Rob's Ramblings

I am always reluctant to vote since I think that the system of representational democracy needs to be replaced with something less heirarchial and even more democratic. But until that change happens, and while we spend our other days working for that to happen, I don't think that it hurts to cast our ballots in the meantime. And municipal politicians seem to be the most responsive to the needs of the people. So here is who I am thinking of voting for in the Vancouver elections (subject to change): Mayor (1) WEST, Ben (yeah, I know that Jim Green is the lesser of two evils when compared to Sam Sullivan - but I can not in good conscience vote for a mayor from the party that abandoned their election promises, abandoned COPE, supported P3 programs (RAV) and voted to do business with a war criminals (SNC-Lavalin)). Councillors (10) BASS, Fred COPE CADMAN, David COPE DEAL, Heather Vision Vancouver (based on her work with David Suzuki Foundation she seems to be the only one from Vi...

I just returned from the Green Festival in San Francisco. One of the most interesting talks I attended was by William McDonough who thinks that businesses must go far beyond "corporate sustainability" and triple bottom lines to something he calls " cradle to cradle design." Another inspiring presentation was by a panel on workers cooperatives that featured the Bay Area Network of Workers Cooperatives . The story of the People's Grocery of Oakland was especially exciting. It was also great to see environmental sustainability coming together with social, racial and economic justice (at least in this presentation). I also went to a couple of presentations on permaculture which I didn't find too helpful but they did encourage me to do more in that area. There were also a lot of interesting products. Recognizing the inherent contradiction of over-consumption as part of a festival about sustainability, I managed to resist the urge to buy anything. However,...

I recently came across someone claiming that bicycles were less efficient than automobiles if the embedded energy in food the rider ate was included in the calculations. They quoted calculations from a paper on the energy efficiency of electric bikes . However this claim does not match other data that I have seen. For example one source claims that: A bike requires 350 calories per 10 miles (supplied by the rider) A car requires 18,000 calories per 10 miles And other sources seem to support these numbers Now even if you add the embedded energy of the food which according to the paper is 7 additional calories per calorie of food consumed, that is still only: 2,450 calories per mile for bikes vs. 18,000 calories per mile for vehicles. And this is still not including the embedded energy of the fuel for the automobile or the embedded energy for manufacturing the automobile (about 10 times that of the bike).

First Nations elders are being arrested in Northern B.C. after blockading roads to prevent mining and oil field development. It seems to me that these actions are significant from both the perspective of first nations rights and environmental protection. Yet there is not that much coverage of the issue in the mainstream media. A good blog of the events can be found at http://tahltan.blogspot.com

Talking points for the Burrard Street Bridge bike lanes in Vancouver: - The bridge currently has over capacity for automobile traffic. - Changing the signal configuration at Burrard and Pacific would overcome some of the problems from the 1996 experiment. - In the past 20 years demand by cyclists and pedestrians has doubled on the bridge while vehicle demand has not changed. - Converting vehicle lanes to cycling lanes as opposed to widening the bridge could save the city $11 million dollars. - People have been seriously injured because of the current narrow bike lanes. If someone is killed the subsequent lawsuit will cost the city much more than doing nothing.

Well there is hope here along the Salish Coast that we may in fact be moving towards a more sustainable future. Vancouver has been the seen some very successful street parties over the last couple of weeks. First huge crowds turned out for the Car Free Commercial Drive festival . And last weekend at least three streets were shut down for pedestrian oriented events - 4 th Ave for the soapbox derby, Broadway for Greek Days and Water Street for the Jazz Fest. And last weekend began with a Critical Mass bike ride that saw over 1,000 riders show up. And tonight City Council rejected the car-oriented developments (Wal-Mart and Canadian Tire) on Marine Drive. On a totally unrealted note, I've been thinking about critical realism .

Hearings began tonight on the Vancouver Wal-Mart store (see previous post). The architect involved tried to claim that the wind turbines would generate power. One of the experts they consulted has told me: “...and my reports keep telling them there isn't enough wind. But Wal-Mart seems to feel their power extends to the weather. The rest of us realize we can't change the weather. I have insisted that it will be a very poor choice to install turbines at a site where they will be standing still most of the time. They remain firm in their belief that they do want the turbines. It's certainly a greenwash on their part.”