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Showing posts from April, 2008

Walk, bike. Push, rake

I live in a new, planned neighbourhood.  We enjoy the location as all buildings are new, well-kept as are the gardens.  It makes for pleasant walks and it makes us feel good to be able to live in such a place.  It actually has a bit of a resort feel.  Kind of like the resorts I used to go to with my parents as a kid....Hilton Head Island, Hilton Hawaiian Village.  Minus the beach.   Walking to the local coffee shop this morning I got a sense for the effort required to keep a place looking this pristine (unnatural?).  An army of people was out with leaf blowers, mowers, weed whackers.  All of them belching smoke and all of them belching noise.  I looked at the grass that was being cut and didn't feel that it needed to be cut yet as it was only a few centimetres long. I just went to the Canadian Government's ETC Pollution Calculation page and figured out how much carbon dioxide a five year old Honda lawnmower with a 5.5 horsepower engine would emit in 60 minutes of mowing.  The

250,000 Seals

Here in Vancouver, and I imagine in many cities across Canada there have been adverts in bus shelters proclaiming that we should not be getting angry over a late bus or other relatively unimportant items in our daily lives.  The International Fund for Animal Welfare ( IFAW ) states that, rather, we should be angry about the seal hunt that takes place off of Canada's east coast. My thought is that it really is all relative isn't it?   250,000 annual deaths in the U.S. from iatrogenic causes (a physician's activity, manner, therapy) 250,000 annual deaths in China due to tuberculosis 1,200,000 annual deaths on roads around the world 240,000 annual deaths due to measles in children under 5 years of age Anyhow....I could likely go on.  The above took 20 minutes to uncover.  So let's get a grip people.