Resources
March Going Green Tip:
A clever person will use March to alleviate their cabin fever by thinking about the gardening soon to come. While making plans for your garden, why not plan to make your garden your own little eco-paradise? You can successfully and relatively easily -- and inexpensively grown your lawn and garden. According to Canadian Living, "... the average suburban lawn uses six times the hazardous chemicals per acre as conventional farming. Per hour of operation, a gas mower emits 10 times as much hydrocarbon as a car." When greening up your yard in an environmentally friendly way, think about these things:
Start a compost pile. Not only can you eliminate a fair amount of green waste from your garbage stream, you will also be generating food for your garden.
Use organic fertilizers for your lawn and garden. Manure is excellent for most gardens!
Get rid of your gas powered gadgets. Buy a push mower - and if you don't want to push it, hire a teen to cut your grass for you! We love our push mower. Quiet and effective, you can hear the birds sing while you get some exercise.
Invest in knowledge, not pesticides and herbicides. And if you're lucky enough to live somethere where those baddies have been banned, all the better to invest in knowledge. Rodale books are excellent sources of information. Rodale has been practising organic gardening for 30 years. Some communities train volunteers to act as a resource for local people wanting to learn more about gardening - see if your community has a Master Gardener program. And if you're feeling stuck, another good place to get information are magazines, such as Organic Gardening.
Previous tips:
January: Turn it off! Turn off your lights when you are not in the room! Turn off your computer when you are done, even if you are coming back in a short while. It's very easy to turn something back on!
February: There's no doubt about it - the automobile is one of the the biggest producers of greenhouse gases. Even if you go hybrid, the resource extraction and the factory construction of your car have already polluted the earth enormously. The maintenance of roadways and the destruction of our social fabric because of the isolation automobiles foster only add to the destructive capacity that is the automobile. Think about it -- the thing you rely on so heavily every day of your waking life is enormously destructive. The only good thing about a vehicle is the illusion of freedom it gives you. Not to sound preachy, but a car is extraordinarily expensive, like a weight around your neck dragging you down.
The weather outside might be ... well, winter, but now is a good time to start planning how you might go about reducing your car use, if not eliminating the car from your life altogether, if you own a car. If your household owns two automobiles, consider getting rid of one. Here's a thought - the smart person can save a lot of money for desireable ends (that dream vacation, for example) -- by not owning a car.
It seems hard, maybe even painful to contemplate gettign rid of your car. But there are alternatives. Yes, you got it - walking and taking the bus are the tried and true alternatives. But were you aware that many major urban centers now have car sharing co-operatives or private businesses? It's cheaper to use a vehicle through a car share when you need it than to keep a car and pay for gasoline, insurance and repairs!
And there are other ways of getting around besides walking and buses. There are electric scooters, bicycles, roller blades and even skateboards! If you travel away from where to live for work, consider car pooling or intercity buses or trains. In town, in a pinch, you could take a taxi. Did you know there are environmentally friendly taxi services offered in some municipalities, such as Toronto, Ontario?
Doing without a car does wonderful things for you. You gain exercise and fitness. If you take the bus, you will begin to connect with people you see regularly as you travel to and from work, enlarging your community. Like the slow food movement, the slow transport movement allows the participant to enjoy life in ways that perhaps have not been experienced for many years. If you walk to work, you can enjoy the ever changing landscape as the seasons transform the neighbourhoods you pass through. If you car pool, you have a new network of people in your life.
Shedding the vehicle in your life, if you live in a city, can be freeing. Your life will become simpler because of it. You will start to notice that the modern urban environment was designed for vehicles, not people.
If you have a tip that has worked well for you, we'd love to hear it! Email us with your tip!
