Answers, Questions, Weirdness, News
Photo by Suzette Amaya
In the 1990s, million of gamers around the world found Sim-City to be a pleasant (and highly addictive) diversion. For Dave Biggs, the popular computer game, in which users can plan the future of fictional towns and of the people who live in them, was a source of inspiration. Biggs and his Vancouver company, Envision Sustainability Tools, developed MetroQuest, a real-life version of SimCity to help public agencies make decisions about land-use policies. Biggs’ program, MetroQuest, has been in existence for more than a decade and has been used on more than four continents. Biggs hopes that the program’s popularity with urban planners will continue to grow in Canada to the point where more than 80 per cent of the country will be covered by the software. Biggs spoke with
Shared Vision ’s Jon Azpiri.
How do urban planners use MetroQuest?
We’re typically hired by a city or regional government as part of their planning process. Every five years or so a city or region will do a planning process that will involve a bunch of decision-maker and stakeholder engagement about what the alternatives look like for the region. When you talk about sustainability, it begs the question; what do you want to sustain about this community? This program provides the fodder for a discussion.
One of the things about the program is that it helps people realize the long-term consequences of their decisions.
Yes. Where development occurs and at what density it occurs translate into a lot of consequences in the model. For example, if you build a high-density suburban housing development on farmland far from transit, then people will need to drive wherever they go.
That can translate into decreased water quality, loss of agricultural areas, the decreased permeability of the soil…and the list goes on from there.
Do you get people coming in wanting all sorts of things that aren’t realistic?
All the time. People are continually coming in to workshops with unfair expectations. People don’t realize that our cities are growing to a point where we’re coming up against some hard constraints and we need to make some hard choices because we can’t simply continue to develop at that density the way we’ve been developing. You have to make choices. You can have either a big yard or you can have clean air, but you probably can’t have both.
You deal with people of various political bents. How does the program help people develop a consensus?
Where people differ is in short-term public choices and policy. When you take them 40 years in the future, people seldom differ on the idea that we need to provide clean air and water, that we need to preserve agricultural areas and promote alternative transportation. People readily agree on those things. When you take them out in an environment where they’re thinking about the long term they quickly come to a conclusion that we need to prioritize these things.
People tend to think about what they want now, but don’t realize what it would be like if everyone wanted the same thing.
We’re very well-programmed to think as individuals. We’re not programmed to think collectively. Sometimes it takes a computer to help people imagine what it would be like if two million people made the decisions [they] wanted to make in terms of [their] own future. It would probably mean a future that no one would want to live in.
BYOB
Plastic Is History, an Alberta-based environmental group, is lobbying local and federal politicians to get the government to impose a 25-cent levy on all plastic shopping bags, with proceeds going directly to Environment Canada and other environmental agencies.
The proposed levy is similar to one used in Ireland. In 2002, the Republic of Ireland imposed a 15-cent charge for each plastic bag used, with each bag appearing as a separate item on the receipt. Since then, plastic bag consumption in Ireland has fallen by more than 90 per cent, a decrease that saved approximately 18 million litres of oil. The levy has also raised more than $41 million euros for the Department of the Environment, which has used the money to fund various environmental clean-up programs.
Critics in Ireland see the levy as just another cash grab imposed on an already tax-weary public, but that criticism doesn’t bother Plastic is History founder Matt Gould. “It’s meant to be a pain in the ass,” says Gould. “That’s the point. It’s not meant to be something that slips by you. It’s meant so that, every time you shop, you think, ‘Oh, Jesus. I’m not supposed to use plastic bags.’ ”
Meanwhile, a group of local businesswomen are taking a different approach to reducing plastic bag consumption. Jenny Hughes and Elizabeth Clark started Bring Your Own Bag, a company that produces stylish canvas bags that can replace traditional plastic bags.
The bags are made of sturdy cotton canvas and feature unique designs as well as anti-plastic slogans such as “Stop Using Plastic” and the even more direct “Fuck Plastic.” The bags are available via contact info on the company’s website,
bringyourownbag.ca, and Clark and Hughes hope to have their bags available in stores by September.
Clark and Hughes support Gould’s idea for taxing plastic bags, but say that people shouldn’t wait until a tax is imposed to stop using plastic. “It’s just such a waste,” says Clark. “I’m sure a lot of households were like mine. When you look in your plastic bag container, there seem to be 500 plastic bags in there. It’s disgusting. It’s such a simple thing to bring your own bag but it could make a big difference.” (Jon Azpiri)
You’re Raffling Off a What ?
A New Brunswick group is holding a raffle to help raise funds for a new eco-centre. The grand prize: a Hummer.
