I don't think I am the only one feeling a little guilty about (and extremely attached to) my cellphone. I use my cell as a home and business line and for making sure that I don't spend an hour waiting for a friend on a corner when they are on the opposite end of the street, the two of us collectively cursing each other's name.

Unfortunately there are a lot of hidden, and not so hidden, costs to cell phones. I have heard stories about cell towers changing birds' migratory patterns. I wondered at the environmental impacts of mining the resources needed for my handset. And it makes me sick thinking about the inequalities of how they are manufactured, often by grossly under-paid and over-worked young Chinese or Asia men and women who are roughly my age. Not to mention the unexplored (or hushed up) directs costs to my health.

With 2 billion cellphones being made every year, and we know that it will only increase with the growing market (news article), what kind of footprint are cellphones going to have on our planet?

I don't replace my cell phone unless it is on it's last legs and the battery only works for 5 minutes. Recently this was the case with the cellphone that I have had for the last 2.5 years, which has meant that I have spend a little time on the internet researching ways of recycling my old cellphone. I have come up with a couple interesting links and resources that I thought I would share.

Phones for Food: www.think-food.com/en/index.html
Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition: http://svtc.etoxics.org
Call2Recycle: www.rbrc.org

None of these programs or projects address the real problems with cellphones, but at least my old handset is doing less harm, and maybe even a little good, by not ending up in the landfill.

I grabbed this list somewhere off the website a couple weeks ago because it got me thinking about what the indicators would be of a community moving towards relocalization.

accountability indicators, alleviating hunger, alleviating poverty, alternative gifts, appropriate technology, barter networks, biodynamic agriculture, building civic skills, building community, car-free zones, character education, citizen participation, citizen peace building, co-housing, community banks, community development, community economics, community gardens, community good news networks, community journals, community land trusts, community membership agreements, community revitalization, community revolving loans, community self-awareness, community service work, community supported agriculture, community supported manufacturing, community visioning initiatives, consensus decision making, cottage industries, creative commons, cultural diversity, development assistance, disease control, eco-classifieds, ecological architecture, ecological footprint analysis, ecological tipping points, economic conversion, edible schoolyards, emergency humanitarian aid, emergency medical assistance, energy conservation, energy farms, fair trade, farmers markets, food co-ops, green living, green politics, green purchasing, green retrofitting, holistic health care, homesteading, identifying problems and solutions, inclusive decision-making processes, individual spiritual formation, inspiring role models, interfaith dialogue, interfaith peace building, intergenerational projects, local community points of entry, local currency, locally based food processing, locally grown organic food, low impact transport systems, medical assistance, meditation, mentoring, neighborhood revitalization, non-profit human service organizations, non-violent conflict resolution, oil depletion protocol, peace studies programs, permaculture, positive news, powerdown projects, preventative health care, questionnaire construction, recycling, renewable resources, right livelihood, right livelihood employment listings, rural renaissance, socially engaged spirituality, socially responsible investing, solutions journalism, spiritual discipline, spiritual diversity, sustainable health care, vegetarian nutrition, village design, village industries, violence prevention, voluntary simplicity, water conservation, win-win conflict resolution, world population awareness, yoga, zero waste

What is on your list?

Commuting in America III

This book looked like it could be a helpful reference book for those of you intrested and working on transportation issues. "Based on the latest census information available, it contains 155 figures, 79 tables, and some 100 “factlets” that tell the story of America’s commuting trends and patterns over the last ten years."

If you read it (or skim through it for the juicy parts), please tell me what you think.

Ever since I was a little girl, I have wanted a Volkswagen camper van. I. My parents had a beige one that we used to take on family camping trips in the summer.
the van wasn't very good on hills and we had to put my uncle in a lawn chair in the middle of the car when there weren’t enough seats for everyone, but there is something that appeals to me about traveling around and having everything you need with you.

But then I grew up. And developed a guilt complex about cars. I love my bike, but there is a part of me that still wants a van to take on weekend trips. So how do I reconcile my dual nature? My conflicting values? (Does this sound familiar?) I have decided to look into whether a Westfalia or VW Van have diesel engines and could be converted into a bio diesel van. Maybe I could install a solar panel on the top, so that I could collect energy for the evening. But the question remains: would this satisfy the energy karma gods?

