The Green Ones have landed in Capital City

I guess it's about time, but it's pretty cool to see them here. Just as I was pulling into the old driveway this morning they arrived: "The Green Ones are here!" That's right, if you are a resident in Ottawa you have probably received (or are about to receive) a Green Bin. The city is handing out some 220,000 of them. This means that once the program begins (Jan 2010) if you live in Ottawa you will be able to recycle almost all of your garbage. Between blue, black and green bins and the Take It Back program, Ottawa does pretty well when it comes to residential waste. Although with news that Plasco will only be able to turn an estimated 18% of waste into energy and not until 2011, our garbage problems are far from over. But separation of the various types of waste is it is a natural step towards a solution. "Divide and concur" or "divide and rule", are tried and true strategies to solutions ranging from politics to economics to algorithms. So dividing up waste will be the first step to making optimal use of it.

Anywho... getting back to the bins; you can put all sorts of crazy crap in there!: Food waste (including meats and bones: which makes the whole program worthwhile in my opinion cause otherwise it would just cannibalize everyones composting efforts.) yard waste and other items (including such feces as kitty litter, fireplase ash, paper plates, wax paper, sawdust and so-on and dryer lint and so-forth) I mean, it says so right on the sticker!

So I guess if we can all try to forget about the plastic bag scandal from the days of recycling past, Ottawa seems to be on the right track. Let's see how this all unfolds. Plus check out green bins trusty side kick beige bin, which is designed to hang from the inside of your cabinet door where garbages usually go. I predict a Batman-Robin or Hercules-Newton type of relationship will blossom in each of our homes between these two unlikeliest of heroes.

Can Nike and Wal-Mart save the Amazon?

Here is an interesting topic of conversation for my friend Meg who is working in sustainability with organizations in the Brazilian Amazon:

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An ambitious commitment by some of the world's largest companies not to buy beef or leather products from the Brazilian Amazon may falter if a strong monitoring system isn't put in place.
By Andrew Downie | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

Sao Paulo, Brazil - A recent decision by a group of multinational companies that include Nike, Adidas, and Timberland to boycott beef and leather products from the Brazilian Amazon -- the largest cattle-ranching area in the world -- might sound like a good way to reduce deforestation.

"These companies are ... telling their suppliers they expect to see zero deforestation or they will stop buying from them," says Tatiana Carvalho, an Amazon campaigner at Greenpeace, one of the moratorium's main coordinators. "That is a big step forward."

The shoemakers and the Brazilian subsidiaries of supermarkets Wal-Mart and Carrefour agreed that as of June 22, they would not purchase beef or leather from suppliers who cut down rainforest trees to open up new cattle pasture.

But without a strict monitoring and labeling system, the moratorium on beef products from the Brazilian Amazon could amount to little more than a publicity stunt, environmentalists warn. Brazil's beef producers' association has dismissed the moratorium as "meaningless."

A tracking system that clarifies where beef or leather has been produced is not yet in place, making it difficult for producers to know whether a steak or a piece of shoe leather came from deep in the Amazon or from grazing lands in the south of the country. When the European Union looked at farms' traceability procedures last year, it approved beef exports from only 1,376 of the country's estimated 5,000,000 cattle farms.

Leather is more problematic, since it is sold on the open commodities market and is even harder to trace.

Reassuring consumers

"[The moratorium] shows the industry is concerned and wants to assure the consumer that it is doing its part. But the criteria are difficult to implement, and, in the end, may be shown to have been ineffective," says Peter May, an assistant director at Friends of the Earth Brazil. "But for the time being, it may reassure consumers."

Some of the companies that have signed on acknowledge that they don't yet have enough information to guarantee they're not using products from the Amazon. Shoemakers Nike and Clarks both said they would give suppliers until 2010 to put full traceability procedures in place.

Many of the companies were prompted by a June report from Greenpeace that named and shamed supermarkets, shoe manufacturers, automakers, and other blue-chip companies whose "blind consumption of raw materials fuels deforestation and climate change."

They were also encouraged by a similar, albeit more limited, moratorium on soybeans that stopped traders from buying beans from recently deforested areas in the Amazon. The moratorium was judged a success and was extended for a fourth consecutive year in July.

Rainforest stampede

But beef is where real environmental gains can be made, since very little soy is grown in the Amazon. For years, cattle farmers have been selling their most productive pastures in the south to soybean and sugar-cane producers and using the cash to buy cheaper land in the Amazon, which is deforested and populated with cattle.

That practice, spurred by surging global demand for beef as incomes in countries such as India and China have risen, has led to a stampede into the rainforest.

Three of every 4 new additions to Brazil's cattle herd between 2003 and 2008 came in the Amazon, according to a 2008 Friends of the Earth report. The beef industry is one of the main drivers of deforestation and one of the world's main sources of greenhouse gases. Brazil boasts around 200 million cattle and is the world's biggest beef exporter.

Under Brazilian law, Amazonian farmers may clear just 20 percent of their land and must keep the rest as natural forest. But the law is rarely enforced. Today, around 17 percent of the Brazilian Amazon's original tree cover is gone.

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The original post can be found here

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Symbol Quest: Online Game from Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol (Spoiler Alert)

This is what you get for reaching the 33rd degree of Symbol Quest . I'll post some help later for those "it's about the journey" people, but if you are strictly after the prize, this is your shortest path.

Here is word for word what Dan says. You never know what clues may be hidden in them:

"This is Dan Brown,
Congratulations on playing Symbol Quest and reaching the 33rd degree with a perfect score. I’ve just finished signing 33 first editions of the lost symbol which are locked in the vault, waiting to be sent out to the 33 different winners. The 33 first winning code breakers who call the secret phone numbers, encrypted on the book jacket, will receive this reward.
Good luck"

Tribute to San Jose!

Today I pay tribute to Ottawa's brother from another mother: San Jose.
Ottawa and San Jose have a lot in common. We are both high-tech towns, we both have NHL teams that were born within a year of each other and there is a general consensus in both populations that opposes municipal funding of jukebox terrorism (i.e.: Queing up the same ridiculous song over and over on a jukebox.)
Recently the San Jose Sharks acquired Ottawa Senators star trigger man Dany Heatley. Dany had asked to leave at the end of 2008-2009 season stating that his game didn't fit with the new coach's system, but there has been speculation that there are other reasons which I will not get into because I propagate facts only! as you may have noticed with my Jukebox declaration. Dany; you will be missed but you really need to start prospecting for a new exit strategist.

One other honorable mention regarding Ottawa's Twin-Town is that this site has been getting lots of hits and tomfoolery from San Jose. This is good! I encourage city level incest. Actually I would encourage all readers from Jose-town to leave a comment after this post as a sign of brotherly-sisterly love. Also I would like to welcome Jonathan Cheechoo and Michalek, so long as they score lots of goals and are key player in the Sens lifelong ambition of publicly destroying and humiliating the Sharks at every possible opportunity. Peace and Love.