I’ll bet that you have heard something about the anti-bottled water campaign haven’t you? Is bottled water good? There are some redeeming qualities. It can be easily transported to areas that don’t have public utilities (like regions in sub-Saharan Africa or even New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina), it is a safe source of water when water bourn viruses are a problem (like in Walkerton), and it is healthy (you know zero calories and all that). And there is the bad. Coca-Cola has been accused of polluting water basins, Suez has been accused of instigating civil unrest in South America when they privatize public systems, and everybody is being accused of making a mounting of money from a commodity that many people debate is a human right. And there is also the matter that it is only being tested every once and a while (voluntarily I might add), that the plastic bottles they come in leach chemicals into the water, and that buying bottled water undermines confidence in public utilities. H...

“Twenty-five years ago they spoke out and they broke out Of recession and oppression and together they toked And they folked out with guitars around a bonfire Just singin' and clappin' man what the hell happened.” - Walking on the Sun (Smash Mouth) - I recently heard an interview about what could be the most exciting thing to happen in a generation. It turns out that after years of toiling, scratching together small fortunes, and finding ever new ways of increasing creature comforts, the boomers are back. So let me get you caught up real quick. The boomers were one of the most amazing generations in western history. They single-handedly proved that the power of the people has the ability to set political agendas. They ended Vietnam, they brought about awareness of sexual orientation, and they helped solidify the gender equality movement. And then, as Smash Mouth so eloquently put it, BAM – what the hell happened? They became the generation that displayed the most veracious con...

Okay, so maybe this picture isn’t exactly of the campus, or somewhere in Ottawa, or even on this continent; but it might as well be. For any of you have had a chance to notice there are 2 daily traffic jams on campus. The first one usually happens around noon during the lunch time rush. The second happens at about 5:30 pm just as the majority of the employees are calling it a day and the afternoon classes are ending. I suppose this shouldn’t come as a surprise. There aren’t too many options right now. With no busses there is way more car use, not just because of carpools but also because of people getting picked up by a friend or loved one. And of course the University of Ottawa campus is smack in the middle of the City. Normally this would be super helpful, but during a transit strike so much traffic around the campus actually hampers traffic flow on campus. Now I do want to take a minute to say why I think that this issue is an important one. First there is the obvious problem of idl...

OMG, is he really talking about recycling? Didn’t we deal with all that in the 90’s? Yes I am actually talking about recycling and yes it is something that we probably should have dealt with long ago. Here is a little known fact to anyone outside of the recycling biz. In 1992 the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) for Ontario basically mandated a 60% diversion for all academic institutions. Well it wasn’t exactly a mandate but it was strongly suggested that all institutions in Ontario must perform waste audits and must create action plans to divert waste. So what happened? Why aren’t we living in a wasteless utopia? Well you see after the MOE created the waste diversion regulation they kind of went to sleep. Yep, in fact it took 15 years before they even showed up to do their first inspection at the University of Ottawa. In between that time 2 things happened; first people stopped caring, and second, people thought the problem was taken care of. Let’s start with the latter. The governm...

CSAF - Green Space and Recreational Space I promised I would talk about CSAF more, or if I didn't... well I am now. Let's start with an anecdote, yeah that always draws people in. Today I met up with two old friends, both alumnus from the University. We talked a bit about how things are going but eventually it all came back to how things have changed on campus. Kneil and Chris have been away for about 3 years in British Columbia, so they have basically had no contact with Ottawa, let alone the campus. Anyways, this is besides the point. I gave them a tour of the campus and they remarked at some of the changes that have happened over the years. Okay so this the part where I break from the story and tie the two points together with a revealing and shocking hook. It turns out that Kneil is one of the first hard core members of Green Campus. He was the guy that got the community garden started here on campus back in 2003. Yeah that guy! It is unfortunate that the garden wasn’t avai...

Now before you get the impression that this is just me pandering to the masses you should know one thing… you are probably right. Nevertheless, I am pandering for a worthwhile cause. Now some months ago CBC’s The Hour announced that they were going to be launching a program called One Million Acts of Green. If you haven’t heard of this yet than I am lead to believe one of two things. First, you live under a rock and have to attachment at all to the Zeitgeist. Second, you stay away from all forms of electronic communications, in which case good on you for not using any energy. The One Million Acts of Green project is a challenge from George to the rest of the country to try to accomplish 1 Million acts of green over the next year. As campy as that may sound I think that they really tapped into something. Let me tell you why. Sure going on a website to proclaim that you did one good thing for the environment is not that groundbreaking. In fact, it’s not even that impressive. Facebook has...