My sister and I are getting ready for tonight's Critical Mass celebration. Bikers and bladers (and anyone else on people powered wheels) take to the streets and become traffic. This month is the biggest, craziest one of all: Halloween Critical Mass. There will be ghouls and goblins on bikes and zombies and fairies on roller blades.

If you haven't heard of Critical Mass events, there is an unofficial site, http://critical-mass.info, which features lots of information about Critical Mass events around the world. If there isn't one in your town or city, think about starting one. It is a positive way to encourage bike power.

To read more about tonight's event, visit this page on Dynamic Critical Mass Vancouver. And come join us, if you live in Vancouver.

I woke up this morning to a CBC reporter speaking with a representative of the World Wildlife Fund. It was too early and I was still not fully awake, so that I didn't catch the WWF representative's name, but I did wake up when I heard him talking about a report that the organization recently released. What woke me up was not that it was anything that I hadn't heard before: the poles are melting; we have lost 30% of our biodiversity in the last 30 years; half of the average North American foot print comes from carbon emissions; the average per capita North American footprint is 5 times what it should be and this current lifestyle cannot be sustained indefinitely.

What had me hopping in bed with excitment (if you can imagine that) was the WWF representative said as clear as day that in order to deal with these "unsustainable" levels of carbon emissions that we are producing, we need to cut back on our use of coal and oil based energy.

Maybe he didn't get into peak oil and the coming energy crisis, but CBC radio was giving air time to the concept of cutting back consumption of carbon-based energy. It is a step in the right direction.

I went looking online when I got to work. The report was called the Living Planet Report and I think the WWF representative was James P. Leape, Director General of WWF International. You can download the full report here: [PDF 3.08MB]

Edgar Tellez, a man from Ciudad del Carmen Campeche, Mexico, has produced these short videos on peak oil and the energy crisis. I don't speak Spanish, but there are many people that do, so I thought I would share. If you have any feedback, please send me an email.

Part 1: http://youtube.com/watch?v=yMTiKEUf61U

Part 2: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Y2BUoS9qvck

Part 3: http://youtube.com/watch?v=6g1nV1lDWDo

Part 4: http://youtube.com/watch?v=CPbixeOmvSc

Part 5: http://youtube.com/watch?v=q2CUNqcvw8E

Edgar also has a website: www.petroleoendeclinacion.blogspot.com.

Australia's version of 60 minutes did a story on Peak Oil interviewing industry experts and an MP that is heading up the charge in that country. You can watch the video or read the transcript here:

http://ninemsn.video.msn.com/v/en-au/v.htm?f=39&g=51f7654a-cb68-45ae-b574-0f70b187a985&p=aunews_au60minutes&t=m163

The video only plays in Internet Explorer. If it still doesn’t play well, click on the link in the list of different videos below the video screen.

I was thinking about this question last night after a dicussion that I had with Julian at the end of the day. It dawned on me that we don’t have a flagship group. We don’t believe in flagship groups.

We can give people examples of different things Local Groups are doing and are good at, but the point of the Relocalization Network is that there is no one right answer, no one exemplary group, because there are no definite answers to the challenges that we face as a global community. What works for one Local Group will not work for another Local Group. That being said there are a lot of things that will work for many groups, probably with a few small modifications. I could point to a Local Group that has well documented their activities to date (Relocalisation Works in the Burnett Inland ) or to a group that has successfully built their membership (Boulder Valley Relocalization) or to a group that has done some good assessments of their community needs (Willits Economic Localization) or a group that is working toward community-owned small-scale energy solutions (Addison County Relocalization Network) or a group that is doing good education and outreach (Livability Project) or a couple of groups that have done some good regional networking (in the Bay Area) or a potential group that has developed a Relocalization WIKI.

But we don't have a flagship group. We have 115+ Groups that are all working towards the same goals, but by different routes and, hopefully, sharing as many skills and tools along the way.

This is a very interested and useful multi-media presentation done by the Australian ABC on Peak Oil and its implications. It includes a documentary, an interactive world peak oil map, and expanded interviews with various global experts. The best part is that the documentary is broken into manageable 10-minute chapters so you can watch one piece and come back to it later.

