The Nature Challenge

If I had to list my most respected role model it would be David Suzuki. He's an environmentalist, but not a screaming roadblock-chaining type. The 'Suze is direct about what he expects people to do, but not nasty or vindictive. Overall a pretty friendly guy, but up-front and direct about what he thinks people should do.

So I try to make a substantial contribution every year to The David Suzuki Foundation because I think they do very good work. This enviro group has a few interesting initiatives. One of them is the Nature Challenge, which over 250,000 people have signed up for. The Nature Challenge is a set of ten steps that individuals can take.

These are my new year's resolutions so to speak. Ok, let's review see how I currently stack up. I am going to comment on each goal, and whether it is SMART (Specific Measurable Attainable R-something and Time Bounded)

1. Reduce home energy by 10%

This is an expensive and time consuming goal. We've been working on this since 2003 and have

invested substantially in houshold energy efficiency. But the truth is I don't know what the results are. Need to check the actual change in energy consumption

2. Eat meat-free meals once a week

Already doing it. This is dead simple Get some frozen wild salmon and throw it in the oven once a week. It's also inherently in one's self interest to not eat too much red meat.

3. Buy a fuel efficient, low-polluting car

This is pretty straightforward. If you are buying a new car, SUV's generally suck. The hard data for fuel efficiency is at fuelefficency.org. After reviewing the data, our car, a 1993 Saturn, supposedly gets 28 mpg city/ 36 mpg highway driving.

4. Choose an energy efficient home and appliances.

When we buy an appliance, we generally fork over a little extra cash to buy more efficient appliances. We have a BigWash Samsung washing machine and two efficient new Energuide appliances.

5. Stop using pesticides

Dead simple. I am inherently lazy, so not doing something is pretty easy. "Honey did you spray the weeds". "No, I am taking the Nature Challenge"

6. Walk, bike or take transit to regular destinations
Transit yes. Bike, mm not so much currently. We still end up using our car too much. I would like to get rid of it and switch to Zipcar.

7. Prepare your meals with locally produced food

This is quite difficult. I would rewrite the goal to say "Select Ontario or Canadian fruit wherever available. Avoid food from faraway places: kiwis from New Zealand, grapes from Chile, etc."

In Toronto and Vancouver there are agencies like Green Earth Organics that deliver organic, produce items. We are a GEO customer, and I am curious about where GEO gets its food and have put in an enquiry.

8. Choose a home close to regular destinations

Done. Though I burn a lot of fossil fuels getting to my Ultimate games in the summer.

9. Support alternatives to the car

Hmm, difficult to measure. This goal should be chartered to be more specific and measurable . E.g write one letter to an elected representative pushing for better transit funding.

10. Get involved, stay informed

This goal should be more specific and measurable.

Top NASA scientist speaks out

Dr. James Hansen from the Goddard Institute of Space Studies spoke in a webcast today that was watched by 500,000 plus viewers. The webcast is part of an emergency teach-in, designed to alert teachers, scientists, and other professionals of the necessity to act on global climate change by 2010.

My partner's architecture office sent two people to watch the webcast at a local engineering office. The entire engineering office was watching the webcast. The great news is that obviously climate change is taken seriously by teachers, scientists, engineers, and architects. Now it needs to be taken seriously by federal governments and business.

Hansen outlined some basic truths that are clear to most informed observers not on the payroll of the fossil fuel industry

1. Nuclear power is useful but not the only answer.

2. Technologies for fossil fuel reduction are already available. Political will is needed.

3. Regulation and taxation of fossil fuels is necessary to effect change.

In an ABC news story, Dr. Hansen says the U.S. federal government is attempting to silence him and other scientists that speak out on global warming issues.

Meanest Book Club

I've been searching for a book club. Here's one that I won't be joining, or trying to join any time soon. The Book You Crew on Livejournal.com; quite possibly the meanest book club in existence. Think Jack Black in High Fidelity. Think English Lit majors with a God complex and constipation. Anyone applying to the Book You Crew must submit their top 20 favorite books, and then face a merciless barrage of questions. Over 80% of applicants are banned.

