Happy Earth Day fellow Earthlings!!!

Enjoy the outdoors today, give a tree a hug, and think about all the things we can do to make Mother Nature (and our offspring's offspring's offspring.....) happy!

Projecting Change Film Festival

April 22-25 2010, Fifth Avenue Cinemas in Vancouver will be home to Projecting Change, a film festival screening 22 Earth-friendly documentaries from around the world!

Opening night will feature "Carbon Nation", an optimistic look at climate change and what people are doing to slow it down (a fresh change from the more depressing docs on the topic). Directors and/or people directly involved with the films will be there to answer questions at the end of every screening.
My personal favourite speaker will be the always captivating David Suzuki!! He's speaking after the closing film, "Pirate for the Sea", about Paul Watson's campaigns against whaling, dolphin killing, and other similar sea-related issues.

Hope to see you there!

Vermicomposting...all the cool kids are doing it!

When I was a little kid, I used to love walking outside after a good rain storm and picking up the little worms that got soaked out of their homes and were residing on sidewalks to dry out. I thought I was helping them by putting them back on the grass so they wouldn't get stepped on, but later I realized that's exactly where they didn't want to be...oops! Sorry worms....

I've always liked these little creatures and appreciated their hard work in our soils! They help aerate the soils, they help break down biomatter and their waste is our compost! So not only can we appreciate worms in their natural habitats, but we can also put them to good work helping us break down our own biowaste!! Yay for worms!

Vermicomposting is the process of food waste breakdown by worms (and other microbial organisms) with the awesome byproduct of their munching on our food wastes as rich, nutrient-full compost! And the best thing is that we can do this indoors, right under our kitchen sinks! (or wherever you'd like to put your bin)

Here's how you can start your own vermicomposting factory:

1. Setting up your worm home (the bin)
I used a blue rubbermaid bin for my worm home. There are several ways of setting it up...I drilled air holes in the top of the rubbermaid's lid and some around the top of the bin itself (along the sides). This allowed for plenty of ventilation for my worms. Others choose to drill some holes on the bottom of the bin to allow for excess water to be drained - in this method you'd have to elevate the bin slightly and put a tray underneath. I didn't have a problem with moisture in my bin, but everyone's will turn out differently. So I would suggest trying it out for a few months without the holes on the bottom and if you develop a moisture problem (ie. too much moisture, which can drown the worms), drill some holes on the bottom.
It has also been suggested to glue plastic screening over the holes to prevent any bugs from getting out of your bin (click here for details on what kinds of other organisms might show up).

2. Worm comforts (the bedding)
Worms and their counterparts are most active when they're in a dark, damp and warm environment - temperatures ranging from 15-30C, so keeping them inside in the winter/fall is ideal (mine stay inside all year). Since their homes are so important to them, when starting off a vermi bin, the bedding is super important! And this is one of the things I like most about these little critters - they love carbon-rich materials, so bedding can be made from shredded newspaper, computer paper, pizza boxes, etc. Just make sure you don't add anything with too much colour and nothing waxy or plastic. To set up the bedding, shred your chosen material into strips if possible (this is super easy with newspaper). The bedding must be damp, but not soaking, so get a bucket and dump your shredded material in for a few seconds. Take it out and squeeze out excess water. Make sure the bedding is 8-10in deep in your bin, but don't pack it down - your composters need lots of air to breathe, so you want to make sure you're giving them a fluffy home with lots of airflow.

3. Getting worms
Typical vermicomposting worms are red wigglers, not earthworms. Red wigglers are typically found happily squirming around in manure piles, but you probably don't want to be looking through that for some happy composters! You can get these from friends' bins, from online vermicomposting stores, or check out your local grassroots green movement for workshops and supplies. In Vancouver, check out City Farmer for some more info. But all over the country little vermi stores are popping up so check it out online.

4. Feeding time!
What they like: fruit/veggie peels, egg shells, teabags, coffee, bread, pizza crusts, plate scraps
What they don't like: too much citrus, too much salt, meat/dairy products, fatty foods
It's important not to feed your worms too much, but not too little either...getting into the rhythm of things with your composting friends will take some time, so be patient! One of my friends decided to treat her worms by blending up her compost before adding it to her bin and they really seemed to like that! It helped them break down the food wastes quickly and kept her bin active...I just broke things up into small-ish pieces and that works well too. It's up to you!
In terms of how to feed them - it's best to do it in a pattern around the bin. If you're looking at it top down, start by burying the day's food waste in the top left corner. The next day bury it in the top centre, then the top right, then the bottom right, etc...this will keep the worms moving from food source to food source and make sure there isn't too much food in one section at a time. If you split the bin into 6 sections, you can feed the worms 6 days in a row, take a day off, and then start again. But you'll find your own rhythm.

