One Environmentalist's Right to Write

Proposed Oshawa ethanol plant

2008-06-13T15:50:00.007-04:00

Oshawa ethanol plant public info session at the GM Centre

Oshawa

Monday, June 16th at 5:30 p.m.

I am doing a delegate speech at the public information session about the proposed Oshawa ethanol plant.

So far I am wondering why we are considering building an ethanol plant when other countries are already experiencing taking food from the poor to feed gas guzzling vehicles.

I'm also concerned that we are going to use local lands to farm corn to feed vehicles and wonder what the impact will be on agricultural lands that we need to use to grow other foods that we need to feed ourselves and livestock with.

I am also an unhappy parent knowing that the smell at Lakeview Park will make my weekly trip there with friends and family a possible thing of the past.

And the environmental impacts on Lake Ontario and the Second Marsh also seem to be a moot point. Where are we going to go for walks and enjoy the wildlife like we do at the Second Marsh if we have to smell something akin to yeast brewing? And what about the wildlife?

I have research to do and I have to write my delegation and then attend the info session so I will have more to say later.

In honour of Thursday's world environment day

2008-06-05T12:39:00.009-04:00

Some lighter fare.

I have always had a strong fascination with trees.

When I was seven years old I used to sit my bum in the seat I had made from willow tree branches tied together and I'd swing until they broke and I fell to the ground. I would do this repeatedly - smacking my head or my back but then getting right back up again. My best friend and I did this daily one hot Mississauga summer.

I have an Honours Bachelor degree in Fine Arts Studies and as an adult I am always delighted with tree art. Whether it is a painting, a sculpture, or a tree made out of iron etched in an old glass window. We have a large picture of a tree above our couch and I love the details. All the little branches someone painstakingly drew -- but mapped out with adoration for a massive tree.

When I draw today I am often sketching trees and I will sometimes depict a person with their arms reaching up and their arms become branches of a tree. I will not branch out and show you my drawings. That's not what my forte is, I concentrated more on art and theatre criticism. Hence the writing.

When I was 11 years old and lived in Stratford-Upon-Avon, England, I was made to go outside during art class and draw trees and I couldn't see the point then, but in hindsight, I wish now that I had really gotten into it.

We have a couple of cedar trees out front of our home. After the winter thaw I noticed that one of the cedar trees was brown at the bottom and I decided to keep my eye on it.

It is now getting browner and I'm afraid it's going to die. Luckily one of my neighbourhood friends is an arborist and so I got some wonderful advice. Erin let me know that it's probably salt damage from our long winter.

I've cut off the dead branches and I'm to water it a great deal. I went to Canadian Tire to get some tree fertilizer that comes in stakes that my husband hammered into the soil around the tree and that should help it too.

In the process I tried to do what Kristen McKinnon-Rutherford suggested in her on-line article Why Take Care?, which is to take care of myself by doing a little gardening. While raking I had a wicked shoulder cramp and then when I was completely finished planting and putting down cocoa mulch, I couldn't feel my legs. Kristen, by take care, did you mean to take care of myself after I over-did it? No, I didn't think so either.

And Linda who I laughed at when she was weeding after dark can now laugh right back at me. I was filling up my watering can and used the jet stream option on my spray nozzle and somehow ended up jet-streaming my face and couldn't figure out how to take my fingers off the trigger while I was doing this to myself.

Erin also gave me advice to google pruning so that I can learn how to take care of our cedar trees. I thought I could just look at them -- now I have to take care of them? Well, OK then, I'm up for this challenge but just don't sign me up for a gardening reality show because I'm not so sure I'd win. And I'm not so sure I would be very good at the journey part either.

I'll let you know every once in a while how my cedar tree is doing.

Cross your fingers that I redeem myself and the tree lives and doesn't die like past indoor plants I have had. At this point, I don't have a green thumb; it's a blistered thumb.

I'm some shade of green and I'll celebrate that by taking care of my tree.

Photograph courtesy of Trish Gallagher. Cannot be reproduced without permission from Trish Gallagher.

Tuesday Question #5

2008-06-03T08:49:00.014-04:00

Careless = Less Care

We have to realize that east of Toronto there is going to be a strip along the lake with many plants and facilties. The elephant in the room is that we have Darlington, a proposed incinerator, a proposed ethanol plant, and Pickering Nuclear Generating Station. These facilities standing alone and definitely put together put us all at health risks. And all of those health risks are conveniently jammed in one area of Ontario -- Durham Region.

