By Maggie Pyper — I recently watched a presentation by fashion entrepreneur (and former White Power Ranger) Jessica Rey about the bikini, and how it affects men’s brains. Rey quoted a Princeton study to suggest men can’t help but objectify women wearing bikinis. I was shocked. Apparently, when a man looks at a scantily-clad woman, the region of the brain associated with tool use is activated, suggesting that women are perceived as something to use. To counteract this, Rey argues, we (women) need to don more modest attire. Well, that just didn’t sit right with the feminist in me, and…
Author: thegreengazette
By Ron Young — Step back for a moment from the madness, frenzy, and oft seeming futility of day-to-day life. Step way back. Enter the cartoon world of the not-too-distant past—the middle of the 20th century. Remember a Popular Mechanics magazine issue that showed a suburbanite stuffing a big yellow personal helicopter into his garage? Didn’t happen. In an earlier edition of that magazine, you see a prediction of clean car emissions in the odourless city of the future. Sort of happened, sometimes, some places. Another confident scientist in days of yore talks about heating and cooking by solar power…
By Sam Delacherois — “When did loving yourself become so rare that it is revolutionary to do so?”- unknown It started when humanity decided to pluck the line between Confidence and Arrogance and relocate it; so instead, Confidence is struck by that line and omitted from our vocabulary, leaving behind Arrogance as the sole trait for self-description. It continued when we were trained that our fingers may only count our flaws and that compliments are the only acceptable proof that your eyes are gorgeous or your wit admirable—as if laws constrained this applause to endorse oneself. It becomes unavoidable…
By David Suzuki — Abundant, cheap fossil fuels have driven explosive technological, industrial, and economic expansion for more than a century. The pervasive infrastructure developed to accommodate this growth makes it difficult to contemplate rapidly shifting away from coal, oil, and gas, which creates a psychological barrier to rational discourse on energy issues. The ecological and true economic costs of energy use force us to scrutinize our way of living. And because our infrastructure doesn’t allow us to entirely avoid fossil fuels, we must face the contradiction between how we should live and constraints against doing so. Canada has no…
Wireless safety standards that are more protective of the health of Canadians; and Guidelines and resources to assist Canadian physicians in assessing and managing health problems related to microwave radiation. There is considerable evidence and research from various scientific experts that exposure to microwave radiation from wireless devices, Wi-Fi, smart meters, and cell towers can have an adverse impact on human physiological function. Many recent and emerging studies from university departments and scientific sources throughout the world support the assertion that energy from wireless devices may be causatively linked to various health problems including reproductive compromise, developmental impacts, hormonal…
By Margaret-Anne Enders — As I write this, it is well past Winter Solstice, and the return of the light is noticeable. In the hectic preparations for Christmas, solstice is often forgotten, but it is an important part of many people’s spirituality. The Multiculturalism Program and the Women’s Spirituality Circle celebrated the Solstice with the community with food, music, reflection, and creativity. We wrapped up the event with a lantern parade through the edge of the forest. A trail of tiny lights scattered through the darkness. It was dark and it was beautiful. Nevertheless, I feel gratitude for the return…
By Jasmin Schellenberg — HEALTHY SNACKS AND WHY Power Smoothie Ingredients 4 cups kefir 1/2 cup raw cultured cream 2 Tbsp coconut oil, melted 2 eggs 2 Tbsp honey 1 tsp cold-pressed flax oil 1 banana 1/2 cup raspberries or other frozen fruits 1 tsp vanilla extract Directions Mix well in a blender. Serves 4. This nutrient-dense smoothie is full of fat-soluble vitamins, enzymes, probiotics, and omega 3s. Remember using organic ingredients whenever possible insures you to get the most nutrition for your children. NUTRIENT DENSE MEAL French Stew Ingredients 300 g pork neck 300 g lamb shoulder…
By Paul Hearsey — Well, we’ve been here in Horsefly for seven years this month already. How time really does fly! In the June/July issue of TheGreenGazette we told readers all about our gardens, greenhouse, and root cellar. Today, we’ll talk about the house we have been building in our spare time. Never again. That’s what we said to each other when we first arrived in Horsefly. Building a house on the coast over six years was a tough thing to do, while we both worked full time and raised kids. But while we now owned forty acres (of scrubby,…
By Terri Smith — January 2009 was my first January back in Williams Lake and I was so excited and eager to be a farmer. I had behind me a whole five months experience living in a camper van on various farms around the province, as well as the time that went into the 1/3 of an acre we’d managed to prepare for the garden before the snow hit the previous fall. I had spent the winter talking to anyone who would listen (and probably many who were just being polite) about my new-found passion for vegetable farming. And then…