"...If your list reads like the most recent NY Times Bestseller list, reads like
your high school summer reading list, reads like the front table at
Borders/B&N, or includes anything by John Grisham, you're deluding yourself
that you're qualified to be here. Make like a tree and branch out."

Trash

I plan to consume, read, and eventually dispose of this collection of essays from MIT press. The book explores the meaning and psychology of garbage. From a typology of dust bunnies to an essay on brownfields redevelopment. In a consumptive society, our trash defines us to a large extent. So a study of the ethics and significance of trash is appropriate.

Frigid Times in the Annex

The mercury finally dipped to normal February temperatures in Toronto. What a relief. I was worried Vancouverites would start moving here.

Live

At my sister-in-law's behest we went to Live, the new raw vegan restaurant on Dupont Ave. And when I say raw vegan, I don't just mean 'animal products bad'. I don't mean just the 'milk is evil' vegan type. I mean mouth foaming, Fire-is-a-misguided technology-baking-is-bad-we-don't-serve-bread here (infidel) raw vegan.

Now I was a little skeptical, because while I sympathize with vegetarians and other mildly subversive types, I am of the conviction that that you know, 'fire' and 'cooking' technology were basically good inventions.

It turns out they have one or two cooked items. I had an excellent hot (cooked) soup and a (not cooked) salad. The cafe is beautiful and cheerful. Food was a little pricey, and there was an awkward moment when I tried to order a steak, medium rare. Steak is not funny. Not. funny.

Frigid February

Politicians looked up this week and saw the storm over climate change brewing. Conservatives and conservative pundits, who until recently spent much of their efforts denying the problem existed, now shifted their efforts to painting the issue as hopeless. As in: there's nothing we can do about this, so might as well get really, really rich.

Capitalism - As it was meant to be

I spent an enjoyable hour browsing the antique shops of West-west-Queen West near Roncesvalles. We're looking for a piano bench to replace the crappy factory piece that came with our Yamaha and is now disintegrating.

The antique stores in this area are basically capitalism in its purest form. The marketplace matching goods and services with demand. I need something; I go out to a number of shops, compare prices and service, and then find what I need. It's too bad we can't distill more of our economic activity down to the antique store model. Cut out all that corporate bullshit - overmarketed, overfranchised, centrally controlled, coercive, monopolistic rapaciousness.

Income Trust Anger II

Income trust investors are taking their case for special tax breaks to Parliament Hill this week. Expect to hear about lots of sob stories about the poor little energy trusts that could no longer meet ends meet when their favored tax status was eliminated. All those impoverished international investors who are pulling their money out of Canadian income trusts and putting them into Australia and the United S- oops those countries eliminated their income trusts a long time ago. Never mind.

Saturday night cookery

On the menu, quick black bean soup from epicurious. Black beans, tomatoes, red peppers, and celery(my addition).

Gates of TBP

The gates of Trinity Bellwoods Park, have finally been restored. Construction had been halted temporarily last year when the fire marshal realized that the restoration impacted a fire route to an institutional building backing on the park. The gates were previously the gates of Trinity College, until 1925 when the college moved to its current location at the University of Toronto.

Urban Adventuring

This is fascinating. Teams of urban adventurers illegally and dangerously exploring Southern Ontario's deepest urban caves. Read dsank's account of a spelunking expedition in the gigantic century old tunnel deep below an abandoned power station in Niagara Falls.

Vanishing point has more accounts and descriptions of urban adventures in Toronto and upstate New York.

Christmas Skating

Families at Nathan Phillips Square enjoy a post-Christmas outing.

New Sheriff in Town

Nancy Pelosi, the 52nd Speaker of the House of Representatives takes her seat earlier this week. Early indications are that the Democratic majority plans to hold the Bush administration accountable for its disgrace and failure in Iraq, and to provide oversight going forward.

From Face the Nation on Sunday morning:

If the president chooses to escalate the war, in his budget request we want to
see a distinction between what is there to support the troops who are there now.
The American people and the Congress support those troops. We will not abandon
them.

But if the president wants to add to this mission, he is going to have
to justify it. And this is new for him because up until now the Republican
Congress has given him a blank check with no oversight, no standards, no
conditions. And we’ve gone into this situation, which is a war without end,
which the American people have rejected.

