recycle2shop.com

Spray your roof with special reflective white paint and cool down your attic…not so critical in already ‘cool’ Victoria, BC but an important step to take for homeowners in the rest of Canada. The paint is just rolled on over the roof tiles - read all about it at coolroofs.org

Wacky news for the day - Bernie Madoff’s trousers have been upcycled into iPad holders - yuck!

Good news for Victoria - FolkWest is coming this weekend and it’s free Friday night. This Friday to Sunday at Royal Athletic Park - Caledonia and Cook. I am biking there, how about you? Ron Sexsmith is headlining as well as our own Dan Lapp. AND there is a beer tent - how great is that? I will be there after Moss St Market on Saturday and Government Street Market on Sunday.

The Green Capital of Europe, Stockholm in Sweden aims to use only non-fossil fuels for heating by 2050. They already heat most of Stockholm with biofuel. BC’s landscape could be a twin to Sweden, except we have more land which we take for granted (or at least our government seems to-allowing old growth forests to disappear, for instance and pipelines threaten our shores).Here’s a thing - biogas from 100 banana peels can fuel a small car for 9k. Victoria could do with banana fuel…our landfill is soon going to overflow. Which reminds me, I need to bury my own anaerobic compost as my bucket is also soon going to overflow.
Here is a video meditation to help us achieve calm in the face of uncertainty and fear.

Produced by Steve Wollaston with support from Ian Mowll Courtesy of Greenspirit.org.uk

Music from Journeys into a Gold Horizon by Rafael Szaban www.indigoseamusic.com

I have been hoarding my plastic & Styrofoam recycle for months. Thank heavens for reFUSE in Victoria - it’s on Government Street between Chinatown and Bay Street. They take everything plastic, including waxed cartons, chip bags (with the aluminium lining) and styrofoam - as long as you take it already sorted.

My garden paths are looking quite sartorial with their latest covering of fabric remnants - saved from Recycle2shop’s bag and apron making.
Victoria Downtown Market was busy this weekend with some tourists from as far away as Texas and England.

The Gay Pride Parade started as usual from our corner on Pandora and Government Street - loved the energy as Lady Gaga’s music pounded out of the speakers. The costumes this year looked fantastic - loads of feathers of course.

Latest eco cleaning tip - olive oil with a few drops of lemon juice or essence make for a friendly furniture polish.

I read a clear explanation of our climate change denial by a geneticist, human rights worker, Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard: “Imagine a ship that is sinking and needs all the available power to run the pumps to drain out the rising waters. The first class passengers refuse to cooperate because they feel hot and want to use the air-conditioner and other electrical appliances. The second-class passengers spend all their time trying to be upgraded to first-class status. The boat sinks and the passengers all drown. That is where the present approach to climate change is leading. ” as quoted in The New York Times, Opinion Pages of June 23, 2011.

Summer has finally arrived in Victoria bringing people out to local markets. One local seagull welcomed us back to Centennial & Government street by divebombing and leaving a ’splot’ on Recycle2shop’s tent - leaving tourists alone for once. We will be back in Centennial Square in 2 weeks after 4 weeks on ‘the street’ by Chinatown.

Recycle2shop will not be at Moss Street Market this Saturday. We will be at Centennial Square on Sunday for the Victoria Downtown Market.

The Ancient Forest Alliance has released another vid to try to save BC’s ancient trees.

Eco tips for May.
The easy way to shiny silver: pot of water, 1T baking soda, 1T salt, aluminum foil and silver anything - bring to the boil for a few minutes and watch the magic. Works best if you scrunch up the foil so that the silver is in contact.
Moth away: nasty clothes moths stay away when you add a few drops of Bergamot, Lavender and Lemon oil to the bottom of your drawers. Or when you put your clothes away for the winter, put a few drops on a piece of cedar and store in the bag with your clothes.

Elizabeth May - Green Party MP, is to speak in Victoria, Wednesday May 18 at the Alix Goolden Hall at 7pm. Included in her talk is information about the Kyoto Protocol to be discussed (again) at the next UN Climate Conference in South Africa in December.
Meanwhile, in our own climate dilemma, we had to cancel the Downtown Market in Centennial square - the rain was relentless! Saturday, however was lovely at the Moss Street Market in Fairfield. Here’s hoping for dry weather for the long weekend - Victoria Day in Victoria.

Images courtesy of Moss Street Market.

We are finally twits - yup, started tweeting yesterday. It’s a great place to find eco news by following eco twitters. And it’s fun! If you want to get hooked, join me and twit/tweet.

400,000 honeybees arrive at the Empress Hotel on May 26. Kama Silva is the super chef behind this initiative; the honeybees come from Surrey BC apiarist John Gibeau. Victoria honey will soon be served with high tea in the Empress’ tea rooms. Kudos to Fairmont Empress for sustainability, they also partner with Ocean Wise for sustainable seafood. I have a soft spot for the Empress - back in the mists of time I was one of their tour guides for the renovation. Picture courtesy of Surrey’s Honey Bee Centre

Tom Pederson (exec of Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions) gave his climate talk at Uvic last night. He is so easy to listen to - we get the science and stats in lay persons talk - we get solutions that are supportable. PICS works with politicians to find climate solutions even when PICS findings are contrary to government policies. So you ask, what are these solutions then? The biggy is to sell BC hydro power (from the wacky dam - Bennett’s) eastwards instead of southwards - to Alberta and Saskatchewan so that those provinces can get rid of coal power. Our hydro electricity would enable those provinces to use wind power (the windiest parts of Canada) with hydro power picking up the slack. We heard about the ethanol scandal - corn grown in southern US for ethanol needs added nitrates which poison the Gulf of Mexico thus neutralizing any advantage to replacing Arabian oil with home grown ethanol. PIC’s studies are freely available on their website at the University of Victoria.
Andrew Weaver of UVic’s team at Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium (PCIC) - not to be confused with PICS. They are researching climate systems that, in part, will determine how much water will be available in the future for BC Hydro Electricity.
How lucky are we that these two scientists, working at the University of Victoria can influence BC politicians to do the ‘right’ thing for our ‘eearth’.