[THO] Paved Paradise

I have that old Joni Mitchell song playing in my head ever since reading about the ways we are destroying our last fresh water supplies. Probably a good thing, I need to have reminders like this to remember that warm water pouring over my head in the shower comes at a greater cost then the pittance we pay for it represents. Yet, let's be certain that the major players in water waste has to be industry, especially the agricultural industry.

Yeah, I've been reading Blue Gold (Maude Barlow & Toni Clark) in preparation for a paper I'm doing on the ethics of bottled water. It is so easy to ignore the basic facts of our situation. We simply don't want to think about it. Like Joni says, "you don't know what you've got til its gone." This makes me both sad and angry, especially at my complicity in this whole mess.

Studies have shown that simply by laying down pavement we are depleting the total sum of available fresh water on our planet. Water is not able to trickle down into the aquifers, instead we redirect it into rivers which take it out to sea where it becomes salinated, usable only at great energy cost which compounds the problems. Energy use is implicated in the overall warming of our planet which is decimating the great polar caps and glaciers at an alarming rate. For those who think the water levels won't rise, remember much of this mass of ice is over land (Greenland for instance) and will affect the sea level - don't take my word ask a Vanuatian. Sea water also intrudes on the sea coast aquifers we are draining faster than nature can replenish, this is a big problem because we absolutely need fresh water to survive.

So as I dried off from my costly shower, I made myself a coffee and came down to type this up on a computer (the IT industry is very water wasteful) and remember that my body is mostly made up of water! Something to think about.

[LIF] Eco Tip #1

One of the things that has been frustrating has been finding eco-friendly alternatives for products we use frequently in our home. We are a busy family and it so unfortunately we rely on things like our dishwasher and our vehicle. I posted a while back that we managed to lease a VUE hybrid, and although it is probably the worst of the hybrids, it is better than nothing. Next time we are hoping the plug-in hybrids will be out!

On the cleaning product front we had found one product we really liked and then it was discontinued in Canada. Imagine how frustrating that is. It was a People Against Dirty product, not sure why Shoppers kept their spray products and dropped the dishwasher soap, but they did in Ontario at least. Sharon works for Shoppers and still couldn't get it. The problem with a lot of eco-friendly stuff is that it just does not work as well. It isn't like we can use extra elbow grease in the dishwasher, so I am ecstatic to tell you about our find!

Seventh Generation makes a dishwasher detergent that is non-toxic, chlorine and phosphate free, not tested on animals, free of perfumes and dyes, and get this - it works! In fact it is probably one to the best dishwasher detergents I've used!

We picked it up at Rainbow Foods, it is a bit more expensive than your typical dishwasher detergent, but personally I think having a home planet is worth more than the added cost!

BTW if you have found other really good solutions for the toxic products we keep putting into our drinking water, please let us know.

[THO] Good News on the Activist Front

Sometimes the state of our world can be pretty overwhelming. Illegal armed conflicts (yeah I'm talking to you G W Bush), ecological ruin, HIV/AID pandemic, oppressive systemic poverty, a culture that has sacrificed morals on the altar of Capitalism, so much in this world just makes you want to throw up your arms and quit. Once one gets past the initial shock a realistic view of the world affords, there comes a second realization: either we find some hope or we plug our ears and hope this is all just a bad dream. As a Christian, I believe hope is the order of the day. So I try to do my part. We replaced our van with a fuel efficient hybrid, we have been trying to eat locally, including buying local, organic meat. We have been ridding our selves of some of the nastier plastics, especially the ones we place our food and drink into. We don't drink bottled water. We have been opting not to use grocery bags (I always have a bin or two in the trunk) and I insist on ceremac cups for coffee - I've walked away from places that do not provide a reusable option.

But the other thing that I've gotten excited about is writing companies and the government on issues that I take seriously. I recently received a very encouraging response from the Environment Minister, John Baird, which echoes my concern over cluster bombs, now if we could only get him to be as concerned about the environment! Also a very quick response from Petro-Canada that since April 2004 none of their gasolines contain the neurotoxin MMT. I know where I am buying my gas from now on. All this reinforces my hope that even a single voice, like my own, can make a difference. For those that don't know MMT is used to increase the octane of gasoline and is one of the cheapest alternatives for that process - and the Canadian government was sued by big corporations whey they tried to ban it! We paid out something like $16million (tax payers dollars) to the companies we inconvenienced by telling them not to f^%& up our brains with toxins! MMT gets into our water and our air and causes Parkinson's like symptoms! I have been fuming ever since I heard that my taxes went to pay this fine. At least I know there is an alternative. The best I have been able to determine there is a bill to ban MMT going through the house - you better believe I will travel to protest if big corporations try to sue us over that one.

