Flapping in the breeze!

Doing our bit sometimes means working harder. We have a corner lot in the burbs and we cut it with a reel mower. Takes a bit longer and is more excercise but it is worth it.

In the same realm of harder work is a clothes line. Ontario recently struck the bylaw that banned outdoor dryers off the law books which means that we can all hang our skivvies in clean fresh air and sunlight. Gives a whole new meaning to a good fence makes good neighbours.

So to celebrate the spring sun, new law and fresh breeze we sunk a cedar 4x4 into the ground this weekend and strung our very own Canadian Tire deluxe clothes line.

Very exciting. We'll see how long the excitement lasts - I give it a week of lugging wet laundry from the basement before the novelty wears off.

Catching up on all the news that's fit to barf.

Lots of negative news in the world these days. Ah happy spring. Where is the good news? Is there such a thing as good news?

Well here is at least one piece of good news.
Ontario pesticide ban looking like a go. And on first glance the ban looks pretty comprehensive. "Ontario's proposed ban on the sale and cosmetic use of pesticides will be the toughest in North America once it becomes law, supporters said Tuesday."

But really so what? We ban pesticides but will there be enough food?

Food prices soaring out of control. "we're plunging headlong into a world food crisis. Rocketing prices are squeezing billions and triggering food riots from Bangladesh to South Africa." Says avaaz.org

Apparently humans were almost extinct 70, 000 years ago.

Gas prices continue their upward trajectory like growing corn at a biofuel farm.

And the loss of high paying, once-secure manufacturing jobs at companies like GM continue to devastate Ontario's manufacturing sector. No wonder considering they still continue to build trucks and suvs that spit in the face (blow smoke up the arse maybe) of peak oil and pretend there is no environmental crisis. Come on people.

But at least the sun is shining today ;-)

First step in the Ontario pesticide ban

I was alerted via an email from Pesticide Action Burlington today that the Ontario Pesticide bylaw process has begun with a call to comment on what that bylaw may end up looking like.

Here is a snippet:

"In November 20, 2007, the government committed to a toxics reduction strategy to help protect Ontarians from potentially harmful environmental toxics. Further to this, the government has made a number of commitments with respect to the proposed ban on cosmetic uses of pesticides, including:

• “New legislation would also ban the cosmetic use of pesticides in our cities and towns.”
• “Legislation to ban the cosmetic use of pesticides to be introduced in the spring of 2008”.
• The ban would apply to cosmetic uses, such as “lawns, private gardens, parks and school yards” with a focus on “small towns and cities, not on restrictions for rural residents.”
• “Agriculture will be exempt. Ontario farmers already have stringent rules on the storage and application of pesticides.”
• “Golf courses will also be exempt but we would require golf courses to develop plans to limit the environmental impact of pesticides.”
• “We will also ensure that pesticides can still be used in situations where it is warranted to ensure public health (for example, to fight West Nile virus).”
• “The focus of our efforts will be on outreach and education on alternatives to pesticides on lawns. Enforcement will be a last resort.”

The government will look at other communities and jurisdictions, including Quebec, that have implemented bans on cosmetic uses of pesticides. Currently, the use of pesticides (including herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, or combinations of any of these) is restricted in a number of municipalities across Ontario. "

I urge anyone with an interest in this issue to follow the link, read the release and send a comment.

Earth Hour: March 29, 2008, will it look the same as March 28?

The Toronto Star launched their coverage of Earth Hour over the weekend. thestar.com/earthhour has lots of great information and green living tips including a green life blog which has only one post so far but a lot of comments and ideas on being green.

My only observation so far - I hate the look of compact fluorescent bulbs - the light they give off is horrid. Are LEDs any better?

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.”

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

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.

What happens when we no longer can fuel our cars?

There has been a lot of speculation about the death of the suburbs over the last year or so including dire predictions on peak oil and what will happen to the economy and the world when we can no longer rely on cheap gas to survive.

Is there any truth to the matter? A quick online search on death of the suburbs returns naysayers, doom and gloomers and links to books on how to regain your spirituality while embracing the suburbanite "culture".

The fact is the 'burbs are a car lovers world. Always have been and for the most part always will be - only thing is car worship is not sustainable. Which of course means that when we do run out of oil whether it is next week or in 100 years we will have to find a better way to get around. Until then necessity is the mother of invention and if there is no need to change we won't. That my dear readers is human nature.