Take a look at the site here: Four Corners.

This is an example of a pseudo public service announcement that is being aired in the Mid-west of America. I just can't believe it. Take a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sGKvDNdJNA&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ecei

 

It seems like a lot of people are excited about the Green Thumb Kids project in Nova Scotia, Canada. It is rare that people comment on other people's Group sites, so obviously there is a lot of interest in the project. Frances Oommen, who is running the project, had sent me an email because she had decided to move the project to a local blog space, because the kids might read something on relocalize.net that would scare them. I decided to post my response to her email, because the project had got me thinking about early education and the fate of the world.

"This is just a personal comment and not written because I am trying to ‘promote’ the Relocalization Network. It is more just something I have been thinking about.

It may be that these things will scare the kids (and their parents!), but I think it is important that as a society we start thinking about and talking about these issues. You are probably right: this website is not the way for your children to be introduced to this topic. But what we do need it a paradigm shift in the way society operates and thinks about itself. The first step is education, which I think can happen at an early age. So thank you for doing this very important and valuable work. I remember counting tree rings in an environment/conservation workshop in grade 4 and it left a lasting impression on me: I know that what you are doing can make a difference.

This is why I am very excited and supportive of the work you are doing with your children. That was the long and this is the short of it: I understand and I would be happy to set up a link on relocalize.net to your local site. But if there is a way to bring parents back to relocalize.net . . . education can happen at any age."

Visit the Green Thumb Kids website.

Shelby and I were talking this morning about the incredible response we have had to David Strongman and Janaia Donaldson's trips. I sent out the email announcing their trips just two days ago and the emails back have been overwhelmingly positive and encouraging. Everyone has been really excited about the projects and many have offered to host these practical strangers in their homes.

What struck me today is that Shelby and I are very lucky to be connected to this growing momentum. We get to see all of the positive work that people are doing, the inspiring email conversations that take place when Groups meet and people’s excitement about a successful meeting. I just wish that all this passion, energy and drive was open for everyone to see on the website, not just in the inboxes of our emails.

But how do we encourage this sharing? How do we encourage people to use the forums for discussions? How do we support Groups so that they can do the work they have set out to do in their communities? Is an active, user-friendly website even what people really need?

But I think that we are doing what we are doing for a reason. Of course, we are going to run into difficulties, challenges and broken formatting in blog posts, but looking at how many people already responded to David and Janaia’s trips and how many people have asked about and joined the Relocalization Network, we must be doing something right!

I heard about this report a couple years ago. It is amazing to know that these issues have been brought to the attention of world leaders, yet still nothing is done about it. But somehow I am just not surprised.

An Abrupt Climate Change Scenario and Its Implications for United States National Security
October 2003
By Peter Schwartz and Doug Randall

The conclusion of the report: "It is quite plausible that within a decade the evidence of an imminent abrupt climate shift may become clear and reliable. It is also possible that our models will better enable us to predict the consequences. In that event the United States will need to take urgent action to prevent and mitigate some of the most significant impacts. Diplomatic action will be needed to minimize the likelihood of conflict in the most impacted areas, especially in the Caribbean and Asia. However, large population movements in this scenario are inevitable. Learning how to manage those populations, border tensions that arise and the resulting refugees will be critical. New forms of security agreements dealing specifically with energy, food and water will also be needed. In short, while the US itself will be relatively better off and with more adaptive capacity, it will find itself in a world where Europe will be struggling internally, large number so refugees washing up on its shores and Asia in serious crisis over food and water. Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life."

This is an article I wrote a couple years ago while I was chairing the UBC Student Environment Centre.

For the original article click here.

Watch Yourself this Buy Nothing Day

By Sarah Smith

I heard about Buy Nothing Day a year ago at the first Student Environment Centre meeting I attended at UBC. I volunteered to help organise a Stuff Swap event to celebrate BND and my involvement with the project had a profound effect on the way I thought about my consumption practices.

The reasons behind Buy Nothing Day are complex. In its 13th year, BND is a global initiative. It is a day to not participate in the frenetic consumer-binge that has become central to our culture. But instead of tackling the enormous economic, social and political issues upon which BND is based, the first step to participating in Buy Nothing Day is to start thinking about your consumption patterns.

