By Lisa Bland — This summer, if you fancy heading out on a road trip with stunning scenery and extra ordinary adventure, why not follow a section of the old Cariboo Waggon Road, a route of days gone by that leads to hidden historical tourism gems tucked in the Cariboo Mountains. Taking a right-hand turn after Quesnel and driving 80 km east along the meandering Hwy 26, along the historical gold rush route, leads to the gold mining area of the Wells, Barkerville, and Bowron Lakes region. Here, the invigorating air of wild alpine vistas converge with ghosts of miners…
Author: thegreengazette
By Ray Grigg — Anthropologists such as Ronald Wright in his book, A Short History of Progress, and physiologist Jared Diamond in his, Collapse, are not the only ones noting the precarious condition of civilizations. Now, a report by a multi-disciplinary team of natural and social scientists from the University of Maryland, led by an applied mathematician Safa Motesharri of the US National Science Foundation, has brought the precautionary message from the past much closer to the present. In our globalized civilization, this “economic stratification” is evident in the vast disparity between wealthy, industrialized cultures and the impoverished ones…
By Ron Young — Blooming of the natural world in springtime and early summer brings us back to our outdoor pursuits, which in BC are often in remote locations. If we have the benefit of a seasonal home, a summer cabin, or an RV then chances are some kind of electrical power system is installed. A few years ago these systems were simply a portable generator with an extension cord, but the evolution of that idea has led to quieter, less expensive renewable energy solutions like solar panels and wind generators. A power system that hasn’t been used for…
By Bill Chapman — As the snow of another stubborn winter finally recedes, one cry that won’t be heard across the Cariboo is, “Time to watch for the snowbank mushrooms,” or “Hark, morel mushroom season fast approaches; find the baskets!” Sadly these are not common thoughts in spring in the Cariboo and more is the pity because the Cariboo is rich in mushroom bounty. It is hard to say why some communities are mushroom-mad and others are indifferent. Some blame it on the British Isles. Only the people from the British Isles are singularly mushroom- indifferent. However, the Quebecois seem to…
By Calvin Dubray and the Horsefly Green Team — This endeavour started with adult mentors posing a challenge to the Student Leadership Team at Horsefly Elementary Junior Secondary. The challenge was to propose a question that would form the foundation of a Youth Healthy Inquiry Project. Students came up with the following: What is your question? How much can we reduce our school’s carbon footprint in one year? What plans do you have to answer your question? (What steps will you take?) 1. We will set up recycling stations in each classroom (including Strong Start) and other high-use areas such as…
By Ciel Patenaude — What is often seen as the “childlike” tendency to attribute human qualities to animals and the rest of the nonhuman world has long been criticized as undeveloped thinking by many so-called sophisticated realists and philosophers. Viewed as a process of immature “psychological projection”—the process through which a person unconsciously rejects his or her own unacceptable attributes by ascribing them to objects or persons in the outside world—connecting with other species and even non-living objects in this way has been denigrated as a lower form of relation, and an expression of an undeveloped perspective on existence. The…
By Terri Smith — As spring starts to feel like it actually is just around the corner, I realize that I know a lot more now than I did at the end of last season; and thank goodness for that since the following is an only somewhat embellished account of where I was at in December … Statistics Canada called this morning before I’d even had my coffee. They wanted to know about my yields of vegetables for the previous year. To begin, what crops did I plant? Sheesh! I planted at least fifty different crops, but fine, I’ll list…
By Jessica Kirby — There are many ways to ring in spring, but none that will have the same global impact as Fair Trade Fortnight – Fairtrade Canada’s two-week, all out celebration of reigning fairness and decency down on the global marketplace. We’ve all seen the stickers and fingered through the pamphlets, but what do we really know about the Fair Trade certification system and its impact on world commerce? Though coffee drinkers and banana fans will likely have a good idea of how Fairtrade International (FLO) and its members, including Fairtrade Canada, run their show, for many the concept…
By Ron Young — In 1789 Benjamin Franklin coined the phrase “nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Ben, a true renaissance man, is considered by some the father of electricity. In Franklin’s experiments he tapped electricity at the end of a kite string during an electrical storm and was able to demonstrate that it had certain properties that no one had previously understood. Since then electricity generation has become one of the most important commodities of the civilized world. But if Ben were alive today maybe he would have said: nothing can be certain…
