Happy Earth Day

How are you celebrating Earth Day 2010?

I decided to end my illicit affair with Roll Up the Rim coffee cups and started the day with my new ReThink re-usable mug. I also made a point to get out for a walk at lunchtime, taking in the sweet spring air and did a little bit of geocaching as well.

Tonight, I will be out walking the dog and thinking about what is next in my plans to lower my own footprint in the coming weeks! Stay tuned!

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Building a Bat House

Have you got bats in your belfry? Do you want some?

It's hard to believe that mosquito season is nearly upon us. This year, I plan to combat the pesky varmints in a natural way: by attracting bats!

Everything you need to know is at the website for Bat Conservation International. I'll report on my progress when I get to building my first bat house, but here's what attracted me to the project:

• Bat Houses work best when built from recycled wood... well weathered old barn wood is best
• Bats are natural insect killers. This makes camping time more enjoyable with less reliance on bug spray and insecticide.
• Habitat for bats is under pressure by human activity. Building them a bat house helps them too!

If you're not interested in building your own bat house, you can purchase one online or from a local craftsman. Kits and completed house are available in a lot of garden stores. Check yours!

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Recycling Your Stuff

Stuff is all around us and it's often this time of year - spring cleaning and the end of the school year - that we begin to notice just how quickly it accumulates. I thought I'd share three ideas for getting rid of your excess in a simple and environmentally-friendly way.

• Books just taking up space? Try Book Crossing to find them a new home or send them on an adventure! Simple print a label and find a good place to stash the book.
  
• Everything else? If it is something you no longer need but is still in good working order, help it find a new home through Freecycle. Find a local group and be sure to follow the rules. (Warning! Freecycle can generate a lot of incoming e-mail - you've been warned!)
  
• Are you in Halifax? Check out the Dump and Run at the beginning of May. It's Halifax's largest community yard sale!

 Do you have a unique or novel way of recycling your precious but unwanted items? Drop us a comment below!

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Energy Savings Tips by Dal Students

I wanted to post a link to this article in the Dal News, not because it contains any really new information for Lower Footprint readers, but because this class was one of my first opportunities to learn and act in a green way.

Unlike these students who are able to spread their message through the vast internet, my project was presented in class to Dr. Martin Willison circa 1995. Our project, titled, "So You Wanna Compost?", highlighted the benefits of a backyard composter for a city that wouldn't see green bins for another few years. We distributed our little brown brochures at the local grocery store.

I'm glad to see that students are still getting to do this kind of project in their Nature Conservation course!

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Canadian Feds End Home Energy Retrofit Program

Unfortunately, this wasn't PM Harper's idea of an April Fool's day joke: On Thursday it was announced that the Federal Home Energy Retrofit program has been suspended. Over the last three years, home owners who submitted to an energy audit and completed the necessary changes could earn up to $5000 in rebates and credits. Reports suggest that this is a money saving move as the program was three times more popular than initially expected. This suspension means the program ended about a year earlier than scheduled.

I could be the first to cry sour grapes as I did the initial audit but failed to complete the work in my 18-month window nor did I know I could have applied for an extension, but I still think the program was valuable enough to motivate a lot of people to move to a greener position. I fear though that people who would have counted on this rebate or could only afford to do upgrades when the rebates were available, will now be forced to wait or simply not do the upgrades. This results in wasted energy, higher costs, higher GHG emissions and more waste.

Bottomline: Bone head move. This program was an economic stimulus targeted specifically at smart, green renovations.

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Pants Harmful to the Environment

Those Scots had it right all along! In a report published today in the Journal of Climate Change, scientists found that climate change is dramatically slowed in the remote areas of Scotland where the kilt is still worn regularly instead of trousers.

"Accounting for all of the differences in terrain, prevailing weather patterns, and historic fossil fuel usage," reported lead climatologist, Dr. Clarence McLeod, "the only causal factor that remained was the lack of pants worn in the region." The scientists compared 42 different regions that shared many similar characteristics like latitude, altitude, and population density and found that the kilt-wearing areas (of which there were 2 in the study) had the lowest change in historic temperature in the last 200 years and the lowest production of GHG (green house gases).

Clearly, it was more than the wearer's loins that were being cooled in these areas. Further modelling will be done with this study's massive data set. Scientists hope to be able to determine whether kilt-wearing is powerful enough to reverse the effects of climate change. The potential for the mass adoption of the pleated garment in areas most at risk is being considered.

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Just Food: Where Locavores Get It Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly

I just finished reading James E. McWilliams' new book, "Just Food: Where Locavores Get It Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly." I have to say I'm still having a hard time deciding how much he's convinced me... On the surface, reading chapter headings and such, I was immediately struck by just how contrary McWilliams seemed to be to most of what I accept as green ideas. But a simple scan of the book would leave you with a very worrying impression: that he's anti-locavore (or 100-Mile Diet), that he's pro-GMO (genetically modified organisms or Frankenfood), and that he is anti-organic.

McWilliams' argument needs to be understood at the outset and he gives an excellent and rewarding summary near the end of the book. If we are accepting of the prediction that our planet's population will reach 9 or 10 billion people by 2050, then we are going to have to rethink our cherished "green" ideals in order to feed everyone - and he proposes a way to do that that is also green and sustainable.

First, while eating local is a grand idea, McWilliams points out the obvious: not everyone can eat local and the 100-mile diet necessarily means a lot of compromise depending where you live, whether for climate or for sheer population numbers. Imagine a large city like Phoenix, Arizona having to live off the Arizona desert. Applied on a large scale, locavores appear to be isolationists that fail to account for the need to feed the world's poorest and over-estimate the actual costs of transportation compared to the ecological damage done to grow locally at any cost (high pesticide or fertilizer use).

Second, McWilliams argues that organic farming is also a luxury afforded to those who live in appropriate areas. If organic farming were applied on a scale needed to feed the masses (instead of just the wealthy), then we might be sacrificing actual wilderness in order to have sufficient land to grow organic food which (McWilliams argues) has much lower output than traditionally grown food.

Third, Just Food takes an optimistic view of GMOs, with no apologies for the way they have been used in their early days. Whether we like it or not, most of the corn and soy we consume in North America has been GM for some time. McWilliams suggests that with proper testing, appropriate controls, the benefits of GMOs far outweigh the potential risks. For example, Bt infused corn already uses far less pesticide than its traditional counterpart. McWilliams believes that irrational fear is holding us back from embracing and steering GMOs in a sustainable, eco-friendly direction. Worse yet, we're allowing multi-national corporations make these decisions without us.

These are some of the green community's sacred cows and McWilliams is tearing them down with some strongly compelling arguments. Tomorrow, I'll tell you what he proposes as a remedy to our growing need for food and how it can be done in a safe and sustainable way.

Have you read Just Food yet? Let me know what you think! Is McWilliams a Green Good Guy or a Wolf in Sheep's Clothing? Weigh in!

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