Posted: October 29th, 2009 | Author: James Glave | Filed under: Behavior, Global Warming, Habits, Transformational Change | Tags: dentist, greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide | No Comments »
I frequently parrot the message that a lot of small actions can add up to big change. For proof, look no further than this short video clip I did over the summer, one of a series of greener-living advice segments for a real-estate website called Cyberhomes.
There I am, proving the point that easy gestures—in this case, unplugging idle electronic devices—can all add up. It makes sense on paper, which is why the “everyone do their bit” credo is the basis of many behavior-change campaigns. And sure, it’s all well and good to unplug a few video games, or enjoy a healthy bike ride, or savor the vegetables and fruits you grew yourself.
But what about nitrous oxide? You know, laughing gas?
My dentist offers it to me every time I go in for a new crown or onlay which, given the pathetic state of my teeth, is pretty much at least once a year. And I usually turn it down, because despite its jovial nickname, the stuff is effectively two kinds of bad in one bottle.
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Posted: October 27th, 2009 | Author: James Glave | Filed under: Activism, Conferences & Events, Media Coverage | Tags: Activism, events, Media Coverage | No Comments »
Some 5,000 people showed up for Bridge to a Cool Planet, an event tied to the International Day of Climate Action–including me, my kids, and my parents.
More egregious exploitation of children.
My kids and I managed to hog the media cameras, we paraded through the background of Global Television’s live coverage of the event – check it out, you can’t miss us. It wasn’t entirely my idea: The reporter came over and grabbed us in advance of the segment — “we need kids with signs for the shot,” she said. We also popped up in an image in Sing Tao, one of Vancouver’s large-circulation Chinese-language dailies. Scroll about half-way down.
The lesson: Find a way to stand out from the crowd. In this case, I put my girl up on my shoulders. And know that my friends in the media will always seek out hand-lettered signs, easily-read signs with ultra-simplified messages such as STOP GLOBAL WARMING. It sure did the trick here.
Posted: October 14th, 2009 | Author: James Glave | Filed under: Published Work | Tags: carbon, IPP, Renewable Energy, run-of-river, Tzeporah | 4 Comments »
The original tree-hugger.
The November issue of
Vancouver magazine features my profile on Tzeporah Berman, cofounder of
ForestEthics and executive director of
PowerUP Canada. Links to both Web and PDF versions below.
Berman is a Canadian climate activist of considerable influence who has inserted herself at the center of a significant green-energy backlash here in her home province of British Columbia. A fierce public debate rages here over “run of river” hydro power projects, which temporarily divert river water to spin turbines. The resulting electricity is carbon-free, but opponents of the projects claim the schemes aren’t as green as they claim to be. The fight is getting very nasty. As the story documents, at one point Berman’s support for renewable-energy development led to a threat of professional blackmail.
Check out “Green Light,” published in the November 2009 issue of Vancouver magazine.
Green Light, [Web version at Vanmag.com]
Green Light, [2.3 MB .PDF FILE]
Posted: September 11th, 2009 | Author: James Glave | Filed under: 350.org, Conferences & Events, Global Warming, Influence, top | Tags: 350, bridge to a cool planet, climate events, International Day of Climate Action | 1 Comment »
Mixing up the ABCs.
On October 24, my kids Duncan and Sabrina, and my wife, Elle, and I will together march in our first-ever global-warming, er, “action.”
The occasion is Bridge to a Cool Planet, which will likely be British Columbia’s largest event marking the International Day of Climate Action. Expect drummers, people dressed up in polar bear costumes, dudes on stilts and unicycles, and lots of off-key improvised call-and-response singing and chanting.
It’s the kind of gaggle-of-people-holding-signs event that, once upon a time, I would have driven on past without even blinking. But this time, I’ll be on the other side of the windshield. And you should be, too.
After the jump: Five reasons why you should circle October 24 on your calendar—no matter where you live—and plan to join all the cool kids who will be calling for their leaders to finally get with the program.
