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We’re facing such huge challenges and all you hear through the media are demagogic chants like “drill, drill, drill.”

Skyrocketing energy prices. The climate crisis. Unraveling financial markets. Wars that just happen to be in places with a lot of oil…

Enough said…Come back for more details on the subject.

I took a walk in beautiful downtown Ottawa this afternoon and came across this container that separates garbage, plastic bottles, and recyclables. It’s really nice to see that somehow they do try to recycle but what’s wrong with this is there’s maybe only one of those per building block.

I also took a look inside the thing and garbage was in with the recyclables and vice versa. Good try Ottawa but not good enough.

Maybe they could change the containers to clear ones so that people can see what’s in them instead of trying to figure out what’s written on the scratched up stickers. I guess the only way to make that happen would be to write a complaint to the city of Ottawa. I’ll send them an email and see what they reply. Stay tuned to see the results.

When I think of August a few favourite activies come to mind…floating on Lake Okanagan… drinking a cold beer on a busy patio… sneaking fresh berries and peaches into every meal…the list goes on. While these activities sound harmless and fun, they would all be considered no-no’s (or at least major challenges) for Christine Jeavans who has given up plastic for the month of August. Plastic floaties, plastic chairs, plastic packaging. Even the beer caps have plastic in them, according to Christine.

I first came across Chris’s story in BBC’s news magazine, where she published a list of plastic waste that her family of three used in one month. In her own words, the list of 603 items “isn’t pretty”. Here’s her abridged version:

• 36 carrier bags
• 67 food packaging bags and films such as bread bags, cheese wrappers (and a jumbo pack of Maltesers!)
• 23 polystyrene tea cups with lids and 24 coffee cup lids
• 15 fruit punnets and vegetable trays
• 13 yoghurt pots
• 16 water bottles, 10 milk bottles, 7 juice bottles
• Two toothbrushes

Toothbrushes? That might make some of you laugh, and I admit to thinking that this was a bit extreme. But after a glance at some of Christine’s posts in her blog I came across this fascinating anecdote:

“Scientists studying seabirds in the North Pacific have found toothbrushes (and many other plastic objects) in the stomachs of dead birds.”

Christine’s list got me thinking about how much plastic my own family uses in the span of one month. With my 16 year old stepson here for the summer, there are at least 7 extra single sized water bottles in our recycling box every Sunday night, not to mention twice the amount of milk jugs and juice containers. It’s hard to convince a thirsty teenager that watering down the apple juice is better for his health, not to mention that it reduces our family’s environmental impact.

Am I going to switch my family to wooden toothbrushes, and join Chris’s “plastic-free-wagon,” no. But the story did remind me that all of the little plastic pieces can really add up, and that one person’s commitment, even for a short time, can make a difference. If there’s one thing that drives me bonkers these days it is the criticism others give to those who are merely trying to do their own small part for the earth. A quick glance at Chris or Danni’s blog and you’ll find plenty of people wasting their energy with negative comments. But, let’s focus on the positive comments like this one to Chris from a Texan named Jeremy. He congratulates Chris on her effort and reminds readers that “coffee and tea should be enjoyed sitting, not on the go.”

I’m happy that we live in a city where most of the items on Chris’s list are recyclable, including the recent addition of plastic bags and yogurt pots which go straight into our blue box. However, I am still interested in reducing our plastic use wherever we can. I’m in the process of thinking of my own plastic pledge, which I hope to tie into my family’s monthly-earth-hour challenge at the end of August. Stay tuned. And if you have made a personal commitment to the environment, whether big or small, we want to hear about it here!

“And yet we used to manage without all this plastic. In the 1950s, less than five million tonnes of plastic was produced worldwide, today it is close to 100 million tonnes.” Christine Jeavans

Like you, I’ve come to hate my local gas station. Even though I drive a Prius, and patronize the cheapest gas station in my town (paying cash to get a discount), I still can’t help but adopt an attitude of disgust and disdain when I hand over my money. $20 doesn’t fill the tank anymore, and my car and my soul feel a little empty.

But there’s at least one person who hasn’t had to experience the humiliation of the fill-up more than once this summer. Meet Danni Brancaccio, a college student 20 years of age who has pledged to get through this summer using only one tank of gas.

Her shiny blue-green 1997 Honda Civic gas tank holds 11.9 gallons, and she is sipping that liquid as slowly as she can. The Vancouver, Washington native rides a bike 1.5 miles every morning to her nearby park-n-ride, then takes the bus to her law-clerk job 16 miles away in Portland, OR. Sometimes she catches a ride with her mom, but only if her Mom is going that way.

Her “one-tank-or-bust” idea is resonating with the media, and she’s been featured on ABC and CNN, where she represents herself with intelligence and humor. According to her CNN spot, the benefits of her experiment are not only publicity and money savings — she’s also lost five pounds.

And, it seems like she is walking and riding her way to success. With only a few weeks left in her summer, she’s still got a 1/4 tank left.

I find this kind of effort deeply inspirational, but I still don’t think it’s going to get me on an LA bus. Last time I took the bus, when I first got here 18 years ago, it stopped suddenly in the worst part of town, and the driver then demanded we all get off and wait for another bus, which took another 45 minutes to show. So I’m afraid I’m not the world’s best bus advocate. But hey — I’m only 30 miles from the beach — maybe I can ride my bike, or catch a ride from my mom.

Read Danni’s blog here.

With the way things are going, children who are born today will probably grow up associating “green” with the environmental movement more so than with the Crayola colour required for frogs and trees. Gone are the days when ‘The environment’ was a single chapter covered in a science textbook. In classrooms around the world, millions of teachers are doing their part to educate young people on the importance of caring for the earth. This is also true in the ESL world, where students come in all ages. According to About.com over 1 billion of the world’s people are currently learning English. Students taking preparatory exams such as the TOEIC and TOEFL will now find that the environment is a topic commonly covered in reading and listening sections.