The Chatham Rotary Club will give away a Hummer H2 SUT—one of the biggest gas guzzlers on the market—in hopes of raising $100,000 for the Fort Cove Eco-Center in Miramichi, New Brunswick, a project they describe as an “interactive display [to] showcase Miramichi’s history and culture while promoting education and environmental awareness.”
Several citizens and environmental groups such as the Sierra Club have filed complaints with the club, claiming they should give away a more fuel-efficient vehicle. Raffle organizers, however, stand by their decision and plan to go through with the draw on September 5. “It’s not any more a gas-guzzler than anything that’s out on the highway now,” event organizer Leon Bremner told the CBC. “I’ve had plenty of people say they’ll get better gas mileage with this Hummer than they will with their vehicle.”
In fact, Hummers use about 23 litres of fuel to go 100 kilometres. Many large trucks use 15 litres to go 100 kilometres. Hybrid vehicles such as the Toyota Prius can travel 100 kilometres on just five litres. (JA)
Reduce, Re-use, Re-boot
Electronic Recycling Association, an Alberta-based non-profit group that recycles old computers, is planning to expand to Vancouver.
The ERA plans to place bins at several businesses throughout the city where people can dispose of their e-waste: old computers and other technological devices that are obsolete.
ERA takes the discarded equipment, refurbishes it, and gives it away to people on low incomes, start-up businesses, and various charities. ERA director Bojan Paduh hopes to have his operation up and running in Vancouver sometime this month.
Items that will be accepted include computers, laptops, networking equipment, stereo equipment, VCRs, DVD players, and other electronic items.
According to the non-profit group Canadian Business for Social Responsibility, Canada produces 140,000 tons of e-waste every year, a number that is expected to triple by 2010.
Paduh notes that, as technology continues to evolve, computers become obsolete faster and it is often cheaper and more convenient to buy a new one than to upgrade an old one. “I think, right now, every three years companies are updating their computers,” says Paduh.
“Many companies in Vancouver are updating even more quickly because they want to be up-to-date. If they’re designing games and graphics, they want to be using the most cutting-edge technology.”
Paduh adds that many of the computers being discarded in the name of progress are more than capable of performing the basic computer tasks most people use, such as word processing and e-mail.
In addition to helping those in need, recycling computers also has environmental benefits by keeping computers, which can contain mercury, lead, cadmium, and PCBs, out of landfills. “If you mix computers with organic matter in the landfill, it can definitely have some negative long-term effects,” says Paduh. “There’s no sense in having tons of metal, plastic, circuit boards—there’s even gold and silver in these boards — go to waste.”
For more information on how to recycle your computer, visit
era.ca. (JA)
Hope In Shadows
Winners in the Pivot Legal Society’s third annual Downtown Eastside Photography Competition will be announced next month.
For the competition, Pivot Legal Society handed out 150 disposable cameras to residents of the Downtown Eastside. Contestants had three days to take black-and-white photos, based on the theme of community and relationships. Contestants also received the opportunity for training from five professional photographers.
The top 40 photos will be featured in an art exhibition at the Atrium Gallery in the HSBC building. A selection of the winning images will be in Pivot Legal Society’s 2006 Hope In Shadows calendar. (JA)
Twenty-Four Hour Art
Vancouver city council has commissioned an electronic-media project for the planned 1 Kingsway facility. Entitled
Flow, the project features a 24-hour projection of constantly changing images on a large bank of windows. The glass will shift from transparent to opaque and layers of moving and still images will appear and disappear.
Flow, created by local artists Fiona Bowie, Rebecca Belmore, and Sidney Fels, will be integrated into the design of the new facility, which will house the Mount Pleasant Community Centre, the Mount Pleasant Branch Library, a child-care facility, a 10-storey rental-housing tower, and a ground-level café. The centre is scheduled to open in September 2007. (JA)
Home-Grown Groceries
Vancouver’s Food Policy Council invites local gardeners to donate fruit and vegetables from their gardens to help the less fortunate in Vancouver.
Gardeners are welcome to grow or donate extra produce and bring it to one of the city’s nine Neighbourhood Houses. The produce is then given to local pre-school, after-school, youth, single parent, immigrant, and seniors programs. Donations are also accepted at various churches around Vancouver and at the Greater Vancouver Food Bank.
For more information, see
vancouver.ca/foodpolicy. (JA)
One Step at a Time
Peace it Together, a five-day summer camp designed to strengthen ties between youth in Jewish and Arab communities, will take place this month at Camp Byng near Gibsons. The camp consists of a dozen or so teenagers from Jewish, Muslim, and Arab backgrounds engaging in art, music, theatre, and nature walks as a way to build cross-cultural friendships, overcome stereotypes, and increase understanding. The camp also teaches participants how to spread these positive messages in their homelands.