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Posted: August 31st, 2009 | Author: James Glave | Filed under: Media Coverage, Nomenclature, top | 5 Comments »
I write and report on the ongoing rapid evolution of our transportation infrastructure, energy systems, agriculture, buildings, and so on — and I do most of my work with MSWord 2004 for Mac. Though I loathe spellcheckers, by habit I run the feature on my work before passing it along.
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Posted: July 2nd, 2009 | Author: James Glave | Filed under: Agriculture, Cities, Culdesactivism, Food, top | Tags: edible garden, seattle, victory garden | 7 Comments »
I recently spent a few days in Seattle–one of my favorite American cities–and was amazed to discover how many homeowners have planted victory gardens in their front yards. In much of America, the front yard is the place for a few roses, maybe a rhodo or two. But in Seattle, especially the Ballard neighborhood where we stayed, “curb appeal” evidently means raspberries, onions, tomatoes, lettuce, and even the odd chicken or two.
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Posted: June 16th, 2009 | Author: James Glave | Filed under: Compost, Death, top, Zero Waste | Tags: Death, greenburial, promession | 1 Comment »
My first piece for The Walrus is up on the magazine’s site. Here’s an excerpt:
Squirrels, it turns out, compost quite nicely. Small birds? Sure. Happens in the woods every day, after all. But stuff a human body into a backyard bin, and within a day or so the neighbours will start to complain.
Susanne Wiigh-Mäsak, a Swedish biologist specializing in soil production, explains: “When you die, you start smelling, because the oxygen does not reach inside the body.” More specifically, an abundance of anaerobic bacteria quickly takes hold in such a large mass of tissue, resulting in the rank gases CSI techs use to sniff out “decomp.” But after a decade spent investigating green options for dealing with dead bodies, Wiigh-Mäsak has finally figured out how to discreetly turn our earthly remains back into, well, earth.
How did she do it? Read “Decomposting Bodies” and find out.
Posted: June 9th, 2009 | Author: James Glave | Filed under: Renewable Energy, top | Tags: Green Energy, Plutonic Power, Renewable Energy, Run-of-River Hydro | No Comments »
Last week, Plutonic Power–one of Western Canada’s largest green-power developers–invited me and a few other journalists to tour a 123-megawatt run-of-river project that the company is building at the top end of the Toba Valley, about 110 miles due northwest of Vancouver.
In essence, these projects capture the kinetic energy of falling water without the massive negative impacts associated with dam construction, and they’re causing quite a stir out here on Canada’s West Coast, where geography and hydrology combine to create tremendous green-power potential.
When it is completed by the middle of next year, this will be the largest green-power project of its kind in the province. I went on the trip to try and see first-hand what many run-of-river opponents say are extensive negative environmental impacts.
For my on-the-ground and in-the-air report, including video clips, check out Backstage Tour at a Run-of-River Power Plant, over at the Huffington Post.
Posted: May 31st, 2009 | Author: James Glave | Filed under: History, Renewable Energy, top | Tags: renewables green history | 2 Comments »
Just back from an absolutely fascinating trip to The Power House at Stave Falls, in Mission B.C., just 40 miles east of Vancouver. This 52.5-megawatt hydroelectric plant fed sustainable energy into the region’s grid between 1912 and 2000, when it was decommissioned and replaced with a more efficient powerhouse just to the east. Anyone with an interest in green energy would love this easy day trip from Vancouver.
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Posted: May 19th, 2009 | Author: James Glave | Filed under: History, top | Tags: first nations, History, spear | 3 Comments »
A few weeks back, I found this artifact on a beach here on Bowen Island while grabbing fistfuls of stones to toss into the sea. It is very weathered, from many decades spent being tossed around in the surf. It appears to be an arrowhead or spear point of First Nations origin.
Nobody around here seemed to know much about it, so I contacted the Museum of Archeology at the University of British Columbia, and shared this image with them, speculating that it might be obsidian. Patricia Ormerod, an archaeology curatorial research assistant with the university’s Laboratory of Archaeology, wrote back with the following assessment:
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I frequently parrot the message that a lot of small actions can add up to big change. For proof, look no further than this short video clip I did over the summer, one of a series of greener-living advice segments for a real-estate website called Cyberhomes.