Only a fool would see that this is a good idea.

Jennifer Stone's June 3rd on-line article, which will be printed in one or more of Durham Region's newspapers, entitled GM not the only game in town: Energy industry also big employer aptly mentions "a 2006 study on Durham's Energy Cluster." The words energy and cluster grabbed my attention.

Are we going to be the next Chemical Valley like Sarnia? And once a proposed incinerator is added, instead of being known as Durham's Energy Cluster, 20 years from now we may be nicknamed something like the Cancer Cluster.

And I'm sorry to tell anyone from Sarnia this, but Oshawa councillor Brian Nicholson, a vocal opponent to incineration, let us know on Talk Politics last week, during an incineration debate, that the proposed Courtice incinerator's most toxic, most hazardous, terribly nasty, fly ash will be landfilled in Sarnia.

Yes, incinerators create landfill. If you didn't know before, well now you do. And it creates the worst type of landfill. Bury it in a moratorium forever and ever, amen.

And I have to wonder what human rights are we infringing upon when we not only pollute our own backyard but decide to bury the hazardous fly ash in Sarnia, already known as one of the most toxic towns in Canada.

Industry is being protected by government. Human rights, health and environmental concerns are shoved aside to make way for bad economic decisions, poor electricity and district heating planning, a dangerous waste solution, and careless transportation and disposal of ash.

We're all going to pay for it. In addition to our taxes and our lives, just think how much health care will cost us now. Careless equals less care for our well-being and possibly less health care for a growing population that can get ill with asthma, emphysema, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. We already have a shortage of doctors and many have already used up their energy to say no to incineration.

Three Quote Thursday #3

2008-05-29T09:27:00.007-04:00

"Risk assessment usually involves 'modelling'...this technique has only a
30% chance of accurately predicting the ground level concentrations of
pollutants - in other words less accurate than tossing a coin. In fact, it is
impossible to assess risk when the toxic effects of 88-90% of chemicals and
pollutants are unknown."

Dr. Jeremy Thompson & Dr. Honor Anthony

__________

"Some politicians seem to think we'd rather have sick children and a sick
planet than take a little extra time to sort our recyclables and reduce our
waste."

Kristin Duare McKinnon-Rutherford, Courtice resident

__________

"We are conducting a vast toxicological experiment on our children which will
affect generations to come."

Dr. Herbert Needleman

__________

About these words
These quotes were taken from the visual presentation, ‘The Rest of the Story,’ by Kristin Duare McKinnon-Rutherford. For a copy of the actual presentation, email Kristin at krispoo@sympatico.ca. (The presentation runs just under 16 minutes on any computer. There is no soundtrack and the presentation can be run on a loop.)
As with all other materials I prepare, complete citations - and in most cases, actual source documents - are available upon request.

Tuesday Question #4

2008-05-27T18:10:00.008-04:00

I've only been on the anti-incineration game-show since January but I still have my game face on.

Do you think that Clarington council will use their unwilling host stance as what is now infamously known as Clarington's "bargaining chip" to get incentives for their municipality and thus push the Region to rubber stamp, in other words, choo-choo the incinerator train through to the next phase?

This means that the business case may be accepted by the Region of Durham and will go out to the five companies bidding on the incinerator. In the industry this is called going to RFP (request for proposals). Apparently someone has the technology. But not made in Canada. Instead a good chunk of over $150,000,000 (wow that's a lot of zeros) will be going to Japan, the U.S. or some European country whose company can supply the technology. Let's sell ourselves once again, how typically Canadian of us.

This is not a field of dreams where the incinerator is going, but it will be called a park. What a lovely word to use where garbage will be burned. So what word should I start using when I take my child to an actual park with swings and climbing apparatuses -- I can't call it a park because they're not the same thing.

I play, but I don't play poker, I definitely don't gamble, nor do I believe in it. In addition to the gambling problem in this province care of all of the available casinos, we can now include a new type of addiction frenzy called incineration. And incineration is a bigger risk. Some big time suits are loving Ontario right now because they're looking at our province as a cash cow. And we say "Moo!" And for that you may have to accept the fact that some nano-particles may be present in your milk.

