The other day I took a walk through the Vanier Pavilion with some friends. Very soon the building is going to undergo a major renovation and it is going to be almost completely gutted and renewed. So that means that the building has to be completely emptied of its contents. And so when I was touring the building and beginning to make a preliminary assessment of the remaining contents, I was a little shocked to see that there was still a plant left in the building. Now this is going to be a tad dramatic but when I saw the plant from the other side of the locked door I immediately lunged for it. The door was of course locked and I ended up looking kind of foolish. Whatever, at the very least it really upped my greed cred. And then 2 days later I went back and got the plant (things tend to work better when you bring the right set of keys). So this isn’t the first time that either myself or Brigitte has saved plants from abandonment. Vanier is the second building that is going to be revamp...

I have already professed my hatred for litter. I think that it is really the pinnacle of laziness. Let me explain where I am coming from. What I do in my room is my business. If I mess up the kitchen, you know leave a few dishes in the sink or neglect to wipe-down the counter, then that is rude and insensitive to my roommate. The house isn’t just mine. Now if I leave my front lawn in disarray then I am being slothful and disrespectful to my neighbours and their property value. My actions have an impact on others So when some one tosses something on the ground (litters), I see it as one of the most selfish acts possible. You are basically robbing society of its right to a clean environment and depriving the public of beauty. A sprinkling of cigarette butts, a dash of disposable coffee cups, and of course a smidgen of candy wrappers, and you’ve got yourself the fixins’ for one ugly landscape. In fact the only missing element is the cliché free daily newspaper blowing around by like urba...

So it is that time of the year again. The weather is starting to get a little more tolerable, there are green shoots on some of the bushes and trees, and the GOOD IDEAS contest winners have been announced. “What’s the Good Ideas contest?” you are asking yourself. No don’t strain your mind, I will tell you instead. The Good Ideas contest is a competition for students on campus to suggest good ideas that the University should adopt. It began in 2008 with 10 prizes of $1,000 for the best ideas, as judged by a panel of campus community members. This year it is grown to 20 top prizes of $1,000. The contest was mildly ridiculed by some students because of the contest’s ironic tagline “Only one good idea per student”, implying that students were only capable of having one good idea at a time (we certainly wouldn’t want their brains to over heat). But controversy aside (and I use the word controversy very loosely), I heart this competition. It essentially provides me with an unlimited source o...

Today the Ontario Government agreed set into place its long awaited e-waste collection program. Well I may be exaggerated the long awaited part for some people but for others… At the University the Environmental Law Students Association (ELSA) has taken it upon themselves over the past few years to host and coordinate e-waste drives. Certainly a noble cause since so many people are completely clueless about the deep secrets that electronic waste hides. Let me elaborate briefly. 1- E-waste is not like normal waste; once in the landfill it leaks toxic heavy metals which pollute the groundwater. 2- A good deal of e-waste ends up in China or India where peasants live in giant e-waste landfills. The inhabitants “mine” the precious metals in the computers and electronic components. They are exposed to toxic chemicals as they tear apart the components and burn the plastics for heat. And so forth and so on. So, back to ELSA. Last year on Earth Day ESLA helped to host a massive e-waste drive. ...

Smoking bad, not smoking good. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. I think we have all heard this before; second-hand smoke, poor air quality, lies to the public, impotence, and let’s not forget yellow teeth. But there is one specific aspect of a cigarettes that bug me more than anything and that is litter. My parents were smokers. I would go to school everyday smelling like an ash tray. Before they stopped smoking indoors, the house always had this lovely blue fog about it. But that was their choice you see. I didn’t really much care about if people smoked, but how they smoked. It is easy to see how second-hand smoke has a big impact on others and I think many can agree that this is where the line is drawn. Individuals should not suffer because of another’s personal choices. So the thing that gets me is when people toss their cigarettes on the ground. I know that this seems innocuous compared to some of the other dangers of smoking but I can’t shake it. A couple of years ago I was at a co...

I am not going to talk about the debacle of what happened with the U-pass over the past few days. I think that I have already said enough to the press as it is. But what I am going to talk about is the splintered state of public transportation in the City now and moving forward. 53 Days was a long time to be without transit and the good people of Ottawa didn’t take it sitting down. In fact they walked, carpooled, taxied, did whatever was needed to get where they had to go. The world didn’t stop when the busses did and this brought many people to a very important realization. They say that in order to effectuate change, individuals need to be shaken out of dormancy and indifference. Our everyday lives have a way of making us complaisant. I think that the strike was one of those shakes; one of those rare moments that makes us realize that there is another way. The unfortunate thing about this is that transit could be the big loser. As the members of the campus community realize that ther...

“Can’t someone else do it?” For true Simpsons fans this was a memorable moment in television history. Okay maybe it wasn’t monumental but for environmentalists it was pretty fun. In short, Homer wants to become the sanitation commissioner of Springfield . As he struggles to come up with a slogan he stumbles upon the phrase, “Can’t someone else do it?”, which is likely the most insightful phrase about the human condition when it comes to recycling and waste management. Now I am sitting here on campus and I am having the worst time in the world trying to comprehend how to get people to recycle. I have just come back from my second meeting today about trying to make people recycle more, and I should add that these meetings were initiated by campus community members (not me). There is one monumental truth about recycling, it is hard. John Q. Garbagemaker won’t recycle just because the alternative is bad for the environment, or because our landfills are overflowing, or because it is univers...

So this week was actually super packed so please fasten your seat belts and place your seats in the upright position. We ask that you don’t try to get until we have reached our cruising altitude. Last week the University of Ottawa was fortunate enough to have a visit by Phil Fontaine, National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations. He delivered a lecture about tolerance and intolerance in a post apology area. I secretly wanted to hear someone mention that the land the University stands on is likely stolen land, but there was no such statement. Nevertheless the occasion was marked by the presence of several MPs, including Justin Trudeau. A little known fact is that the University of Ottawa will be hosting 2 massive conferences this summer. Both the meetings have a firm commitment to be more environmentally friendly, green conference is the jargon of the day. On Friday I hired a new student to work solely on green conferences. It is always amazing how many small things can be done to ma...

So every once and a while I fully intend on having guess writers for this crazy thing called blog. This is the first. Thanks Katherine -By Katherine Sullivan- Afin de conserver un brin d’équilibre mental au centre de ce chaos qu’est la grève des autobus d’Ottawa, j’ai du me trouver un passe-temps agréable, afin de braver les bouchons sur la pont, coincée entre un personnage jasant de ses problèmes de couple sur son blackberry et un groupe de jeunes filles discutant le dernier épisode de Loft Story. La classe, je vous dis. J’ai donc essayé la lecture, mais la nausée me monte rapidement à la gorge, et je ne voudrais pas ruiner le manteau de poil de la dame à mes côtés. Les devoirs? Eh bien, je peux vous assurer que compléter un devoir d’harmonie dans l’autobus ressemble à essayer d’enfiler une aiguille dans le noir. Par la suite, il reste l’option de la musique, qui ne me suffit pas. Texter des amis pendant plus d’une heure? Bonjour la tendinite du pouce! C’est alors qu’en faisant un br...

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...