A report from the UK-based Institute for Public Policy and Research (IPPR) revealed that people are “bored” by climate change.
Rather than being dismayed by this report, I’m bolstered. Bored? We can change bored. I have three kids who are routinely bored. I’m a freaking expert in bored.
If we can get climate change rebranded, if we can create a buzz around it, perhaps get it a Twitter account and a few endorsements, then climate change will be – at least for a day or two – the Next Best Thing.
Of course, we have a few hurdles to clear. For one thing, climate change is depressing. All that stuff about drought. Hurricanes. Having to give up ski holidays. Total downer.
People don’t want to hear about that. They want fun. They want cool (no pun intended). They want it served up in 140 characters or less.
For starters, climate change needs a new name. Would Megan Fox be hot if she was named Gladys Klanbakker? Of course not.
And look at the press that No Impact Man got. Simply because he didn’t wipe his butt for a year. It’s his name – that whole superhero thang.
I muse over “Schizoplanet” or “No Oxygen Ball”. But I settle on “Globat Sh*t-storm”, which pretty much sums it up. Besides, a look at the box-office receipts of apocalypic-type action movies reveals that people love this stuff. Maybe ever more so when it stars them!
I contact my friend Pete, who used to be a pharmaceutical rep (an endless source of shame for him), something he was very good at (more shame) to brainstorm.
“People are motivated by free stuff and contests,” he says simply. An idea takes shape. Together we come up with a plan to give away cars (hey, it worked for Oprah!) to those who work to fight climate change. “Battle the Global Sh*t-storm, win a Hummer” is our rallying cry.
Or how about a YouTube video featuring environmentalists waiting tables, driving buses, working construction… “Let’s make environmentalists get real jobs…,” the tagline would read. “…and stop bugging us.”
You could rally atheists and Palin supporters alike by asking them to “Stop the Global Sh*t-storm. God is damn well close enough.”
“End the Global Sh*t-storm and make me a liar,” Al Gore could demand, a satisfying prospect for many climate deniers.
“If you don’t fight the Global Sh*t-storm, you’ll get voted off the planet,” could run during episodes of Survivor.
Perhaps “A blue ball with no relief is never a good thing. Stop the Global Sh*t-storm.” Sponsored by Viagra?
Got your attention? I really think I’m on to something…

(A version of this ran originally on GreenMuze)

There’s plenty of buzz lately about fracking, or Hydraulic Fracturing, the extraction of natural gas from beneath shale.
On the one side are nat gas companies, who point out that natural gas burns 40% cleaner than coal.
On the other are those who’ve learned – frequently the hard way – the environmental damage wrought by the process.
But what’s amazing is how few of us know about fracking at all.
Given that it’s already happening in our backyards, I did a bit of digging myself. And found two awesome sources who explain fracking and its effects better than I could.
Scientific American does its usual in-depth job of giving the facts, within context and balance…and offering up some great (read “disturbing” images) as well.
And GreenMuze.com, a site for which I write my Ask the Greenius column, also covered fracking in Canada.
Have you heard of fracking? What are your thoughts?

