As a long time fan of brushing my teeth, I was hesitant to adopt this popular zero waste lifestyle change. I love making things and I love trying new things, but most natural toothpaste recipes I researched called for simple yet not super appetizing ingredients. Baking soda? Bentonite clay? The skepticism was high even though most recipes called for a sweetening or flavour agent like essential oil or stevia. But then I looked closer at the ingredients in typical tooth paste and did a 'lil internet research. This is what I found: Triclosan : So this chemical is actually classified as a bioaccumulative, non-biodegradable pesticide! It is bad for the environment and our waster systems as it is very toxic to aquatic organisms. But it also isn't great for you, as it is linked to hormone interference and contributes to antibiotic resistant bacteria. Propylene Glycol : This chemical is often contaminated with known carcinogenic ethylene oxide and 1,4 dioxane during the manu...

As I drive along a road to my grand-father’s house on the week-end, I can’t help but notice the monster smokestacks that spoil Sudbury’s landscape. They can be spotted from miles away; towering over the (unusually) short vegetation and blackened granite. You can actually see a line where the exposed rocks have been blackened, and the recently broken or weathered rocks are pink and light grey (their natural color). Then it happened; a terribly geeky science moment! I remembered reading about acid rain problems in Sudbury being the cause for the lack of lush forest and bountiful wildlife; all because of the mega-smokestacks: Acid rain is produced when pollutants such as sulfur dioxide (SO2) are chemically transformed to sulphuric acid in the atmosphere; they are then transported and eventually deposited in the form of rain or snow. Over 90% of acid rain in North America is the result of burning fossil fuels for energy (such as coal), and more importantly smelting or refining sulphur...

I too used to be an optimistic about technology and science. I thought every time there was a problem either technology was going to fix it or science somewhere, we're over 7 billion on the planet, someone is bound to figure it out. - But now, not so much!It seems that there is good progress and bad progress and sometimes it is difficult to differentiate both of them. Here is an example of what I mean: We might have found a way to provide ourselves with basic foods such as vegetables and fruits all year round but it beats the purpose of their consumption: they are loosing their nutritional values (vitamins) because of chemicals used to grow them faster and bigger and the way we harvest them. Moreover, we keep investing in events like " bike for cancer" and "walk for cancer" and so on to get funds to develop more technology and science to find a cure for cancer. Maybe were going in the wrong direction. Maybe it's time to go back to our old habits. Ins...