Nature and Ownership

I was going to write about natural herbicides and pesticides, but after having done extensive research, and drafting a rough copy, I decided not to post.  Why?  Because there are lots of great links out there, and I do not feel comfortable putting up pesticide recipes that are still toxic, even if they are natural, and do not have a long lasting environmental impact.  Any search engine will give you lots of information if you search “natural pesticides”.

What am I going to comment on?  Nature, and ownership.  The apartment that I rent is in a house that looks out over the woods.  There are flowers everywhere!  Right now, there are lots of daisies, and many, many, other flowers that I cannot identify, but wish I could.  When I get home in the evening, after it has been warm, the air is pregnant with the sweet smells of the various wild flowers.  I am lucky to live there.  However, whenever I am outside during the day, taking the dog for a walk, I have to fight the urge to pick flowers.  Why?  Because I feel that if I leave the flowers outside, in nature, they exist for everyone to enjoy (people and animals).  However, if I bring them inside, they immediately start to die, and the only ones to enjoy them are myself, and my partner.

This got me to thinking about the concept of ownership, and possession, and natural resources.  It seems to be a cultural impulse in North America to want to possess things.  If we like something, we automatically want to bring it home with us.  These thoughts led me to thinking about those natural resources that are essential for life:  food, water, and air.  Who owns these things?  Should we “own” these things?  There are so many implications… but as usual, I don’t feel that I know enough to form and opinion.  So I think I will do some research and then do a blog about the ownership of food, water and air.  (Not necessarily in that order).

I’ll see what I can come up with!

Lawn Madness

Lawn Madness…

I am a newbie on the P’lovers Port Perry team, and I didn’t think I would be an avid blogger, and yet, here I am pounding away on the keyboard! Thanks for taking the time to read the P’lovers Port Perry blog!

I was thrilled today to see a man mowing his lawn with a manual push reel lawn mower! We finally have legislation that prevents people from the needless and heavily polluting use of cosmetic pesticides. The next step is to educate people about the air pollution they emit when cutting their grass with a traditional two-stroke gasoline powered lawn mower!

What you should know:

- A two-stroke gasoline lawnmower burns gasoline and oil, and does so in a highly inefficient manner
- Running your two-stroke lawnmower for just 1 hour releases smog causing emissions equivalent to those released by driving your car for 600 kilometers!!
- Put another way: Running your two-stroke lawn mower for 1 hour releases the same amount of smog causing emissions as running 40 new automobiles for one hour!
- Another potential problem created by using a gas powered lawn mower, is the frequency of gas and oil spillage that happens when trying to fill a standard gas mower without a funnel
- Gas powered weed trimmers, lawn edgers, and leaf blowers have an environmental impact similar to a two-stroke gas powered lawnmower

What you can do to reduce your carbon footprint; not have a forest for a lawn; and not use kitchen scissors to cut your lawn:

- Try an electric lawnmower / trimmer / lawn edger (“I don’t like navigating the cord” is no longer an excuse – there are recharable options available that are cordless)
· Yes, I know, much of the electricity used could be generated in a pollution causing, fossil fuel based power plant, however, the David Suzuki Foundation points out that these plants are much more efficient than running thousands of fuel and oil burning lawnmowers!
· The average electric lanwmower only costs the user $5.00 per year in electricity!

- Try a solar powered lawn mower! These are emission free, and the fuel is free!
However, these mowers can be expensive…

- For another emission free, and a more cost effective alternative to a two-stroke lawnmower, try a manual, push-reel lawnmower!
· No, the new push-reel lawnmowers are NOT the same as the one your grandparents had! The new push-reel mowers can weigh as little as 16 lbs, and run more smoothly than the old push-reel mowers.
· A big bonus with a push-reel lawnmower is that it cuts the grass in smaller pieces which makes it excellent fertilizer! Just leave the clippings on the lawn, and they will compost, putting nitrogen back into the ground without water polluting chemical fertilizers!
· Also, push-reel lawnmowers are silent, and great exercise!

