Amazing speech by Mr. Suzuki tonight. It definitely solidified my concerns and commitment for promoting and practicing good environmentally friendly habits. As a nation, we need to put pressure on politicians and business that reflects our concerns for our local, national, and global environments. Politicians such as Steven Harper are only concerned about getting re-elected with a majority government the next time around, if he is going to do this, the public must make it clear that the environment will be a huge factor in achieving this, not a 1% GST cut. The link below is to a paper published in 1992 and is signed by over 1200 of the top scientists in the world. Over HALF of all Nobel Prize winners have signed this document. When the paper was released none of the Globe and Mail, New York Times, Washington Post, CBC News, or CNN covered or released this information to the public because it was not deemed news worthy.

http://www.ucsusa.org/ucs/about/1992-wo ... anity.html

Please spread the word, have environmentally friendly habits, and be enthusiastic and passionate. If just a few of us can pass this on through our relationships the effect can be immense. Below is a link to Mr. Suzuki's "Nature Challenge". Sign up, put in some effort, and we will all be better off.

http://www.davidsuzuki.org/NatureChallenge/

Good post Colin. Suzuki is a great public speaker. Motivating and inspiring. Saw him speak at the U of Waterloo in 198? (damn I'm getting old).

sometimes I find it hard to see where windsurfing and kiting fit into the whole environmental view. on one hand both sports are wind powered, but on the other we drive to Gordons, Nitinat, etc. Lots of gas, need a vehicle. All our stuff is made overseas.

overall, I think kiting may have the nod over windsurfing wrt the environment. seems like less gear and more in town days compared to driving to gordons to avoid the Kook bubble.

Yeah, I understand that our sport is not like walking or something like that which requires much less stuff. However, if you compare our sport to something like dirt biking or snowmobiling we are far better off. Those guys drive their big trucks all the way out of town, drop off their gear, burn gas all day, come back to a home that probably has all the lights and heat on. But I'm not about to sit back and be completely environmentally friendly when so many other people aren’t concerned and are destroying the planet anyways.

I am more enthusiastic about lifestyle changes which can be made that do not affect the quality of life but if everyone were to then it would have a huge impact. Changes like taking your own grocery bag, buying a reusable coffee mug, not using paper napkins disposable cutlery or plates, not getting a bag for little items bought in stores, and recycling! I still walk into friends homes and see recyclables in the garbage. THE ROLL AT THE END OF YOUR TOILET PAPER IS CARDBOARD.....RECYCLE IT!

Thanks for reading.

Colin, good for having the balls to post about this.

It's great to see people offering and looking to carpool on this forum. That's an awesome use of web technology. When it comes to global climate change reducing your driving is the #1 impact.

Hate to say it but not having kids also hugely reduces consumption and is probably the best thing you can do for the planet at the moment.

Stoked to see you post this. Dialogue is where it all starts. Just think how rad it would be if every kiter recycled 1 peice of beach garbage every time they went to the beach...
It starts small but can make a big difference.

Thanks for you words, intentions and actions.

Erik.

Up here in comox/courtenay i'm pretty sure that most people are unsure what recycling is. It makes me sick, everything just goes in the garbage, worse yet is the construction industry as far as I can tell. Most garbage (including recyclables) are just burned or sent to the dump in huge quantities. Nothing like a fire bellowing thick toxic black smoke to get the birds chirping (or keeling over one or the other)... Since I came back to work, I've been constantly separating recyclables and taking them to the few recycling centers around. I can't believe that the home pick up (blue box) thing hasn't spread here yet either...
One day I suppose... until then the extremely wasteful behaviour will continue.

Local governments need to make recycling easier. I live in an apartment and all I have to do is take my stuff downstairs to a bin and it’s gone. The collection from houses is much too sparse and inconvenient for most folks to give any effort. If there was a system where people could dump off their recycling whenever they wanted and didn't have to go anywhere to do so it would make things much easier for people.

Also, local governments need to start promoting this issue. I don't know how many ads I've seen for bait cars on television and on the radio. How many car thieves are these ads deterring? Start putting some larger recycling campaigns out there!

Parksville has curb side recycling and a drop off depot too. I'm surprised Courtenay Comox doesn't.