5. Worm poo for the garden! (harvesting)
Harvesting is important because the worms can suffer living in their own poo without enough food/nutrients to keep them going. Once you start seeing lots of soil, keep an eye out for what's happening in the bin because you'll have to do some harvesting soon!
There are several ways you can harvest your worms:
i) Worms don't like light, so you can dump your bin on a table or on the floor (protect it with a plastic sheet/bag first) and shine a light onto the compost pile. The worms will naturally move towards the bottom and bury themselves to get away from the light. Once you've gotten most of the soil out, redo the bedding (in step 2), put your worms and remaining soil back in the bin and start all over!
ii) An easier way to go about this is to start separating the soil from the bedding once you start seeing soil appear - you can move it all to one side of the bin and add extra bedding to the other. When you feed, only feed on the bedding side and once all the food waste has been eated from the soil side, the worms will all move to the other side and you'll be able to harvest the soil fairly easily.

6. Now you're ready!!! Get composting! :)
There are tons of great resources online if you any have questions/problems - you can post them here as well. I hope you enjoy your little worm habitat and the wonderful rich compost you'll be making! It's easy, safe, and helps reduce waste going into our garbage dumps.
Have fun!

Change your fuel, change your future

I recently went to see the documentary "Fuel", and was very pleasantly surprised by the film's thorough depiction of our dependence on fossil fuels, and the possibilities of moving beyond. The documentary follows Josh Tickell on his journey to teach the world how we can move away from fossil fuels and embrace biofuels as one (of several) alternatives.

When Josh Tickell started his journey, he bought a diesel engine van, painted it with bright flowers, and called it the "Veggie Van"! To stay true to the name, he created his own little mobile biodiesel refinery, which he towed along behind his van on a 2 year tour of the continental US! He made his fuel by using waste frying oils from fast food restaurants around the country, and helped to make big changes.

Following his US tour, he started to see small biodiesel gas station pumps coming up around the country. But unfortunately the media got a hold of the movement, and crushed it with some strategic headlines defining the idea of biofuels as unethical due to the consumption of potential food sources. Despite the fact that biodiesel can easily be created from waste products, which is entirely sustainable and a great practice.

Josh did not allow himself to get too pushed down by this setback to his life's passion. Instead, he fought harder and in the end, he created this inspirational film and got the movement back on its feet.

There were some really interesting technologies he brought up in the film as well, including the production of biodiesel from algae! Algae, as a natural grouping of organisms, grows in moist, carbon dioxide-rich environments, expelling oxygen as a photosynthetic byproduct (like all plants). So some very ingenious individuals have begun making algae biodiesel plants adjacent to manufacturing plants that expel carbon dioxide as a major byproduct, using this CO2 as a food source for their algae growth...amazing!

At the end of the film, Josh explains how he believes we can break our addiction to fossil fuels, so we can lead more sustainable lives, and develop in a more sustainable manner. I think we're all fairly well-versed in the need to reduce the greenhouse gases we expel into the atmosphere on a daily basis, and reducing our fossil fuel usage can make a huge dent in this.

My plan is to explore this amazing new world that has opened up to me! I don't own a car, but if I ever decide to buy one, I'll be sure to make it a used diesel engine vehicle, and fill it with my own algae-based biodiesel!

Garbage dump where??

The largest garbage dump in the world is where?!?! I was surprised to hear about this when I found out a little while ago...surprised and saddened. This massive, 10 foot deep swirling mass of garbage is twice the size Texas, and is right in the middle of the Pacific Ocean! There are two "piles" of it, on either side of the Hawaiian Islands, extending almost all the way to Japan. This is monstrous! (Check out this article from treehugger.com)

Why do we insist on producing so much waste? In a technologically-advanced world where I can share a family dinner from 3000km away on a webcam and computer screen, why can't we learn to change the way we do things? Instead, we're choking the life out of the oceans, at least the Pacific, and creating more and more waste in the mean time...

Changes start from the bottom up - we can make them happen! As a great example, Swedish people decided that they wanted to go 100% off oil as an energy source by 2013, so their government put in the appropriate mandates and they're well on their way to achieving their goal.

We can make small changes at home, by talking to our local politicians, mayors, friends and family...voice your opinions! They matter.

Tap Water vs. Bottled Water - this is war!