Incineration = asthma + cancer + smog + $. See? Thanks to an Oshawa pal I now know that incineration even has its own formula.

Is the Region and Clarington council into trying their luck? They obviously have their poker faces on. And the game is going on behind closed doors once again. Some chances are being taken in a non-public session by Clarington councillors to up the ante and toss all of their chips in to win the incinerator trophy.

Will dice be thrown, a coin tossed, or will they be playing flicksies with their hockey cards to make their decision? It's as easy as that. We need an independent peer review on the emissions criteria and more, but have been denied that. We've been denied public consultation on the emissions, the business case, the host community agreement, plus more. How fair are they playing the game?

They're in such a rush to build this facility by 2013 you'd think we were facing another SARS epidemic. Yesterday some members of the public were wearing N95 masks to show a concern for breathing clean air, making a poignant and peaceful demonstration in Clarington council chambers.

Today, my child rifled through my bag and came into the living room and very innocently figured out how to put my N95 mask on alone today. Dress-up may have been my child's intention, but I had a clear view of my child standing before me with an N95 mask -- and it was enough to make me tremble -- and this was no vision. Now gamble on that and I can bet your life anyone alive from 10 to 20 years from now will need to be sporting these uncomfortable masks. They'll probably come in different colours, you can make fashion statements, and instead of being recyclable we'll probably have to toss them into the incinerator. You're darn tootin' I'm mad. Put one on a child you know and see how you feel looking at that!

Now this deal called the EFW business case and RFP is a hold-up -- but, it's not as the saying goes "it's your money or your life." Hey, it's both. And at the end of the day I'm much more worried about life.

I have my game face on but it's not a poker face. I'm serious -- because what is really being gambled away is our health and safety.

My Answer to Tuesday Question #3

2008-05-15T19:25:00.002-04:00

This is for you, Mrs. B.

After presenting my delegation to Clarington council on April 21st, Clarington councillor Gord Robinson asked me if I would be willing to lobby Oshawa council to financially support a public information session. My reply was "Absolutely." Thursday, May 22nd at 9:30 a.m. I will be at Oshawa City Hall doing just that.

In order to prepare for speaking in front of council I made it a habit of speaking with my neighbours and friends in Oshawa to see who could be available during the day to sit behind me and show their support for a public information session which will allow the public to learn about the pros and cons of incineration and then have an opportunity to ask questions. This format would benefit Clarington residents, all residents of Durham Region, and to me significantly, Oshawa residents, after all this is the city that I live in and hold dearest to my heart.

So far this week I've asked four neighbours -- one is coming; one is busy; one is working but is against incineration and is going to look at the http://www.durhamenvironmentwatch.org/ website and talk to her coworkers; and one neighbour said something quite disturbing to me.

As I'm emailing friends and acquaintances, I am pleasantly surprised at the generous nature of people when they are willing to listen to my delegation. So the number of people sitting behind me is growing.

Perhaps others have already experienced comments that are beyond a challenge and are almost threatening. I guess I should welcome myself to the world of politics! And, hey, Mrs. B. you're not alone here!

I asked one of my neighbours if he would sit behind me after telling him about what I'm doing and he can see the Say No to Incineration sign on my front lawn from his house. He told me that he's actually not con and so I waited for him to tell me why so that I could hear him out and then inform him of my concerns. Instead of telling me why he is not con he said that I had better watch out because there are some people who want this incinerator. I found it rather threatening -- I go with my gut when people are using their words and I was watching body language. I took a pause and said that's fair (ignoring his irritable demeanor) and said that I'm against incineration because there are health implications and we have to think about higher taxes. He acknowledged that I needed people from Oshawa to sit behind me at council to show support and I said yes. Then his wife yelled from the porch that they're not available (when I'm going to make my delegate speech to Oshawa council). Quick end of discussion. But then I did call out that I would let him know when the public info session is coming up.

A bit of advice here. I've learned and been advised that if you find yourself in a threatening situation when it comes to politics:

that you tell someone

write down what happened and what was said

stay away from that person

Other valuable advice is to watch how and whom you approach as well as what words you use. Be fair that the other person may not agree with your political point-of-view and don't use naughty words.