I recently visited Morning Glory Farm on Martha’s Vineyard, an infamous farm that has kept the island in organic produce for the better part of 35 years.
The produce was lovely, the wind turbine beautiful and the crowds unwieldy.
As I jockeyed my way out, I was struck by something that I rarely see – but that is frequently lobbed at me as criticism of the so-called “green” movement. What struck me, almost literally given how people were driving, was the number of high-end gaz guzzling SUVs, stocked to the brim with the makings of their evening’s organic meal.
The farmer’s market I shop at in my home town doesn’t seem to have yet been discovered by the Lexus-driving crowd. Or if it has been, they must park elsewhere.
So I’ve tended to be somewhat defensive when, during my speaking engagements or media interviews, someone derides the notion of living green as “too expensive” and the domain of wealthy people who can afford, as one person put it, “to spend $5 on a grape.”
I’ve always insisted that if you think eco-living is about spending a lot of money, you’ve missed the point.
But after witnessing the legion of wealthy (or at least leveraged) people flocking to the farm market, perhaps I’ve been the one missing the point.
Perhaps green living has been expropriated by the segment of the population who can afford to spend $5 on a grape. Perhaps that’s why so many people I know, people with good intentions, have dismissed it as something they can’t afford to do right now.
But I maintain that so much environmentalism is about making choices that will save you money. If you can’t afford to install solar panels, or switch to a green energy provider, but I’ll bet you can install CFLs (if you haven’t already) and use power bars to plug in TVs, DVD players, etc. so that you can turn them off. Phantom energy, which those electronics suck up even when they’re turned off, continue to suck roughly 75 of the total energy they use. Hence the power bar to cut power off at the source.
Those who can’t afford a hybrid can surely keep their tires inflated to the proper amount, turn off their car if they’re stopped for more than 10 seconds and change their oil to improve fuel economy.
You can shop vintage for clothes, create a swap with neighbors for lawn mowers or make their own non-toxic cleaning supplies.
You can curb Christmas consumption and rely on Mother Nature (think pinecones, acorns, evergreen boughs…) to decorate for you.
You can park the car and ride your bike…or get a bus pass.
You can turn off the AC and open some windows.
You can compost. Refuse to buy disposable napkins, plates, cups.
Living green isn’t about spending it…it’s about saving it.

Gorgeous day – perfect for riding my bike to a meeting. On my way out the door, I grab a lip-gloss and apply it. Thick. And gooey. I imagined it would make me look polished and professional, despite arriving a wee bit sweaty.
Thing is, it’s hard to look polished with five small bugs stuck to your lips. Lesson? Take the wheels, dump the gooey gloss. Higher purpose for gloss? Use as fly-paper at the picnic table…

My childhood summers were spent under the blazing sun. My teen tans were the product of baby oil and a “tanning blanket”. And now, my 40s are marked by wearing SPF of a similar number.
My kids, sadly, know nothing of days deliriously oblivious of melanoma and wafer-thin ozone layers. Their earliest memories of the beach are of Mommy chasing them down to slather them in sunscreen as they squirmed and squawked.
But sunscreen, though its intent is to protect us from skin cancer, might actually be exacerbating skin cancer, say some studies. What’s more, some evidence shows it might be exposing us to other cancers…and a host of other health concerns. It’s generally a chemical cocktail, offering up “areas of concern” according to the Environmental Working Group’s extensive analysis, including that favorite of personal care products, hormone disruption. And, of course, many of these products wash off to some degree in our waterways, wreaking havoc with marine life and water quality.
The best, or perhaps I should simply say “better”, sunscreens available to us in North America (as usual, Europe is way out in front in its offering of sunscreen products that are effective and safer) are those that sit on top of the skin – titanium dioxide and zinc oxide.
My fave block? All Terrain, which is available at many outdoor/camping stores and online. What’s more, the company is green to the core, packaging its products in recycled, recyclable or biodegradable packaging and insisting on all natural ingredients.

The Center for Biological Diversity is handing out condoms in the hopes that we’ll get get the message. You know…the message that no-one dares to speak out loud. The one in which our perilously perched planet falls into ruin because we just can’t stop making babies. It’s a message that many environmentalists (except me: please see page 22 “It’s Getting Crowded” in my book The Virtuous Consumer) tippytoe around for fear of alienating good, fertile folk. Yet, it’s hard to ignore that our planet simply can’t sustain the massive population growth it’s expected to accommodate.

So…I just volunteered to help distribute the free condoms. I’m all for planned-for, hoped-for, wanted babies. Which, frankly, every baby should be. So I’m doing my part to remind everyone that safe sex is the responsible choice…environmentally speaking, of course.

Care to join me?

Raj Patel spoke today on CBC Radio’s The Current about his new book, The Value of Nothing,in which he proposes – and finds ample evidence to support – that our culture of cheap stuff is costing us plenty. Just not at the cash register. He asserts that we are, in fact, paying for the cheap burger at the drive-thru or the great deal on the t-shirt. In some cases, it’s developing countries who are stuck with the cost, in the form of environmental degradation, poverty from low wages and health costs. But in many way, we’re also paying the price. Through our own subsidized health-care costs (from eating crappy food and breathing crappy air) and social assistance from helping support minimum wage workers (think Wal-Mart. Think McDonald’s).

