the time and training or expertise — mobilize transit users to demand better service, start a community garden project on a vacant lot, crusade publicly against plastic bags, that sort of thing. Fortunately, as a designer I have the opportunity to help other people pursue the causes I value. It’s not entirely selfless as I know I’d get some kind of satisfaction knowing I made a difference but it’s out of my inherent care for people and places that I want to make a change.
Continue reading A designer’s role »
I won’t get too into the specifics here, but basically, Metro Vancouver is going to see its landfills used up within two years. Solutions have been tossed about and out while very costly measures are currently in consideration. I came upon this article (via Stephen Rees) and this related article about the issues… wasted tax payer dollars, fears of consequences, and little discussion on waste management save the point from SPEC’s Eric Doherty:
“We’ve been hearing miracle cures for decades,” said Eric Doherty of the Society Promoting Environmental Conservation. “It’s still burning garbage. It’s still putting greenhouse gases into the air. It’s not the kind of solution that we need to be moving to.”
Doherty said it’s time for governments to push for policies that would reduce garbage production, and boost how much we reuse and recycle.
“We need to stop making garbage,” he said.
Reducing waste is a point I made in an earlier post on recycling (Surrey’s new initiatives).
Continue reading Trash talks stall solutions to Metro Vancouver’s burden »
Happy New Year! The Monday lunch blog returns…
The City of Surrey announced a new waste collection program that began last week. A key component of the program starts in June:
Beginning June 1, 2008, Single Stream Recycling collection will commence. You no longer will have to sort your recyclables. You will just empty, clean and place all acceptable recyclables in your blue box. The City will also be expanding the types of recyclables accepted to include Tetra Pak containers/cartons, milk cartons, and well as aluminum pie plates.
I think this is pretty exciting news — I just wish it were starting sooner! At the moment one has to drop off Tetra Paks at places like Safeway or the Bottle & Return-it Depot for recycling, which is a step less convenient than sorting it with the other recyclables and putting it on the curb. I’m keeping empty rice milk cartons if I can until this date because milk and milk substitute cartons are currently not accepted at Safeway, etc. I believe Bottle & Return-it Depots will accept them. Aluminum pie plates always ended up in the recycling at home anyway!
The convenience of the expanded program will, I think, encourage people to recycle more. Ultimately the emphasis for everyone should be on consuming less and reducing packaging. After all, the three Rs are Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!
Christmas shopping on my lunch break meant I’m doing a Tuesday lunch blog instead!
24 Hours (Vancouver) reported today that a majority of British Columbians oppose the treaty that would remove land from the Agricultural Land Reserve in Delta, to be used in Deltaport’s expansion. I’m very glad about this news. The writer made a point that the Government’s priorities are “out of step” with British Columbians.
I can’t find the article on the website at the moment but you can download today’s paper through the above link.
Back to work!
I guess I should switch to an electronic statement from my cell phone provider, but that still won’t prevent the ad mail they send me. The last one I got used some pretty heavy (thick) paper to deliver me a message I’d already received before. Tonight an unaddressed Telus mailer arrived with some crap about cell phone gifts and other stuff, which is fine and all, but inside was tucked a large (16″ x 20″ maybe?), folded up, foul-smelling poster with cheesy coloured fake starfish on it and a silver backing. What am I supposed to do with that? Put it on my wall? Use it as gift wrap? Throw paint at it? It has no meaning and while its Telus branding is slightly evident, they could have at least done something that would spread their brand to people rather than recycling or, god forbid, trash bins.
Continue reading Cell phone companies, banks big paper wasters »
