What in Tar-nation? Alberta’s Tar Sands at the Dinner Table

We can’t talk about it at the holiday dinner table because one of the kids picked himself up and got himself out of debt by getting a job there. Sure, we’ve touched on it briefly after a couple of mojitos, but when I first learned that my brother-in-law was a mechanic for the larger-than-life trucks that speckle Fort McMurray, Canada’s oil-country, it put a frog in my throat, especially since I used to be heavily associated with Greenpeace, a leading campaigner against the Alberta tar sands. Getting into the pros and cons of the Alberta operation would lead…

Voting for the environment isn’t just for hippies

It’s wonky out there. It’s warm, it’s frigid, it smells like poo, and tulips are trying to push through semi-frozen dirt. In other words, it’s good ‘ol spring weather. The frequency of elections in Canada is almost as reliable as the changing of the seasons, and the parties we have to vote for are warm, frigid, smell like poo, and try to push up through frozen fodder. So who gets your vote?

The CBC has a vote compass tool to check which party most represents your values…

The right to be outside

Dirt, mud, snow, ice, slush, branches, fences, sand, sunburns, bruised knees, leaves, hills, fields, bikes, shovel and pail, hide and seek, skates, tag, slide, skipping ropes, skateboard, ball-bat-mit, burping contests, cloud watching, popsicles, trampolines, puddles. And now?

Told you so! Why no one wants to gloat about the global food crisis

Who doesn’t like a good gloat? A self-satisfying ‘told ya so!’ to the people who doubted you and a pat on the back from supporters when everyone else swore you were wrong. Sometimes smugness feels great! Well, I’ll tell you about a bunch of people who actually aren’t happy to brag about being right – the folks who have been warning us about the effects climate change will have on the global food supply…

Welcome aboard the earthship

Welcome to the Earthship. No, it isn’t a ship made out of earth, and no, it isn’t a spaceship made to boldly explore where no one has gone before. It’s an innovative type of home, typically built of recycled and reclaimed material, where the household itself functions like an ecosystem. The ecological footprint is minimal to nonexistent, and most of them are completely off the grid, using solar panels and wood stoves for heating, and semi-artistic designs for temperature regulation. Some use composting toilets, or just a plain outhouses in friendly year-round climates.

Not having kids is the next cool fad

We humans are part of the environment. Really, all those trees, bugs, birds, sand, walruses, ice floes, endangered orangutans … we’re part of that. Call me out for pointing out the obvious, but this notion was once a big revelation for me. I studied and worked in a few different aspects of the environment; as a technologist, a student, scientist, a field practitioner, an activist, an idealist and now a journalist.

Throughout most of these experiences, I always pictured myself as an observer, but not necessarily part of any type of ecosystem. I guess you could picture it like being a plumber; you fix the pipes, but they’re not your pipes. Well guess what – they are our pipes.

Polar bear, schmolar bear

While I was doing my undergrad at McGill, I was part of a group that visited high schools to give guest lectures about different environmental subjects. I had some of the best, and worst experiences with the young ‘uns, but I am, of course, going to talk about THE worst one. My partner and I were standing in front of a West Island high school class that just wasn’t into us. They were the noisy bunch – the more difficult children in the school, grade eight if I remember correctly. We were grasping desperately at anything to get them interested in our presentation on climate change. Polar bears; the poster child of climate change were an obvious pick. Who doesn’t like polar bears?

Green Bean 2010 Review

What a year! We’re still here, so hopefully that means that we’re doing something right…or not at all if we look at the last year in eco news. Without getting all ‘told you so’ on your butt, let’s have a look to see what the Green Bean has brought you throughout 2010 … Earth Day turned 40 this year! Two days before that anniversary, the biggest accidental, and certainly most frustrating ecological disaster we’ve ever seen dominated the media for months. Yup, it’s the BP oil spill, one of the worst environmental disasters of all time, but Obama did good by banning offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico until 2017.

Leaving only yourself behind

It’s the strangest Christmas present I’ve ever helped to give. This week, my mom and I will be putting our beloved cat, Bobo to sleep forever. He’s been suffering with a tumor and can barely lap up food any more. After months of treatment, we have decided to call it quits and give him our own holiday gift: an end to his suffering. Pets bring a lot of comfort and we’ve been lucky to have one of the best cats ever over the last ten years. Like everything on the planet, everything has its final hour. With this bleak holiday message, it brings to mind what will happen with everything else we may be leaving behind. The holidays are a conundrum of giving, taking and waste. At the end, we leave behind our own trail of consumerism. We have the power to diminish our impact on the planet, but what about when we die? What legacy will we be leaving behind when we’re committed to the earth?