Last year I began asking myself some basic but important questions. What or whom am I supporting by buying my produce from Safeway? From Capers? Why do I feel the need to continually buy more for my apartment, car or closet? On what do I base my ideas of happiness? Being honest with myself as I answer these questions continues to be difficult.

We are socialised from infancy to be consumers. Marketing companies target young television audiences, as we see in the documentary “The Corporation,� to enter into a consumption relationship with the many products in our lives and the companies that produce them. When we are stressed, unhappy or bored we find comfort and meaning in spending money. When the happiness gained from the purchase of a new product wears off we are left with the same emptiness as before, which encourages us to continue this consumption pattern.

This type of ever-expanding consumption has a profound effect on our ecosystem. The earth and its natural resources are limited and yet we continue to destroy vast areas of land and ocean to feed this addiction. Infinite growth is impossible in a finite world.

I am not suggesting we stop consuming and run off to live in the hills. Instead of shopping this Friday the 26th, build meaningful relationships with people, smile at strangers, create community, go for a walk in the rain or learn a new skill. Stop. Observe. Question. Educate yourself. Buy Nothing Day does not have to be a radical overthrowing of the structure of society. Start by becoming an observer of how you engage with our consumerist society.

Come and join the Student Environment Centre and the Social Justice Centre celebrate BND this year with a Stuff Swap and other festivities. Outside the South SUB entrance on Friday November 26th from 10am-4pm. Bring well-loved quality items to swap for other useful or beautiful things.

Digging for love, money, fame and sex appeal

By Bryan Zandberg
Published: May 19, 2006

For Wally Satzewich, the kick of urban gardening is making fat money and sticking it to the Man. Thing is, he's doing it growing leafy greens in people's back yards.

He's one of many urbanites who like to get dirty. Which is ironic, because for generations, waves of migrants left the ragged toil of the country behind to slip into the tidy cubicles of the Information Age. And yet city slickers of all stripes are now down in the soil, sowing veggies like their country forebears did. Besides some kind of West Coast leguminous nirvana, you have to ask what compels them. In Vancouver at least, it seems they're greening up the city for everything from money, to posh ingredients, to urban renewal, to muscle tone.

Satzewich's brand of urban gardening is called SPIN -- "small-plot intensive farming" -- and it means renting the back forty from residential homeowners, ploughing their lawns under and then turning tens of thousands of dollars in profits selling the high-end produce cultivated by hand.

Satzewich and his wife Gail Vandersteen have always been city dwellers who wanted to grow their own grub -- so they took what they imagined was the logical step of getting 20 acres of land about 40 minutes north of Saskatoon.

Leafy niche

But from day one, their dream withered on the vine. They couldn't afford the high start-up costs, and they couldn't compete with the industrial-scale operations around them. No sooner did their crops appear, than they were mauled by voracious deer and life-sucking bugs. The two were well on their way to becoming dirt farmers when they realized their little plots back in Saskatoon proper were faring surprisingly well. Their urban harvests were picked even before the farmer's market opened, which meant they could deliver the crispest produce.

So they started sowing niche-market crops -- spinach, radishes, lettuce, carrots -- in yards ranging from 500 to 3000 thousand square feet. After paying rents ranging from $100 to $200 per yard per summer, the two were able to make up to a few thousand dollars per plot. In their first year, Satzewich and Vandersteen stopped telling the homeowners just how much they were making off their property.

Money isn't the whole picture, though. In fact Satzewich labels himself and his wife as urban peasants who cook simple meals that suit their hectic summer schedule. A favourite is golden beets steamed with vinegar, eaten with a light sprinkle of olive oil. But the biggest perk for them is independence: since SPIN took off they've become their own bosses, doing precisely what they love to do.

Posh dirt

A perk for other urban gardeners, however, is providing gourmet fare that is grown, prepared and served in the same spot.

Clientele love the allure of having garnishes, entrées and desserts grown on location, says Shannon Wrightson. He's the new head chef at Vancouver's Fairmont Waterfront Hotel, and the new keeper of the hotel's legendary third-storey rooftop garden. "There's a personal connection to it," he explains in his Kiwi accent.

