Grocery Shopping Like a Champ

Today, Saturday October 24th is the first annual “International Day of Climate Action”, organized by 350.org, an activist organization with the goal of cutting atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions to below 350 ppm (the current level is 389 ppm of CO2). There are more than 3000 events happening around the world in 160 countries.

In recognition of International Day of Climate Action, I would like to share a product that has proved incredibly convenient for grocery shopping since I purchased it earlier this year.

In the photo above you can see the basket I bring with me when I do my grocery shopping. The “Basket On-The-Go” is produced by planetforward.ca and can hold just under 50 lbs of groceries.

It’s great for those heavy canned items that can put wear on your typical reusable shopping bag and provides a soft grip handle for comfort. It can help you transport your groceries from the store to your home, or you can use it while you are walking the aisles in the store.

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Diesel Trains Are NOT the Answer

The downtown Toronto City Centre Airport has been a political hot potato for many years. Airport expansion advocates were pushing for a bridge to the Toronto City Centre airport that current Mayor David Miller quashed when he was first elected in 2003.

Environmentalists and local residents often refer to noise and air pollution as the primary reason for disapproval of the airport’s existence in this seemingly never-ending battle.

As someone who cares deeply about the current state of our world and the impact we have on the environment, the island airport has been a source of contradicting feelings for me. Here’s why:

Toronto’s main airport – Pearson International – serves more than 32 million passengers a year (more than 87,000 per day). Thousands of people each day drive or take taxis to Pearson airport – many of which originate from downtown Toronto, 25 kilometres away.

Is it such a bad thing to potentially take hundreds or thousands of cars off our roads by offering flights from the downtown airport? Hundreds of thousands of people live within 30 minutes walking distance from the downtown airport.

Shouldn’t we be encouraging people to commute a few kilometres to a downtown airport rather than driving or taking a taxi 25 kilometres to Pearson airport?

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Shawano Vying to be America’s First LEED Gold Certified Elementary School

All photos courtesy of @somervilleinc  / Twitter

As we approach the holiday season when people are more inclined to over-consume, we should take a moment to reflect on how sustainable our lifestyles are (or aren’t). More importantly, we should consider the example we’re setting for our children – the future leaders who will be responsible for cleaning up the mess we’ve left behind.

Is it in our children’s best interest for us to teach them that an over-consuming lifestyle is acceptable?

Well I came across a great example of something they are doing in Wisconsin that teaches our children a more sustainable way of living.

The new Shawano Elementary School is under construction and they are seeking to achieve the LEED Gold status – the first elementary school in the United States to do so.

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Living a Comfortable Urban Life Sans Automobile

All photos by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country 

In 2006 there were around 250 million automobiles in the United States. That is an average of about one car for every 1.2 people. Worldwide there were 590 million cars in 2002, or an average of about 1 car for every 10 people. As the economies in heavily populated countries such as India and China grow, that number will continue to increase.

Cars are simply not a sustainable method of transportation for a world with close to 7 billion people. Cars create pollution, consume vast amounts of the earth’s resources to build and operate, take up enormous (and valuable) space, and they encourage unsustainable suburban lifestyles where people travel hundreds of kilometres to work.

But cars aren’t going anywhere – they are here to stay.

The solution isn’t to eliminate cars completely – they will always have a purpose. The solution is to minimize car usage by providing alternate means of transportation that is so appealing that people can’t resist.

Many people in car-centric North America think that electrifying automobiles is the solution – but this is only a small first step and fails as a sustainable option until we eliminate coal-burning and nuclear power plants – and instead produce energy from 100% renewable sources. Not to mention there simply isn’t enough space to support everyone in the world owning a car.

For over 7 years now I have been trialing other methods of transportation as an alternative to the automobile. I’ve tried motorcycling, rollerblading, commuter trains, public transit, walking, and cycling.

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KFC’s 60 Million Buckets of Waste

Photo ‘KFC, Paris’ by sophiexphotography / Flickr 

KFC’s recent marketing campaign highlights a significant issue in our fast-food society: unnecessary waste.

The latest commercial starts out with a black man with a white background holding a bucket of chicken where he nods to the camera and gleefully declares, “I’m in”. More people quickly join this man while holding their own buckets of chicken, stating: “We’re in too”, and “I’m a part of it” - as if eating at KFC is akin to belonging to some sort of secret society.

A few seconds later there are dozens, then thousands, then millions of people lined up to declare their own affiliation with the secret KFC society.

The purpose of this commercial is to highlight the fact that more than 60 million people have eaten the all new Kentucky “grilled” chicken that KFC launched back in April 2009 when health-conscious Americans finally generated enough demand for KFC to offer a health(ier) alternative to deep fried chicken.

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Cyclists Paving the Way for Ungrateful Drivers

Photo by earcos / Flickr

Sitting at a red light, a car driver yells out his window “Excuse me, is this the bicycle lane?”. The cyclist passively shrugs and slowly rolls his bike closer to the curb. The light turns green and the driver stomps on the gas pedal flying past the cyclist with less than a foot in between.

Many drivers feel that cyclists have no right to use the roads because drivers pay for the roads through fuel taxes and license fees. This couldn’t be further from the truth and reminds me of a modern-era tobacco industry-like outright fabrication.

Last week a National Post bigot columnist wrote a grossly ignorant and irresponsible article suggesting that cyclists should be licensed and taxed.

“But bike riders pay nothing, even though the cost of urban bicycle infrastructure, operating risks and potential liabilities are mounting. Bikers are getting a free ride that all non-bikers are paying for.”

I find it extremely sad that a journalist working for a national newspaper with 200,000+ daily circulation would make such a claim. At best it’s sheer ignorance; at worst it’s a contrived lie - both leaving Terence Corcoran absent of any sort of journalistic conduct.

The truth is, cyclists pay more than their fair share for roads. In fact, in many cases cyclists are actually subsidizing the cost of roads for drivers. Imagine that Terence, cyclists are subsidizing the cost of the roads for you – not to mention cyclists take up less space, reduce gridlock and don’t pollute.

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Social Change: the Forgotten Contributor

Photo by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country 

A recent ABC News article claims that the financial crisis has driven down global carbon emissions, leading to the largest fall in emissions in more than 30 years.

Although this article concedes that carbon trading schemes – such as those implemented within the European Union - are likely a contributing factor to reducing emissions, it fails to acknowledge one of the most important and effective aspects of the environmental movement: social change.

Fair enough, I mean, a massive change in society’s concern for mother nature is not something that can be easily quantified. But it is irresponsible to fail to even mention this important phenomenon.

I agree with the assessment in this article that a rise in emissions correlates strongly to a rise in the economy or the wealth of a nation. People consume (and waste) more when they have more disposable income. But a decline in emissions doesn’t have to only be caused by a declining economy.

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Recycling That Delivers...er...Takes Away

Photo by kino-eye / Flickr

Living as I do in a high-rise apartment, I've often been disappointed by the fact that my recycling options have been limited. For example, composting my organic waste is simply not viable since I don't have a garden, there is no green bin collection scheduled in my area, and I doubt that the users of my local city park would appreciate me spreading a bunch of partly-decomposed garbage throughout the trails.

So this last weekend, I was elated when the city made a municipal recycling program available to my apartment complex - the ElectroVan and HazMobile.

In spite of being named like a pair of ludicrous Marvel-franchise superheroes, the goal of these programs is to extend hazardous household waste and technology-recycling to multi-family dwellings.

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