Ready for radio? Mel Lefebvre co-hosts Ecolibrium on CKUT 90.3FM

This post is a shameless PR stint. Beginning today and every Tuesday until the end of time at 11am, please tune in to CKUT 90.3 FM to hear Mel Lefebvre co-host Montreal’s only English environmental radio show, Ecolibrium.

Ecolibrium has been on air for decades and reports on local and international environmental issues. If you’ve never heard it, then your chance to get a heads-up on what’s going on in your world.

The swirling vortex of death – our plasticized ocean

I couldn’t help it when a groan slipped out while reading yet another email about horrible, terrible, very bad plastic. Another outcry against the toxic, non biodegradable stuff, killing the poor innocent creatures of the ocean, blah blah blah. All this while sitting comfortably in my warm home, sipping tea to my heart’s content. I live so far away from the Texas-sized swirling vortex of plastic floating in the Pacific Ocean and all the litter lining every shoreline on earth. It’s easy to ignore one little email and go on with my day when I’m not face to face with it.Well, lucky for us that there’s a group of guys who decided to make it their business

Breaking eco-news: Harper officially hates the environment

This message is directly copied from an urgent email I received last night. Its urgency required me to just get the word out as quickly as possible.

Step 1) read the pasted article below

Step 2) Call Stephen Harper, like I did, at 613 992 4211
Email him: http://pm.gc.ca/eng/contact.asp
Tell him that canceling Canada’s only climate act right before COP16 was an incredibly stupid, undemocratic thing to do.

Step 3) Share this blog posting with everyone you know.

And now, the message:

Some very sad news. Tonight the country’s only federal climate change legislation in Parliament, the Climate Change Accountability Act, was defeated in the Senate 43 to 32.

Hell no to bottled H2O: Quebec Universities

What kills more than war? Dirty water.

What makes up the bulk of the Pacific garbage patch (you know, the one floating in the ocean that it three-times the size of Texas?)? Plastic.

What costs, on average, about 200% more than you should be paying? Bottled water.

What uses billions of barrels of oil per year? The bottled water industry.

Who is spearheading our advancement into ecological responsibility and better health worldwide? Hopefully you, with the help of Quebec universities. This fall the Sierra Youth Coalition held their national conference at Guelph University. In a regional break-out session, all of the Quebec universities present unanimously decided to push for a ban on bottled water on their campuses. By next week, March 10, 2011…

Coo-coo k’choo! Whaddaya say, Jim?

If John Lennon were alive today, he may have changed his tune to reflect the reality about what the walruses are facing in the arctic. In this mini-documentary, researchers are describing the walrus as the latest canaries in the climate-change coal mine. In a world of quick sound bites, the climate is a recurring theme that people may be getting tired of hearing. Well, we couldn’t possibly be any more tired than these featured walrus pups, stranded in the middle of the deep arctic ocean far away from land. The polar bear has been the charismatic megafauna poster child of climate change, but that just scratches the surface for the myriad of other wildlife affected by retreating sea ice. Walruses and polar bears face the same problems of decreased capabilities for hunting. The walrus’ mighty tusks helps to hoist their mega-ton bodies up on the ice, but with less and less ice to latch on to to rest, they are left swimming for extended periods of time in the cold water.

The Bixi conundrum

Academia has once again nit-picked at something that has helped bring positive change to the urban landscape. In a survey conducted by researchers from McGill University’s School of Urban Planning, the city’s rent-able Bixi bikes have caused an 86 percent decline in other environmentally friendly modes of transportation, such as the use of personal bikes, public transportation and good, old-fashioned walking. There was a two percent decline in car trips, and an eight percent reduction in taxi use. These revelations were presented to the public in the Montreal Gazette earlier this month. While researchers have claimed that Bixis aren’t a bad thing, they believe that its environmental benefits may be an exaggeration.

The whiteness of being green

The environmental movement was essentially initiated by Rachel Carson’s epic book Silent Spring. In it, she exposed how herbicides and pesticides were destroying the environment and our health. She sparked a lot of controversy which eventually lead to the ban of DDT. In 1971, Greenpeace initiated an environmental activism movement that involved the media, using the Quaker philosophy of “bearing witness” in order to make change. The list goes on. It is amazing and inspiring that people have mobilized and dedicated their lives to making the world a better place. The world always needs more of this. If anything is worth doing, it is worth doing well and that includes questioning ourselves. While great changes have been made thanks to the ideals and passions of people who consider themselves environmentalists, one aspect has remained largely unchecked.