Gah - please help

I may or may not have blogged about this before, but in case I haven't - or in case you've forgotten - there's an organization in Hants County, Nova Scotia called the Avon Peninsula Watershed Preservation Society who are opposing an open-pit gypsum mine on the peninsula. There's already one gypsum mine in the area, and the company is applying to dig another one. They recently submitted their environmental impact assessment, which means that public input has to be received by early next week - I think Wednesday, but possibly even by Monday. So I shouldn't have put off writing this post until today - bad girl. Anyway, there are a number of problems with the proposal.

1) The environmental impact assessment process is notoriously soft. There's a desperate need for full and independent assessments of projects like this, but no dice.

2) The area is covered with valuable farmland and farming communities, which we need more and more as fuel prices rise, the need to curb global warming becomes more dire, and the public increasingly demands locally-sourced foods. It's also a big tourism area because it's ridiculously beautiful.

3) The topography is karst, making the watershed particularly vulnerable to contamination (say, from mining runoff...).

4) The proposed mine would destroy forest habitat which is home to a number of rare and endangered plant species and which protects the watershed by filtering out contaminants.

5) Even the possibility of a mine (and definitely the construction of one) destroys property markets, so retiring farmers who need to sell their land to pay for their retirement have little choice but to sell it to the mining company, making it even harder for the rest of the community to make decisions for their own future.

6) The company started clearcutting and doing other pre-mining activities even before the environmental impact assessment was completed, and local residents are already seeing a degradation in their water quality and forest resources.

7) Gypsum is 100% recyclable. Loads of it are taken to dumps every day, but builders are beginning to source recycled gypsum - calling into question the long-term viability of gypsum mining as a profit-making enterprise

8) Mining companies...aren't exactly rockstars when it comes to cleaning up their mess after they've raped and pillaged a piece of land. It's the local residents who will be left to clean up the mess...well, at least the ones who haven't left town in search of jobs once there's nothing left in Hants County...

It goes on. So please take a moment to go to the APWPS website (at the top of this post) and sign the petition. maybe even send a message to the Premier and to your MLA. We're talking about food, water and the ability to make a living without being beholden to some foreign company that doesn't give a shit about the big toxic hole they're digging in your backyard. These things are fundamental, and the consequences of one mine flow far beyond the immediate area...

Apologies for my failure to post regularly or to cut the excess white space off the above photo. But y'all should go to the next M4F - it's Saturday the 23. I'll be there, and so will a whole bunch of yummy food. besides, law school is eventually going to drive me over the edge and I'm going to become a farmer. So by supporting the farmers NOW, you're supporting my future. Doesn't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside? Thought so. See you there!

Yikes - according to Carbon Zero, for Adam and I to fly to Calgary and back will create 1.65 tonnes of CO2. Gah! Instead of buying offsets, I used Carbon Zero's calculator to find out how much the offsets would have cost (just under $40) and I'm going to donate that much to the Ecology Action Centre for their ongoing work to create a more sustainable (or, as Sharon at Casaubon's Book prefers to say, "regenerative") society.

Battle of the Beasts

Bigfoot said:
TOMORROW. 3 PM. THE TUNDRA. WE PLAY MILLE BORNES. DECIDE WINNER ONCE AND FOR ALL!

Holy crap! It's a Japanese teen-girl ska band! And they're making a movie!

Freedom! Almost.

The last of the winter exams was Friday, which means that this lady has engaged in some high-quality brain rot over the weekend. I'm not out of the woods yet, however. The Christmas shopping has yet to begin in earnest.

