Pesticide presentation

Since this has now been publicly presented and distributed (and written about in the Burlington Post) I thought it would be fun to share the with a larger audience. You can read the entire presentation with notes in PDF format here.

Some highlights:

"We have to ask what is the City of Burlington waiting for? Where is our leadership and vision?

As you can see from the numbers on this slide (130 Canadian municipalities of which there are 25 Ontario Municipalities) there is a groundswell of smart, environmentally aware communities who are acting on the concerns from residents and recommendations from professionals like the Canadian Cancer Society, the Ontario College of Physicians and environmental lobby groups.

These municipalities are passing and enacting pesticide by-laws that protect the health and environment of their people. And today the city of Hamilton announced that a partial ban on lawn and garden pesticides will go into effect in Hamilton on Labour Day 2008.

It is important to remember that these communities are demonstrating environmental awareness and strong leadership. Where is Burlington’s leadership?

Anyone of us can search on the internet or in libraries for information that supports or denies the health effects of exposure to pesticides. Healthy and vigorous debate is an important part of the democratic process, but as more and more communities enact bylaws banning pesticides the tipping point of public pressure will only increase.

We urge you to take the time to absorb the information presented to you tonight and reflect on Mayor Jackson’s vision from the May 9 Burlington Post “My vision for Burlington’s future is one where we can live, work, and play in a clean and healthy environment.”

Finally as the great ad man David Ogilvy once said “Don't bunt. Aim out of the ballpark.”

Polar bears chat about the causes of global warming.

An entry in the Friends of the Earth green film competition.

Check out the link above to vote for your favourite.

2 worth reading

A couple of good reads from thestar.com today.

The first story is on how "Green" fuels are potentially worse for global warming.
snip
"Using biodiesel derived from rapeseed would produce between 1 and 1.7 times more greenhouse gas than using conventional diesel, the study estimated."
end snip

The second story is a good opinion piece by Kathleen O'Hara about our provincial leaders lack of leadership on green issues - Leaders fumble green ball

snip
"...we can't allow our energy future to be hijacked by profit-driven corporations the way the Internet was. "The great promise of the Net ... has been compromised, at every step of the way, by commercial interests determined to gain a foothold over the medium."

Yes, the world is getting off to a rocky start when it comes to "saving civilization." Here in Ontario, it doesn't look like any person or party is going to lead us out of the increasingly hot wilderness – no matter what the election outcome. That is a disgrace when so much is at stake."
end snip

The meeting was...

I found the meeting to review the pesticide bylaw quite educational.

I was very impressed with the dedication of staff, council and the mayor to sit through 4 hours of delegates and then have a fairly vigorous debate afterward. These people work very hard and I am sure that by the end of it most people just wanted to go home - I know I certainly did.

There were a few odd and tense moments - apparently this is not a black and white issue. Over the next few months I am sure there will be lots of posturing and positioning and consultation. Will be interesting to watch from the sidelines.

I am looking forward to the Post's take on it Friday's paper.

Oh and welcome to all the new readers.

TAL - Ira Glass on storytelling.

One of my favourite podcasts is This American Life from WBEZ National Public Radio in Chicago. It is an insightful often thought provoking weekly radio show hosted by Ira Glass.

If you have ever listened to it you will know how habit forming the show can become. The video below has Ira sharing some of his secrets on storytelling.

The last lecture.

The video below is making the internet buzz. Carnegie Mellon professor Randy Pausch will be dead from terminal pancreatic cancer in the next month or so.

His last lecture is inspiring, heartfelt and courageous.

Leading up to my first time as a delegate.

I am starting to get nervous and jittery about my appearance and presentation at city hall this Tuesday evening. Here is a Burlington Post article on the meeting with the CDC committee quoting Kurt Koster the chair of the Pesticide Action Burlington committee.

There are 12 delegates on the agenda for Tuesday's review of the staff report on pesticide use in Burlington. The revised agenda was released on Friday. The email that informed us of the revised report and agenda included this paragraph.

"Please be advised that a Revised Agenda and staff report have been issued for the September 25th "Special" Community Development Committee meeting to deal with the cosmetic use of pesticides in the City of Burlington as a result of a staff direction was approved at the September 17th regular meeting of Community Development Committee. Committee will not entertain delegations on the original report."

I do not know what "Committee will not entertain delegations on the original report." means, but I am sure this will make things more entertaining.

And just for the record the staff report was revised to remove this recommendation - "That staff proceed with a proposed by-law to restrict the cosmetic use of pesticides within the city of Burlington."

You can see the full agenda and matter for consideration here.

Hey let's keep poisoning ourselves!