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
LINKS To Information and Non-profit Groups (alphabetical listing):
ACORN - Atlantic Canadian Organic Regional Network www.acornorganic.org
Agricultural Groups Concerned about Resources and the Environment (AG CARE) www.agcare.org
Alternatives to Pesticides www.cap-quebec.com
Appleseed Collective www.appleseedcollective.ca
Beyond Factory Farming www.beyondfactoryfarming.org
Cafe Scientifique www.bookshelf.ca/cafescientifique
cban Canadian Biotechnology Action Network www.cban.ca
Canadian Boreal Initiative www.borealcanada.ca
Canadian Food Inspection Agency www.inspection.gc.ca
Canadian Health Food Association - Organic Advisory Council www.chfa.ca
Canadian Organic Growers www.cog.ca
Coalition on the Niagara Escarpment www.niagaraescarpment.org
Craik Sustainable Living Project www.craikecovillage.ca
Eco Action www.ecoaction.gc.ca
Ecological Farmers Association of Ontario www.efao.ca
Elora Centre for Environmental Excellence www.ecee.on.ca
Everdale www.everdale.org
Evergreen Community Tree Planting Grant Program www.evergreen.ca
Environmental Defense www.environmentaldefense.ca
Farm Start www.farmstart.ca
Feast of Fields www.feastoffields.org
Food and Agriculture Organization www.fao.org
Global Policy www.globalpolicy.org
Go Green Ontario www.gogreenontario.ca
Green Communities Association www.gca.ca
Green Energy Act Alliance www.greenenergyact.ca
Greenspaces for Wellington www.greenspaces.ca
Green Venture www.greenventure.ca
Guelph Organic Conference www.guelphorganicconf.ca
Guelph Solar www.guelphsolar.ca
Guelph Urban Forest Friends (GUFF) www.guffguelph.ca
Halton Eco Festival www.haltonecofest.ca
Herb Fair www.rbg.ca
How to go Organic www.organic.com
Hydro One Networkds www.hydroonenetworks.com
Impact! The Co-operators Youth Conference for Sustainability Leadership www.impactyouthsustainability.ca
Let's Curb Pesticides www.letscurbpesticides.ca
The Natural Step www.naturalstep.ca
Nature Conservancy of Canada www.natureconservancy.ca
OMRI Listed www.omri.org
Ontario Herbalists Association www.herbalists.on.ca
Ontario Sustainable Energy Association www.ontario-sea.org
Ontario Wetland Habitat Fund www.whc.org
Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada www.organiccentre.ca
Organic Council of Ontario www.ota.com
Organic Crop Improvement Association www.ota.canada.ca
Organic Crop Improvement Association International www.ocia.org
Organic Federation of Canada www.organicfederation.ca
Organic Landscape Alliance www.organiclandscape.org
North American Native Plant Society www.nanps.org
The Old Growth Forest Project www.oldgrowthforest.ca
Planet for Life www.planetforlife.com
Planet in Focus Annual International Film & Video Festival www.planetinfocus.org
Pollination Canada www.polloinationcanada.ca
Priorities for Ontario www.prioritiesforontario.ca
RARE www.raresites.org
Rare Breeds Canada www.rarebreedscanada.ca
The Rocky River Cycling Festival www.durhamart.on.ca/film
Roots & Shoots www.rootsandshoots.org
Sustainable Community Development www.crcresearch.org
Sustainablog http://blog.sustainablog.org/
Sustainable Living Centre www.ecoearthwalk.ca
Transport 2000 Canada www.transport2000.ca
Tree Museum www.treemuseum.org
University of Guelph Organic Agriculture Program eaclark@uoguelph.ca
Vegetarian Food Fair www.veg.ca
Waterloo Region Green Solutions www.reepwaterlooregion.ca
Wellington Country Environmental Stewardship Council www.ontariostewardship.org
Wellington Water Watchers www.wellingtonwaterwatchers.ca/
Wildlife Preservation Trust Canada www.wtcp.org/
Wind Ecology Center www.windfallcentre.ca
Windfall Ecology Festival www.windfallfestival.ca
World Hunger Year www.worldhungeryear.org