Blister packs are one of my hobby-horses. Seems like everything nowadays comes wrapped in several layers of plastic, for no good reason. I think a lot of this started with Tylenol back in the 80s (?) when the crazy ex-employee started replacing regular caplets with cyanide ones. OK, so over-the-counter drugs might need some 'tamper-proof' stuff, but why should a toy or a box of screws

There was a nice exhibit at one of the big museums some historical archaeologists did back in the '90s - they had all the garbage from one year from the earliest Euro-US single family households (Mayflower immigrants), and one from the 1700s, one from the 1800s, and the 1900s. The first Mayflower-types threw out enough non-perishables to be held on a dinner plate (everything was pretty much reused till it broke, then modified into something else), the 1700s covers a small card table, the 1800s fills up a bunch of tables, and the 1900s they had to sample because it would fill a room.

The first explicitly use-once-then-thow-away product was the first commercial tobacco in England. Little clay pipes came pre-loaded with tobacco, you smoked it and threw it away. When the addiction got too strong and the supply almost limitless, re-usable pipes were introduced. But archaeological sites around London dating from the later 1600s are notable for the thousands upon thousands of discarded pipes. Its been all downhill since then.

colin wrote:Local governments need to make recycling easier

Haven't been to Hartland landfill for a while, but a couple years ago, the CRD started charging a fee to drop off recyclable materials. Very backwards thinking in my view. I wish they would change that.

Joe

Styrofoam is a problem as well. It takes up a lot of volume & isn't 'blue box' friendly. http://www.crd.bc.ca/es/hartland/recycl ... alvagearea

Here's any easy way to save a LOT of newsprint: Cancel delivery of the Saanich/Victoria/Oak Bay News. that's the paper that comes 2x a week and is FILLED with flyers, esp at christmas. I'll bet most people just chuck it into the recycling bin. You're likely too busy either sailing or kiting to read it anyhow

Here is the email I sent awhile ago, to <>

====================================

Please permanently stop delivery of Vicnews to the following address:

<Your address here>

Why:
- the paper creates extra waste for us.
- the carrier wakes us up every Wed and Fri morning at 5:30am as they go up our stairs.
- way too many flyers in the paper.
- we generally don't read it.

thanks in advance for your cooperation,

Mike and Mary Jane Teachman

hmm, careful here, one should consider that these papers are the community communications link....if you read any paper you should probably be up on local news and support local events....Cancel the big paper rags, nothing but bad news in them anyway. I do concur on the flyers etc. tho, very frustrating

My daughter likes it tho, her first job and all delivering the local news, kinda cool. And, well, whether you recycle it or the paper does, they still produce the same numbers I'm sure

Taking the oil FILTER as well as the used oil from your vehicle (4 those of you like me who still do it yourself, not in having a pedicure while getting the vehicle serviced or some such newly rich thing to do) to any service station ensures they squeeze all last drops out of the old unit. Maybe wrap it up in a local newspaper tho in case it topples inside your vehicle

I also do a lot of construction stuff around the house and always take the time to cut up old lumber and use it for firewood. When I see the huge piles of old wood driven in trucks to the landfill I wonder what it is that makes people not appreciate free firewood just cuz it's got a few nails in it. Pallets for example, free at tons of hardware and box stores, use a lot of exotic woods, oak, other foreign hardwoods that make excellent firewood. The nails any carbide bit cuts through like butter, just do wear those faceshields, no probs.

Apart from that I get my firewood from the beach mostly, reduces erosion of the beaches and walls, keeps things tidy and live trees standing.

With the gas prices I have to admit driving a warpig like mine is a bit of a fuel sinner but I appreciate still the protection and storage space, can haul a trailer instead of driving a motorhome etc. My driving planning has hit a new level where pooling with others, planning effective and efficient routes and hitting the stores not on a whim but leave it for the next time when I go that way....missed the bit of wind yesterday tho cuz I stopped at the bank, the liquorstore, the hardware store and the insurance place....then, slogg city, gotta have the priorities straight

I just bought a road bike cause I'm sick of driving my truck when there is no need for it. Great exercise!

And how about Harper wanting to scrap the Kyoto agreement. Canada is the head of the board for the entire thing and now Harper is scrapping it!? He claims that the goals are unrealistic and the Liberals left it with him even though "they knew it would never work". Just because something is a challenge does not mean it should be forgotten all together. What happened to the "Never give up" mentality. This is no lesson, or situation, to be giving the younger generations of this country. Out with the old, in with the new! This country needs a leader who considers both sides of the story, makes decisions based on what is important and valuable, not decisions that are good for his career.

And about the waste we create as a nation. Taxes should be placed on corporations and companies that are in a direct relationship with the amount of waster their products create. If a company has to pay for that excessive packaging they are sure to drop it all together.