April Lindgren
CanWest News Service

TORONTO - Ontario’s environment minister is calling on Ontarians to voluntarily reduce their plastic bag use by 50 per cent over the next five years even as critics dismiss the provincial goal as an ineffective public-relations ploy.

“The voluntary approach is a ticket for continuing the status quo,” Franz Hartmann, executive director of the Toronto Environmental Alliance said Wednesday following the announcement by Laurel Broten. “The government could have said they either were going to ban plastic bags or they could have said they were going to impose a significant plastic bag fee like they’ve done in Ireland.

“The impression that’s left with me is that they are not all that serious about actually eliminating plastic bags.”

Central to the government plan is a deal struck with the plastics, retail and grocery industries whereby companies have agreed to reduce plastic bag use by 50 per cent or one billion bags over the next five years. Retailers have also committed to “considering” in-store recycling depots for the bags and pilot projects are being set up to determine how to get consumers to convert to reusable bags. (more…)

An energy-efficient office is good for the planet—and your wallet
By Michael Gowan - MacWorld

You don’t have to drive a Prius, have a worm bin out back, or keep a picture of Al Gore under your pillow to be concerned about saving energy and natural resources. I think everyone can agree that saving money is good. It just so happens that reducing the amount of electricity your computer, monitor, printer, and other electronic devices use is both environmentally friendly and economical. It’s also easy when you know how. Here are eight ways to do that and more.

1. Catch your Zs
You might have noticed that if no one taps at its keyboard for ten minutes, your computer puts itself to sleep. All new Macs ship with OS X’s Energy Saver feature turned on, and that’s a good thing. According to Apple, a Mac uses about 77 percent less energy in this low-power mode than when it’s running at full power. (more…)

Environment Minister John Baird defended his government’s climate change plan Friday, which included fending off a public confrontation with Canada’s best known environmentalist.

Baird had just kicked off Toronto’s consumer Green Living Show when he was approached by David Suzuki, who let the minister know what he thought of the government’s plan.

“It’s a disappointment, John,” Suzuki said as he beat a path to the minister.

“You know what you promised was a long way from what you delivered.”

Baird countered that “this is more action than any government in Canadian history has ever taken.”

But Suzuki was not impressed, saying that it’s not enough.

“He promised all kinds of great things and it’s been a big disappointment to see what it is. It’s all smoke and mirrors and what he’s going to do is allow industry to continue to increase their emissions.” (more…)

MYTH The science of global warming is too uncertain to act on.
FACT There is no debate among scientists about the basic facts of global warming.The most respected scientific bodies have stated unequivocally that global warming is occurring, and people are causing it by burning fossil fuels (like coal, oil and natural gas) and cutting down forests. The U.S. National Academy of Sciences, which in 2005 the White House called “the gold standard of objective scientific assessment,” issued a joint statement with 10 other National Academies of Science saying “the scientific understanding of climate change is now sufficiently clear to justify nations taking prompt action. It is vital that all nations identify cost-effective steps that they can take now, to contribute to substantial and long-term reduction in net global greenhouse gas emissions.” (Joint Statement of Science Academies: Global Response to Climate Change [PDF], 2005)

The only debate in the science community about global warming is about how much and how fast warming will continue as a result of heat-trapping emissions. Scientists have given a clear warning about global warming, and we have more than enough facts — about causes and fixes — to implement solutions right now.

MYTH Even if global warming is a problem, addressing it will hurt American industry and workers. (more…)

Air pollution describes a collection of airborne pollutants that contribute to our air quality. The term “pollutants” recognizes that these substances are undesirable because of their impact on human health, the environment and the economy.

These air pollutants are all very different. They differ in their chemical composition, reaction properties, emission sources, how long they last in the environment before breaking down, their ability to move long or short distances, and their eventual impacts. (more…)

A short video in support of Greenpeace’s Green My Apple Campaign. It intends to highlight the materiality of digital culture. Made by a friend of mine Chris Hamelin. We all have to do our part to encourage waste reduction, reuse and at the very least, proper disposal.

This is an issue of rising concern and is particularly close to my heart as I am a “techie” myself and although I love technology and all it’s interesting applications the waste is enormous. My personal experience with this was when I wanted to buy new ink for my printer and found that the price to replace my new cartridge(I would have refilled if it wasn’t equipped with a chip to disallow just that) was comparable to that of a brand new printer which is encouraging waste. (more…)