Hello. If any of you reading this are in Vancouver this weekend I will be giving a talk and slideshow about the 11 months of my life that I spent living in my vegetable oil powered Volkswagen van. This takes place at Blim (197 E. 17th) in Vancouver on Saturday, July 4 from 2-4pm.
And if you are free on Friday the third my art show opens at Blim at 8 pm.
It would be lovely to see you there!
Category : Blogroll
ok along the lines of water…i am considering a rain barrel to collect rain water…and got all excited until someone told me that you can collect too much water and then it justs goes kind of rotten and unusable…is this true…?
Living in Vancouver of course we have a surplus of water and although I have some plants inside, not a lot…I wonder what I will do with all the water I collect…any thoughts on this?
lisag.
Lisa I have been looking for info about water “going bad” and I can’t find a stitch of information about that. It is of course, possible for standing water to develop algae or to become a breeding ground for mosquitoes.
I found a Rainwater Collection Forum on Yahoo and I think you should post your question there. I would do it for you but being on dial up out here in the desert, it would just take too long to go through the registration process.
However, I found a site devoted to Rainwater Collection
and a Wikihow article on buliding a collection system.
Rainwater that is collected from gutters attached to your roof will yield non-potable water that you can’t drink, but you can use in the garden and for washing. In some smoggier areas rainwater may be polluted so you can’t drink that either and I’m not certain that you would want to use it in the garden.
Interestingly, in some areas rainwater collection is ILLEGAL. Apparently some people believe that collecting water and not allowing it to go into the ground constitutes THEFT because as groundwater it can be used by everyone.
Sorry I’m not much help Lisa, but I will look into this further and tell you what I find.
Category : Uncategorized
If you haven’t seen this great film about Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping, please add it to your DVD queue right now. Then prepare to be entertained and educated by the Reverend and his cohorts as they preach the gospel of STOP SHOPPING all across America during the month of December.
While you’re at it check out these anti-consumerism websites:
Category : Uncategorized
Of all the horrors caused by genetically engineered crops I would have to say the worst is the way that farmers are getting screwed by corporations like Monsanto and Syngenta. Genetic Engineering of plants can be as innocent as hybridization which basically crosses favored genes of one strain of plant with another. The problem with doing this is that the hybrid plants no longer produce viable seed. In some cases seeds are bred to be resistant to drought or disease which in itself, seems pretty harmless.
Monsanto, the people behind Agent Orange and PCBs, used to be primarily a chemical company making herbicides and pesticides now making genetically modified seeds. They produce an herbicide called Roundup and now seeds that are designated ‘Roundup Ready’ that contain a gene that allows them to survive spraying with said herbicide. These seeds are sold to farmers who sign a contract to continue to purchase their seeds from Monsanto and to pay a fee per acre for growing the seed.
There was a famous case in Canada when a Saskatchewan canola farmer, Percy Schmeiser, who had been using his own saved seed for 50 years was visited by private investigators in the employ of St. Louis, Mo. based Monsanto. The investigators trespassed on Schmeiser’s land to obtain samples of his canola and found that the samples contained genetic material from Monsanto’s patent-protected GM seeds.
It’s very easy to figure out how the GM material got there, there are plenty of farmers in Saskatchewan growing Roundup Ready canola and Mr. Schmeiser’s plants could easily have been contaminated by the wind carrying pollen all across the prairie. Schmeiser was prosecuted by Monsanto for patent infringement and he fought it all the way to the supreme court. However, the court ruled in favor of Monsanto (!) but did not award them monetary damages, saying that Mr. Schmeiser did not profit from the copyright infringement.
Mr. Schmeiser is not the only farmer who has faced this kind of challenge, but he may be one of the only ones who has had the time and resources to fight back. His case brought a lot of attention to this issue. A report from the Center for Food Safety in 2005 said that the total recorded judgments that farmers have been ordered to pay Monsanto is over $15 million. Andrew Kimball, then executive director of the CFS said “These lawsuits and settlements are nothing less than the corporate extortion of American farmers.” And Canadian farmers too, apparently.