It can’t get much clearer that our present way of doing things – buying up mass quantities of cheap food and cheap stuff – isn’t making us happier or healthier. As Michael Pollan reported on Oprah, it used to be that health care costs were low and food costs were, relatively speaking, high. Now it’s the opposite. So while we don’t pay a lot upfront for food, we certainly pay down the road, in terms of treating illnesses like heart disease and diabetes, which have skyrocketed since the advent of cheap food.

I offer up an easy suggestion in The Virtuous Consumer. When you consider buying something, I proposed, ask yourself a few questions:
•what is the item made from?
•how was it made?
•who made it?
•how far was it transported to me?
•how long – and how often – will I use it?
•and what will I do with it when I’m done?

The answers aren’t readily apparent, but simply asking the questions will alter the way you shop…for the better.

I fell in love with Suki Skincare when I tried their Lemongrass cleanser/exfoliant (I don’t even really use an exfoliant regularly, but the smell was so heavenly and my skin was so baby-like, I was smitten). What’s more, Suki products are void of all those scary ingredients (parabens, phthaltes, SLS, petrolatum, and so on), packaged in easily recycled glass containers, and with care given to the environment through all aspects of production, manufacture and distribution. In other words, a company with a conscience. A clean conscience.

So when I learned recently that Suki Kramer is equally smitten with The Virtuous Consumer…well…it made me giddy. According to Kramer, featured in the August 2009 issue of Body+Soul (incidentally one of my favorite reads), my book is on her bedside table, along with the Eco-Chick Guide to Life and The Green Beauty Guide, two equally awesome books.

I’m thrilled to be in such great company and sharing a vision of a greener future (in which my skin glows, courtesy of Suki’s lemongrass cleanser). Nirvana!

by Fraser Los

I can say with the utmost confidence that some in the media sphere are being hoodwinked by a well organized and well funded attempt to deny what amounts to basic science. If you look to the scientists, and their major associations, they ALL recognize the reality of climate change.

The greenhouse effect (and global warming) is caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and since the industrial revolution, that CO2 concentration has gone from about 260 parts per million to about 387 ppm today. To put that in perspective, scientists have cited 350 ppm as the safe limit of atmospheric CO2 to avoid major warming and possible runaway greenhouse effect – i.e. the planet Venus. This is scary stuff, I’m not going to lie.

Yes, there is plenty of uncertainty in all this – but that is generally about the results of climate change, not the causes. Yes, it is unclear how it will play out on a planetary scale, mainly because it’s complex and unprecedented. But it is not some well-orchestrated fiction created by international scientists, as many in the blogosphere are suggesting.

It’s important to recognize that no major world science organization denies anthropogenic global warming – they ALL recognize it fully – from world meteorological associations to Scientific American to NASA to the Royal Society.

But don’t take my word for it. If you want to decide for yourself, here are two important links:

This is for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which is by definition an organization created to determine if there is scientific consensus (they don’t do primary science – they only assess all the science out there being done independently by scientists).

And this is just a really good synopsis of the science of climate change by the Union of Concerned Scientists, which is a non-profit put together by many prominent scientists around the world. They offer a good primer on their site, called Global Warming 101, which basically lays all the science behind the issue.

Fraser Los is the editor-in-chief of thegreenpages.ca

There’s been much sturm-und-drang around Copenhagen – Canada’s role as “fossil”, climategate, peaceful protests that turn out to not be so peaceful…
It’s all getting so tiresome.
Sure, I get that international agreements take time. And I understand, at least at a rudimentary level, the jockeying and semantic manoeuvering that occurs…but honestly, I’m dozing off.
Just DO something already.
I’m heartened by the media coverage because at least climate change is increasingly on everyone’s radar. But the to-ing and fro-ing is just making my neck ache.
So, please. If the world decides our planet is worth saving, wake me up and let me know. Otherwise, just let me snooze.