Photo Credit: Jonathan Rausseo Yes this is no sissy spectator sport, this is COMMUNITY GARDENING! Okay so this post has all the trimmings of a Mountain Dew commercial: the Mortal Combat style pictures, the over the top title, and all that jazz. But what I have come to realize is that maybe gardening is way more extreme than anyone thinks. Allow me to lay out my argument. I know that everyone says that gardening is supposed to be calming and relaxing; that it builds community and a better understanding of the environment. I just happen to think that maybe they are wrong. The other day I was at the uOttawa community garden on King Edward. I was doing a little watering when “Eric”, a fellow community gardener, came by and we had a nice talk. A professor, Dr. Nozzolillo, even dropped off some extra tomatoes for us to use. Wow! Everything was, pardon the expression, coming up roses. That is until I came in the next day and my little fledgling peppers had been stolen!!! My first reaction was...

Photo Credit: www.Earthfirst.com Attention, la lecture de ce blog pourrait réveiller en vous des sentiments d’injustice ! Pendant des mois, tous les types de médias nous on décrit en long et en large l’ampleur des fuites de pétrole de la plateforme pétrolière Deepwater Horizon. On a tous appris les détails tels que cette dernière est louée par la compagnie pétrolière British Petroleum (BP) pour forer dans les eaux américaines au golfe du Mexique. On pouvait suivre la catastrophe presqu’au litre près du déversement de pétrole. On était tellement bien informé qu’on peut tous énumérer toutes les conséquences causées par la fuite du puits le plus profond jamais creusé en au large. Certes, la fuite de BP n’est pas une bonne nouvelle et qu’il fallait s’unir pour la maitriser, si non minimiser les dommages qui en suivront, mais lorsque j’ai lu l’article apparue sur le site de figaro.fr, j’étais choquée. D’après l’article, il y a souvent des fuites aussi importantes que cette dernière. De l...

Photo credit: www.eatrightontario.ca/fr Dans la majorité des magasines de mode et de beauté on vente beaucoup les bienfaits du chocolat. Mais détrompez-vous, ce ne sont pas tous les types de chocolat qui sont bénéfiques pour la santé. L’ingrédient clé du chocolat c’est les flavonoïdes. Ces derniers sont des antioxydants qui aident à la réparation des cellules et réduisent les risques de maladies cardiovasculaires. Comme consommateurs, nous n’avons aucune façon de savoir la quantité de flavonoïdes présents dans note barre de chocolat favorite, puisque ce type d’information n’apparait pas sur l’étiquette de nutrition. Devrons-nous l’exiger? Cela dépend des perspectives. Personnellement, je pense qu’étiqueter la valeur de flavonoïde n’est pas une priorité comme l’étiquetage de carbone par exemple. Le site web de Saine alimentation Ontario donne quelques conseils afin de nous aider à mieux choisir notre chocolat si l’on veut bénéficier pleinement de ses bienfaits. D’après les diététistes ...

Photo Credit: Jonathan Rausseo Okay I know it is really late and not really the kind of thing you celebrate but the community garden is now up and running!!! Yeah it is late but come on... you think you could have done better! Please don't answer that question) So the garden was started a couple of days ago. The plots are being dug up and people are already claiming theirs. And just in case you are starting to get any ideas - the plots are already spoken for. But you can get on the waiting list if you want. I mean the odds are that some people may have abandoned their plot. It is July right? Anyways, the garden has a pretty unique design. Basically the whole plot is a like a twisting vine or massive floral pattern. The actual plots are designed to look like leaves, which is pretty sweet. The downfall is that the space may not be used as efficiently as it would otherwise if the plots were rectangles. Now the garden is quite the upgrade from what it was originally going to be. 20 plo...

Photo Credit: www.seine-et-marne-en-projets.fr Après une année complète de travail ou d’étude, lorsqu’il est temps de prendre des vacances, la majorité des personnes veulent dormir dans les hôtels les plus chiques et faire des activités un peu excessives et égoïstes à mon gout comme nager avec les dauphins par exemple. Le fait que les vrais vacances ne sont pas chose fréquente, les gens croient qu’il leur est permis de faire ce qu’ils veulent, car de toute façon ce n’est pas chaque jour qu’ils peuvent prendre des photos d’animaux tristes au zoo ou de faire la fête au bord d’un bateau qui tourne en rend toute la nuit pour leur faire plaisir. Je ne dis pas que ces activités sont à bannir, mais je questionne seulement le type de sorties touristiques qui nous paraissent normales et que personne ne remet en question due à leur grande popularité. Je paris que si vous prenez un instant pour y penser, vous allez vite vous rendre compte des impacts négatifs qu’ont la majorité de ces activités s...

