Preparing for the cold

From November 21, 2008:

Yesterday marked the first snowfall of the year in Halifax. As I biked home through the blustery snow, I couldn’t help thinking about how fortunate I was to come home to a house with electricity and hot running water. Grabbing my thickest knit sweater and layering on some woolly socks and leg warmers, I settled down to think about this month’s Relocalize newsletter theme: heating.

What to do when it gets cold out?

Many of us live in temperate climates where winters are cold. Since we are not able to take the route of hibernating for the winter season (appealing though it might be sometimes) most of us must rely on some kind of fuel to keep us warm. Indeed we have been doing this for thousands of years, and now the rising cost of fuel is making this dependency ever more apparent. Fewer daylight hours mean less potential to soak up heat from the sun and more time with the lights switched on after the sun has gone down.

Wondering just how much of a difference taking energy saving measures will make to your home? Here are some home heating stats courtesy of Treehugger:

• 10 percent: Percentage of your heating bill you can save in the winter by using a ceiling fan, which circulates warm air from the ceiling to the floor.
• 8 percent: Amount of heat that escapes through your chimney when the fireplace damper is not closed.
• 5 percent: Amount of heating costs you save by cleaning your furnace filters monthly. Dirty filters restrict airflow and increase the amount of energy used.
• $115: Amount of money saved per year by installing an Energy Star thermostat. [What is Energy Star?]

In shifting away from our fuel dependency, we will be returning to one of the fundamental lessons that we learned in kindergarten: it’s better to share. When it comes to staying warm, inviting people over to your home is like carpooling with shared costs and shared benefits. Nothing heats up a house better than fresh bread in the oven and bodies chatting! Increasing social ties and developing strong community networks is essential to relocalization and building community resiliency. If you have an elderly neighbour or relative, keep a special eye out for them in the winter months and make sure they are safe and well.

Filed under: community, energy, health, lifestyle , Halifax, heating

Critical mass takes to the streets

Every last Friday of the month, cyclists from around Vancouver gather in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery in downtown Vancouver and take to the streets in a massive show of spirit and strength. The critical mass phenomenon started in San Francisco in the 1990s and quickly spread – critical mass now occurs in cities around the world, with their numbers growing each year. Over one thousand cyclists came out for critical mass in June 2006, Bike Month, the largest turnout to date. Next month promises to be even bigger!

My bike!

This month critical mass cyclists took to the streets in fine form – pirate form in fact. Unfortunately I didn’t make it out to the start of the ride on Friday, but I caught up with the last of the bunch down at Kits beach on my way home – a good two hours later. Here are a few photos:

One less car – sticker courtesy of B.E.S.T (Better Environmentally Sound Transportation)

Sunset at Kits beach

Ocean, sky, mountains…

According to the website, www.critical-mass.org, there are over four hundred critical mass rides around the world, with about 230 of them in North America. See also www.critical-mass.info.

The first critical mass ride took place on September 25, 1992, in San Francisco.

If you are interested in starting a critical mass ride in your community, here are some basic guidelines, but remember critical mass takes different shapes in different places, and there is no central organizing body.

A local Vancouver film producer has produced a wonderful documentary film about critical mass in Vancouver titled, “You Never Bike Alone.” Click to read the synopsis of the film – for more information, visit www.youneverbikealone.com.

To see more photos of the Vancouver critical mass rides, go to www.flickr.com/groups/vancriticalmass

The next critical mass ride in Vancouver will take place on Friday, June 29th, 2007!

For more information about critical mass in Vancouver, check out: www.velolove.bc.ca

For general info about cycling in Vancouver, check out these links.

For a map of bike routes in Vancouver, go to the city website or download the one-page PDF (more detailed versions are available on their website).

Filed under: Vancouver, community, cycling, environment, health, photo , sustainability, Vancouver

Why Working Less is Better for the Globe

Why Working Less is Better for the Globe

By Dara Colwell, AlterNet
Posted on May 21, 2007, Printed on May 22, 2007 (original post here)

Americans are working harder than ever before. The dogged pursuit of
the paycheck coupled with a 24/7 economy has thrust many of us onto a
never-ending treadmill. But of workaholism’s growing wounded, its
greatest casualty has been practically ignored — the planet.

“We now seem more determined than ever to work harder and produce more
stuff, which creates a bizarre paradox: We are proudly breaking our
backs to decrease the carrying capacity of the planet,” says Conrad
Schmidt, an internationally known social activist and founder of the
Work Less Party, a Vancouver-based initiative aimed at moving to a
32-hour work week — a radical departure from the in early, out late
cycle we’ve grown accustomed to. “Choosing to work less is the biggest
environmental issue no one’s talking about.”

A backlash against overwork fatigue, the Work Less Party is one of a
growing number of initiatives aimed at cutting work hours while
tackling unemployment, environmentally unfriendly behavior and boosting
leisure time. According to Schmidt, author of “Workers of the World
RELAX,” which examines the economics of reduced industrial work,
working less would allow us to produce less, consume less, pollute less
and — no complaints here — live more.

“As a society, we’re working exponentially hard to decrease
sustainability and it’s making us miserable — just look at how
antidepressants are on the rise,” he says. “In order to reduce our
ecological footprint, we have to take working less very seriously.”

Read full article

Filed under: climate, community, economics, environment, health , sustainability