- If you absolutely cannot give up on gas powered lawn mowers, consider purchasing a newer, 4-stroke engine gas mower. While this is not the most ideal choice, 4-stroke mowers still emit less pollution than 2-stroke mowers.

- The last option is switching from grass, to a low maintnence, native local ground
cover such as clover, or other herbal options!

Information sourced from:

The Clean Air Foundation, “Mow Down Pollution: Facts and Info,” http://www.cleanairfoundation.org/mowdownpollution/facts.mdp.asp

The David Suzuki Foundation, “Garden Tools Shouldn’t Pollute,” May 9, 2003, http://www.davidsuzuki.org/about_us/Dr_David_Suzuki/Article_Archives/weekly05090301.asp

Our Coffee Obsession!

Anyone who has even a passing familiarity with this blog can be forgiven for thinking that we , at P’lovers, are obsessed with coffee — specifically the organic, fair-trade variety. It’s true … not only do we sell (what we are convinced is) the best organic fair-trade coffee from the Creemore Coffee Company, we all consume (vast) quantities of the stuff daily and go out of our way to find great coffee while on the road.

Since my “It’s Coffee Time” post at the beginning of August on organic, fair-trade coffee at Coffee Time, I’ve had the opportunity to try it on several occasions. There is a Coffee Time location near my parents house in Oshawa so I make a point of stopping in whenever I am in the neighbourhood.

The coffee itself is quite good, although I have to admit the corporate decision by Coffee Time to go this route is a bit of head-scratcher. To say that this product philosophy is a new, perhaps uncharted, direction for the company might be a bit of an understatement.

On my first foray into a Coffee Time, when I asked for two large organic, fair-trades, I was told that there wasn’t a pot on. I detected the slightest little bit of resentment when I cheerily replied, “that’s okay, I’ll wait!”

While the coffee was brewing, I pressed the woman, in vain, for more information about the coffee. Unfortunately, she hadn’t tried it, had yet to serve it to any customers, and, in general, didn’t know anything about it. Believe me, based on that experience, had I not been going in specifically for this coffee, I definitely would not tried it.

When I came back the following week, the same woman told me that there had yet to be another customer requesting the organic fair-trade. I told her, only half-joking, that I will stop at every Coffee Time I see and order it with the goal of single-handedly driving demand for this product.

Ya’ do what ya’ gotta’ do. Sounds like a coffee obsession to me.

-Steve

Put Your Coffee Where Your Mouth Is…

Here I am back from yet another Canadian holiday! I spent the last two weeks enjoying the East Coast of this vast country of ours. My husband and I relaxed, walked, ate, shopped, hiked, rode bikes and had the good fortune to savour many good seafood meals.

While in Halifax we found ourselves visiting more than one Starbucks for a good cup of joe. They serve organic fair trade coffee and boast that their take out cups are recyclable. I always ask for a real mug when I am staying in and bring my own travel mug when I take it out with me. At one location I was told not to worry their cups were recyclable, I responded with the question “Do you recycle them?” Her answer surprised even herself when she said “No”

At another location I ordered for myself and the three who were with me, I asked if our coffee could be served in mugs, the young barrista told me that the mugs were all in the dishwasher so he would have to put them in take out cups. I replied that I am an environmentalist and would wait for the mugs.

After having fun at my expense and chuckling, my companions began to discuss the whole business of take out coffee cups and the double cupping Tim Horton’s does if you buy tea which led to a barrage of other environmental thoughtless actions that surround us.

I hope that my refusal of take out cups will make others think twice before giving in, it is such a small thing to ask to have your coffee/tea served in a mug, but it speaks volumes to those around you, and there are always many people in Starbucks.

Put your coffee where your mouth is!

-Jude

Recycling Compact Fluorescent Bulbs

Always love to learn something new … As I was researching miter saws on the Rona website the other day, I learned that they have a compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL) recycling program.

We converted all the light bulbs in our house to CFLs a couple of years ago. It is a very simple, tiny first step to reducing our impact on the environment. However, not having a plan for the spent bulbs has been something that has long bothered me.

Thanks to Rona, this is no longer a problem! Check out their website for a detailed description of the program, plus a list of all participating locations.