Hmmmmm...I'd better watch out. This is from a guy who volunteers in an organization that benefits children in my community. Anyways, just needed to spell out the opposition that I came up against one sunny morning this week. I'm sure I'm not the only one. I think it's best to ignore bullies - even ones in the community.

My husband wanted to confront him when he bumped into him next time on the street, just to protect me, but instead, I've told him to say nothing -- no need to antagonize someone when you don't know why they are so angry.

The drama unfolds in Oshawa!

And this now nicely ties in with answering Tuesday Question #3.

How can we ensure that Durham Region residents know that a proposed incinerator for Courtice, which is such a huge controversial issue, with global implications in terms of pollution affecting our health and environment and local implications for the same two reasons, plus a potential increase in taxes -- any ideas?

The following is my solid answer.

It's called communicating to the residents of Durham region. And how does one go about communicating about an incinerator to residents? By strategically planning and implementing a communications plan, including marketing and PR.

Let's treat Durham residents like a target market. A target market is exactly the people to whom you want to sell an idea to, sell a product to, or communicate an issue as highly controversial as an incinerator to. Now I'll be an idealist here and say that everyone has a right to know that a potential incinerator is going into Courtice because there are potential ill effects on health, the environment, including the animal and plant foods we consume, our property taxes, devaluation of homes from stigmatization when people don't want to buy a home near an incinerator, and probably more than I can imagine in this dream of incineration which is really a blatant nightmare.

How should the regional and/or local governments let residents know about the proposed incinerator? Through TV, radio, print, direct mail, telemarketing, the internet, a store-front in each municipality where people can drop by to pick-up information and ask staff questions, a moderated panel discussion, and if I can be so bold as to be too radical here, a referendum, allowing the people to choose.

The majority of awareness has been created in the Clarington This Week which doesn't inform all of Durham residents. It informs people who live in Clarington and who decide to have the paper delivered or decide to purchase it at a point-of-purchase display in a local store. That leaves out the people who don't read the paper, or people who only get the paper because the flyers tell them where all the sales are and the best stores to shop for discount merchandise. The number or lack of readership is important here.

According to Clarington Mayor Abernethy, as of April 21st, there have been 30 council meetings (I'm assuming he meant in Clarington, but don't quote me on this) that began in 2006. And according to Regional Chairman Roger Anderson in the week of April 21st, there have been 40 council meetings at regional council, many of them televised so he considers that letting his people know. I disagree. Expecting residents to show up to a Clarington or regional council meeting, or turning on the televised council meetings just for fun when you don't have a PhD in politics is not my idea of a good time. And I'm not going to switch on to listen to issues like potholes, busy streets, or supporting a local fundraiser just so that I can bide my time until something really controversial comes up that I can sink my teeth into. I was not, nor will I ever hang out in council chambers or watch the televised political moments unless I know there is something that I want to know about. Otherwise, I have other things that I have to do.

I am concerned that residents don't know about the issue or are uninformed, or even misinformed. According to Mr. Anderson, that's not true. So I must be imagining this. Just like he dreams of incineration as his answer to all of Durham's garbage issues. I must have dreamt that I dropped into conversation with friends, neighbours, acquaintances, including three doctors, one in the GTA, another in Pickering, and the last in Whitby. They didn't know about the incinerator issue until I said boo. I also tell people in casual conversation and I'm still coming across people who don't know about it, although the more I use word-of-mouth, which is how I found out about it in the first place, the more I have people asking me questions about incineration like I have the bible to garbage 101 in my back pocket and can spew off all the information they need to know. Many times I have to say "that's a valid point" or "that's an interesting question, I will have to get back to you on that one."

Mr. Anderson says that it's not true that residents out there don't know about the incinerator issue because it's been on the front page of every newspaper and there have been public information centres and he has been on Talk Politics on the Rogers station a number of times. So what I think in my reality is just not possible, so says Mr. Anderson.

Well here's a reality check. In reality, what front page of every newspaper are we talking about? Are we talking about the local newspapers stuffed with flyers that not everyone receives or are we talking the front page of the Toronto Star, the Globe & Mail, or the National Post. I see many people with the Star at home, but I've never noticed anything about incineration on the front page. And if it was, I 'm sure it would have made news once - whoopie.

