modern life vs. human nature

This is going to start happening more often as the bigger companies try to add less toxic materials to their supply chains. There are always going to be cheaters on the supply side because there are always greedy, careless business owners. However, H&M admitted the mistakes and are trying to correct them. Am I letting them off the hook? Not really. But I’m not going to trash them today.  You can read the full story at treehugger.com.

It is interesting to note that third party certification agencies EcoCert and Control Union were fined. Why is this interesting? I’m not sure because I just realized I won’t remember these names come purchase time anyway..or will I?

Oh and I chose this picture because India is the largest producer of organic cotton.

Enjoy.

I recently found this interesting tidbit about sustainable sushi while browsing the internet trying to figure out how I would eat fish again after hearing that farmed fish was not such a healthy alternative to wild fish.

However, I was not satisfied with the tiny bit of information that was provided in this clip. I wanted to know more and figured that others would too.  So then I found this little guide to sustainable sushi by the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

It gives you the straight up facts on the best choices, the best alternatives and the fish to avoid at all costs.

For example, it says quite point blank to avoid farmed salmon unless you like eating pesticides and PCBs. On the best choice board I found that I could still eat shrimp and prawn by the bucket load as long as it was from BC or Oregon.(sorry tiger shrimp but you are on the AVOID list.)

For a great in depth read on what fish are healthy and sustainable this is the guide.

enjoy.

**photo courtesy of Treehugger

With all the economic bad news that the media is ramming into our brains these days it’s nice to hear that people are actually doing something about it; changing.  Investors are now happily dumping money into renewable energy projects(solar, wind and geothermal) because they have realized that you don’t have to go to war, kill hundreds of thousands of people, ruin entire regions and destroy your country’s economy just to get enough energy to drive your fat ass a block to the 7-Eleven to get a slurpee.(a little harsh maybe but you get my point?)

This is a great article from the people at Treehugger about all the new projects being started in the United States. It gives me hope..though I’m wondering where Canada is in comparison?

**this is the prime minister of Canada with his best friend Oily.

Is Canada going to become the newest lameduck country to blame for destroying the environment?  Where are all the alternative energy projects in Canada, or are there any? It is sad to think that Canadians pride themselves on being smarter and healthier than their American cousins and yet we can’t even contain the stink that eminates from our backyard.  With Bush leaving soon the Prime Minister of Canada is going to start looking like a weasel among the chickens. After all, Stephen Harper has the foresight of a goat and this new president in the US is going to make him look like the “nerd turned evil power mongering money whore” that he is. (way too harsh I know!)

Ok, how do I end this on a positive note?

This last quote from the article was somehow inspiring and hopeful. Enjoy.

“this energy transition is being driven by an intense excitement from the realization that people are now tapping energy sources that can last as long as the earth itself. Oil wells go dry and coal seams run out, but for the first time since the industrial revolution we are investing in energy sources that can last forever. This is the legacy we can leave for future generations.”

ABC NEWS Photo

Yes, unbelievable to me too! China is taking the environment, or at least plastic bag pollution, seriously. The article in in Treehugger explains that the Chinese use over 3 billion bags every day!

The funniest part about the new law is that some people complained that it would hurt shop owners and consumers… but those people stopped complaining very quickly …or maybe they just disappeared? After all, in communism “there’s no saying NO to the State Council.”

Those of you wondering why we don’t have the same policies in Canada and the U.S. might want to ask yourselves how many of us would “whine and complain” about it being inconvenient. I am not calling all of us “spoiled consumers” but there are a good many that would feel it was “their right to have free plastic bags with their groceries.” I believe a good many of those people probably think it is also their right to own guns, smoke in public places and throw their trash in a local ditch.

Not to be too ridiculous, it is probably quite possible for us to pass a law that bans free plastic bags but it is not going to come from our government. In the case of Canada, Harper and the boys are too busy giving tax credits to the biggest polluters in the world, the companies pilfering the Alberta tar sands! No really they are..people in the US are even starting to complain about it and it’s ruining our good name as peacekeepers and outdoor enthusiasts.

Oops, there I go again being ridiculous?

CBC Report

Yes, it seems that the less educated are drinking more bottled water..well, it’s probably better than Coke!

On the other hand, the extra plastic bottles aren’t doing much for the environment.

So if you or any of your friends fall into the “stupid bottled water drinkers”(ha! sorry.) category then here’s some good information for you:

Tap water is safer! Why? According to this article tap water is tested every day and bottled water companies are tested every 3 years. WTF? That is a huge difference!

I wrote a letter to the BC premier after reading the article below.