Millions of ESL learners rely on online resources. One of the most popular FREE e-learning sites for ESL learners and teachers is English Club.com. This month English Club launched a section for learners who are interested in environmental issues.

Each English Club environment lesson includes a pre-reading vocabulary list, an English article on a current environmental issue, comprehension questions, and discussion topics. Readings range in difficulty from low-intermediate to advanced. English Club members may also enjoy the Our Planet forum. These resources can also be used by teachers in the ESL or young learners classroom (print them or use them in a computer lab setting). If you have an ESL learner or teacher in your circle of friends, please share the good news.

MORE GREEN RESOURCES for ESL TEACHERS
eslflow.com
breakingnewsenglish.com
ITESLJ.org
esltower.com

With the way things are going, children who are born today will probably grow up associating “green” with the environmental movement more so than with the Crayola colour required for frogs and trees. Gone are the days when ‘The environment’ was a single chapter covered in a science textbook. In classrooms around the world, millions of teachers are doing their part to educate young people on the importance of caring for the earth. This is also true in the ESL world, where students come in all ages. According to About.com over 1 billion of the world’s people are currently learning English. Students taking preparatory exams such as the TOEIC and TOEFL will now find that the environment is a topic commonly covered in reading and listening sections.

Millions of ESL learners rely on online resources. One of the most popular FREE e-learning sites for ESL learners and teachers is English Club.com. This month English Club launched a section for learners who are interested in environmental issues.

Each English Club environment lesson includes a pre-reading vocabulary list, an English article on a current environmental issue, comprehension questions, and discussion topics. Readings range in difficulty from low-intermediate to advanced. English Club members may also enjoy the Our Planet forum. These resources can also be used by teachers in the ESL or young learners classroom (print them or use them in a computer lab setting). If you have an ESL learner or teacher in your circle of friends, please share the good news.

MORE GREEN RESOURCES for ESL TEACHERS
eslflow.com
breakingnewsenglish.com
ITESLJ.org
esltower.com

The European Commission has delayed a vital vote on protecting forests from illegal logging till September. Greenpeace want to make sure the commissioners don’t forget about it during their summer holiday. They need you to help them make an extra impression before the September vote.

We all love the forests, and we would like to showcase all that love to the EU (and we know for a fact that the EU doesn’t have anything against some loving). The forests already have made an effort themselves!

Here is your mission:

• Take pictures and/or videos of yourself and your friends spreading the love in a forest.
• Submit your pictures in the flickr group or post your video as an answer to ours.
• Sign the petition

Greenpeace will use these photos to make a collaborative video that they will show the European Commission in September.

I missed the actual Earth Hour this year. Earth Hour, as you probably know, was started in 2007 in Sydney Australia as an experiment to see how much electricity could be saved if everyone in the city was asked to cut down or eliminate their electrical usage for one hour. (See the before and after photos to the right.) The idea was to raise a little awareness of our individual and collective use of energy. This year, on the last Saturday in March, dozens of cities around the globe participated. It was a raging success, by all accounts.

Of course there are skeptics who note that cities like Sydney really only cut their power consumption for the hour by 15%, and that there was a corresponding spike in electricity demand in the hours before Earth Hour — as if everyone just decided to run their dishwasher early in order to avoid the designated hour. Even given these cranky naysayers, I do believe that the experiment is a good one, even if it’s just to make everyone a little more aware of how they use electricity in their own house.

So, since I missed Earth Hour, I decided to try my own. I even thought I might make it a monthly event, as suggested by talkgreen’s Tara Benwell.

We tried it this past Thursday night. I made sure to schedule it on a night when my 14-year-old stepson was with us, and also made sure it was after dark for full effect. I thought the stepson would hate the idea, but when we decided we would turn off everything and then play a board game, he was surprisingly into it. Even better, he chose the game “Clue,” a murder mystery game, perfect for playing by candlelight. It just so happened that my mother-in-law was also with us, so it was a big family affair.

As the appointed time approached, everyone actually seemed to be looking forward to it. “Is it time yet?” I was asked more than once. When the hour arrived, we all rushed madly around the house turning off lights and unplugging televisions. I thought I had explained that only things that can’t be shut off (like TVs that constantly draw power) need to be unplugged, but I guess I wasn’t very clear since my wife and her son went around happily unplugging everything.

Here’s the “lazy man” part: we wimped out a little, I’m ashamed to say, when it came to things that were a little more difficult. If I unplugged the yard’s sprinkler system, I explained to my wife, I will just have to reprogram it — a pain in the neck. So we left it on. And, we could not figure out to shut off the little digital clock in the oven — wired in the wall somewhere. But still: when we started the hour, the little wheel in our electrical usage meter was spinning madly, and when we were done it had slowed to a crawl. We felt pretty good.

The rest of the hour was spent playing “Clue” as Lincoln would have, by the light of several candles. This was probably the first activity that the four of us — me, my wife, her Mom, and my stepson — had participated in together for months. So, dear readers, you don’t even have to care about the environment: Earth Hour is good for family togetherness!

Now one other thing I must admit: we didn’t even make it to the full hour. I had promised to take everyone out for ice cream when the hour was done, as a reward, and the second game of “Clue” ended with five minutes left to go in the hour. We all looked at each other, then jumped up and headed for Baskin-Robbins. Yay!

Tune in next month, in which I commit to turning off the electric sprinkler system, even if it means I then have to reprogram it. I really want to see if we can get that spinning electric meter wheel to stop entirely.