What public information centres? I have walked the streets of Oshawa (in a good way) and driven up and down every one way street, visiting the Oshawa Centre, stores in strip malls, libraries, community centres, doctors offices. Where were these PICs because I never stumbled across one and I've been walking and driving around Oshawa and other municipalities of Durham since 2003.

And I'm sorry to burst a bubble, but Rogers TV is not the big time TV station we would all like to claim it is in Durham Region. I am more familiar with Hamilton's CHCH TV station than I'm with my own. Plus if you have Rogers like we subscribe to I'm watching programs from different stations across the country and listening to news that sounds funny because it's from another province.

And frankly, when I watched Talk Politics one Thursday night to listen to Mr. Anderson, I would much rather have been watching Grey's Anatomy, sorry but it's true. Talk Politics on a station that has mediocre professionalism -- there's not even an anchor room with a professionally dressed team for pete's sakes, or Grey's Anatomy -- I'll pick the latter. When I get a choice on a Thursday night, it's one of the hottest TV shows for me!

Marketing 101 - you have to hit your target market at least three times with different methods for them to even become aware. Residents have a right to be informed.

And why did they not opt for an eye-opening, stun them into thinking incineration is the next best thing with guidance from an advertising house and a PR firm? Because everyone would have been made aware of it and would have had an opportunity to speak out about it once they started to realize the bad reasons why we shouldn't build a state-of-the-art incinerator. Health, high taxes, health, pollution, health, nano-particles, health, devaluation of resale homes, health, stigmatization, health, cancer, health, children, health, animal and plant foods, health, asthma, health, cardiovascular disease, health, and emphysema. Did I express a grand concern about health here?

And how come I know all about the 407 extension way before I knew about the incinerator. And how come I have read more about the ethanol plant on Oshawa's waterfront than the incinerator. Because I read the local paper and because the ethanol plant may go on Oshawa's waterfront and because I am one of the readers of Oshawa This Week, therefore, I am informed by my municipal paper. Do I ever read about incineration in my local paper? Rarely.

And my husband and I are exposed to different media and so when neither of us picked up on the issue until November 2007 then there is a careless problem.

Or when my husband picks up incineration on a radio station for country music fans I have to ask myself how many people in Durham are hearing the radio spots that my husband hears.

For example, my husband likes country music and besides thinking that The Dixie Chicks rock the world because I bounced my colicky daughter to their DVD over and over again, and because they stood up to the crazy politics in the U.S. after Natalie's comment about Bush at a concert in England, I admire them. But I don't listen to KX 96 FM because I find country music painful for the most part. So I'm missing out on the radio spots talking about incineration that my husband hears about.

And here's an important thing to consider. You need to know the listenership, the demographics, including where people who listen to country music reside to determine if Regional Council is marketing to their target market. So is the demographics of KX 96 FM all of Durham Region because we all want to line dance, or have they been chosen simply because they are stationed out of the Oshawa Airport?

The next step is a public information session where a panel of experts can inform us about incineration and then we can ask intelligent questions about the pros and cons of incineration. This will help us understand the science that we are not experts in, it's not to make us feel emotionally better. On the flip-side, what is wrong with a bit of emotion when you sense danger where you live? When your entire family already has asthma and 3,000 doctors in France are telling their government to build no more incinerators in Europe because a comprehensive cancer study has shown an increase in cancer rates as high as 16% to 24% in specific cancers.

But then the public information session has been tabled with no date that the local government needs to make a decision by.

We are misinformed, uninformed and paralyzed. And perhaps in politics advertising and PR are not the skills required when making decisions. If that's the case, then maybe it's time politics incorporated communications skills and strategies that help foster great rapport with communities. Why should the burden be on the residents to figure things out, stay informed, and have to go looking for information that has an impact on their community and their health?

I'm still using word-of-mouth. Please spread the word safely and with respect for other people's opinions.

And Mrs. B, don't bother with bullies.

Say no to incineration fun photo contest

2008-05-04T14:27:00.002-04:00

Fun Photo Contest Details:

A Say No To Incineration sign is on my front lawn at 576 Mary Street North in Oshawa.

Email a photo of you doing something creative next to the sign on my front lawn. Suggested ideas are: standing next to my sign, planting a flower in front of my sign, sitting on a blue box in front of the sign, bowing to the sign, or showing support to the sign. You get the idea -- simply be yourself or be creative!