In my next post I’d like to explore the health risks of consuming genetically modified food. So far I am having trouble finding facts. For now please take a look at these websites, which are chock full of information:
Organic Consumers Association
Monsanto Watch
GM Watch
Say NO to GMOs
Category : Uncategorized
I recently said that I want to start a discussion about food, which is one of the most important topics when we discuss environmental changes, but the mountain of information out there makes it difficult to know where to begin.
Food is the essence of our humanity, it is of universal importance and transcends all boundaries. We all know about the benefits of organically grown food and the importance of eating only sustainably harvested fish, or do we? Okay, let’s start with the basics of sustainable food production.
Most of you have probably heard that animals raised for food live in appalling conditions and are often slaughtered and processed in inhumane and unsafe ways. Dairy cows have their tails chopped off, chickens have their beaks removed, pigs live in tiny cages full of their own excrement and those aren’t even the worst examples.
Equally important is the fact that factory farms are some of the biggest polluters on the planet. If you buy meat at a supermarket or eat meat in a restaurant it almost certainly was raised on a factory farm. The very fact that you can buy that meat neatly packaged at the market shows how far we have distanced ourselves from the source of our food. You barely even have to touch a piece of meat to get it from the package to the stove, so how are you going to connect what you are eating to a once living, breathing creature?
Category : Uncategorized
Hi chantale,
I love your blog!
Summer’s drawing near, and I’ll be spending a lot more time outdoors; I was wondering if you know how to make homemade sunscreen.
-Andrew in L.A.
Hey Andrew. That’s a great question and you know, it has been bothering me how much sunscreen I go through, which all comes in plastic containers that can be difficult to recycle. Naturally it only makes sense to make your own. You can cut down on packaging and waste and be sure of exactly what you are putting on your skin.
The recipe I used is one cup of olive oil, 2 ounces of beeswax and two heaping tablespoons of zinc oxide. You warm the oil on a low flame (I actually used grapeseed oil) then you melt in the beeswax, which has been cut into small chunks. Then you whisk in the zinc oxide and let it cool. the only problem I have found is that due to the high oil content the sunscreen is a little greasy. Can anyone make a suggestion of another natural base to use?
I ordered the ingredients from a Canadian company called Well, Naturally along with the ingredients to make my own tooth powder and face wash. Click here to see photos of me making sunscreen.
Category : Uncategorized
Happy Earth Day folks! In honour of Earth Day weekend I spent part of Saturday handing out free, re-usable shopping bags at a local supermarket. It was really fascinating to see people REFUSE a free bag and then walk out of the store with 9 or 10 plastic ones. I kept trying to tell myself that they use those bags as trash liners and they just ran out and need more. Okay..I can’t really imagine who needs MORE plastic bags. Suffice to say, it was strange.
Afterwards I went to the library and there was someone outside selling boxes of red wigglers for composting! So then I went home and built a worm compost bin and took pictures that you can see here.
I have been reading some interesting opinions about the environmental movement that really question the direction and tactics of the movement. In my next post I want to start a discussion about food, so let me know if you have any food and farming related concerns. I’ll be back tomorrow, right now I need to go and feed my worms.
Since I moved to the desert I have been eating at home even more than usual but I still like to eat tacos in town once in a while. At most taquerias I can get a meal for under five bucks, usually vegetarian or fish tacos and a drink of jamaica (hibiscus) tea or horchata. This is one of my favorite things about living in California. The only drawback is that most taquerias serve their food on disposable plates with plastic knives and forks and styrofoam cups. Because of that, I always try to be prepared with my own plates, knives, forks, containers for salsa and a mason jar for drinks.
I’m lucky because I have cupboards in my van where I can store these things. I live eight miles from the nearest taqueria so it’s not like I’m about to walk or bike there. I understand if you live in the city and you are not about to carry all that stuff in your backpack but it really wouldn’t hurt to have a container for your coffee and a water bottle you can refill. I recommend a vacuum thermos instead of a cup for coffee and tea because they don’t spill and they keep your drink really hot.
