Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Small Steps Towards Big Change by Cassidy Thedorf

 I once heard a proverb, ³We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.²
How true this is. Many of us are realizing why we have to be kind to our planet, however we often aren¹t sure how to start.

 In today¹s marketplace, companies are realizing how important we as consumers consider the environment to be. As a result, we are bombarded with claims of various products being Œgreen¹, Œorganic¹, and so on.
In the wake of this sensory overload, how can a busy family endeavour to become more eco-friendly?

 This list suggests a few places where you can start.
 REDUCE

         Compost: It is estimated that 1/3 of our garbage is actually food waste.  Get the kids involved in a fun project ­ a backyard compost.
        Water: Can you reduce your water consumption by taking shorter showers? Can you wash your laundry in cold water, rather than hot?

REUSE
 -        Eliminate bottled water: Save yourself money by purchasing reusable water bottles and a filter. You¹ll do wonders for the environment.
 -         Paper towel: Use a rewashable cloth rather than paper towel. It is said that 7 million trees could be saved each year by using an alternative.

 RECYCLE

 -         Don¹t reach so quickly for that garbage: Can you go an entire day without throwing anything into the garbage? Check to see if it¹s recyclable. You may be tempted to clean out all the garbage in your car while you¹re filling up at the gas station. But how many of those items should actually go into recycling?
 -       Visit the Recycling Council of Ontario website for more information on recycling: https://www.rco.on.ca/ <https://www.rco.on.ca/>

 At times we feel that our efforts aren¹t enough. Perhaps the most impactful task we could undertake is to encourage others to participate in a Œgreen¹ way of living. Spread the good word!

by Heidi Andres

Its 2012 and a start of  a brand new year. Most of us have New Years resolutions and I am not any different.  I want to do everything I can in the upcoming year to ensure that I am doing all I can to improve things  for our environment. I have done many things over the years to do my part to contribute to a better environment. I know my impact is a drop in a bucket, but each of those drops add up. I want to decrease the amount of drops that I contribute to the bucket.  Overall I would like to increase my use of local and organic food products, grow a vegetable garden, and conserve more energy.

 I really believe it is important  for our environmentally sustainable future to support  local farmers and organic food production.  I want to make more of an effort to support local initiatives like organic and free range food production. From berry picking, maple syrup to poultry farms there is no end to the choices available to me in Simcoe county .  That’s why I believe Simcoe county is a perfect place for this type of resolution;  Here is a link the local organic farm directory if you would like to add this to your new years resolution. http://csafarms.ca/farms%20counties%20S-Z.htm. 

 I will grow my own vegetable garden, last year I didn’t as we were going to be away most of the summer. However this is no excuse, I have decided to invest in an automatic watering system to combat that.  My yard gets a lot of sunshine so I want to grow green peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, beans of a few different types and lettuce. Also I will plant a herb garden with basil, chives and thyme.  There is nothing quite as satisfying to me as eating perfectly ripened vegetables from the garden, using fresh herbs at dinner time or using tomatoes that were preserved  for spaghetti sauce in December. Growing a garden is hard work but it’s really worth it. There are so many positive aspects to gardening, and i believe it benefits the environment in so many ways. 

Energy conservation is one of the single biggest contributors to pollution in our environment. I already have a programmable thermostat, use shower instead of bath, installed energy efficient light bulbs, wash and dry only full loads of clothes and have computers configured to run in low energy mode when not in use. The one thing I have not done yet is install smart strips on all my electronic devices such as television and computer.  I will purchase at least two within the next month. Research shows the strip which essentially does not allow devices plugged into it to draw any power.  The vast majority of our devices,even as small as phone chargers will draw power as long as they are plugged in.  The Smart Strip prevents this and this results in energy and money savings.

Well I hope I can really stay true to all of my green resolutions in 2012 and I haven’t bit off more than I can chew.

What are your plans to be more green in 2012? Email them to us and I can post them on our blog. Include a photo of yourself if you would like it included. Or comment below on the comments section.

More…

What disturbs me most about nuclear power is that the waste produced by nuclear facilities will remain long after the company no longer makes money. Who then will pay to clean up the mess or at least store the waste?

Civilizations rise and fall, stability over time has not been proven historically. While nuclear power plant technology is based on the premise of stability. The principle that our societies will always be rich and able to pay for cleanup and waste storage is flawed.

Even in the midst of our prosperous society our nuclear plants leak, and accidents occur.

Further, when a facility melts down who pays for that? Although nuclear power companies always assure us that a meltdown will never occur this has already proven to be false. With more and more nuclear power plants being built will we really be able to pay the cost to use their power?

Nuclear power seems very shortsighted. I surmise if we had to pay the real cost for nuclear power it would not be cheap at all.

Heidi

More…

Whenever I want to get the message across to young people about the disastrous effects of plastic bags I always paint the following scenario to students.  I explain to them that if they   accept a plastic bag from a store and then carelessly let it blow away down the street that their flimsy plastic bag can cause the death of dolphins and turtles far away in the ocean.  Can you connect the dots?   More…

The Conservative Government vs. The Canadian Census

by Peter Bursztyn July 27th 2010

         Canada has been collective census data for at least a century. Moreover, Statistics Canada’s data (population, economic, health, environmental, etc) has won a reputation for excellence and timeliness. No other country publishes its data faster. No other country beats Statistics Canada for accuracy. More…

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Barrie’s Caribfest to be the greenest of all