The top three winning photos chosen by me and my family each get a $5 Tim Horton's gift card and each winner gets their photo posted on this blog site.

Please submit your photo and provide your name and address to me at my email address i_am_colleenknight@yahoo.ca so that I can receive your photo and mail the gift card to you if you are selected as one of three winners. I will keep names and addresses confidential. However, if you wish your name to remain anonymous on my blog site should you be one of the three winners, you will need to let me know and I will simply say submitted by anonymous from Oshawa or whichever municipality you are from.

Contest deadline: May 15th or when someone yanks the sign off my front lawn - whichever comes first.

Winners will be notified by email the weekend of May 17th.

This contest is subject to change without notice.

Please check back soon...

2008-04-29T23:22:00.001-04:00

I'm busy working on an answer to Tuesday Question #3.

Three Quote Thursday #2

2008-04-23T23:26:00.005-04:00

"Mass burn incineration should not be considered a replacement for
landfill. We do not want to move from one form of dependency to another."

Rhona Brankin, Deputy Environment Minister, Scotland

_________________________________

"Once they are built we are talking about creating waste streams for
the next 25 years to keep the incinerators going."

Dr. & Professor Ludwig Kraemer, Head of the European Union Waste
Management Directorate

_________________________________

"Because of the large number of hazardous substances that have been,
and still are, handled, waste management continues to constitute a
major environmental risk."

Swedish Environmental Protection Agency
_________________________________

Thanks again to Kristen D. McKinnon-Rutherford for these quotes.
All materials are backed up with references and can be provided. Please see "Three Quote Thursday" for more information.

Tuesday Question #3

2008-04-22T22:00:00.003-04:00

Can anyone tell me why the majority of the people in my neighbourhood in Oshawa don't know about the proposed Courtice incinerator? I found out about it by word-of-mouth from a friend in November 2007, more than one year after the initial council meetings began about the energy-from-waste facility.

When I go outside of my neighbourhood into other municipalities of Durham Region, I find the same thing. A small number of people have an awareness of an incinerator proposed for Courtice, if any at all.

I'm not on a mission to preach about the incinerator to everyone I can, but every few days I drop it into conversation with a neighbour, friend, or acquaintance and the majority of the people look uncomfortable that I have told them something that they know nothing about (and I certainly don't want them to be embarrassed about it) or I get strange comments, such as, "There's an incinerator going in Oshawa?" and I then have to clarify the information.

How can we ensure that Durham Region residents know that a proposed incinerator for Courtice, which is such a huge issue, has global implications in terms of pollution and health and local implications for the same two reasons, plus a potential increase in taxes -- any ideas?

I have a solid answer to this question and will post my suggested solution quite soon, based on my years of marketing and communications experience.

Happy earth day and I look forward to your answers.

Green Lists

2008-04-21T13:00:00.004-04:00

I itch for a green list. Government needs to find a realistic way to deal with garbage. Diversion is my number one item on the list for residents, manufacturers, industry, commercial businesses and hospitals. And incineration and landfill is scribbled at the bottom of my list for minimal waste.

Considering I turned a new leaf this year, launched by the incinerator fiasco, I feel that as one environmentalist, I ought to look at the waste my family creates and revisit how we deal with garbage in the Knight home.

Appointed and un-elected politician, Durham Regional Chairman Roger Anderson, says “My family is the 600,000 residents of Durham Region, so why would I hurt any one of you?” when he tries to convince us that high-tech incinerators are safe.

I kick toxic family members to the curb, where garbage sits. Mr. Anderson is part of a dysfunctional family. He needs waste therapy and I’m in garbage therapy too and it’s going to be OK. I’m going to get greener every day – which means I’m getting better by changing my garbage behaviors. I wonder if as I grow, if he will too, or if he will remain stuck in the incinerator quicksand. I’m a tree-hugger and I’m assuming that Mr. Anderson doesn’t do that in public, so we don’t come from the same family tree.

I have a list of things to do to become a better environmentalist.

I saw the documentary, Garbage! The Revolution Starts at Home at the Whitby library. The garbage that the McDonald family from Toronto created in a three-month period made me ask myself if my family could do better, and I discovered the answer is yes. Alan Gerth, a local environmentalist, who led a discussion following the movie, helped me figure out ways to manage my family’s waste at home.