What's a hipster to do when the consumer-whore season hits? Giving charity donations in lieu of gifts is fab, but it really depends on the person - and you can't do it ALL the time. I think a good strategy is to reserve that for the people who live far away, who will understand that you want to get them something more meaningful than a card but don't want to ship a bulky gift. And, of course, the treehuggers and social activists in your life will always appreciate it. But in terms of gift-gifts, there's lots of room for creativity. I happen to come from a really practical family - most years I'll ask my Mom and stepfather what they want, they'll tell me, and the surprise will be either a little something extra of a variation on the theme of whatever they wanted. For other people, it's generally a good bet to think of something they'd get for themselves anyway - soap, coffee, snack food, etc - and get them that, except of a higher quality than they'd normally get for themselves - and with a little hippie flair. The key to responsible gift-giving is quality over quantity. Most people have too much crap anyway, so if you get them a smaller gift that's obviously of high quality (bonus points if it's one-of-a-kind or has a neat story behind it), chances are they'll be just as happy, if not more so, than if you had gotten them a pile of cheap stuff.

Another option is something you know they could really use but won't get for themselves. This year my stepsister and I got our parents a digital camera (I can publish this now because we already gave it to them). For years Mom has been using disposable cameras, and she was totally thrilled to have a real one. As for me, the thought of all the plastic that will stay out of the landfills makes me want to dance.

And finally, I might be a little biased, being a member and all - but any chefs on your list might like a copy of the Ecology Action Centre's Food Action Committee cookbook. And your significant other would look fantastic in a pair of the EAC's brand-spankin'-new Radical Undies (get it? I said spankin'...and they're underwear...um, never mind).

The point is, have a wonderful and safe holiday season. Eat some pie for me!

Are you STILL checking back here? oh, my. So dedicated. Well, I should warn you that exams start tomorrow so there will be no new posts until at least the 15th. So save your time, get away from the computer and go have coffee with a friend, silly.

You know what's good? red wine, Italian food, chocolate and girl talk with your roommate. Not so good? Trying to do legal citations and make sense of finders' rights cases afterwards. Oy.

Correction

Re: my post of 15 October: The Chebucto Neighbourhood Association has until October 31 to drum up enough public support to STOP the (stupid, shortsighted, stupid, asinine, stupid) widening of Chebucto Road. Or at least to have it reconsidered by City Council. Please act. Seriously.

Post-Apocalyptic Skills Training

I'm learning to knit! My lovely amiga Angela has started a knitting club - we meet every week for beer and craftery...we had our first meeting last night. So now, if global climate change end up making it disastrously cold here, I'll be all set in my cozy socks and scarves and mittens and sweaters and legwarmers. Guess what you're all getting for Christmas...

It's that day when bloggers everywhere write about the environment - something that, you know, I definitely never do...

OK, first of all I want to call all Haligonians' attention to an urgent issue that's staring us in the face right now. The Chebucto Neighbourhood Association has until October 31 to drum up enough public support to start the (stupid, shortsighted, stupid, asinine, stupid) widening of Chebucto Road. In case you haven't heard of this issue, all the information is here. Basically, while other cities are responding to ecological realities by trying to DECREASE traffic in and out of their urban cores and to promote human-powered and public transportation, our illustrious Council wants to displace residents so that they can build more roads. So please, sign the petition on their website, and write to the mayor and your councillor to let them know what a colossally bad idea this is.

Next - and I'm not going to spend as much time on this as I had planned, because I am sleepy and also a little ill and still have 25 pages (legal size) of Public Law to read for tomorrow morning, and I'm also hoping to get some research done for my Pro Bono placement before I collapse. But I said i would blog about the environment today, and I like to think that I'm a woman of my word. So without further ado, allow me to introduce Sassy Tortuga's Guide to Saving the World for Poor Students and Cheapskates.

There has been a huge surge in interest in environmental issues lately, and that's fantastic. The problem is that, in adopting these fabulous new environmental values, we haven't questioned some of the social values that prevent us from making real progress - namely, the drive to consume. My understanding is this: during WWII, governments urged frugality so that resources would be available for the war effort. But once the war was over, capitalists needed to find another market to keep their businesses going, so they turned their gazes to Jane and Joe Everyperson. All of a sudden the frugality message was turned on its head, and modern-day consumerism was born. It's a tenacious ideology that has managed to subvert countercultures ever since (witness, for example, the pseudo-punk being sold at the mall). I've spoken to a lot of people who are discouraged about their ability to make a difference, because 'environmentally friendly' consumer products cost so much more than mainstream ones do.