Photo credit: www.aragostahotel.com In several days, I will be departing for Europe with my family for a month, and for the first time, I really got to thinking about the effects of airplane trips on our environment. I’ve decided that this year, I will make a conscious effort to offset my trip on my return, as well as observe sustainable practices in the countries that I will be visiting. I expect to see major differences between the countries I’ll visit that are within the Euro Zone, and the countries without, but overall, I think it’s going to be an educational experience. I know that, despite the fact that recycling programs aren’t as well-developed in the Balkans, the fact is that most of their food, particularly meat, fruit and vegetables, are local, which greatly cuts down on the need for transport, saving CO2 emissions there. Countries in the Euro Zone, however, are probably a lot more aware of, and able to implement, sustainable practices, as they have the capital to organize l...

Photo credit: Jonathan Rausseo It’s been close to 4 months since I left home to embark on my six month national youth volunteer adventure. I had just graduated high school and wanted something to do. Traveling to three different parts of Canada with 10 other young people, totally appealed. With the program focus being Eco-Citizenship and Active Living, I couldn’t wait to get started. Having to create environmental contracts and having our work placements center around “green” organizations, I knew I’d be a changed woman. As a group, we made all sorts of decisions in hopes of making ourselves more environmentally savvy. We would buy local produce whenever possible, take shorter showers, start a vegetable garden and follow the “if it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown, flush it down” philosophy when using the bathroom. We recycle everything and about half of our fridge is filled with leftovers. Our house came fully equipped with enough bikes for everyone so there’s really no excuse fo...

Most people think that incorporating sustainability into everyday lives and massive government undertakings, like sporting events, is a development of recent years. When I say recent, let me make it clear that this means in the ballpark of 5 years. What they’d be surprised to find out is that they’re entirely wrong. The best example of a sustainable initiative that was largely unadvertised is the Sydney Olympic Park in Australia. Sydney hosted the Olympic Games in 2000, winning the bid well before the “green boom,” and everyone’s sudden interest in saving our planet. When they won the bid, most of their money went into remediating land that was swallowed by landfills, and turning it into beautiful, safe parks and recreational areas. Instead of using the Olympics as an excuse to excavate the life out of their city and build exquisitely complex buildings instead of keeping biodiversity, a large portion of the money they spent went into preserving ecosystems and restoring previously distu...

Photo credit: http://www.foundshit.com/water-fountain-squirrel/ If only water fountains were everywhere…then there’d be no need for bottles. In any case, this last week, I performed the Water Fountain Assessment. I used emphatic caps to reinforce the importance of this process. What the assessment entailed was the inspection of each and every single fountain on campus and taking down information about the water pressure, temperature, taste, general fountain appearance, accessibility and availability of goosenecks. After hydrating to an unnecessary extent, these numbers were all inputted to be analyzed and compared with last year’s assessments. I am pleased to announce that there has definitely been a lot of progress, most of it being as a result of the massive construction undertakings on campus. The fact of the matter is, there is still a lot of work to be done to upgrade the fountain infrastructure at uOttawa to a satisfactory level, especially now that we’ve banned the sales of bott...

Photo credit: wallflowerstudioseeds.blogspot.com/ Je ne vous apprends rien si je vous dits que l’état de notre planète est mal et qu’il est temps d’agir, et ce sur tous les plans. Il existe plusieurs petits gestes que l’on peut poser quotidiennement qui minimisent nos impacts négatifs sur l’écosystème fragile de la terre. Ces actions peuvent être aussi simples qu’avoir un sac réutilisable sur soi pour minimiser et pourquoi pas éliminer notre utilisation de sac en plastique; recycler tout ce qui se recycler et composter si vous avez un grand jardin ou si votre municipalité a mis en place un système de compostage. Il y a aussi l’étiquetage des produits qui indique leur empreinte carbone. Personnellement, je crois que c’est une bonne mesure pour diminuer nos impacts partout, mais spécialement pour nous, ci au Canada parce que nous vivons dans un pays septentrional. Laissez-moi vous expliquer pourquoi après cette courte définition. D’après le dictionnaire de l’environnement le terme « Empr...