We have two green to-do lists at home. One itemizes what we are doing well and the other one details what we need to implement.

Our good green list includes:

· Shopping for local and organic animal and plant foods.

· Supporting stores that re-use jam jars and re-cycle plastic shopping bags.

· Buying reusable shopping bags and washable napkins.

· Planting a tree on our property from the proceeds of our annual Knight garage sale.

Our need to implement list includes:

· Adding bathroom facial tissues to the green bin.

· Buying toys that have what journalist Jennifer Stone calls less “near-bondage Barbie packaging” left over.

· Composting plant food along with red wriggler worms.

· Taking batteries and leftover paint to the Ritson Road drop-off.

· Asking friends and family to donate money at my 40th backyard birthday bash in a glass jar towards my favourite charity because I don’t need more stuff.

I hope that when my next-door neighbour playfully peeks into my clear garbage bags, coming soon to a curb near you, that I won’t shame the neighbourhood – I want to set the benchmark high.

Oshawa’s taxes are higher than Toronto’s taxes according to Andrew Chung’s April 6th article Taxes in Oshawa vs. Toronto: higher or lower? Also, Whitby residents are concerned with their latest tax hikes. If an incinerator goes into Courtice there is always the potential for a $250 million facility to raise all of Durham’s taxes. Read Responding to the Region by Kristen McKinnon-Rutherford on www.durhamenvironmentwatch.org, and you’ll find that Montgomery County, Maryland residents’s taxes went up 55% in one year from incinerator revenue shortfalls.

When my husband’s hammering Say No To Incineration signs on our front lawn I’ll know that as the grass grows greener around our signs, so do I. I’m definitely some shade of green.

Three Quote Thursday

2008-04-16T22:55:00.007-04:00

"We recommend that no further waste incinerators be built."

Dr. Jeremy Thompson & Dr. Honor Anthony

_____________________________________

"… Neither high temperatures nor pollution control equipment can make
incinerators safe."

Brenda A. Platt, Waste to Wealth Program Director, Institute for
Local Self-Reliance

_____________________________________

"We believe that incineration will never play a major role in truly sustainable waste management."

United Kingdom House of, Commons Select Committee

_____________________________________

Thanks to Kristen D. McKinnon-Rutherford for these fab quotes.
About these words
These quotes were taken from the visual presentation, ‘The Rest of the Story,’ by Kristin Duare McKinnon-Rutherford of Courtice, Ontario. For a copy of the actual presentation, email Kristin at krispoo@sympatico.ca. (The presentation runs just under 16 minutes on any computer. There is no soundtrack and the presentation can be run on a loop.) As with all other materials she prepares, complete citations - and in most cases, actual source documents - are available upon request.

The Tuesday Question #2

2008-04-15T09:46:00.004-04:00

Why do the processes that the Clarington and Durham Region governments use challenge our democratic rights? We have five minutes to speak at Clarington council and 10 minutes to speak at Durham Headquarters. Pro-incinerator sales-type presenters get as long as they want and the politicians get to ask questions while we politely sit muzzled in the audience.

Do you think that we have a right to a public information session where we can discuss in an open format with residents, politicians and experts in various areas of waste management? Would you like to give your input, ask questions or hear from experts in various ways about waste management? Would you like to hear about incineration, landfill, zero waste, diversion (all the Rs), plus anything else that I could be missing here? And it's not a case of picking one of these methods to deal with garbage -- it's best to create an hierarchical structure that includes a selection of these methods.

Do you think that if we work together we can come up with a structure that deals with waste in many ways instead of just one way -- by burning it all in an incinerator?

Check out the link in the right hand column called Nova Scotia sets the benchmark high that talks about Nova Scotia's waste management efforts -- it may help you answer the question(s).

Please add your comments -- you have the right to write too.

Thanking councillors is important too

2008-04-11T18:59:00.005-04:00

Nova Scotia Environment and Labour is sponsoring the Fourth Canadian Waste Resource Symposium, April 14th to 18th in Halifax, Nova Scotia and Clarington local councillors Ron Hooper and Willie Woo are attending.

Kristen McKinnon-Rutherford let me know that she is thanking them and I am joining her in thanking them for looking at sustainable alternatives to incineration.

