58. Summertime savings

You’ve got to love summer. The warm days lead to so much less energy consumption in my house. For instance:

• I’m back to “navy showers” (get in, get wet, turn off water to wash and shampoo, rinse)
• We dry our clothes on the line (we don’t live in the ‘burbs where unsightly clotheslines are banned. I mean, honestly, what are those suburbanites on?)
• Bike riding is our major form of transportation (mostly taking the place of public transit but some trips that we’d take by car in winter, too). Luckily we live on a major bike route and close to a couple more.
• No heating necessary, and although we have it, we don’t use the air conditioning.
• Generally, everyone uses less lights since the days are longer.

It doesn’t seem like much, but every little bit has to help, and it’s cheaper, which is always a bonus.

Manufactured Landscapes

Manufactured Landscapes is a film about and including the jaw-dropping, beautiful international photographs of Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky, along with a bit of thoughtful and thought-provoking commentary. I found the trailer on youtube:

The official site from Mongrel Media is here.

Edward Burtynsky was also a TED (The Technology, Education, Design conference “brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes”) speaker and prize winner in 2005. His TED speech is embedded below.

If you do rent, buy, or borrow (I borrowed my copy from the TPL) and view this film, which you absolutely should, then be sure to view the Stills Gallery with Commentary (accessible from the main DVD menu) as it is almost as interesting as the film itself.

53. Power bars

No, not the kind you eat, the kind you plug things into.

Well, we’ve been doing this one with our upstairs computers for a while but for some reason I’ve had a mental block about doing the shut down (or hibernate) and turn off all power bars with the downstairs computer. But last night I asked my mom for some challenge suggestions and that was one of them so I started last night!

You’ve got to love the changes that will actually save you a few bucks as well…

48. Why I won’t use biofuels…

It’s crazy that the US has made biofuels a part of their energy policy… Here’s a few links to articles on why:

From George Monbiot of the Guardian:

“A recent study by the Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen shows that the official estimates have ignored the contribution of nitrogen fertilisers. They generate a greenhouse gas – nitrous oxide – which is 296 times as powerful as CO2. These emissions alone ensure that ethanol from maize causes between 0.9 and 1.5 times as much warming as petrol, while rapeseed oil (the source of over 80% of the world’s biodiesel) generates 1-1.7 times the impact of diesel(12). This is before you account for the changes in land use.”
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2007/11/06/an-agricultural-crime-against-humanity/

From the New York Times:

“Almost all biofuels used today cause more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional fuels if the full emissions costs of producing these “green” fuels are taken into account, two studies being published Thursday have concluded.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/08/science/earth/08wbiofuels.html

From Plenty Magazine:

“A study by Swiss scientists recently found that corn ethanol – which demands significant quantities of water and energy to produce – may actually be worse for the environment than regular fossil fuels. That’s a big problem: The US is looking to massively expand its biofuel sector, and corn ethanol remains at the center of its strategy.”
http://www.plentymag.com/blogs/political/2008/01/europes_biofuel_rethink.php

So think twice before you jump on the biofuel-powered bandwagon…

 

Update on February 11:

An article from George Monbiot in the Guardian:

“Apart from used chip fat, there is no such thing as a sustainable biofuel
Even capitalists now admit the oil crisis is real. But their solutions border on lunacy as they avoid the obvious answer”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/feb/12/biofuels.energy

Update on April 15:

Another article from George Monbiot:

“From this morning all sellers of transport fuel in the United Kingdom will be obliged to mix it with ethanol or biodiesel made from crops. The World Bank points out that ‘the grain required to fill the tank of a sports utility vehicle with ethanol … could feed one person for a year’. ” http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/apr/15/food.biofuels

Update on April 19:

Another article in the Guardian by Ian Traynor (GOOD NEWS!):

“The European commission is backing away from its insistence on imposing a compulsory 10% quota of biofuels in all petrol and diesel by 2020, a central plank of its programme to lead the world in combating climate change.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/apr/19/biofuels.food

46. Earth Hour

Earth Hour Toronto is on Saturday, March 29, 2008 at 8pm – turn your lights (and everything else, I figure – every little bit helps) out in support of Earth Hour.

I’ve marked it in my calendar (with a couple of alarms)… you should think about it, too!