Not feeling overly positive that the city of Burlington will even consider a pesticide bylaw even after the meeting on Tuesday, September 25. I am not sure what the reluctance is.

According to a poll from the Canadian Cancer Society 60% of residents support a ban, 20% are on the fence and 20% oppose a ban outright.

Apparently 2 councilors will not move on this issue. No matter how much evidence is presented to them they will not vote for a pesticide bylaw.

Of course reports like this one from the EPA (an agency with a poor track record at best) where the EPA announces that "...2,4-D poses no risk to human health" don't really help.

Great.

Baby democracy

Ah - if it were only this simple - no debates, no lies, no promises.

Ontario election blah

I never really trust surveys but I thought this one was a little interesting.

Thestar.com is running a survey on their election page asking readers "What Ontario election issue is most important to you?"

Here are the current results.

Taxes 27%
Health care 21%
Cash for cities 16%
Schools funding 14%
Environment 12%
Fighting poverty 7%


What saddens me about the results of this random, non-scientific poll is where the environment issue ranks. I thought it would be higher given the recent rhetoric around the world.

The top 2 issues are really about preservation of the self and I certainly appeciate being overburdened by taxes and underserviced by our health care industry but frankly if we do not get our environmental issues under control taxes and health care will be the least of our worries.

Or am I being too pessimistic and gloomy?

Changing seasons: time to bulk up

I love the summer, the hot weather, the sunny long days, the camping, canoeing and cottaging. But I also love the fall. And over the last few nights and those early morning commutes, I have noticed that beautiful fall crispness is in the air.

For us this usually means the beginning of the cooking, baking, roasting, red wine drinking and bread making season. It also means a chance to try out some truly decadent recipes from the autumn issue of the LCBO's Food and Drink mag (not on their site yet but available in the stores).



I love this magazine - every shot, as you can see on the left, is perfectly taken to make readers drool and the recipes are fairly good although sometimes a little on the piggish side.

Now if we could just afford to have a wood burning fireplace installed we would be one happy cocooned family.

lead poisoning redux

We have known about the dangers of lead for decades and yet it still poses a real and present danger, just think of the recent toy recalls caused by poor manufacturing monitoring on toys made in China. So I was somewhat surprised to see that the school that my kids attend has high levels of lead in the water.

From the Burlington Post "Tom Thomson and Ryerson elementary of Burlington, the New Street site of the Gary Allan High School for adult and continuing education, W.I. Dick elementary in Milton and Montclair elementary in Oakville now all have minimum daily flushing times ranging from 20-35 minutes."

I understand that older schools can be hazardous but running the taps up-to 35 minutes when we have just come through the driest summer on record just strikes me as a give-your-head-a-shake dumbass bureaucratic moment. I love when our government officials suck and blow at the same time.

I am not downplaying the health risks associated with lead, trust me, in fact my kids have been bringing their own water since they started at the school, but is there no better way to address this issue? Is the flushed water captured and used to water the trees and plants on the property? What is the long term fix?


From the Halton website on lead in the drinking water. "Younger children are still developing and are therefore more sensitive to the neurological and blood effects of lead. As well, children less than six years of age absorb lead more easily than adults. Particular recommendations are made for formula-fed infants because the water used to make the formula can contribute 40-60 per cent of an infant's lead intake, whereas drinking water in older children and adults only contributes approximately 10 per cent of total lead intake."

This is scary stuff and is just another example that we can never really get a handle on all the pollutants out there. No matter how much monitoring or safe guards our elected officials and municipal agencies promise to put in place, we are still being poisoned every single day - even by a simple drink of water from the school fountain.

Slowly getting back in the groove

I have been shunning the computer and have only just now gotten back to thinking about all the work I have to do. And now that we have gotten through my daughter's 9th birthday and the start of school we can try and catch up.

The next big agenda item is finishing up the pesticide ban presentation for the September 25 meeting at Burlington's city hall. The meeting looked like it was going to be a no go with the provincial liberals campaign promise to ban the use of pesticides throughout Ontario. But I guess we are going to go through the excercise anyway.

With regards to the liberal election promise I never have much faith in seeing these things coming to fruition - but you can read the details (as skimpy as they are) here.

"Many fruits, including peaches, apples, pears and grapes, were found to contain residues of pesticides, the report said. However, the ban the Liberal Party is contemplating would not apply to farmers.

Both proponents and critics of pesticide use have called on the province to pass legislation on what is permitted. Mr. McGuinty will introduce legislation if his party wins a second term in office. No decision has been made on what the penalties would be for breaking the ban."

And just for the record I will not be voting Liberal - even with this "promise" on their platform.