Last year’s camp featured five young people from Jerusalem and five from the Bethlehem area, as well as other Middle Eastern participants. Members of Vancouver’s Jewish, Arab, and Muslim communities were also involved.
Peace It Together will take place in Vancouver August 24 to 28. For more information on the camp or to volunteer, visit
creativepeacenetwork.ca.
One Note at a Time
The tenth annual Young Artist Experience (YAE), a traditional chamber-music training program that takes a decidedly non-traditional approach, is happening at UBC this month. One of the organizers of the event is Rena Sharon, one of Canada’s foremost chamber musicians whose performances include solo piano concerts and recitals. Along with teaching musical technique, Sharon and other faculty members show how music relates to various disciplines such as physics, biology, and mathematics. In addition, instruction includes classes in Pilates, yoga, and dance, a clown, an African drummer, and a Cuban dancer.
Sharon says chamber music can help provide some profound spiritual growth since it requires cooperation in a democratic, leaderless setting. To achieve their goals, musicians must exercise tolerance, creativity, compromise, and empathy.
The workshop will be held from July 31 to August 17, and will present a series of public concerts beginning on August 12, with performance master classes led by visiting concert pianist Philippe Cassard and renowned Canadian pianist Jane Coop.
For more information on YAE, visit
nareanainstitute.org.
Eco-Marathon
The Shell Eco-Marathon took place last month in three locations across Europe. Unlike most car races, the goal of the Eco-Marathon is not to cross the finish line first, but to finish the race using the least amount of fuel.
Dozens of teams across the world entered the competition hoping to be named as driving the world’s most fuel-efficient vehicle. In the race, each vehicle must cover seven laps of the racetrack while achieving an average speed of 24 kilometres per hour or more. At the end of the seven laps, race organizers measure the amount of fuel used by each vehicle.
Microjoule, a team from France, won the UK portion of the race with a car that managed an astonishing 2,699 kilometres per litre. The French team fell well short of the world record of 3,962 kilometres per litre, held by a Japanese team called Fancy Carol.
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Business News
Light on Energy Use
Victoria’s
Carmanah Technologies recently installed solar-powered lighting systems in 225 Vancouver bus shelters. The company, working with
Viacom Outdoor JCDecaux, has installed i-Shelter solar/LED lighting systems that use 90 per cent less energy than conventional incandescent bulbs
I-shelter collects energy through solar panels and stores it in batteries designed for outdoor environments. It also features an energy management system, which consists of software that monitors weather conditions and conserves energy, to keep shelters illuminated even during the bleakest of weather conditions.
“Our systems are completely self-contained. They last three to five years without any maintenance, and the LED lights last 10 to 15 years,” says Carmanah’s Jeff Peters. “The other option is fluorescent tubes, which have a lifespan of two to four years, and there would have been a constant demand on energy.”
Carmanah has dealt with more than 100,000 solar-powered LED lighting installations and 50,000 LED-illuminated sign installations around the world, including at bus shelters in Toronto, Seattle, and London, England.
Although LEDs have been widely used in electronics for many years, they’ve just started to find new applications in the broader market. Peters believes the use of LEDs in bus shelters is a natural fit. “They’re extremely low maintenance and the technology does work,” he says. “With the City of Vancouver being relatively green, it sets a nice example for the rest of the country.” (JA)
Can You Say “Smart Idea?”
A Vancouver couple has released a DVD to teach babies American Sign Language (ASL).
Selena Lohan and
Max Fomitchev created
Mimic Me, a DVD designed to help babies communicate with their parents before they develop the ability to talk. According to Lohan, babies as young as six months are able to understand sign language.
Mimic Me stars Fomitchev, who is deaf, as Mimic the Monkey. Using a combination of music, visuals, and storytelling, Fomitchev demonstrates more than 50 signs in a vocabulary suited to babies’ first words. The DVD also features hand-shape instructions by a certified ASL instructor.
Sign language for babies has recently experienced a surge in popularity, in part because of the 2004 film
Meet the Fockers, which featured a young baby who learned sign language. While the hit comedy used it for laughs, research indicates there can be some real benefits to baby sign language, including earlier verbal language, better behaviour, and higher IQs.
Lohan also believes there are other positive aspects to teaching young children how to sign. “The immediate benefit is that you’re having early communication with children that you normally wouldn’t have,” says Lohan. “You can get an insight into their actual emotional state and that can really help build the bond you have with your child at such at an early age.”