The fallacy, of course, is the belief that we need most of these products to begin with - or even that they enrich our lives in any way. It's an attitude of "Buy the change you want to see in the world." And I'm sorry, but you're not saving the world by buying an organic t-shirt. It may be less polluting than a conventional one, but it most certainly has an ecological impact - there are still fossil fuels involved in the growing, harvesting, processing and shipping. It may be coloured using high-impact dyes, and it may be made in a sweatshop. Honestly, save your $50 and get a vintage one for $3.

The mistaken belief magical powers of consumption is the target of the "voluntary simplicity" movement. My favourite description of voluntary simplicity is that it aims for a "high joy-to-stuff ratio." Consuming less is not only better for the environment, it's better for your health, your sanity and your bank account. I didn't make a lot of money when I was working last year, but by curbing my spending I was able to take an entire month off at the end of the summer in which to do whatever struck my fancy. I spent some quality time with my Mom, went to the beach, got some fresh air on the South Shore and engaged in some high-quality sloth - and I still managed to keep a decent financial cushion to sit on. Voluntary simplicity isn't a doctrine of self-denial - it's a path towards freedom from the machine.

I promise to write some more about this later - I have some delicious and realistic ways of incorporating it into real life - but in the meantime I recommend the No Impact Man and San Francisco Compact blogs (see sidebar).

Nighty-night, greenyheads!

So. Yum.

Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World

On the sidebar, click on "Baking Porn" and drool your face off.

Miscellany

I know! I've been so very neglectful, breaking promises to post about various subjects and just generally being MIA. It seems that vacation, and then law school, have gotten the best of me. I had planned a post about the scrumptulous Equinox fest that The Jenn and I made, but then reading, etc. happened. And I've been at Adam's for the past several days so I haven't gotten the photos on to my computer in order to show them to you. I'm still at the Boy's so we'll have to put off that gratification for a bit longer, but in the interim here are a few things for you to ponder.

First, a small tribute: if you haven't already heard either from me or from Jenn's blog, we lost out baby girl Kali. It was all very sudden - she had a particularly vicious and untreatable kitty disease which we just found out about recently, and the vet advised Jenn that the best thing to do was to have her put down so that she wouldn't suffer. Love and kisses, Buddha Kitten. I miss you.

Second, I've been reading Casaubon's Book faithfully, and Sharon has some fascinating insights into myriad issues such as the the environmental crisis and sustainability, feminism, religion, family, etc. etc. if you didn't explore her site after I posted that last link to it a little while ago, I strongly encourage you to do so. There's one recent post that made my heart stop, both in its imagery and its implications. So often we think of issues like, war, poverty and climate change as abstract issues with no real consequences in our own lives. But as a woman, I was actually physically pained to read this piece. It spells out, in brutally human terms, one of the consequences of our actions and inaction, of the choices we make to either remain complacent or to work for change and demand it of our elected representatives. Can we sit back and let these things happen to human beings? Can we stubbornly refuse to change our habits until they start happening to us, or to our loved ones? I'm suddenly compelled to DO SOMETHING, having let myself get lazy and comfortable for too long.

And finally, not to end things on such a gloomy note...Gala Darling's blog is my daily fluff, and this post cheered me up somewhat after reading Sharon's dire warnings. I don't see myself going out and buying any Disney accessories, but maybe a whimsical trip to Frenchy's (or even just to the dark recesses of my own closet) might be in order...

How to explain Peak Oil to anyone

"More beer good. Beer comes from oil. Must. Save. Beer."

