By Ray Grigg — Anyone who gives serious consideration to environmental issues these days secretly hopes to be wrong. This curious contradiction stems from the stark realization that almost all the credible information coming repeatedly from multiple objective sources has identified the inability of our planet’s essential ecologies to absorb the impact of the materialistic ambitions of our modern civilization. Such a fundamental incompatibility is sobering to confront and admit. Only a committed misanthrope would deny humanity assured security, physical comfort, and meaningful engagement. But the obsessive and cavalier quest for superfluous material wealth by a burgeoning human population has…
Author: thegreengazette
By Jenny Howell, CCCS — Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Society | Here we are again at the end of one year and the beginning of a new one. The time to reflect and assess then look ahead and plan. For Water Wise that includes looking at the Williams Lake water records to see how well the water conservation message is getting across. It’s been rewarding the last few years, watching annual water consumption rates drop in Williams Lake and seeing summer water use decline. Last year’s report showed average consumption rates between 2011 and 2013 at 28 per cent…
By Van Andruss — We go along nowadays as if things were relatively normal, but things are not normal. The current world is a radically different world from the one we used to know. Our present situation is not only “post-modern”; it is “post-holocene,” in that the accumulated biological treasury of the planet is drying up. Many factors have accelerated this unforgiving reality, but global warming overarches them all. As much as anyone, Bill McKibben has popularized the facts of climate change with www.350.org, an NGO that was his brainchild. Incidentally, the figure “350” refers to parts per million…
The halls are alive with light, laughter, positive energy, and lots of interaction. This is how we used to describe Horsefly Elementary, Junior, Secondary School—not just during the day, but in the evenings as well. If you want something to happen in a small community, you need to do it yourself. We don’t have organized sports teams like hockey, soccer, or baseball; we don’t have Boy Scouts, Girl Guides, etc. What we do have is a community that is engaged. People who voluntarily organize activities and events that are open to all members of the community: soccer, badminton, yoga,…
By Adam McLeod, ND, BSc — It is a well established fact that cancer cells are vulnerable to heat. On a cellular level it makes intuitive sense that cancer cells would be sensitive to heat. Normal cells are spatially arranged so that heat can be distributed evenly and they will not divide if they are physically in contact with adjacent cells. Cancer cells within a tumour will continue to divide regardless of the proximity of adjacent cells; this is one of the hallmarks of cancer. As a result of this uncontrolled growth, the cells in the tumour become densely…
By Terri Smith — It was cold last night. We wake up to a world blanketed in snow at last. It is beautiful, but my first thought is of Amadeus. I quickly pull on long johns, wool socks, sweater, boots, toque, gloves, and scarf and even still when I walk outside the air feels cold. I pick up the pitchfork and walk around the corner of the house where I come across Amadeus’ entire goat family standing in the early morning sunshine. Each of them looks wooly and fat and healthy and for a moment I can’t tell which…
By Pat Teti – Autumn brings an abundance of apples, potatoes, corn, squash, and other produce begging to be canned, frozen, or dried if not eaten fresh. This can put more demands on our time just when it’s back to work, school, and other community activities. Among the late season products is the pumpkin which, sadly, is used more for decoration than for food as indicated by their absence in grocery stores immediately after Halloween. How many of us have carved but never cooked and eaten a fresh pumpkin? It’s a shame because pumpkin is delicious in soup, casseroles, and…
Part of the Cariboo Regional District’s Solid Waste Info Series: In 2013, Encorp Pacific (the stewardship agency responsible for beverage container recycling in BC) recovered almost 5,000 tonnes of aluminum across the province. This equates to an 84 per cent recovery of aluminum beverage containers when compared to the amount sold in BC for the year. What do you think the recovery numbers are for all other metals British Columbians consume every year? Large items such as cars and home appliances are usually recycled because they are too big for our garbage cans. What about all those smaller items…
By Martin Pall, Ph.D – Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry and Basic Medical Sciences, Washington State University — Canadian and U.S. safety standards for microwave radiation are entirely based on the assumption that the only important thing microwave EMFs (electromagnetic fields) can do is to heat things, like heating food in a microwave oven. The belief is that EMFs are composed of low-energy photons, with energy per photon too low to influence the chemistry of the body or to heat up the human cells. Therefore, they assume that if heating is minimal, we don’t need to worry about health effects. That…
