Airsick video from thestar.com

Oh and the Star also posted this great video called AirSick - my son loved it.



Here is the link to the video on youtube

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?

Burlington revisited.

As fall rolls along and work coagulates into one large boredom clot, I thought it would be fun to reflect on the past 2.5 years since we moved to Burlington and balance out the good, the bad and the ugly.

In that time there have been some good changes to the city.

• Ice rink opened downtown.
• Downtown waterfront pier started.
• Central Library re-opened.
• Commitment to build a McMaster Campus downtown.
• Commitment to passing a pesticide ban by-law.
• Mountain Equipment Co-op announces a new store for Burlington.
• GO transit starts refurbishing the Fairview station and opens a new rail line and introduces weekend service.
• Upper Brant (below Fairview) gets a make over.
  

The flip side to the above - some not so good developments for the city.

• McMaster campus blows off the downtown deal and looks for a place with a parking lot.
• Walmart wins at the OMB and plans to build close to downtown.
• Traffic continues to be snarled.
• The pesticide bylaw may take a while to enact
• Home prices run amok - so much so that we can not even afford Burlington anymore.
• Global warming and climate change news continues to dominate the media and Burlington's modest efforts to control carbon emissions will be a drop in the ocean.
  

Toronto's trees get a little help in fighting drought

Toronto's trees took a beating this past summer.

Youtube link.

Are we acceptable.

When Robert Frost was in his sixties he wrote, "I am no longer concerned with good and evil. What concerns me is whether my offering will be acceptable."

I wonder if our species' offering is acceptable?

Sometimes words fail me...

So the summer weather in October will be today's spokesman on the state of our planet's climate.

That and the freaky sunny thunderstorms and rain bursts.

That was just weird...

Mildly funny Green Party ad from Youtube

Slightly simplistic election video from the Green Party of Ontario vs the Grey Parties of Ontario. Parody of Mac/PC ads .

Using Ontario's power more wisely is not an option. Are people in Ontario, especially in the GTA, really committed to voluntarily reducing their energy consumption?

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