Mimic Me is available at several local bookstores, including
Banyen Books,
Kids Books, and
Boomers & Echoes. You can also get the DVD at
mimicbaby.com. (JA)
Size Does Matter
Richmond’s
Nature’s Path Foods has introduced the EnviroBox, a cereal box that is 10 per cent smaller than previous boxes but contains the same amount of cereal. The company says their more compact packaging will save 75 tons of paperboard per year. The company currently uses the new EnviroBox for all its flaked cereals and plans to phase the new boxes into the rest of their cereal line in the near future.
Nature’s Path Foods also announced that it is donating $20,000 for the development of two organic food gardens in schools. The Douglas College Institute of Urban Ecology and Evergreen will each receive $10,000 to work with schools in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside to create organic food gardens. (JA)
Biodiesel in Burnaby
B.C.’s first biodiesel pump recently opened in Burnaby.
United Petroleum Products Inc. (UPPI) will operate a pump that offers B5, a clean-burning, alternative fuel. The pump is at UPPI’s Burnaby facility, 3373 Norland Avenue. (JA)
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Web Sightings
Spray-On Stupidity
sprayonmud.com
For people who are too busy to take their gas-guzzler into the outdoors: buy some spray-on mud to give your SUV that worn-in look.
Award-Winning Facial Hair
worldbeardchampionships.com
A collection of muttonchops, handlebars, soup-strainers, chin drapes, fu manchus, and various other types of facial hair from the 2004 World Beard Championships. This year’s championship will take place in Berlin on October 1.
Library Elf
libraryelf.com
A handy free service that tracks all of your library books. It sends you e-mail reminders when your books are due, shows you a list of all books you currently have out, and lets you know when a book you want is available. The site covers libraries across North American including most of the Lower Mainland.
For the Person Who Has Everything
n-ncompany.com
Napoleon Epps, a Maryland electrician who claims to be an “advanced soul of the fifth level, one of the ancient Masters of Atlantis, more recently from the planet Arton,” is selling copper and crystal helmets that weigh half a kilogram each and supposedly improve your meditation and psychic power by “enhancing the conduction of electro-magnetic and other types of energies to the user’s brain.”
Hypochondriacs Beware
mdtravelhealth.com
Before heading on your vacation, check out this site that offers advice on vaccinations, foods to avoid, and other precautions you should take while abroad.
But Don’t Over-Salt Your Food
cryingwhileeating.com
A site where people submit photos and videos of themselves crying and eating at the same time.
Pieces of Art
100pieces.ca
Artist Margaret Nicholson has scattered 100 small sculptures, mainly of human figures, along the beaches of Nova Scotia. Nicholson put the sculptures in out-of-the-way places in the hopes that they would be discovered. Each piece is fitted with an identity tag directing the finder to this website, which describes the origins of the piece. The site features plenty of photos of the found art, which changes over time because of the elements.
Great Story for the Grandkids
etiquettehell.com
Read etiquette advice as well as plenty of examples of shockingly poor etiquette such as the exotic-dancer bride who decided to strip at her own wedding.
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Eavesdropping
“I wanted to write a book that would sort of make me feel happy, even if it had a sad beginning. It was just like I wanted my life to have a happy ending.”
James Valitchka, the 10-year-old author of
Superheroes Don’t Have Dads, in the
Globe and Mail. The book, based on Valitchka’s experience of being bullied at school, has sold more than 10,000 copies.
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Just Say No to Plastic Bags
An estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year.
In Canada, approximately 28 million kilograms of plastic bags go into landfills every year.
The U.S. goes through 100 billion plastic shopping bags a year, costing retailers $4 billion annually.
North America and Western Europe account for nearly 80 per cent of the world’s plastic-bag use. Such bags are increasingly common in developing countries.
Plastic bags are among the 12 items of debris most often found in coastal cleanups.
Plastic bags cause more than 100,000 marine-animal deaths every year. Sea turtles and other creatures mistake them for food.
Only 1 in 200 plastic bags in the UK is recycled.
The average family accumulates 60 plastic bags in four trips to the grocery store.
Plastic bags are so prevalent in Africa that an industry has evolved for collecting bags and using them to weave hats and bags. Some groups collect as many as 30,000 bags per month.
In 2002, a dead Minke whale discovered off the coast of Normandy, France was found to have 800 kilograms of plastic bags in its stomach.
In 2003, Taiwan banned the free distribution of plastic bags and utensils in restaurants, department stores, supermarkets, convenience stores, and fast-food franchises in an effort to reduce the more than 20 billion plastic bags used per year.
Sources:
reusablebags.com,
worldwatch.org