After a full month of frustration and reward in equal measure, the Dump & Run draws to a close. The storage is full, roughly 100 boxes filled with various items have been donated to charities, and Leblanc is no longer my second home. Before closing the book on Dump & Run 2010 for good, though, I wanted to share some information about it with the general public. Everyone likes numbers, right? The total amount of stuff collected weighs 2.4 tonnes . 25% of all the material collected was women’s clothing. The majority of the miscellaneous kitchen items were toaster ovens and electric kettles. The total number of boxes filled: 278 And for interest’s sake, here is a quick breakdown of everything collected: All in all, this year’s campaign was incredibly successful and diverted massive amounts of useable and recyclable items from the landfill. Goodbye for now, Dump & Run, and we will see you next year! -vedrana

Photo credit: www.roycod.com Enfin, le retour de l’été! D’un côté, qui dit beau temps dit les longues lectures de notre roman préféré sur le gazon et les samedis après-midi passés sur les patios de nos pubs et café favoris. D’un autre côté, le retour du soleil est synonyme de la panique totale : mettre de la crème solaire en tout temps. Cette obsession de se couvrir la peau semble nous rassurer puisque les crèmes solaires attestent de bloquer les rayons ultraviolets qui sont, d’après Santé Canda, la cause principale du cancer de la peau. Il m’apparait que les compagnies de cosmétiques ont profité de notre manque de connaissance à ce sujet et de notre vulnérabilité à se protéger, pour créer chez nous une réelle phobie du soleil. De plus, bonne chance à la personne qui essaie de choisir la meilleure crème solaire qui se vend à la pharmacie. Il existe des dizaines de marques de crème solaire avec des facteurs de protection solaire (FPS) différents allant de 15 à 100. En addition, il y en ...

Though I tried to get my family to quit bottled water cold turkey, it didn’t exactly go over as well I had hoped. However, it wasn’t entirely in vain; we did reduce our household’s consumption substantially. I feel that this is going to be an ongoing battle, but one that I’m willing to fight. With that said, I figured it’d be an appropriate time to distract them from being unimpressed by their lack of “convenient” water by sneaking our compost bucket into the kitchen casually. While my mom and I were making dinner a few nights ago, I made a point of tossing all of the peels, egg shells and other compost created into the little bucket, hoping she’d get the idea. Alas, the European parent is a stubborn one. I talked to her about it afterward and we came to the conclusion that composting is only going to be happening if I’m doing it. Okay, I can deal with this. What this entails is literally flitting around my family during mealtimes and making sure everything compostable is heading into ...

Thanks to everyone that made environment week possible this year. A shout out to Brigitte, Danny, Marc, Vedrana, Amina, Matt, and Leah. We had a bunch of great activities this year but I did want to take a moment to especially mention the bike repair kiosk that Matt was running during this year's BBQ. Like every year, there are dozens of individuals that come by looking for some help getting their bikes back into working order. Well, worry no more friends, the Bike Coop will soon be finished. You can check some earlier posts about the Coop and all the cool services we hope to have but the essential is that campus community members will now have a space to fix up their bikes with the guidance of a technician. And the timing couldn't be better. At this year's bike repair kiosk there were many bikes that came our way that were just on the border of not being road worthy. In the picture below you can see a brake line that was maybe a couple of minutes away from complete failure...

Photo Credit: Pierre St-Jacques Comme une résidente depuis ma jeunesse de la région de la Capitale Nationale, il m’est difficile d’accepter les commentaires clichés sur Ottawa. J’en ai entendu de toutes les sortes. Il semble que toute personne à son mot à dire lorsqu’il s’agit de parler d’Ottawa-Gatineau. Je pense qu’il ne faut pas comparer Ottawa à de très grandes villes pour deux raisons. Premièrement, Ottawa n’est pas aussi une grande métropole, donc c’est une erreur de la comparer avec Montréal et Toronto. Deuxièment il serait anormalement stupide pour une ville de juste 90 mille habitants d’avoir autant d’activités que les grandes villes, car non seulement ca sera une perte d’argent, mais aussi par ce que le nombre des participants sera toujours minime. En fait, est-ce possible que les gens arrêtent de comparer et juste apprécier la ville telle qu’elle est? C’est ce qu’a fait Ève Dumas, chroniqueuse du journal La Presse, section voyage. L’article est bien présenté car il est divis...