By Barbara Schellenberg – “Out of sight, out of mind” … Perhaps because we do not see the air around us we do not consider the important role air quality plays in our daily health and energy levels. Since we do spend a great deal of time indoors, in our own homes, that is the best place to focus on air quality. It is also the easiest place to have some real control over the air you breathe. The capacity to supply adequate oxygen to the brain, our body’s most ‘expensive’ organ, is the end goal of so much of…
Author: thegreengazette
Members of the BC Coalition for Forestry Reform (BCCFR) were heartened by the positive and realistic recommendations proposed in Mark Haddock’s final report on professional reliance. The report was commissioned by the BC government, and released to the public June 28. The report’s complex title, “The Final Report of the Review of Professional Reliance in Natural Resource Decision-Making,” couldn’t hide the simplicity of its findings: BC’s forest industry must change. The report contains extensive and frequently harsh criticism of today’s forestry regulation and the resulting harvest practices being employed by the forest industry. This was no surprise to BCCFR’s spokesperson,…
By Tony Boschmann – There’s always a trade-off, something we’re giving up for the benefit of something else. To build houses we need to cut down trees. To produce electricity, we need to dam rivers. To drive cars and move stuff around the planet and for 6,000 other essential products like surfboards, diapers, deodorant, lipstick, and Aspirin, we need oil. For Canadians there’s an added trade-off for the 1.2 million barrels of oil produced each day in the oilsand mines in northeastern Alberta. The single process to liberate this unique oil product from the sand and clay of the oilsands,…
By LeRae Haynes – Barking Spider Mountain Bike offers a range of mountain bikes, paddleboards, and skis, along with gear and clothing designed for any adventure. Owner Scott Gordon goes above and beyond with advice, suggestions, encouragement, and inspiration. Every category of mountain biking requires a bike built for specific conditions, and Gordon has been helping get people on the right bike for 18 years. Whether it’s downhill, cross-country, enduro, road riding, or anything in between, Barking Spider can put you on the right bike that takes you where you want to go. Gordon said he’s seen changes and improvements…
By Mary Forbes, Waste Educator, Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Society I have been teaching Waste Wise for 10 years now and have seen many positive changes in recycling policy and increasing public participation but there is still one place I just experienced that seems to be operating in a vacuum, (or pressurized cabin!). I recently flew to Regina for a Zero Waste Conference (yes, there is some irony). On the smaller plane I asked our stewardess if the clear plastic cups get recycled. She responded, “not on the small flights, but the big mainline flights do recycle everything.” So once on…
Tickets are on sale now for Arts on the Fly’s 2018 summer festival, set to erupt July 13-14 in beautiful Horsefly, BC. Get them while they’re hot from www.artsonthefly.com. The lineup this year features BC’s finest in bluegrass, folk, soul, cumbia (that’s right, BC has a cumbia scene), blues, experimental, and more. In the realm of folk, we are pleased to host the likes of Pharis and Jason Romero, Sarah Jane Scouten, Lydia Hol, Kym Gouchie, Leathan Milne, Colin Easthope, Rowan Dolighan, Malcolm Jack, Big Fancy, Saltwater Hank, M Lund, and more. In the general direction of blues, we have…
Project puts Canada’s climate and biodiversity goals, long-term economic prosperity, and Indigenous reconciliation efforts at risk The federal government’s decision today to purchase Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline project for $4.5 billion ignores major risks to the long-term well-being of everyone in Canada. The government announced plans to purchase the existing pipeline infrastructure and build the pipeline expansion, then sell it later, assuming it can find a buyer. “Regardless of who builds it, the environmental, economic, climate, and Indigenous rights risks remain the same,” David Suzuki Foundation CEO Steve Cornish said. “We have an opportunity to diversify from fossil fuels…
By Tim Van Horn – At age five, I had already taken my first photograph and decided I wanted to be a ‘cameraman.’ Growing up and travelling around Canada with my family in the Canadian Air Force, I developed a sense of duty to the people and fell in love with cultural experience in my ever-changing surroundings. Maybe it was my great, great, great uncle, William Cornelius Van Horne, president of the Canadian Pacific Railway, that gave me my entrepreneurial, think big spirit with a Canadian twist. Many people dream of a road trip across Canada, but not many embark…
By Venta Rutkauskas – Community Arts Council collaborates with poet Sonya Littlejohn on creative workshops focusing on wildfire experiences. Let me tell you a story. Since the wildfires, I have been searching. Pulled by a will to feel centred, to record and understand, I have turned to my notebook, composing to match the visions of ash, upheaval, and renewal that marked me. I listened intently, to the ground, the smoke, the nerves, the voices of my friends. Out of these poured streams of emotion and colour, needing a place to settle and call home. When you least expect it, the…