Compost

I've managed our family's compost heap for a few years now. It's one of my favorite jobs; part science project, part animal care, part good deed I suppose. The idea that you can take garbage and turn it into clean earth in a few months has a powerful appeal. A couple of years ago we seeded our compost bin with some red worms and the bin has taken off since. As a Christmas present to myself I purchased the Rodale Book of Composting from Lee Valley. Rodale publishes Organic Gardening magazine and this 1992 book is the bible of composting. It covers the basics, and then delves into all sorts of obscure and highly technical details about composting: ideal temperatures, green-brown mixes, alternative techniques such as 'compost in a bag', and even how to set up a farm-scale compost operation. I have no doubt that my efforts are low on the skill scale, but I'm having fun nonetheless.

toy factory

The loft go up in Liberty village, the old Massey-Ferguson lands. These photos taken only one year ago and the place was all but deserted. See the present day slick marketing at toyfactorylofts.ca and Liberty Market. This location is a media and design hub (and was also named Toronto's "Internet Porn Alley in a 2005 broadcast of Dateline NBC.)

Read: Fiasco

Just finished Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq. This book is difficult to put down; a devastating critique of the Bush administration and senior military establishment from a star journalist at the Wall Street Journal. The book adds substantially to the debate on Iraq: it is not simply a rehash of available public information. As the Pentagon correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, Ricks has filled the book with candid interviews and research from inside the military.

Fiasco describes the disgraceful history of the invasion of Iraq, from 2002-2006. He briefly covers the false premises that led to war: the bogus linkage between Saddam and al-Qaeda; the false claim that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, which was cooked up by pressuring the intelligence community for worst case scenarios. However most of the book is devoted to the occupation.

Ricks describes in riveting detail the results of an administration of incompetent neocons. Having sold the war as a cakewalk, the Bushies and their pets in the military establishment then proceeded to hamfistedly botch the occupation: by wasting piles of money and time looking for nonexistent WMDs, by not providing sufficient troops on the ground to prevent the country from slipping into looting and chaos; by appointing an incompetent civilian administration of Republican loyalists; and by enraging Iraqis with a brutal, torture filled occupation.

This book is important because it shows that elections do matter, even if you don't like both choices. This should put to bed the conventional wisdom that generally conservatives are generally hard headed, whereas liberals are pie in the sky idealists. Republicans and Democrats are not the same, despite the fact that they both slosh in massive donations and are both beholden to moneyed special interests. An Al Gore administration most definitely would not have disgraced and endangered the United States with this trillion dollar quagmire.

Toronto Bird Observatory

The Toronto Bird Observatory has a great site with lots of cute bird pictures, birds that are visible right here in the city if you know where to look. Their birding news feed on the right hand side of the blog is depressing. Items like "Global warming could wipe out most birds". That is fucking scary.

VIA

Last week we travelled to London on VIA rail for an overnight visit. The cost was about $180 for two persons which at first glance is substantially higher than the cost of gas for the same trip (say $60). However, the $60 does not take into account vehicle maintenance, insurance, etc. for two people, which is comparable to the 50c/km mileage reimbursement I would get for driving the same distance. That is to say, the cost is approximately what a corporate accountant believes is the cost of driving the same distance, when all factors are taken into account.

More importantly, the VIA trip supports a public rail infrastructure which our country badly needs. The service was efficient, though not as good as European rail service. On all the European trains I've taken, you can simply walk on the train without lining up and getting herded like cattle onto the train.

London has a very attractive train station; if only it was used to greater capacity. I hope our governments invest more in rail service and a little less in free highways for car drivers.

Waterfront Airport

The Toronto City Centre Airport on a blustery December day. The island airport remains controversial following an aborted attempt to construct a bridge across the 100 metre span between the island and the mainland. After a fierce election campaign on the issue, city council voted in 2003 to withdraw its support for the bridge. However, the airline, Porter Airlines was launched anyway, and the federal government awarded the Toronto Port Authority a $35 million legal settlement, some of which was funnelled into the new airline.