On Saturday I attended a forum put on by VALTAC (Valley Transportation Advisory Committee), hosted at the Langley Township Hall. (Nice building!) It was a statement toward our poor transit network South of the Fraser that all five speakers drove to the venue. Stephen Rees joked that the TransLink trip planner wouldn’t even give him a trip itinerary because it would take either more than 3 hours or more than 3 transfers. My proximity to the Hall made it easy enough to get there, if you consider a bus late by 7 minutes then a 20-minute walk easy. And Langley isn’t exactly known for being pedestrian-friendly.
The forum was about getting better public transportation South of the Fraser, mainly via rail connections. There is much support for one solution, spearheaded by a group called Rail for the Valley, which would reinstate the Interurban that ran from about 1900 to 1950 all the way from Vancouver to Chilliwack. Maps at the venue showed the dense urban centres through which this rail line passes. (Today it is used only for freight.)
Continue reading Event recap: VALTAC forum on Rail for the Valley »
On Saturday, I went to the EPIC expo at Canada Place. The main attraction for me was a talk by Adria Vasil, author of a best-selling book I adore called Ecoholic. In her inspiring presentation, she gave us a history behind the book’s development and noted how the green movement was virtually non-existent when she started her column in 2004. Organizers of EPIC apparently wanted to put on this event back then but there was deemed to be a lack of interest in green issues.
Adria offered some great advice and encouragement for greening one’s lifestyle: choose three things every month and do them. No matter how good you are already, you can do even better. My three things? I decided to no longer buy greenhouse-grown produce, I switched to compostable plastic bags for my garbage and replaced some of my soap with a locally-made, more natural product (and it smells divine, too!) Adria emphasized the importance of individual actions and how even little things add up. Case in point: the government’s new green product claims regulation is consumer complaint-driven, meaning it’s up to us to call in and report on products that (we think) are making false claims. So things are looking up, anyway. Adria is very lovely and was happy to sign my Ecojot notebook (I had not brought my copy of Ecoholic).
Continue reading EPIC – Sustainable living expo »
Thanks to Darren Barefoot for the photo and for telling me about the following tip.
The Clean Air Foundation‘s Mow Down Pollution program is once again taking a good jab at ol’ Mr. Smoggy, the Lawn Mower Hog himself, by educating the public about the significant amount of greenhouse gases and air pollution we can prevent by retiring the ol’ stinker and replacing it with a more earth-friendly alternative. Ever since I saw one of those push mowers, I had been suggesting my dad look into it, to replace the gas one. Some credit can be given for its long lifespan, but it’s noisy, it stinks and heck, it’s so hard to push that he got stuck with the job every time. Besides, the push mower is good for the grass! We’re eco-friendly folk, so knowing just how much a gas-powered lawn mower actually emits over time is pretty enlightening. And a $100 instant rebate? Talk about motivation! Here are the deets:
Continue reading Cut your lawn and CO2 at the same time »
Increasingly, the news in the blogs I read has focused on climate change, biofuels and alternative energy for fueling transportation… and with good reason. We’re faced with a crisis, and we all know that. Many of the solutions already exist, in the past before depedence on oil became the norm for most transportation, and gave us solid plastic, plastic bags, chemical fertilizers, fat-free ice cream (propylene glycol, anyone?), and the American Dream: a big house on a big lot in suburbia. Well, Canadians have made that dream as much of a reality as our neighbours to the south, and in greater Vancouver, the hidden evil of it is present in perhaps no stronger a form than in the suburbs of Surrey and Langley.
Continue reading How the oil crisis will change the face of Fraser Highway »
– 200 posts!
– One month to my birthday (guess how old I am?)
– Almost one year since graduation
– One year since I changed my diet to eliminate food sensitivities… not a single cashew since
– Moving on to second, new design job
– Almost two years since moving out
– Nearly another day…
This is first in a series of posts I’ll be making over the next couple of weeks about food security and the current food crisis, permaculture, and community spaces. (This post replaces the usual Monday lunch blog as I have a lunchtime meeting tomorrow.)
On a brief walk around the neighbourhood today, I told Paul about my idea for a community garden on a vacant, grassy lot. He urged me to write a post about it, and given that I have a few other related issues to bring up, I decided to split it over a few posts.
Brown at the time of this photo, the grasses are growing greener now that it’s spring
Continue reading Community solutions for food security and urban health, Part 1 »
Via No Impact Man, thanks to my mother for the great link
Today Al Gore launched the We Can Solve It campaign, “a $300 million, 3-year campaign to educate the public about global warming and urge action from political leaders.”
Continue reading Great design facilitates another climate action campaign »