By Sage Birchwater – Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but the 26th day of the month is significant in the historical narrative of the Tŝilhqot’in nation. It began on October 26, 1864 when five Tsilhqot’in war chiefs were hanged at Quesnelle mouth on the banks of the Fraser River. The warriors led by Chief Lha Tŝ’aŝʔin were tricked into putting down their arms to attend peace talks to end the conflict known as the Chilcotin War, only to be captured, tried, and convicted as murderers for defending their territory. In modern times the Tsilhqot’in nation declared the 26th of October…
By Julie Fowler, executive and artistic director of Island Mountain Arts and the ArtsWells Festival – Island Mountain Arts (IMA) is pleased to welcome award-winning writer Betsy Warland to Wells this summer to teach and is offering a full scholarship for a central/northern writer to attend. “Making Your Writing Fly,” which runs July 7–10, is geared towards writers who want to hone their craft and sharpen their editing skills. “Whether you have a few strong pieces, or a portion of or a full manuscript, you will gain the skills and even pleasure of self-editing in this unique workshop,” says Warland.…
By LeRae Haynes – Animals are raised with great care at Big Bear Ranch, where a high standard of animal welfare has been in place for decades. What the animals eat, how they live, and how they’re treated recently resulted in another successful inspection by Animal Welfare Approved (AWA), and a growing list of customers who love the food and the way it was raised. Big Bear Ranch, raising sheep, pigs, and cattle, is owned and run by Rainer Krumsiek, his son Florian, and his daughter-in-law, Stefanie. Since March 2016 the 1,100-acre ranch with its mixture of pasture and forest has…
By LeRae Haynes – Wayne Padgett is an author and passionate believer in the herbal healing found in nature and in the vital importance of protecting the environment. In 1986, Padgett and his wife Sie started Northern Naturals Health Products Ltd. They create salves and ointments to treat a huge range of ailments and conditions: some for horses, some for people, and some for both. Their newest line is a salve made from non-narcotic hemp oil. “We like this oil because it has amino acids that our bodies can use but can’t make,” said Padgett. “Wheat germ oil is the…
By LeRae Haynes – Having more time to spend time with your family, time to relax after a long day at work, or time to pursue a hobby than can enrich your life, can be as easy as a call to Tidy Nest Cleaning and Errands. Owner Shalene Ostrom and her team do residential house cleaning, move-out cleaning, deep cleaning, window washing, and errand running, providing professional, exceptional customer service. “We do things for people that they’re too busy to do themselves, or unable to do,” Ostrom explained. “Sometimes we help seniors stay in their own homes longer and make…
By David Suzuki – Our health, well-being, food security, energy, and economic progress depend on healthy, diverse nature. Clean water and air are essential to human life and health. Nutrient-rich soils are necessary to grow food. Diversity makes the ecosystems on which human life depends resilient. But, as more than 550 experts from over 100 countries recently warned, “Biodiversity – the essential variety of life forms on Earth – continues to decline in every region of the world, significantly reducing nature’s capacity to contribute to people’s well-being.” On March 22 in Medellín, Colombia, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and…
By Jessica Kirby, Senior Editor of TheGreenGazette – You have choices when you plan your vacations. The world is a big place and there are a million roads, but what about getting off the roads, at least those well travelled? Connecting with nature has myriad benefits for your physical, emotional, and mental health and using your well-earned vacation time to strengthen that connection is an invaluable investment in yourself and the environment. Let’s talk about camping: whether you are pitching a tent, wheeling a motorhome, or renting a cabin in the woods, you’ve already made a commitment to the environment…
By Jessica Kirby – We know Canada has a rich cultural fabric; in fact, most of us pride ourselves on it. As a country we welcome around 300,000 new Canadians each year, and as individuals most of us help keep our communities united with welcoming attitudes and open hearts. We stitch Canadian flags to our packs when we travel because we know the world has us pegged as easy going, friendly, and overly polite northerners with a penchant for cold and a passion for hockey—there are worse stereotypes, that is for certain. Canada’s multicultural history is as old as time,…
By Guy Dauncey – “All I want is a village somewhere, far away from the housing scare, With friends and family, Oh, wouldn’t it be loverly? Little homes where we all can live, A lovely garden so we all can eat, Shared hearts, shared love, shared hopes, Oh, wouldn’t it be loverly.” In May 2018 the average price of a home in BC was $750,000. In Victoria, the average price of a condo was $500,000. They call it the spillover effect—the reality that if you own a house in Vancouver you can sell it for $2 million, buy a place…
By Debbie Irvine, B.Sc.(Agr.) RHN – I am a local producer of organically grown produce and grass-fed beef. Sometimes folks comment about the price of locally produced produce and meat, labelling it ‘so expensive’. To me this begs the other side of that comment: ‘why is conventional produce and meat so cheap?’ I think we all know that goods are cheaper when they are massed produced and especially if using foreign labour. Mass production of food includes monocultures (grains, corn, and other field crops); factory farms (poultry, swine, dairy); feedlots (beef cattle); and fish farms. So, when a consumer is…