The state of our world should make us angry. Angry enough to do something about it. And our hope comes from a conviction that God works with us to make change happen. God longs for the liberation of all of creation. God cares about the world we leave our children. God is with us in the project of saving the world. That gives me great hope. The only throwing up of my arms will be to worship such a great and wonderful Saviour!

[THO] EcoFraud

I keep finding myself more and more upset with our present government in Canada. Of course my current readings aren't helping! This semester I'm doing two courses in Ethics, one is a history of ethics and the other is more of a liberationist course on ethics and economy in a globalized world. Personally I find much of what happens in classic moral philosophy (ethics) becomes so focused on a particular ideology (deontology, teleology, etc.) that it is unable to cope adequately with the complexity of life. But that is to be expected from my background in liberation theology.

What kills me is that we continually work for solutions that are potentially worse than the problems! Take the new light bulb plan of the Harpur government. I haven't found any of these new light bulbs that do not contain mercury. Mercury is nasty shit! So how about one of these lights breaking in your kids room? It happens. Plus they might last a long time, but what do we do with burnt out mercury filled lights? I agree that we need to cut our power consumption, in fact I am planning on doing all I can to ensure we cut our usage at least by 10% this summer. But we have to step back and really think through the problems. That is where the liberation theology methodology really helps.

An easy way to understand LT methodology is with the slogan: see - judge - act. But this is not to be mistaken with an immediate response to a percieved need. LT is self-critical of its own responses. The problem with shortsighted responses is that they come back to bite us in the future - like those mercury filled bulbs! See is the most important part of this, you need to understand, really understand what is going on, what are the implications and who stands where in the situation. Obviously the government has a lot of balls to keep balanced in the air. I appreciate that, and that is why we elect a government. But we also expect them to think it through. It isn't about trying to make the least amount of voters pissed so you can get re-elected. It is about doing what it right for Canada and the world. Harpur and his Conservatives fail on both accounts.

LT methodology also adds another component. There is no LT without action, and we realize that actions sometimes create different injustices. That is why the cycle starts again and again. I wish our government would be more self-critical than trying to tread water until the poles seem to be in their favour. I really want a government that is willing to do what is right instead of what they can get away with.

I offer you the site EcoFraud, the Suzuki video alone is worth the browse.

[LIF] Plastic Nightmare

Recently we have been concerned about the amount of plastics in our diet. Rather the amount of and types of plastics that we surround our selves with, especially our food! There was a scary article in the Globe and Mail (Saturday, April 7, p.10-11) on the leeching of bisphenol A (BPA), a synthetic esterogen, into food and drink that is stored in it. The main culprit is primarily #7 plastics, there are exceptions in the #7 world but there is no easy way to determine that. BPA is a hormone so it doesn't behanve like other toxins where you need quantity to kill, hormones are best active at miniscule doses when they don't overwhelm the receptors in your body. They have been linked to breast cancer, prostate cancer, early signs of puberty, declined testicular testosterone and damaged eggs.

We decided to rid ourselves of this pesky plastic and do some more research. Well, almost anything hard and clear is a #7, including the big water jug that we use as a reservoir for our Britta water cooler! That sucks, because you don't want to get me going on the evils of bottled water. Our kids cried when we told them we were no longer going to be using the cooler, they were equally upset when some of their favourite bowls and cups were also culled from the shelf. We are phasing out all the plastics on our shelves because of what our further research revealed.

Turns out #1, #3 and #6 plastics are also all bad! That included the bottle our organic ketchup comes in, other soft plastic containers and the fleece blankets our daughters sleep with every night!!! It is completely overwhelming. I realized through our children's tears that the reason we continue in this madness is that we have immersed ourselves in plastic, become so dependant on it, that we can't face that it is slowly killing us as a species.

While not all plastics are bad, and it is really hard to tell the difference right now. It is also almost impossible to imagine life without plastics. A lot of the convenience foods we eat (even canned food sits in a plastic barrier waiting for consumption) are housed in plastic of some sort. We are finding out how expensive it is to replace our containers with glass and stainless steel. But for me the health of my kids is worth it.

The most bizarre thing about this is that BPA is part of the hardening agency in these plastics, creating strong plastics that don't transfer any plastic taste to the products (those 'nice' Nalgene bottles are #7 for this reason). So we don't taste what is killing us. The Romans did a similar thing by transferring water through lead pipes, it might have been delicious but that doesn't mean it isn't deadly! Just a little food for though.