Kudos to Mr. Hooper and Mr. Woo.

Thanking councillors who take an interest in sustainable ways to deal with waste is a great idea. They need to know that we appreciate their efforts. Please take this opportunity to copy and paste the three following email addresses into your own email to say thank you.

Clerk
clerks@clarington.net

Councillor R. Hooper
Rhooper@Clarington.Net

Councillor W. Woo
Wwoo@Clarington.Net

The Tuesday Question

2008-04-08T09:40:00.005-04:00

What do you think about having an un-elected and appointed Chairman for Durham Region?

Do you think the position should be given to someone or should there be a vote on who gets to serve in this position?

Keep in mind when you answer under comments, that he, Mr. Roger Anderson, gets the last say in matters like whether or not the proposed incinerator will be built in Courtice. Courtice councillors voted to be an unwilling host for the incinerator and he's the one with the political muscle who can make Regional decisions which can trump local political decisions.

Courtice's Image Incinerating

2008-04-03T22:28:00.005-04:00

Scugog Mayor Marilyn Pearce’s objective to see the proposed Courtice incinerator’s environmental assessment process through to the end is a gimmicky Trojan horse.

Ms. Pearce and Regional Chairman Roger Anderson street-race their limos through red lights on the road to incineration. It’s a road filled with many impending sinkholes that certainly leads to a crash and burn at Courtice Road and Highway 401.

The plastic pop bottle-burner will turn the water on the shore of Lake Ontario into a chemical soup where Courtice children frolic. I summarize a part of Kristen McKinnon-Rutherford’s article Responding to the Region on durhamenvironmentwatch.org by saying that incinerator emissions and 53 major pollutants pose a high health risk to developing children.

Let’s protect our children not poison them.

It seems Ajax, Clarington, Oshawa, and Pickering politicians are on Courtice’s team. Scugog and Mr. Anderson are on the carbonize team. Mr. Anderson reminds us “it’s a Regional decision.” It appears that if each team gets into the playoffs at Durham Regional Headquarters over the EA, to be completed in April or May, that Mr. Anderson has the political muscle to win the incinerator trophy.

Mr. Anderson also known as McDreamer, said to “ultimate size” the incinerator. Does he want to super-size hazardous fly ash? Mr. Anderson stated earlier, “Do you know how big the Region of Durham is.” The $250 million facility allows for future growth and can burn up to 160,000 tonnes of trash a year. $250 million creating only 100 jobs amounts to a bad investment.

Yet he wants to “tell our neighbours to keep their garbage the hell out.” So how’s he going to get enough refills of trash to toy with energy-from-garbage in his play-land, available twenty-four seven?

Peterborough recently said they aren’t sharing their landfill now. So where is the bottom ash and importantly the fly ash that is hazardous waste going to be land filled?

Mr. Anderson signified to regional council’s target of 70 per cent diversion by 2010 as “very aggressive.” I say that 70 per cent diversion is progressive. Very aggressive, in my opinion, is forcing an incinerator on Courtice, all in the name of capitalization.

Economic exploitation of Courtice and the enslavement of a small town where people may be too uninformed, disadvantaged or paralyzed to object to Durham Regional Council ganging up on them is oppression.

Courtice is stigmatized. I’ve already heard stories of people walking away from signing deals on homes and people second-guessing whether or not they should even look for a house there once the incinerator word got loose.

My family and I went to Courtice last summer eager to find our next home. It’s an area with a family-oriented neighbourhood, newer homes, a forest, park, and schools all nestled in a lovely rural area. My hopes were incinerated as I pounded my fists on the dashboard of my mini-van. The energy-from-waste facility is incinerating Courtice’s reputation before the stacks stand tall.

NIMBY is not applicable here because I tell my family and residents of Durham and the GTA that dangerous nano-particles know no boundaries in the atmosphere. I just don’t want to be a chump and live with the green-washed energy-from-waste monstrosity that’s an embarrassing solution in the age of environmentalism.

When politicians give Durham the opportunity to explore other ways of dealing with garbage then we will have the ability to sustain health, and salvage the good name that Courtice had.

Mr. Anderson and Ms. Pearce have clearly marked their territory. And which part of the regional pool did they choose to urinate in? Courtice.