Dear Premier Campbell,
I just recently read this article about mining companies turning some of Canada’s lakes into waste dumps and I am outraged.

The CBC article

For the future of all Canadians you, as a representative of the people must look into protecting our natural resources. Fresh water, fish and natural habitat are resources that should not be squandered for short time gain. The long term effects of disregarding the consequences of for profit business have got to stop because it is not sustainable for humans or for the planet.
What is the true cost of polluting these lakes to future generations?
We are responsible for leaving the world a better place than when we arrived.
Economics has to start considering the limited resource of our environment before it is uninhabitable.
I hope and expect that you have the courage and foresight to act in a truly progressive manner.

Thank you.

So as you can see I was a little upset. I like lakes.

That title almost sounds like a Radiohead song but unfortunately the tune is more catastrophic than harmonic. I just read an article in the LATimes about how much plastic garbage there is floating in the ocean.

To read the full article go here.

Here are some of the key points that I found completely incredible.

There are two huge floating areas of garbage in the Pacific two times the size of Texas.

They are not actually piles of garbage but sort of like water with a lot of garbage in it; 90% of which is plastic-”supple, durable materials such as polyethylene and polypropylene, Styrofoam, nylon and saran.

About four-fifths of marine trash comes from land, swept by wind or washed by rain off highways and city streets, down streams and rivers, and out to sea.

The amount of plastic in the oceans has risen sharply since the 1950s. Studies show a tenfold increase every decade in some places. Scientists expect the trend to continue, given the popularity of disposable plastic containers. The average American used 223 pounds of plastic in 2001. The plastics industry expects per-capita usage to increase to 326 pounds by the end of the decade.

The qualities that make plastics so useful are precisely what cause them to persist as trash.

Derived from petroleum, plastics eventually break down into carbon dioxide and water from exposure to heat and the sun’s ultraviolet rays.

On land, the process can take decades, even centuries. At sea, it takes even longer, said Anthony L. Andrady, a polymer chemist at the Research Triangle Institute in North Carolina who studies marine debris. Seawater keeps plastics cool while algae, barnacles and other marine growth block ultraviolet rays.

“Every little piece of plastic manufactured in the past 50 years that made it into the ocean is still out there somewhere,” Andrady said, “because there is no effective mechanism to break it down.”-LA TIMES

These last paragraphs were literally copied from the LA Times article so don’t sue-it’s just that the information just makes you go “Holy Shit!  I never realized that plastic doesn’t bio-degrade and that literally millions of tons of it is still floating in the ocean.(which means my Six Million Dollar Man™ doll that I had when I was eight is still out there either in a landfill or in the ocean swimming around with his bionic arms and legs.)

The craziest thing is that some “yachting guy” decided to take a short cut through one these garbage patches after a big race and spent a week sailing through garbage!  Yes, it took him seven days of sailing through garbage until he hit open ocean again! WTF!

I guess the story made me very aware of the plastic I use on a daily basis and so now I’m looking at ways to reduce plastic in my life; plastic made from corn is bio-degradable!

On a side note, we all know plastic comes from oil and so does gasoline. It seems like oil has given us a great many conveniences over the last fifty years but at the same time it’s the root of what is hurting our chances for survival on the planet. It’s too bad our parents didn’t have the foresight to see the consequences of their actions on future generations.  I hope we can.

The people at GroovyGreen.com have some interesting information about how the Chinese plan to use anti-aircraft missiles and artillery to shoot at clouds so it doesn’t rain during the Olympics.

Click here for more.

Well it seems that doing a search on a blacked out Google screen will save energy. Check out www.blackle.com.

Everyone is talking electric cars in the auto industry but no one is making one that is reliable and cost less than the $98,000 Tesla car.(as seen above) GM made a perfectly reliable electric car (EV1) awhile back and then destroyed every single one of them. Why? Well, no one really knows…but here’s a hint..electric cars don’t need gas and there are a whole lot of really, super, fantastically rich people in the U.S. and in the world that rely on gas sales (ie. oil) as their source of fantastic riches! Think about how much money you wouldn’t be “shelling” out if you owned an electric car. I might also add that you would be producing far less pollution and therefore putting a huge dent in your contribution to global warming and probably stopping a few wars! All in all, the electric car looks like a step in the right direction for a lot of reasons.

It looks like 2010 is going to be the year that most car companies plan to launch their mass market electric cars so you have some time to save your pennies. There is not enough room to discuss all of the cars being tested but I will come back to this issue time and again to give you my simplistic version of events.

For now, Wired Magazine has some good information on the subject.

Below is an electric car currently being tested by Subaru in New York City.