During a break in today’s workshop on multi-party collaboration, Acting in Concert, a colleague spotted the following graph on my laptop screen. 

“Is that a graph of our progress in environmental protection?” he asked me. I explained that it’s a graph of the 40-year downward trend in frequency of dental cavities.  read more... »

The old house at 9805 - 84th Avenue was built in 1910, so the property title says. Those were different and amazing times - I'm guessing that most houses had no indoor plumbing, and all heating was done by burning wood or coal in stoves.

As I deconstruct this house to make way for the Mill Creek NetZero Home (MCNZH), I've been encountering a lot of history. For example, when it was originally built, every square inch of the house was covered in 15-foot long, 3.25-inch wide planks of old-growth Douglas-fir.  read more... »

In a stunning turn of events, Health Canada is calling bisphenol A a dangerous substance.

What's bisphenol A (BPA)? It's a very useful chemical that unfortunately is bad for us. In fact:

"Independent researchers in dozens of studies have linked trace BPA exposures in animal and test-tube experiments to conditions involving hormone imbalances, including breast and prostate cancer, early puberty and changes in brain structure, particularly for exposures during key points of fetal or early neonatal development." (source)

I call the announcement stunning because it will cause major disruptions in industry to switch away from it. Given that the current Canadian administration is the very pro business Conservatives, I'm frankly shocked that they allowed this to happen. It must have slipped through somehow :) Good on them, though.

What To Do

• Toss out your hard, clear, plastic water bottles, and stop drinking bottled water from the types of bottles pictured at left. In fact, don't drink bottled water at all - Edmonton has world-class water coming out of the taps.
• Buy non-leaching water bottles from Earth's General Store or Mountain Equipment Co-op
• Cut down on canned food:
  

  "Independent laboratory tests found a toxic food-can lining ingredient [BPA] associated with birth defects of the male and female reproductive systems in over half of 97 cans of name-brand fruit, vegetables, soda, and other commonly eaten canned goods. (source)"

• When you do open a can, make it an Eden can:
  

  "Eden Organic Beans are packed in lead free, tin covered, steel cans coated with a baked on oleoresinous (a natural mixture of an oil and a resin extracted from various plants, such as pine or balsam fir) c-enamel lining, that does not contain bisphenol-A. These cans cost 14% more than the industry standard cans, which do contain bisphenol-A (source)."

• Learn about the good versus bad plastics
• Follow the green news. I learned about Bisphenol A five years ago when I read about it in WorldWatch Magazine. The government is always years behind, so be proactive and learn about possible health effects when the scientists do, not when the government finally decides to intervene.