Update #3

I finally got around to deciding which organic food delivery service to use and we got our first delivery on Monday night. We went with Front Door Organics over the other companies for a couple reasons:

• “Because of the high environmental costs associated with the aviation industry, FDO will not purchase any products that travel by air during their journey to our warehouse.” They have a link (update in 2011: cant find that anymore, but I’ve updated the link) to David Suzuki’s site regarding air travel and there’s an article by George Monbiot that drives the point home very well here, too.
• They choose fair trade over non-fair trade whenever possible.
• They don’t hike up the prices of the other organic grocery items that they offer.
• They indicate whether the produce is from Ontario or Canada on their website in the This Week’s Fresh Box section and the grocery section so you can make an informed decision.

I like them even more since I got my first box for a couple of reasons:

• The fresh box had very little packaging in it (2 plastic bags and 1 plastic container for the mushrooms)
• They take back any plastic containers that the produce may come in for recycling.

39. I’m dreaming of a green xmas

Someone asked me how they could make their holidays a bit more environmentally friendly today. If you google it there are lots of lists out there. Here’s what I came up with:

• no wrapping paper unless it’s reused (a friend has taken to keeping the funnies from her newspapers and wrapping all gifts in that) or is reusable (like gift bags)
• keep the paper mailings to a minimum
• buy used (I’m a big craigslist user)
• buy online (the trucks that ship your gifts are shipping a lot of other stuff at the same time so it’s more environmentally friendly than everyone driving their individual cars to the mall)
• buy local (for the feast, too)
• don’t use disposable dishware at parties
• make sure your live tree (fake trees consume energy and petroleum-based materials in their manufacture, but there is the argument that buying one will save you a trip to the tree lot every year in your car) is recycled or composted (not landfilled)
• if you put up lights, consider LEDs
• avoid buying excessively packaged gifts
• compost all those food scraps
• recycle whatever you can

As for me, my big change this year will be e-cards. Every year we mail a family photo to friends and family, this year it’ll only go out to those few who don’t have email (yes, there are still a few holdouts out there). Everyone else will get an e-card.

38. Stop the Tar Sands

The latest Greenpeace newsletter is about the Alberta Tar Sands, Canada’s single worst offender with regards to global warming. 

Read it here. (There’s also links to a slideshow and quicktime movie on that page.)

Then take action by writing to the Alberta premier or to Stephen Harper. I know I will.

37. Organics delivered!

I’m trying to figure out how to keep my trips to the Loblaws (my nearest reasonably priced organic produce vendor) to a minimum. I’d like to be eating more organic fruits and veggies – not so much for myself, but for my sons (and for the lighter footprint on the land). So a hockey teammate of mine recommended an organic food delivery service. I decided to have a look and do some comparison shopping, and found several such services here in Toronto:

Food Share, Front Door Organics, Green Earth Organics, Mama Earth Organics, Plan B Organics, and Wanigan(used to be called WOW foods). 

Why organic?

For the land: Sustainable farming methods that don’t damage the soil and retain the land’s biodiversity. 

For the planet: Apparently it uses less energy per unit of yield.  

For your body: No chemical pesticides means you don’t ingest them with your food. 

The David Suzuki Foundation has an article on it here. Environmental Working Group has a list of the highest pesticide load to the lowest for those who don’t want to bother (or can’t afford to) with getting all organic fruits and veggies – they suggest just the top 12, or the "dirty dozen".

Happy Thanksgiving!

It’s Canadian Thanksgiving today. We had our family feast last night and it was excellent. We started with organic roasted butternut squash soup with apple and Brie (from A Year of the Best – those ladies from the Best of Bridge cookbooks). 

The main course included local farmer’s market roasted potatoes and parsnips, green beans, and a grain-fed free range turkey. Yes, I realize that free range doesn’t mean much more than the fact that there is a door open out to the outside, which may be a field or it may be a gravel pen, but it’s better than nothing, I guess.

My eldest son and I picked it up on Saturday (6.5 km round trip) on bike (with a cooler bag in the back of the bike trailer). Last year, I would have driven – not even considered riding (well, I didn’t have a bike back then but I might have briefly considered taking the TTC, then hopped in the car). Lifestyle changes are happening here, and I couldn’t be happier.

Happy Thanksgiving!