With the onset of warmer weather, Wrightson and his team of 35 chefs are sharpening their knives for this summer's haul of fresh herbs and vegetables. In addition to the old standby herbs (savory, sage, basil, oregano, lovage), Wrightson is adding rhubarb, Mission Hill grapevines, espalier apple trees, blueberries and strawberries. And edible decorations like nasturtiums, violas, irises, day lilies, marigold. Last but not least, there's a bevy of veggies. Wrightson says he's most looking forward to plucking plump, ripe tomatoes for making tomato tureen, a favourite dish.

Wrightson is more than a little chuffed to lead guests on a visit to the garden after dinner. "They like to know that the food didn't arrive in a truck from 300 miles away," he relates. "This is about as local as you can get, really."

Green guerrillas

Across the city, removed from the Fairmont's opulence, David Goodyke advocates a more plebeian approach to urban gardening. He argues that the best reason to garden in the city is pure recreation. But he gets his green-thumb kicks in ways some might consider transgressive. That's because Goodyke is the ringleader of a "guerrilla gardening" group, meaning he digs first and asks questions later.

But to see him in person is to banish the fiction of an agrarian radical. He's sporting smart, green-rimmed glasses and crisp slacks, and he espouses no manifesto other than a deep obsession with mucking about in the garden on weekends. Also, he's a professional landscape architect.

By all accounts, guerrilla gardening has been catching on across Vancouver in recent years. According to Goodyke, it's a direct response to how hard it is to get a plot in established community gardens, some of which have waiting lists of two years or even longer.

He met other people that were fed up with the hold-up, and they decided to lay claim to an unused strip of the old CPR line between Pine and Fir streets in Vancouver's Kitsilano neighbourhood.

"Everyone was a little hesitant to actually take that first step. But my wife and I went down there and just started digging," shrugs Goodyke. Other banditos sprang from their hideouts and followed suit; these days there are dozens of plots at the newly christened Pine Community Garden.

How did the city respond to this flagrant contravention of property law?

"They were pretty excited about it actually," says Goodyke. Under Vancouver's Food Policy Council, the Pine Community Garden (PCG) will likely become a permanent fixture in the area.

Surprisingly, Goodyke is indifferent about whether or not PCG does become permanent. He says he's "poured his heart" into creating many a garden during his student years, just to see each effort lost to weeds once he'd moved away. He says guerrilla gardeners only cry slicing onions; they understand the temporality of their efforts -- it comes with the (expropriated) territory.

Urban renewal

Others, however, see a potential for permanent social change. Urban agriculture is synonymous with urban renewal, to Jason O'Brien's mind. O'Brien is currently transforming a scrappy abandoned lot in Vancouver -- right behind the SkyTrain station at 11th and Broadway -- into a community garden. The project is called MOBY.

Balding, clad in a tight black muscle shirt, blue jeans and snakeskin boots is O'Brien's gardening colleague, Shawn Kelly. Kelly is candid about past addictions and says he's quit using ever since he chanced upon a sign recruiting volunteers for MOBY, whose moniker is a clever pot-shot at nimbyism and stands for "My Own Back Yard."

"It just makes me feel good, you know, it's a good workout," says Kelly, and flexes his pipes to make the point.

"It keeps me clean and sober. I know how good I feel when I leave here, and I know how bad I feel when I use. And I won't use because I want to show up and work here."

This is the 18th day in a row he's turned up, landscaping 18 truckloads of fill that will level the site for the dozens of planting beds arriving this month.

According to O'Brien, people of all ages have been turning out in droves for recent Saturday afternoon work bees. He points to a growing coterie of young, carbon- and earth-conscious Vancouverites who are excited about cultivating the city. Critical Mass Vancouver, for example, plans to do a nude harvest in September.

"Gardens are the new black!" he proclaims, laughing.

Still, he insists gardens build community. O'Brien lived in this area for six years without meeting many people, but through MOBY he's been socializing non-stop with newly discovered neighbours, whom he says have been drawn "just like gravity" to the project.

