One of my passions is the green movement. Even before it became a movement I was thinking green. I may not have acted all that green back then with the exception of never littering and even cleaning up random litter as I passed it but it was an effort and mindset regardless. I grew up on bikes like most kids do and that has always been a passion of mine. I have been an avid recreational cyclist all my life and continue still to ride at 43. The past 3 years however have made it very difficult. I spent most of my life in Victoria B.C. where there are bikes everywhere and bike lanes as well. It’s a very bike friendly city and getting better every day. Where I am now however… if you ride on the road you risk life and limb. I have joined a local network of cyclists to add my voice to any arguements they may need to present to the city.
As well as cycling, I am re-cycling as well. I try to recycle everything. I got rid of almost all my plastic tupperware and all my clothes and furniture are recycled as well (meaning used/second hand). I live in a small basement suite to reduce costs as well. It’s a daily concious effort to do my part and thankfully many many others are doing it as well. Unfortunately not enough and we are running out of time. So… this part of my blog will feature green related randomness about it all. I hope you take something from it and perhaps spread the word as well.
Scott
So. A good friend of mine over on Facebook fired me off this link. http://www.blackle.com/
It seems legit but before I go about making it a homepage or even advertising it all over the web… i would like to know for sure if it is in truth part of Google or not. I would also love to know if what they say in the “about” section is true or not. They speak about how setting your monitor to pretty much black, you save a ton in energy. Tell me what you think about this. I might just go black and never go back. lol
Hey scott,
Quodos on the green lifestyle. I have often thought of what I called the hippie capital of North America…… Tofino, B.C.
When I had my business there (1991-1995) we of course learned much of the history ot the town and area. Hippies were there in abundance, living on various beaches …… starting in the late 50′s until the park was made. Many children were created, and some born on the beach.
In the 90′s, the same clothing and attitudes were there, but they were then called “tree huggers”, and is when the Carmanah became a house hold word.
The ‘hippie’ movement, of enviromentaly concious people now grown up, and residing in Tofino, ended up creating a recycling system where residents brought there recycling to a central area. There were bins for plastics of all types. Metal and glass were separated. Not only from each other, but glass was separated into 3 colour groups.
Cycling and walking was an essential form of transportation, and a pathway was built alongside highway 4. In the more central area to Tofino, it was on the same surface as the highway, but when there was room, it became a separate pathway from the paved roadway.
Since you have left Victoria, the bicycle path system is expanding slowly. The Admirals road bridge has just been replaced,and inclusive of the design is additional width of the bridge to accomodate a bicycle path in both directions.
Sorry, I do not know the dynamics of Calgary well enough to know if Calgary is swallowing suburbs of different names….. (such as the mailing address of Victoria includes Saanich, Colwood, etc) But perhaps you will have more success with a suburb creating dedicated bicycle paths? They are more likely to have the phsical room to put the bike lane in, than the central core of downtown Calgary is.
Tofino, being a minor community (for population density) made advances far ahead of the major cities in this province. It has always struck me as odd, that a community of then 800 residents could put together a program so far advanced of even the capital city of the province.
Perhaps, you could find more success, putting your cycling collective shoulders together, to work on the politicians of a smaller community first…….. and put the larger one to shame.
Just a thought.
Awesome post Neil. Thanks. How right you are on that last note… it has to start small to have any effect at all. Somewhere on here I posted a saying… Act locally, think Globally. Or something like that. lol. The idea is simple… affect a few friends. They in turn affect a few of their own. Before you know it… communities become aware and it grows from there.
The inpatient side of me wants it all to happen now of course but the realistic side of me acknowledges it may take a lifetime. I only hope we have a lifetime.
Thanks Neil. Great post.
Over at Bike Calgary, a person had posted this wonderful video. I wanted to share it as I love everything about it. I play guitar, I ride, I like going green. This combines it all. Check it out.
So I came across the fella who is living entirely without cash. A tough thing to do if you really break it down. We live in a society that has become so dependant on cash and cash flow that even the laws work within the confines and those who try to live outside those confines sometimes face jail or fines. Its ridiculous to think for a moment that if you bought some land and wanted to live on it your way, say… a cabin and grow your own food and crap in a hole in a corner somewhere that all that is actually against the law! I dont know the rules in many countries but here in Canada, this is illegal. The goverment actually dictates the size of the home you have to build if you want to live on your own land. You cant live in anything but what they say you can. Amazing. You dont have rights people. Not really.
Anyways, here is the fellow and his post which can be viewed here http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/green-living-blog/2009/oct/28/live-without-money
Mark Boyle outside his off-grid caravan. Photograph: Mark Boyle
I live without cash – and I manage just fineArmed with a caravan, solar laptop and toothpaste made from washed-up cuttlefish bones, Mark Boyle gave up using cash
In six years of studying economics, not once did I hear the word “ecology”. So if it hadn’t have been for the chance purchase of a video called Gandhi in the final term of my degree, I’d probably have ended up earning a fine living in a very respectable job persuading Indian farmers to go GM, or something useful like that. The little chap in the loincloth taught me one huge lesson – to be the change I wanted to see in the world. Trouble was, I had no idea back then what that change was.
After managing a couple of organic food companies made me realise that even “ethical business” would never be quite enough, an afternoon’s philosophising with a mate changed everything. We were looking at the world’s issues – environmental destruction, sweatshops, factory farms, wars over resources – and wondering which of them we should dedicate our lives to. But I realised that I was looking at the world in the same way a western medical practitioner looks at a patient, seeing symptoms and wondering how to firefight them, without any thought for their root cause. So I decided instead to become a social homeopath, a pro-activist, and to investigate the root cause of these symptoms.
One of the critical causes of those symptoms is the fact we no longer have to see the direct repercussions our purchases have on the people, environment and animals they affect. The degrees of separation between the consumer and the consumed have increased so much that we’re completely unaware of the levels of destruction and suffering embodied in the stuff we buy. The tool that has enabled this separation is money.
If we grew our own food, we wouldn’t waste a third of it as we do today. If we made our own tables and chairs, we wouldn’t throw them out the moment we changed the interior decor. If we had to clean our own drinking water, we probably wouldn’t contaminate it.
So to be the change I wanted to see in the world, it unfortunately meant I was going to have to give up cash, which I initially decided to do for a year. I got myself a caravan, parked it up on an organic farm where I was volunteering and kitted it out to be off-grid. Cooking would now be outside – rain or shine – on a rocket stove; mobile and laptop would be run off solar; I’d use wood I either coppiced or scavenged to heat my humble abode, and a compost loo for humanure.
Food was the next essential. There are four legs to the food-for-free table: foraging wild food, growing your own, bartering, and using waste grub, of which there is loads. On my first day, I fed 150 people a three-course meal with waste and foraged food. Most of the year, though, I ate my own crops.
To get around, I had a bike and trailer, and the 34-mile commute to the city doubled up as my gym subscription. For loo roll I’d relieve the local newsagents of its papers (I once wiped my arse with a story about myself); it’s not double-quilted, but I quickly got used to it. For toothpaste I used washed-up cuttlefish bone with wild fennel seeds, an oddity for a vegan.
What have I learned? That friendship, not money, is real security. That most western poverty is of the spiritual kind. That independence is really interdependence. And that if you don’t own a plasma screen TV, people think you’re an extremist.
People often ask me what I miss about my old world of lucre and business. Stress. Traffic jams. Bank statements. Utility bills.
Well, there was the odd pint of organic ale with my mates down the local.
• Mark Boyle is the founder of The Freeconomy Community.