Pesticides - can't live without 'em

My brother came by on the weekend and played devils advocate on the pesticide bylaw presentation I am helping to write.

He got me thinking about what it is we are trying to do with our request to city council to introduce a bylaw.

He said, "What about the average Joe who has lived in the same house for 50 years and every spring has sprayed pesticides on his perfect green lawn and nothing happened to him or his family. What gives you the right to force him to change?"

And I did not have an answer to that question.

But then again I do not have an answer on how to fix climate change, how to wean us off the car or how the U.S. can exit Iraq. I don't have a lot of answers.

The best answer I could come up with was, "How smart is it to pour chemicals all over a lawn?" Pretty pathetic.

We can quote studies, show charts, talk about people dying and generally play the emotional card but will that do any good? If I was a councilor I know exactly how I would vote on this issue but what if I had 60% of my constituents who said "Piss off, I love my chemicals and green lawn and I am not hurting anyone."?

Actually I still know how I would vote - we need elected officials with a clear, concise, green, smart mandate. As long as their mandate is the same as mine of course ;-).

Does anyone have any answers to these conundrums?

GO train not so green?

This morning I wanted to recycle a water bottle I had been carrying around in my bag for a week or so - I know water bottles suck and I should not use them, mea culpa - and looked for a recycling bin on the platform of the Burlington GO station.

Turns out there is no recycling bin on these platforms. Sorta silly, I thought that in this day and age every public space should have-easy-to-find and easy-to-use recycling receptacles.

Will a pesticide ban ever fly in Burlington, Ontario?

The new council seems to be a tad greener than the old one (by about 2 councilors and a mayor who presents himself as green, but I am not convinced) but I think they are still too suburban to pass such a law.

What do I mean by suburban? I guess I mean spoiled, used to driving everywhere, too rich, too greedy and generally turning a blind eye on the impact of the cities behavior on the environment. It would be lovely to have a mayor and council that had a vision for the future that was green, sustainable and risk taking when it comes to decisions like this. Of course a team like that could also be incredibly dangerous - but sometimes public consultation, more reports and expensive studies can cloud the issue. Lets face it people, tossing chemicals on our lawns is a really dumb thing to do.

Anyway will a bylaw be passed? We will find out on September 25th as the city meets to hear from delegates about the issues. The Sustainable Development committee will be there as will Pesticide Action Burlington and hopefully many other delegates. The word on the street is that any proposed bylaw ban would be rejected 4-3. In fact I heard through second hand information one councilor had suggested that a ban on pesticides would be unhealthy for some of their constituents because of the amount of weeds that would spread. Yeesh.

I hope we can help change their minds.

Lets see if we can generate a comment or two - what do the readers think?

Need more facts:
How about these from the Sierra Club.

"Once you begin to apply pesticides, your lawn can become addicted to chemical treatment. Repeated applications can cause soil to become conditioned, which speeds up degradation of the pesticides. This results in the need to apply increasingly toxic chemicals at more frequent intervals to control the pest problem. Meanwhile, beneficial organisms are killed off, soil can become sterile, and pesticide-resistant insects breed to produce a species able to withstand the toxins and continue eating your grass!"

or David Suzuki:

"Over 6,000 Canadians suffer from acute pesticide poisonings every year. That is one of the findings from research conducted by David Boyd for the David Suzuki Foundation report, Northern Exposure: Acute pesticide poisonings in Canada.

Nearly half of those poisoned by pesticides are children under the age of six—imagine 100 kindergarten classes, or 50 school buses full of young children."

And finally take a look at who has tackled this issue already - looks like Burlington needs to get with the program.

Rank	Municipality	Prov	Population	Pesticide By-law Status
1	Toronto	ON	2 481 494	Adopted
2	Hamilton	ON	490 268	Drafted
3-9	Waterloo Region*	ON	508 000	Adopted
10	London	ON	271 003	Adopted
11	Markham	ON	208 615	Adopted
12	Windsor	ON	208 402	Adopted
13	Vaughan	ON	182 022	Drafted
14	Oakville	ON	144 738	Adopted
15	Guelph	ON	114 943	Adopted
16	Pickering	ON	87 139	Drafted
17	Peterborough	ON	71 445	Adopted
18	New Market	ON	65 788	Adopted
19	North Bay	ON	52 771	Adopted
20	Caledon	ON	50 595	Adopted
21	Georgina	ON	39 263	Adopted
22	Orangeville	ON	25 248	Adopted
23	Thorold	ON	18 048	Adopted
24	Cobourg	ON	17 172	Adopted
25	Collingwood	ON	16 039	Adopted
26	Smith-Ennismore-Lakefield	ON	16 000	Adopted
27	Perth	ON	6 003	Adopted
28	Gananoque	ON	5 167	Adopted
29	Deep river	ON	4 000	Adopted
30	Georgian Bay	ON	2 230	Adopted
31	Cobalt	ON	1 229	Adopted
32	The Archipelago (Parry Sound)	ON	505	Adopted

Greening goes awry

Not nearly as green as we think.