Nowadays, city councilors from places like Surrey are approaching him trying to find out how they can mimic his east-end yield. O'Brien says the recipe is simple: "If you walk into a neighbourhood that is nurturing, that's being nurtured, that's being respected, people have an inclination to respect it more as well." It's the broken window theory of community building.

Parsley, sage, rosemary and time

The various efforts in Vancouver are what make the city feature prominently on the international urban gardening stage, says Michael Levenston. "We're it: Vancouver, Canada," he argues. Levenston is the seasoned guru behind the local fixture City Farmer, and he's witnessed his life-long obsession go from the fringe to the mainstream since he started out in 1978.

"It's becoming fashionable, for all sorts of reasons," explains Levenston. "As long as people, in my view, stay real about the potential, and not go off [and think] that it's going to completely save the planet. It's only as real as you have the hours to put in to do it and make it work."

He illustrates his point with the story of Chinese immigrants who grew gardens of astounding density out in Burnaby at the end of the 70s. He says they were feeding a lot of markets and folk in Vancouver back then already.

"It's new and it's not new," he says.

Still, today's epicurean efforts of people who get off on the idea of growing their own chow are drawing a lot of attention from the international community. The UN, for example, is mighty interested in the practical applications of city farming because they look at it as a low-cost and viable way of dealing with a tidal wave of urbanization in poorer nations.

While he's thrilled to see urban farming take off, Levenston is content to engage in the central tenet of his horticultural credo at the local level.

"We celebrate the urban farmer. That's it," he concludes. "Get people excited about it and make it something that they want to do, and then you're going to get a committed city farmer or organic gardener."

This is the thesis of 28 years of food growing in the city? What about ploughing under every available inch of land, or turning a profit from people's back yards?

"We have met these [old Italian couples where] the wife stands on the porch and says 'Get me the radicchio!' and she makes up a fabulous lunch. And he's the producer; he'll do it from six in the morning and he'll do it till ten at night, [even though] he might be 79 years of age. And that's a real city farmer in Vancouver. It's been here from day one."

Bryan Zandberg was the features editor at The Ubyssey and is now a freelance writer based in Sechelt.

 

 

For those of you that are not familiar with Vancouver, BC, we have a great community garden project that runs along the old railroad track in Kitsilano. The City Farmer project (the website has a wealth of information about urban farming) has been in existence since 1978. It is one of my favorite places to walk in the spring and summer in the city. On weekend days the small land plots are spotted with community members bent over their crops or chatting with each other over the short wire fences that divide the plots, their hands dark with dirt.

My roommate, Maureen, and I are lucky enough to live two short blocks away from this urban agricultural haven. This year they have opened up a couple more plots further down the tracks and we were quick to claim one for ourselves.

Yesterday evening, after I got home from work, I slipped on my gum boots, grabbed my spade and other tools and headed down to my new bit of earth. It felt great to be digging in the ground again. It reminded me of my childhood garden: I could almost smell the sharpness of zucchini leaves and hear the crunch of baby carrots, fresh from the ground.

As I was digging, I was shocked to discover how much garbage was buried in my little plot. Over the next hour of turning the soil, I pulled out at least four bottles worth of glass, a couple plastics tubes (probably pieces from a car engine), several pieces of rusty wire, numerable bit of plastics and - this was the most unsettling of all – a half decomposed baby shoe! No baby though, thank goodness, although I did check.

The soil was otherwise quite healthy. There were several red ants’ nests, lots of worms, centipedes and other bugs and more spiders than I liked. But it got me thinking about the challenge of growing food in our urban centers. Imagine how much garbage is buried under all of our parkland, our concrete sidewalks and our boulevards. When we are faced with the prospects of growing our food locally – literally in our backyards – how much garbage are we going to dig up in the process? Dinosaur bones of a broken society.

Shelby and I have decided that we would like to increase our presence on the Relocalization Network, by posting regularly on our blogs, checking new forum posts and adding more of our own content.

 

I have never thought that I would enter into the world of blogging, because I always thought I needed something profound and insightful to say in order to post on the internet.  Well, if you are looking for something along those lines, you are out of luck - at least for now.

 

This week Shelby and I are working on writing the content for the new relocalize.net site and are developing a new and improved information package for new groups.  We also are in the process of creating a information package about the new voluntary membership fee program.