100-Mile Diet Launches Website

Wed, 26 Apr 2006 18:16:22 GMT

Vancouverites Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon have just launched an exciting expansion of their 100-Mile Diet, a new website. From the press release...... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Easy homemade soap

Sat, 31 Dec 2005 16:17:45 GMT

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have been trying to figure out why no one knows how to do anything anymore. We can't understand, let alone repair, most of the gadgets we use everyday. We increasingly eat packaged and pre-prepared food; even organic food often comes wrapped in plastic. We don't know how to grow tomatoes, can peaches, hem pants, or build fences. As the last generations of depression-era children or back-to-the-landers take their leave of this world, these skills go with them. When we try to learn from scratch we soon discover that recipes in books don't tell half the story.... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Easy homemade yogourt

Sat, 17 Dec 2005 16:30:41 GMT

One day I tried to figure out why no one knows how to do anything anymore. We can't understand, let alone repair, most of the gadgets we use everyday. We increasingly eat packaged and pre-made food; even organic food often comes wrapped in plastic. We don't know how to grow tomatoes, can peaches, hem pants, or build fences. As the last generations of depression-era children or back-to-the-landers take their leave of this world, these skills go with them. When we try to learn from scratch we soon discover that recipes in books don't tell half the story. I have never found why this knowledge started slipping away from us, but I did start trying to re-learn some of the basics. I now make my own soap, hand lotion, yogourt, and bread. I am trying to figure out toothpaste, but it is hard to find good information on abrasion damage. I also found a great cheese site, and I can't wait to try it.... Read the full story on TreeHugger

GE Free fundraiser screening tonight!

Thu, 01 Dec 2005 13:05:31 GMT

Heads up all TreeHuggers in Vancouver BC. The Future of Food is opening tonight at the Fifth Avenue Cinema, 2110 Burrard St. Proceeds go to the Coalition for a GE Free BC. Here is the synopsis from the official website:

There is a revolution happening in the farm fields and on the dinner tables of America -- a revolution that is transforming the very nature of the food we eat.

... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Buy Nothing Day doesn't mean living less.

Fri, 25 Nov 2005 03:00:51 GMT

Buy Nothing Day is a holiday dear to my heart. Proud as I am to be associated with TreeHugger, I know that ecological products can only do so much. If we really want to change the world, we need to find a truly different way of living. We must consume much, much less. So what is my plan to reduce consumption? It's simple, have more perogie parties. I went to my first perogie party three years ago, and I can't stop talking about it. We started with about a dozen people, none of them particularly close friends, at least not at first. The host was Norman Nawrocki (photo from his website), former Perogie King of Montreal. I don't know if Perogie King of Montreal is as glorious a title as, say, Perogie King of Winnipeg, but I was impressed. The instructions were easy, bring one perogie ingredient and one bottle of vodka for every two people. I scoffed at the amount of alcohol, thinking it would be impossible to drink that much.... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Stop Consuming...after you buy this book.

Wed, 19 Oct 2005 16:20:44 GMT

The disturbing images captured by photographer Chris Jordan, who documents the mountains of junk that we produce (in a recent post), brought to mind an oldie but goodie, Peter Menzel's Material World. Reviewed on Amazon...

In honor of the United Nations-sponsored International Year of the Family in 1994, award-winning photojournalist Peter Menzel brought together 16 of the world's leading photographers to create a visual portrait of life in 30 nations. Material World tackles its wide subject by zooming in, allowing one household to represent an entire nation. Photographers spent one week living with a "statistically average" family in each country, learning about their work, their attitudes toward their possessions, and their hopes for the future. Then a "big picture" shot of the family was taken outside the dwelling, surrounded by all their (many or few) material goods.

This book speaks directly to the dilemma faced by earnest TreeHuggers. We love well-designed objects, but the consumption habits of the rich nations are killing the planet. (Revisit NationMaster.com for horrifying graphs on, for example, municipal waste generation. USA! Number One! USA!) (Photos copyright Peter Menzel : The Caven and Ronayne Family, American Canyon, California, U.S.A., 2001 : The Namgay family, 4pm June 7, 1993 Shingkhey, Bhutan)... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Your new car makes me Green with Envy.

Thu, 29 Sep 2005 12:06:41 GMT

A new kind of greenspace rolled out for this year's International Car-Free day in Vancouver, BC - a Car Park. The Vancouver Design Nerds, a fluid group of designers, architects, artists and videographers, rescued a 1973 Pontiac LeMans from a local scrap yard and transformed it into a rolling vegetable garden. (Full Disclosure: I am a founding Design Nerd) Coinciding with the City of Vancouver's launch of the One Day campaign to reduce greenhouse gases, the Car Park was a massive hit on Car Free Day. It caused double-takes all day long and became the backdrop to endless happy tourist photos. (Other cities take note, the One Day campaign, like the Car Park, is Open Source. Make it yours.) The Car Park is also a winner of the Vancouver City Planning Commision's 21 Places competition, which solicited entries to enhance underutilized urban spaces. The best thing about the Car Park is that you can have one too. Here's how we did it. ... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Recycling is cool but Inverse Manufacturing is Hot!

Tue, 06 Sep 2005 08:30:32 GMT

Kudos to Canon and HP. A recent post highlighted the product stewardship programs that the two companies have launched for consumer products and printer cartridges, respectively. Fuji Xerox also deserves accolades for developing a product stewardship system. Ten years ago. In fact, Fuji Xerox has the most TreeHugger program I have ever heard of. It begins, if you can imagine, with design...... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Welcome Treehugger Correspondent Ruben Anderson!

Mon, 05 Sep 2005 23:12:29 GMT

Ruben Anderson has a BFA from the University of Victoria and a Bachelor of Design from the Emily Carr Institute. He entered school thinking that -Green Products' would save the world, and left knowing they would only postpone our destruction, that mass-production will kill us all. ... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Recent Posts by TreeHugger's Ruben Anderson, Vancouver, BC