(big sigh of relief)

Hey everyone, thanks for sticking with me and checking back here despite my dismal failure at regular blogging. That may or may not change now that I'm on vacation - yes, for a whole month! Plans include beach bumming, Frenchy's shopping, family visiting and a combination of general productivity and utter sloth. Because as of September 4th I won't have time for any of the above for a good long time. If you think that's an exaggeration, there is actually a new-student guide on my school's website that pretty much says, "there is no such thing as 'after law school.' You won't have time for anything ever again." maybe not in so many words. But you have to read between the lines, y'know?

Anyway, Adam is partially moved in to his new place and it rocks my world. If anyone knows where I can find some fabulous art that is (a) big enough to fill most of a 12-foot-high wall, (b) suitable for a 20-something man-with-a-girlfriend's condo and (c) cheap, please let me know.

My mother has recruited me to help with her home repairs. The first stage is to get rid of anything she doesn't use, and today was Kitchen Day. To really understand the scope of this project, please consider that Mom has been hanging on to shower gifts from when she married my Dad in the late '70s. I came home with three boxes of stuff that may or may not fit in my closet-sized kitchen...

And that's all the news for today from the lazy and disjointed mind of a vacationing Hipster. I have a hankering to write some future posts about libraries, red currants, voluntary simplicity, how I ended up buying soap that looks suspiciously like hashish, my new lunchbox and other miscellany. In the meantime, please enjoy the new links!

Holy crap

I just got Scientology propaganda in the mail. No joke. I was about to put it in the recycle bin by the mailbox when I realized that it was in fact an offer for a consultation with the Hubbard Dianetics Foundation. Now I'm keeping it on the fridge so we can laugh at the perverse awesomeness of it all.

Still alive!

This is gonna be pretty much the most pointless post ever. But I wanted all (five or six)of my readers to know that I WILL be updating soon - with links, photos, more food porn, a little wisdom and a whole lot of stickin' it to the man! Don't worry, my vacation starts next Friday and then you might get more Tortuga than you can handle.

Love and bunny food,

A.

Photos, farmers, food porn and more!

My only observation of the Solstice on Thursday was to look out the window and say, "When's it going to LOOK like summer?" SO here are a few celebratory items to compensate for that oversight.


This is a photo I've been meaning to share for a while now - from back in May when Mark and I went hiking in Hemlock Ravine. The magic of this little nook, clearly inhabited by faeries, took my breath away. Mark was sensitive enough not to laugh at my delight.


two delicious events to check out:


"Musicians for Farmers" is the brainchild of a member of FAC who is also a local musician. It's happening next Thursday and proceeds go to Heliotrust, a wonderful organization run by the lovely Jen Scott. It's mandate is, quite simply, to keep traditional farming wisdom, heritage food varieties and small, local farms alive. For more details, please visit the website or better yet, come to the concert! There will be delish, local, organic food (included in the $10 cover price)and live music.


I'm also thrilled to be finally fulfilling my dream of learning to build a yurt! Selene and Alex at Little Foot Yurts are bringing their yurt-building workshop to Halifax in order to accommodate those of us who are without transportation of the car-like persuasion. Adam gracefully endured much teasing from his colleagues to get the weekend off work so that he could attend with me. I am one lucky girl.


And now for the much-anticipated food porn, I present to you my crowning achievement in the risotto category:


The recipe is from The Complete Vegan and the risotto is more Asian- than Italian-style. It's made with asparagus and oyster mushrooms, both readily available at the Halifax Farmer's Market. The red pepper was imported - I just had to make the splurge. This risotto was absolutely delightful - the flavours blended well, and the mushrooms were so tender they would practically melt on your tongue. *sigh*

And my fresh-fruit dilemma is finally solved. Just take a look at these beauties:



That's right, the year's first strawberries. Sooo luscious. I have other things to talk about here, but they'll have to wait because I need to go stuff my belly...

Straight from the Muppet's mouth