By David Suzuki — It’s become a cliché to say that out of crisis comes opportunity. But there’s no denying that when faced with crises, we have choices. The opportunity depends on what we decide to do. What choices will we make when confronted with the fact that 2014 will likely be the hottest year on record? According to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), global land and sea temperatures up to September’s end tie this year with 1998 as the warmest since record keeping began in 1880. “If 2014 maintains this temperature departure from average…
By Margaret-Anne Enders — Compassion was our November theme for the Women’s Spirituality Circle. It is a core value in each of the world religions and has had sticking power as a virtue throughout the ages. Despite its longevity, compassion is one of those enigmatic words: hard to define, hard to understand, and even harder to practice. Compassion and kindness are often used in the same breath, leading us to believe that they might be interchangeable; but, there are important differences. Kindness is about being friendly, gentle, and generous towards other people. Compassion is about joining with others in…
FILM CHRONICLES THE MOVEMENT TO SAVE A SACRED LAND AND A VISIONARY CULTURE — When Argentine filmmaker Hernán Vílchez made his way up into the remote Wixarika community of San Andrés Cohamiata Tateikie high in the Western Sierra Madre of Mexico, he knew he would be entering another world. What he didn’t know was how deeply it would change his own life. The movie tells the story of the Wixarika or Huichol people, one of the most intact precolonial people remaining in the Americas, and their battle to save the sacred site upon which their cosmovision depends from Canadian…
By Corinne Stromsten — Our adventures began many years ago when my children were just wee babes. My daughter Emily suffered from colic, eczema, and digestive issues. With the help of a naturopath the causes were pinpointed. She was found to have many food intolerances. I, too, was tested, and much to my surprise discovered I had more food sensitivities than my daughter. Wheat, dairy, gluten, corn, and sugar were just some of the foods we needed to avoid. This was the beginning of a huge change in the way we ate, how we cooked, and how we looked…
By Terri Smith — It’s not easy coming up with public confessions on a regular basis. I usually sit in front of my laptop until the screen turns black trying to think of just what I’m willing to share. Today is no exception. I always try to think of things that maybe you yourself have had trouble admitting: admissions not too shocking but still worth reading. We all have confessions to make, but most of us don’t put them in the newspaper. But at last, I think I have come up with a confession that I probably have in…
By Guy Dauncey — 1. Make a Sustainable Transportation Commitment Aim for zero-carbon future local transportation by creating a walkable downtown community with a great local cycling environment, and by adopting the best policies for ridesharing, car-sharing, transit, transportation demand management, and electric vehicles. Island Rideshare, Pender Island Car Stops, Kootenay Rideshare, and the Jack Bell Foundation are good rideshare examples. Most electric vehicles have a 100+ km range, so are quite practical for local trips. Grand Forks has built 6 km of multi-purpose bike paths. 2. Make a Sustainable Development Commitment Foster and encourage the best developments…
By Ciel Patenaude– We human beings will do just about anything to avoid really looking at ourselves, at our true selves. We will go to no ends to avoid really seeing and understanding our emotional damages and how they shape our lives—and what we can do about them. We will shop, eat, drink, drug, blame, exercise (or not exercise), and generally numb ourselves in a trillion different ways from day to day so we don’t have to come into contact with the core of our being, unsure about what we would do when we got there and really saw,…
“For us to maintain our way of living, we must tell lies to each other and especially to ourselves. The lies are necessary because, without them, many deplorable acts would become impossibilities.” ― Derrick Jensen, A Language Older Than Words This culture we live in is based on aggression and destruction. Unfortunately, now that I have two young girls to raise, I have discovered, or perhaps rediscovered, that fact. That might be my cynical side speaking, of course, but there have been a couple of reminders recently that drew this realization back into light: the Mount Polley mine tailings…
By Brianna van de Wijngaard — Williams Lake Food Policy Council As many of you now know, California and the surrounding region are having some hydration issues. They have been experiencing extreme drought conditions for the past three years, but it all came to a head in 2014, with projections for the worst drought on record, and the governor declaring a State of Emergency on January 17, 2014. The declaration cites four primary sources of low water levels: the California mountains snowpack (which normally provides about a third of the water for California’s farms and cities) was at…
Some years back, I left the Cariboo winter far behind and journeyed to a place of passion and unpredictability in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, perched on the edge of a living volcano. Today this tiny island is making international headlines for the lava that threatens to disrupt a community and change a way of life for the inhabitants. On this island, the goddess Pele has the final say.” Dear Readers, Winter is finally on our doorstep and the land is once again blanketed in snow. As we head into the festive season of giving, I like…