Environmental Tip #1: Showering

Everybody knows about the usual environmental tips being passed around. Use a low-flow shower head, seal your windows, ride a bike, recycle, etc. I want to start mentioning some tips that I've applied to my life, so I can tell you how they work.

If you're like me (and most humans), you like having long, hot showers. But if you feel a little guilty about it each time, you're not alone. It takes a lot of energy to heat that water. Besides, clean water itself shouldn't be taken for granted anywhere, not even in urban Canada, as Vancouver recently demonstrated.

Environmental Tip #1: Showering

Shower in the evening instead of the morning. You are probably lingering longer than you mean to if you're half-asleep. Plus, your hair dries while you sleep so you never have to blow-dry, and you get to sleep in later in the morning!

After determining the absolute minimum number of minutes it takes to lather and rinse, take your shower exactly that number of minutes before your favourite television show starts. This is a win-win situation for me and Gilmore Girls.

If you have long or thick hair that takes a long time to lather, or you habitually soap up like there's no tomorrow, consider turning off that tap while you're doing so. I usually double up - shampoo and fancy face soap, rinse, conditioner and body soap, rinse. As a side note, I switched to a salon shampoo from a drugstore shampoo a few months ago, and it rinses out of my hair much faster (and reduces tangling, thanks Tanya!).

Jubs and Pembina to the Forks!

ALL LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT TEAM UP TO GIVE
WINNIPEGGERS MORE ENVIRONMENTALLY
SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION CHOICES

I nearly keeled over at first glance of this news release. Could it be true? All levels of government teaming together to fight the evil gingivitis, err, climate change?

“We are providing provincial support of $847,500 toward this exciting new transportation initiative that will, among other things, help create new walking paths and improve the existing ones, from the Forks area to Jubilee and Pembina... We are also supporting a new pilot project to encourage citizens to look at alternate transportation choices, so they can reduce the number of single occupancy car trips they take in the city.”

This is completely awesome. This is exactly what I wanted to hear.

Did I mention I work near the Forks and live near Jubs and Pembina?

The main objective of the WinSmart Showcase is to promote innovative approaches to urban transportation that increase energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Situated in the area of the city that experiences the heaviest traffic, between the University of Manitoba and downtown Winnipeg, the WinSmart Showcase promotes environmentally sustainable transportation practices in three strategic areas...

Tell me about it. Jubs and Pembina is about halfway between the U of M and Osborne Village, and O.V. is just outside downtown. I coughed on many a fume on my walks to work this summer.

One of the largest projects in WinSmart is the construction of an active transportation path from The Forks to the intersection of Jubilee Avenue and Pembina Highway.

Wasn't I just saying how much I missed walking to work?

Home grown foodstuffs

Remember how I was hoping someone would put together a list of Manitoba-produced food?

Well, the government went and did it. Yay government!

Travel in the City of Angels/Chocolate Lucky Charms

Los Angeles had the pleasure of hearing Enrique Peñalosa speak this month, just as I did this past summer in Montreal.

"To make more highways or bigger roads to solve traffic jams is like trying to put out a fire with gasoline."

I miss walking to work. Though many hearty Manitobans cycle and walk all the way through the winter season, I haven't been able to hack it and have bussing the 15 minutes to work instead of walking the 55 like I did in July and August. I'm looking forward to spring.

***

As a self-admitted white sugar junkie, a Grist article got me thinking:

"A product [sugar] that originally depended on slave labor became a key component in fueling the Industrial Revolution. Simultaneously, [Sweetness and Power author and anthropologist Sidney] Mintz reports, cheap sugar was taking hold in the rapidly industrializing United States (where the bitter tropical beverage of choice was coffee, not tea). Today, of course, the U.S. sweet tooth thrives, though now it's satisfied more by government-supported high-fructose corn syrup than by cane-derived sugar" (links same as the original article).

So your bowls of Chocolate Lucky Charms are basically soma. Mmm, tasty.

Eating locally

Someone is trying out a local, Manitoba diet. And she's documenting it for the Winnipeg Free Press, which is nothing short of excellent exposure for an amazing cause. Way to go Lindsey!

It's based on the 100 mile diet, which I first read about in an airplane magazine last July. It's really a simple concept - if you eat food that was produced locally, you are doing good for the local economy (supporting farmers and producers in your hometown or home province) as well as the global environment (products don't travel as far for our consumption, meaning less fossil fuels, less greenhouse gas emissions, less climate change and less air pollution).

I grew up in the city, with the vast majority of the food on my table coming from the Grocery Store. Some vegetables, and crab apples until my parents got rid of the tree, were available from our backyard and other relatively local gardens during the late summer and fall. In particular, my Baba continues to grow tomatoes like the world is ending (her house is a jungle before she transfers the plants outside). However, this has always been about the extent of my personal relationship with the food I eat. For the most part, this remains the case today.

To me, "the farm" has always represented in my mind this place that my grandparents and numerous relatives used to live on. I also remember is as a whimsical field trip taken during kindergarten. All I remember is the barnyard smell, and the baby chick that went to the bathroom on a girl classmate (to our horror), and the fly accidentally eaten by a boy classmate.


Besides building awareness and cultivating a push for eating local, I really hope the results of these WFP articles and accompanying blog can be turned into an online resource for everyone that wants to make the effort... myself included.