By Jessica Kirby — After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.” — Philip Pullman These are the coldest months of the year. They spread out grey before us with the sparkle of Christmas left behind and the promise of spring just out of reach. As we hunker down by fires and in feather blankets, taking solace from icy sidewalks and darker days, we are drawn into the perfect storm of yearning, nostalgia, and coziness. Before written word, music, dance, and possibly even speech, humans and their close evolutionary ancestors were telling stories…
By Ray Grigg — A unique kind of book is being written at Edgewood Blue in British Columbia’s Upper Clearwater Valley. Instead of using words, paragraphs, and pages, Trevor Goward has been using water, soil, and plants. His ideas are not expressed with phrases, sentences, or punctuation but in channels, islands, and stones. Goward’s “book” is the painstaking restoration of a dying marsh, a meticulous and loving effort to return an incredibly rich ecological feature to its former biological glory. This lifetime of work is his “marsh book.” Goward’s project has been huge, complex, and ambitious. Edgewood Blue has been…
By Susan R. Johnson, M.D. — This is a condensed version of a paper that was presented at the Waldorf School of San Francisco on 5/1/99 as part of a senior project. The full version can be found at thelizlibrary.org. It may be freely copied and distributed. TV rots the senses in the head! It kills the imagination dead! It clogs and clutters up the mind! It makes a child so dull and blind. He can no longer understand a fantasy, a fairyland! His brain becomes as soft as cheese! His powers of thinking rust and freeze!” – Charlie and…
Image source: www.soilsensor.com By Brianna van de Wijngaard –It’s amazing how close spring can feel once the holidays are done and gone. There is a period of relief once the garden is put to bed in the fall, then relaxation as there seems no end in sight to the winter months. Then January 1 rolls around and all of a sudden, it isn’t two months until March… it’s EIGHT WEEKS! That’s it? Where did the time go?! Oh, that’s right: I spent it sleeping in, eating, and possibly subscribing to a Netflix trial account. Ok, that’s fine. Everything is still under…
By Lisa Bland — Artists and visionaries throughout the ages have stood at the edges of worlds unseen—gatekeepers to parallel universes, reminding us of the myths, dreamscapes, and mysteries that exist within and around us in every moment, yet lie just beyond our reach. The trust and courage required to stand fully and authentically in the center of one’s creative flow and allow it to dictate the structure of life is a remarkable task in today’s modern paradigm of security-focused consciousness. Imagine you could walk in two worlds—parallel universes, where the fabric of reality blended with inklings from other dimensions,…
By Lisa Bland — Dear Readers, The darkest days of winter are gone and although there’s no sign of green life stirring under the heavy blanket of snow, the light is returning. I notice my plants reaching higher towards the window, seeking the sun, waiting out the days until they’ll be transported outside. In the Cariboo we are no stranger to long winters, but are so often blessed with blue skies, sunshine, and sparkling days that the season is pure magic for those who venture to the backcountry, hit the local ski hills, or head out on x-country skis or…
By Ron Young — While much of western society has become overweight and unhealthy from the food we consume we have also become obese with information; it’s just not as evident. Great selections of edible products masquerading as food have become easily available at low cost. That faux food can fill us up and feel satisfying while robbing our bodies of essential nutrients, leading to fat, undernourished, and unhealthy bodies. It is a constant struggle to navigate the literal minefield of bad food, which in many cases is merely a chemical construct of some thing that stimulates our taste…
By David Suzuki — As people in the Philippines struggle with devastation and death from the worst storm to hit land in recorded history, world leaders met in Warsaw, Poland, to discuss the climate crisis. “What my country is going through as a result of this extreme climate event is madness. The climate crisis is madness,” Yeb Sano, lead negotiator for the Philippines, told the opening session of the UN climate summit, which ran until November 22. “We can stop this madness. Right here in Warsaw.” Given the slow progress at the 18 meetings held since 1992 – when countries…
By Diane Dunaway — The relationship between humans and honey bees goes back a long way. Cave art from an estimated 8,000 years ago shows a honey-gatherer risking life and limb in pursuit of a sweet reward. Bees and flowers go back even further in their connection. They’ve co-evolved for over 10 million years. The flowers benefit from pollination, thus procreation, while the bees are rewarded with pollen and nectar, nutritional essentials in their life cycle. Of the 20,000 bee species now known, less than 10 are honey bees. Yet after the common fruit fly, honey bees are the second…
By Lisa Bland — Dear Readers, I can’t believe we’ve already entered the heart of winter and the shortest, darkest days of the year. Although it’s been fairly moderate so far, it still seems like the change in the weather dropped in out of the blue. The scramble for winter tires, snow shovels, snow scrapers, and warm clothing always comes as a bit of a shock, especially when it dips down below -20 and we quickly find out just how winterized we are. Winter brings many blessings too—dazzling snow covered peaks, crisp sunny days and outdoor activities in the snowy…