Uh no kidding. For anyone who has spent any time in cities like Mississauga, Oakville or Burlington it is evidently clear that most Canadians could care less about the environment. Shop at Longos and see how many plastic bags you can collect. And now that has been somewhat validated by a recent survey.

Full story on the Globe and Mail.
SNIP:

"A national survey of household habits says Canadians have made some changes for conservation, but still hold onto habits that go against the green-living grain.

Six in 10 households now use fluorescent bulbs, over four in 10 have programmable thermostats, recycling rates have jumped and 60 per cent of homes have water-saving shower heads since the last household efficiency survey in 1994.

But the use of chemical pesticides is only slight down from 1994 levels — with the sole exception of Quebec, where pesticide use has plunged — most Canadians still commute to work alone in private vehicles, and rising numbers of people drink water from plastic containers."

Nary a drop to drink.

The Halton region has relaxed the mandatory water ban from June 28th a little allowing homeowners to do a wee sprinkling here and there. I wonder if anyone has actually been charged for watering on their off days or off hours.

I do know that when I go on an early morning walk there are many automatic sprinklers running including big honking ones on the soccer fields in the park. I wonder of the city can get fined if they water during the wrong time of day?

I am a bit of a water conscious freak and installed a rain barrel (and for you west nile worriers you need not worry - there is a fine mesh screen on it) from Home Depot this past spring and have used it to keep my tomatoes and 2 corn plants (there were more but someone has chewed them down) watered. It is amazing how little rain you need to fill the barrel. I have a model that you can join together in sequence although I am not sure I am that keen on having a row of rain barrels in the yard.

Our lawn, on the other hand, has turned in to tough brown turf. Kinda dusty and not much fun to play boules on.

More exciting news for Burlington

Good news all around for the city.

Looks like the proposed McMaster University campus in downtown Burlington cleared another hurdle this past week with the approval, by the university's governors, of moving their executive MBA program to the new facility.

There is a bit of mumbling and groaning from some quarters about the proposed location of the campus. There are even some suggestions that the school should be built on a larger plot of land removed from downtown with ample parking. I disagree 100%.

The only place for this campus is downtown. It is a smart use of the space (less urban sprawl - more intensification, easy access to cyclists, walkers and transit users) and would be an excellent boost to the cities vital, local economy. Smart cities know how important a vibrant downtown is to their future success and overall livability.

The second piece of news is the announcement of the commitment to fund a portion of the performance arts centre by the federal government. This is so cool and really will add to the cultural life in this 'burban city. Rumours abound that, if this project goes ahead, the building will be a Leed certified facility with hopefully a green roof and geothermal HVAC.

A cheery bit of news. Not.

Great Lakes fish getting worse: Study

SNIP-

"Toxins that once only surfaced in big fish are making their way down the food chain, a sign that the Great Lakes are getting even more polluted, a new report says. "

You can read the full story here.

Sustainable huh?

I am a member of a citizen's committee on sustainable development (an oxymoron if ever there was one) and part of the task we have set for ourselves this year is to create a document that sets the goal for the city corporation to reach in terms of CO2 reduction.

The problem is that the corporation is only responsible for a minute portion of the green gas emissions with the bulk of the emissions coming from the citizens. Like any typical suburban community ours has sprawled. The new subdivisions are car centric, built on farm land and completely unsustainable. So how do you reverse these mistakes? No idea. The only ways to reduce emissions from a car centric society is to come up with a car that pollutes less, offer reliable and free public transportation or tax the people. None of them easy choices.

But the alternative is not so great either.

Weeds are good.

With spring in the air it is time to think about greening the garden and lawn. There is an excellent Organic gardening seminar at the Burlington Central Public Library on Tuesday April 10 at 7 pm.

Get your garden off drugs!

Oh and while you are at it get a rain barrel will you...please?