By Sage Birchwater — Shortly before Christmas, 2014, Van Andruss released the latest volume of his annual literary magazine, Lived Experience Number Fourteen, Stories and Poety from BC and Beyond. When the journal had its beginnings in 2001, it was only 28 pages and contained the prose and poetry of 11 writers. Fourteen years later, LE14 has mushroomed to 156 pages, heralding the work of 25 writers. The annual journal published in Yalakom Valley near Lillooet has come a long way since Van and his poet neighbour Jonathan “Swamp” Kerslake brought the first volume to print. “We wanted to give…
By Jenny Howell, CCCS — Williams Lake has done well with ‘direct’ water conservation over the last few years. Water consumption is now 20 per cent lower than pre-2006 levels; people understand the need to have short showers, turn off taps, and start planting drought hardy garden species to preserve our finite aquifer. So for this article I wanted to look more at our ‘indirect’ or ‘virtual’ water consumption—the water you don’t even know you are using. In fact, only 5 per cent of the water used to support our lives is direct or coming through the taps; the other…
By Van Andruss — Every now and then a book comes along that seems meant for me. Such a book is James B. MacKinnon’s “The Once and Future World: Nature as it was, as it is, as it could be” (Random House, 2013). James MacKinnon is a gifted writer already known for the previous best-seller, “100-Mile Diet.” He was brought up on the bunch grass prairie around Kamloops. In his wanderings as a boy, he believed he was surveying a wilderness. It was only later in life that he came to discover how much his native landscape had changed over…
Part of the Cariboo Regional District’s Solid Waste Info Series: The garbage from Williams Lake and area, including 150 Mile House, Horsefly, Wildwood, McLeese, Frost Creek, Chimney Lake, Alexis Creek, and Riske Creek, is disposed of at the Cariboo Regional District’s (CRD) Gibraltar Landfill. Two to four loads of waste are transported to the landfill in 53-foot walking floor trailers five days a week, each weighing approximately 19 tonnes. Annually there are between 12,000 and 13,000 tonnes of waste disposed of at the landfill. The landfill is fully engineered, meaning its base is lined with an impermeable plastic that…
By LeRae Haynes — Mary Forbes, teacher naturalist at Scout Island and mother of two, says it’s great that B.C. has declared Family Day a holiday, but that every day’s a good day to ‘unplug’ your kids from electronics and technology and get them outside to play. “February is a great time of the year to spend time with your kids outdoors,” she says. “If you feel overwhelmed by the slush go outside and make a Quincy hut in the snow with a shovel. You just dig a tunnel inside a big mound of snow and have a tea…
By Ciel Patenaude — A happy new year to you all! I hope that the holidays were a peaceful yet transformative time. I was fortunate enough to be able to spend this past December in the southern hemisphere, exploring the city and jungle wilds of Peru and Bolivia with a good friend. The trip served as both a respite from work and winter—a rather wonderful way to break up the seasons—and a personal healing journey. The adventure effectively served as a 30-day intensive exploration into my process in a new environment and without work schedules and other commitments, and…
By Jack Adam Weber — Some months ago a friend sought my support for her relationship heartbreak, and during that conversation a voice in my head said, “We should be putting all this love energy into our relationship with the natural world and the condition of the biosphere, not into our private love affairs.” If you think this is a reasonable proposal, at least in part, you can let this be a seed for inspiring a shift from personal and insular love towards a more global love. While this voice spoke in hyperbole, we don’t have to consider it in either-or…
By Brianna van de Wijngaard — It’s always fun to start thinking about gardening this time of year: our energy returns as we think of new beginnings and yet another season of growth. By the time March rolls around, it will be time to start thinking about planting. And that isn’t too far away! So here are some tips for growing strong, successful seedlings that will thrive in the right conditions. 9 Steps to Starting Successful Seeds: Proper Containers Seedlings need adequate space to grow roots. They will spend a minimum of 3 – 4…
By Sage Birchwater — The water flowing out of Quesnel Lake under the bridge at Likely is murky six months after the Mount Polley Mine disaster sent millions of tons of mining effluent down Hazeltine Creek and into Quesnel Lake on August 4, 2014. Historically, the water in Quesnel River is clear at this time of year. In mid-January, 2015, the Xat’sull/Soda Creek First Nation, Williams Lake First Nations, and the Northern Secwepemc Tribal Council (NStQ) hosted a community information meeting in Likely to bring people up to date on their response the mine disaster, and to ask for local…
By Jasmin Schellenberg — HEALTHY SNACKS AND WHY Holiday Pecans Ingredients: 4 cups pecan halves 2 tsp sea salt 3 eggs pinch of salt 1 Tbsp vanilla 1/2 cup maple syrup Directions: Cover pecans with water and soak overnight. Bake the next day at 150 degrees F until crisp. This could take 12 or more hours. Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they are stiff. Slowly add vanilla and maple syrup. Fold in pecans until well-coated. Spread in a single layer onto two buttered baking pans. Place in the oven at 150 degrees F for…