Many, many trees are used to make paper coffee cups that for the most part, can’t be recycled, along with their plastic lids. In 2005 the number of paper cups used in the U.S. was over 14 billion! They can’t be recycled because of the plastic coating on the inside. That’s total insanity if you ask me. How many times have I been to a coffee shop and looked around to see people sitting in the shop, drinking from paper cups? Sometimes I even ask people why. Once I asked a guy in Brooklyn, who even had a Greenpeace sticker on his computer why he was drinking from a paper cup and he said “Because that’s what they gave me.” Sorry friend, but that’s not good enough, you can almost always ask for your coffee in a real mug, but most times you have to ASK because so many coffee shops automatically serve coffee in a paper cup. Why is that?
Category : Uncategorized
Recently I was driving from Portland, Oregon to my new home in southern California with my partner and a fourteen foot moving truck full of my belongings. We stopped at a gas station near Livermore where there was a Starbuck’s shop. My partner is a dedicated coffee drinker and he also travels a lot for work, which means that often the only place to find coffee that meets his standards is at Starbuck’s. At the beginning of our relationship I asked him to refrain from buying coffee there because I don’t agree with many of their practises but on this particular day I decided to go get him a latte because I knew he really wanted one and we had a long drive ahead of us.
I don’t drink coffee myself, nor have I ever ordered one at Starbuck’s so of course when I asked for a double latte I asked for it ALL WRONG and the young girl marked a paper cup with the wrong order (yes, normally I travel with a real mug, it just wan’t happening this time). When I corrected myself and got the order right, she took the cup she had just marked and TOSSED IT IN THE TRASH! Not in the recycling, which is not available at ANY of Starbuck’s locations, but in the trash. So I said “Did you just toss that in the trash?” Yes, she had, she explained, as to re-use an already marked cup could apparently jeopardize HER JOB, as she was being watched by a Starbuck’s supervisor on a video monitor. Huh? Really? So, even though I was the only customer present and all she had to do was to tell the correct order to the other employee who was making the coffee, as per Starbucks rules about using cups that are marked with the wrong order, that cup got trashed. Now try to imagine how many times a day this happens at Starbuck’s around the world.
Category : Uncategorized
I have another question oh green queen, since I have just moved into a place with an argh, scary, GARBERATOR…and every time I grind up my green refuse I feel guilty. I have NEVER had a composter except with a slum lord who never emptied it let alone stirred it…I have a small patio… what would you recommend?
xolisag
Hmm..first thing that comes to mind; move to Toronto! One of my favorite things about Toronto is the Green Bin program that was started in 2002. The city provides a counter top bin for compostable material, including some items that are not normally composted such as meat and diapers, and a larger bin for curbside collection. The compost is then picked up and taken to a processing facility and is used to fertilize parks and gardens in the city. Other cities in Canada are implementing similar programs too so maybe you could contact city hall and find out if there are any plans to do this in YOUR area.
The city of Toronto website says that the composting program diverts 1500 trucks per year from the Michigan landfill. That seems like a significant amount but can anyone tell me how many trucks DO make it there? I’d be interested to know.
My other idea is to save your compost and give it to a community garden or a neighbor. My compost is a hole in the back yard, covered with a large, heavy lid. Just today I added a bunch of horse manure to it and I’m looking into getting some worms. In Vancouver there are worm composting bins available from certain municipalities. Check here to see if you can get one.
Click here for instructions on building your own worm composter. Worms break down organic matter much more quickly than regular composting so you can use a smaller container and use your compost much sooner.
Composting is a great thing to do, even if you don’t have a garden, you probably have a friend who does. Thanks for writing, now I’m inspired to order those red wigglers I was thinking about!
Category : Uncategorized
Sage advice for green living. Ask your question in the comment section of any post.
Chantale DoyleChantale Doyle is an artist from Victoria, BC who now lives in the Mojave desert in California. She has self published many 'zines of her drawing and writing and continues to show her art internationally. She is currently working on an exhibition to take place in Japan in 2008 and has been recruited by Canadian film maker Marc Cadieux and biofuels pioneer Brian Lovecraft to document new experiments in biofuel and sustainable lifestyles for the 21st century.