What would we do without vital, nourishing, tasty water?! Why, we just wouldn't survive! I think most of us have a firm grasp of the importance and necessity of this most wonderful natural resource. When pointedly asked, I think most of us would even admit that water was more important than money...And yet we continue to pollute our precious lakes, rivers, oceans and groundwater sources - for the most part because of that little piece of paper we hold so near and dear to our hearts: the dollar (peso/euro/yen/pound/etc...).

The thing that gets me most riled up is the debate over bottled water and the fears around tap water. Bottled water is not just unhealthy, it is environmentally irresponsible, and a morally and ethically devoid corporate scam (which one could argue all corporate scams are - see the doc "The Corporation"), which so many of us fall victim to.

I won't go into it in too much detail...but there are several certainties:

1. Bottled water plants do not get checked for bacterial/parasites at nearly the same frequency as tap water. Most governments would like to avoid another "Walkerton" scandal and check tap water every day. Tests on a variety of companies offering bottled water have shown high concentrations of bacteria that would never be allowed in tap water. But they're making money, so it's ok.

2. The number of plastic bottles ending up in our sewer systems, rivers, lakes and oceans is astounding. But more so is the number of bottles that end up in our garbage dumps. Many people believe these bottles are recycled and returned onto their grocery store shelves with fresh, natural "spring" water all ready to be repurchased. This is false.

3. Most troubling to me is the unawareness of the ethical dilemma bottled water creates. Corporations are essentially privatizing water, which is a resource we are all privy to, and then selling it back to you thousands of times more expensive than you pay for it from your own tap. For instance, Nestle set up a bottled water plant in a small town in Michigan (Mecosta), choosing their aquifer as one fit for their bottled water product. Because water laws are so poorly defined, they were able to pump upwards of 400 gallons per minute of water from this aquifer, which the town used (wells) to supply their domestic water. A summer drought occurred, and Nestle continued pumping, running town people's wells dry, decreasing the stream and lake water levels significantly, and forced people to purchase their water from grocery stores. Nestle was taken to court over the matter and was ordered to stop pumping. However with an appeal led by a team of lawyers and lobbyists, they continued pumping and were awarded a pumping rate of 200 gallons per minute. The law wars continued with this little county against a massive multi-national corporation. As of July 2009, they were not able to make Nestle stop pumping, but were able to assure that the volume of water removed from beneath their feet was "minimal" (ie. 200 gallons per minute).

This is only one story close to home, but the horrors attributed to large corporations like Nestle and Coke are tremendous.

So enjoy your tap water! Take it with you in a steel water bottle and drink it all day long! :)

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Ancient forests in my living room table??

Slight simplification of the issue at hand, but the fact remains that the coverage of our ancient, old growth forests here in BC have decreased by 87% in the past few decades. That's a massive reduction! This is something the Ancient Forest Alliance is working on.
BC has some amazing, beautiful old growth forests, left untouched for centuries. Massive cedars, douglas firs, spruces - in fact, Vancouver Island is home to the largest douglas fir tree in the world! And it remains completely unprotected! (Click here for more details)

Our ancient forests, those that have been growing for centuries, creating niche habitats for flourishing flora and fauna (I like alliterations!), are vast ecosystems that can't be replaced by second growth forests, despite what logging companies might want us to believe. Some scientists from universities in BC a few years ago hoisted themselves up into the canopies of some of these ancient forests to find out what kinds of organisms were living there, and discovered (and are still discovering) new species that have never before been categorized! It's pretty amazing that in this day and age, we're still discovering new species. I hope we can continue to discover new species - while they're still alive and well, living among the birds high above the ground in our ancient forests.

There was an "Avatar"-themed rally on March 27th, and a guided hike through one of the forest trails on the island on the 28th. Critical mass can make a difference! Hopefully you were able to make it out...but if not, check out the beautiful forests we have, go for hikes, get informed and make a difference! :)

Hope is in the air!

I recently gave a talk I gave at Light House Sustainable Building Centre about strawbale and sustainable/net-zero energy building...I'm so pumped!! The room was full of animated, interested and environmentally-conscious individuals looking for knowledge and change! A sound bite of the talk can be heard here.
Some of the best discussion came from the questions: how do we proceed? and what is holding us back right now? Lots of great answers and ideas flew around the room...lack of understanding from contractors/building inspectors/engineers, a need for policy changes, the need for higher energy prices to make people re-evaluate...What do you think?

There's something almost magical about getting a room full of people together with similar values, discussing important issues that affect us all. Thanks to all who came - change is coming!