Bits and Pieces
Two years ago I wrote,
But I guess I was getting ahead of myself, because it wasn't until this week that Coyne wrote his column, "Panic on the Snowbanks"
(in which he writes, "Until this month, or certainly until about the last decade, it would not have occurred to anyone that tobogganing was such a peril-strewn venture as to require special protective equipment" - Typical easterners, ignoring tragic problems in our society until it starts to affect them....
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Meanwhile, Andrew Potter just noticed that Canadian movies get classified as foreign films sometimes in our local video stores, after I blogged about this a year and a half ago.
New Slogan: "CAtO: Just Slightly (18-24 months) ahead of it's time"
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On a more serious note, Andrew is mobilizing blogs for a good cause. Check it out.
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Finally, want to reduce your impact on the planet? - drink tapwater instead of bottled water.
Via David Swann's blog, a good article in 'The Independent' on the craziness of the whole bottled water craze and it's impact on the planet.
One of the reasons I am somewhat optimistic (less pessimistic, perhaps) about peak oil and global warming is that I always see evidence like this of just how wasteful we are with regard to energy and resource use. I am confident we could make massive cutbacks in our energy consumption with only minor impacts on our quality of life - if we had to.
That is all.
"a friend mentioned the other day that there was an article in the (Vancouver) North Shore News on the dangers of tobogganing (prompted by a local boy who got a concussion) and that the article was recommending laws to make helmets mandatory while sliding. There is no word yet on whether this was just a big left-wing plot to get Andrew Coyne so upset that he stops writing altogether."
But I guess I was getting ahead of myself, because it wasn't until this week that Coyne wrote his column, "Panic on the Snowbanks"
(in which he writes, "Until this month, or certainly until about the last decade, it would not have occurred to anyone that tobogganing was such a peril-strewn venture as to require special protective equipment" - Typical easterners, ignoring tragic problems in our society until it starts to affect them....
--------------
Meanwhile, Andrew Potter just noticed that Canadian movies get classified as foreign films sometimes in our local video stores, after I blogged about this a year and a half ago.
New Slogan: "CAtO: Just Slightly (18-24 months) ahead of it's time"
--------------
On a more serious note, Andrew is mobilizing blogs for a good cause. Check it out.
--------------
Finally, want to reduce your impact on the planet? - drink tapwater instead of bottled water.
Via David Swann's blog, a good article in 'The Independent' on the craziness of the whole bottled water craze and it's impact on the planet.
One of the reasons I am somewhat optimistic (less pessimistic, perhaps) about peak oil and global warming is that I always see evidence like this of just how wasteful we are with regard to energy and resource use. I am confident we could make massive cutbacks in our energy consumption with only minor impacts on our quality of life - if we had to.
That is all.
posted by Declan at
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
4 Comments:
Thank you for spreading the word!
By
Andrew, at 6:18 AM
"we could make massive cutbacks in our energy consumption with only minor impacts on our quality of life - if we had to."
We do have to, and haven't done it yet. What drives me buggy is that it's been well known for decades now what needs to be done (non-burning energy sources, non-automobile mass transport, less wasteful consumption of resources), and virtually nothing has been accomplished. So we wait until climate change/resource wars get so bad that we are forced to change. Which historically has often been to late.
On the positive side, if you look at peak oil/global warming together, it becomes apparent that eventually emissions drop because we run out of stuff to burn. That takes 100 years or so (Oil, gas, coal), but hey, what's the hurry?
By
Anonymous, at 7:36 AM
AUGH! Bottled water! The commoditization of water drives me mad.
My friends make excuses like "It's so much more convienient that remembering to fill the Britta pitcher and changing the filter" as if there were no consequences to this choice at all.
By
Anonymous, at 10:14 AM
Thanks for the link to David's blog entry on bottled water! If any readers are in Calgary, he's having a town hall meeting tomorrow night (Jan 31, 7:30pm) at the Renfrew Community Centre about commodification of water and policy impacts of water pricing. He was also considering a forum on fluoride in our tap water, after receiving an interesting comment on his blog entry.
-Anne (David's admin assistant)
By
Anonymous, at 10:47 AM
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