Day 121 of our Green Year: Catching Pollutants Before The Storm Sewer Does

When people see water going into a storm sewer, they usually think that the water that goes there makes its way to a treatment plant. Sadly, this is far from the case. Actually, water that goes into a storm sewer goes directly back into the ecosystem. This wouldn't be a problem, but with so many pollutants on the roads and in driveways, a lot of other pollutants are getting into the environment and the local ecosystems.

Looking around a small town, or a big city, you can find many driveways with large oil stains on them, and the oil that is there makes its way into the storm sewer when it rains, causing environmental damage. Most people do not even realize it either.

As a result, Layla and I will be doing a few things to ensure that we can keep pollutants from heading into storm sewers. We don't drive much, but when we do we will deal with this.

1. We will maintain our car and ensure all leaks are patched and filled so that oil or other pollutants do not drip.
2. We will put paper under our car to see if there are any leeks. If there are, then we will do step three.
3. We will put something to catch the pollutant so that we can take it to a recycle facility that handles oil, antifreeze and more.
   

It is easy to do, but you just have to make sure you stay on the top of it because there is no excuse for sending pollutants into the storm sewer and onward into the ecosystem, when it can be prevented.

We have a cool bit of news as well. The David Suzuki Nature Challenge Green Room is doing a story on us for their website, it can be found at www.naturechallenge.ca. This is a great website that everyone should check out because in the Canadian green movement, David Suzuki is leading the charge.

We would also like to spread the message of LiveSmart BC. LiveSmart BC is a provincial program in British Columbia that offers $12,325 in rebates for homeowners to make improvements on their homes to be more energy efficient. This is a great opportunity for people in British Columbia and you can find out more by visiting http://www.livesmartbc.ca/ or http://vancouver.ca/oneday/takeAction/atHome/incentive.htm

Lastly, we have some news from the province of Alberta, where the oil sands continue their destruction of the environment. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are touring the sites right now, and it is just in time for them to see the new two headed fish that was recently found. Parks Canada called it very unusual and a fish with an obvious abnormality, saying "I have never seen anything like it before." The native people who live in the area, they stated it was linked to the tar sands development and the contamination of the Athabasca River (where it was found). As George Poitras of the Mikesew Cree said, "Our elders tell us that what happens to the animals and the fish is just a sign of what will happen to humans."

Food for thought.

Day 93 of our Green Year: Washing Vegetables

Layla and I grow our own vegetables because we want to have fresh vegetables without pesticides for our food. For vegetables that we buy at the store, we always buy fresh and buy organic whenever we can.
However, we cannot always do that and sometimes we have to buy vegetables that are not organic, and there we run the danger of getting vegetables that are coated in pesticides. As well, there are organic brands out there that are not organic at all, and do have pesticides on them.

Therefore, for our 93rd Day, we are making our physical environment more healthy by washing our vegetables and fruits whenever we get them, even if they say organic. Remember, the only true organic comes from your own organic garden.

Washing vegetables will help take off several chemicals from your food. While this won't get all of them, it will get most and that can help your body stay healthy, without the need for pesticides. We live with chemicals around us. They are in us and they cause so many diseases it can be hard to count (ever wonder why more people get cancer now than ever before?). That is why Layla and I will be washing our food before eating it.

Also, I read today a story (Photo by Will Andruschack) about a woman in Rosebud, Alberta who has a property next to an oil well that was put up there after she moved in. In 2005, she noticed that the dogs would not drink the water from the well, as well as the fact that it was fizzing. By the end of the year, she could not turn her taps off and there was so much gas in her water that it forced its way through the pipes. Soon after, she found out she could light it on fire. Tests on her water found high levels of methane, ethane and other chemicals used by oil companies for drilling. EnCana, the company that owns the well, says it is not the company's fault and deny actually causing this problem. A provincial report concluded that the gas was naturally occuring and had nothing to do with the company. Hard to believe right?
However, the University of Alberta showed that in its tests, there were strong similarities between the gas in the well and the gas that EnCana uses.

What a great province Alberta is turning into! Gas in your wells, poison in your air and all the Alberta Government reports that state it is all naturally occuring!

Day 79 of our Green Year: Green The Toilet

One of the biggest water wasters in the house is the toilet. This is something we all use, multiple times a day, which we have become so accustom to that any place that does not have a flushing toilet is considered to be 'a backwater shack'.

However, how can you go green with your toilet? Well, there is the obvious tip of 'when it is yellow, let it mellow, when it is brown flush it down', but what else can you do to conserve water? You really need to think of ways to conserve water with the toilet because it uses 20 liters of water every time it is flushed. So, for one person, who uses the bathroom five times a day, and flushes every time, they flush 100 liters of water down the toilet, literally. For a family of four, that can be over 500 liters depending on how often it is used!

So, what are some other solutions? Here is something that we will be doing during Our Green Year in our house.

First, we are putting a brick, or at least a plastic bottle full of water in the back of the tank. This will actually cut down on the flush of water by a quarter, or even one third. When you do this, just make sure you don't impede the flushing mechanism.

We rent, so we cannot get a low-flush toilet, but it will be on our list when we do buy a house.

What else can you do? Have any suggestions, let us know!

One thing I would like to talk about now, is the Alberta government's decision to cut greenhouse gas emissions by half by 2050. There are several problems with this, and most of it is fluff with no substance from a government that is trying to make it look like they care about the environment. First, they are using carbon capture technology that has not been completely researched for long-term effects, and they are putting $2 billion into it. Second, I do not understand why governments like Alberta's insist on setting goals that are four decades away. Nearly every climate change scientist has stated that immediate action is needed (AS IN RIGHT NOW) to ward off climate change. There is no time to waste, yet the G8 countries and Alberta feel that lowering emissions by 1.19 percent a year until 2050 is a good plan. What is needed is a 50 percent reduction now, not later. We are nearing the tipping point, and the time to 'wait and see' or slowly lower emissions is long gone. This is just another reason why Layla and I are boycotting all things Albertan.

Day 73 of our Green Year: Spreading Word of the Oil Sands

Cruising headlong into July, Layla and I were very troubled to read a story on Treehugger.com today that talked about how Alberta's library users are fined more for late fees than oil companies in the province.

According to the story, located here, library patrons in Edmonton and Calgary were fined $4 million in library fines last year. How much were the oil companies fined last year? $249,000. That is about 6.3 percent of what library users were fined in Alberta.

This is a serious problem. It was only a few months ago that about 500 birds died in a toxic tailing ponds, not to mention other environmental problems that have occurred in the past few years. Several reports from environmental organizations call the Tar Sands Projects, the most destructive project on the planet right now according to Treehugger.com

Here is a few statistics from Treehugger.com to show just how damaging it is.

• Oil sands mining is licensed to use twice the amount of fresh water that the entire city of Calgary, the largest city in Alberta, uses in one year.
• 90 percent of the fresh water used by the oil sands ends up in tailing ponds that are so toxic, ducks have to be kept from landing there or they will immediately die (as 500 did earlier this year.)
• The processing of the oil sands uses enough natural gas in one day to heat three million homes.
• The toxic tailing ponds are one of the largest human-made structures in the world and they can be seen from space.
• To make one barrel of oil from oil sands than from conventional oil takes three times more greenhouse gases.