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June 2008News from Vancouver's Green Scene
June is Bike Month. That means you and your two-wheeler can partake in more than 50 fabulous events throughout the Lower Mainland. Experience the Sapperton Street Festival, the Car-Free Festivals (now in six neighbourhoods including Commercial Drive, Kitsilano, and the West End), giant Critical Mass group rides, and even—who knew bikes were into film?—a Bike Movie Night. best.bc.ca A private member’s bill calling for the mandatory labelling of genetically engineered foods was defeated last month in the House of Commons by a vote of 101 to 156. The defeat of Bill C-517 effectively protects the economic interests of GE companies like Monsanto over the rights of Canadians who want to know what’s in their food. “This vote ignores public opinion polls, which have consistently shown between 80 and 95 per cent of Canadians want mandatory labelling of GE foods,” says Josh Brandon, agriculture campaigner with Greenpeace. We’ve always known that Vancouver is a walker’s paradise—but now it’s official. Our fair city has been named the 2008 Best Walking City in Canada by the Canadian Federation of Podiatric Medicine because of, among other things, its natural beauty, extensive parks, and the City’s initiatives to widen sidewalks and create neighbourhood traffic calming in an effort to coax people out of their cars. Nanaimo came in third, after Fredericton. podiatryinfocanada.ca World Oceans Day is June 8, and Living Oceans Society, Canada’s biggest marine environmental organization, asks you to do your part to save the seas. Go to PNCIMAwatch.ca and add your name to the declaration urging the Canadian government to provide funding and support for a marine planning process before we exhaust our oceans health (get your name in before June 8). To make buying sustainable seafood easy, download a SeaChoice wallet card at seachoice.org. Info: livingoceans.org Health Action Network Society has been honoured by the Burnaby Now as the Best Community Services Organization for 2008. HANS, a non-profit representing consumer interests in the area of natural health, is one of Canada’s longest-running consumer health networks. The society educates consumers through public events and through its Health Action magazine and HANS e-News. hans.org Cellphone need recharging? Take it for a power walk! Reseachers at SFU have developed a device that converts energy generated from walking into electrical energy you can use to juice your gadgets. Called a biomechanical energy harvester, the knee-mounted generator can potentially be used to power medical devices such as pacemakers and prosthetic limbs. Word has it a prototype may be available within 14 months. sfu.ca (search biomechanical energy harvester) COPE park commissioner Spencer Herbert wants fallen trees made into art and furniture—not firewood. “Rather than seeing beautiful wood go up in smoke where it produces climate-damaging greenhouse gases, I believe we’ll instead see an increase in wonderful one-of-a-kind art pieces,” he says. Herbert is asking Park Board staff to develop a website that lets woodworkers find out how to access wood from fallen trees. Every year 1,100 diseased and dead trees fall or are removed from Vancouver boulevards and parks. cope.bc.ca If eco-guilt has you hoarding old CDs, DVDs, and broken appliances because you think they can’t be recycled, Happy Stan will happily take them off your hands. In fact, Happy Stan’s Recycling Services has an extensive list of stuff they accept, including car batteries and computer mice. To peruse the entire list, visit happystan.com. Street gardens are hot—and gorgeous to boot, so why not transform that boring old boulevard or traffic circle into a venue bursting with flowers? Metro Vancouver even gives you its blessing to plant on its property. If it sounds too good to be true, check out city.vancouver.bc.ca/greenstreets , then grab that trowel. Step aside, eBay: EcoSeek is here to give you a sustainable run for your moolah. EcoSeek’s auctions not only cater exclusively to green products; the organization donates a portion of listing fees to the charity of your choice (selectable when creating an auction) and $1 to the charity of the buyers’ choice each time they complete a sale. ecoseek.net/auctions Got some dirt? Give it up. E-mail editor@shared-vision.com.
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Allan Christian, creator and owner of Aphrodite’s Organic Café and Pie Shop, died April 29 after a lengthy battle with cancer. Allan will be remembered for his compassion, generosity, entrepreneurial spirit—and of course his delectable pies. If you’d like to make a donation to charity in Allan’s memory, his favourite organizations were The Alta Lake School (
Unplug your kids from their iPods and computers this summer by signing them up for Catching the Spirit. A summer program run by youth, for youth, Catching the Spirit invites 12- to 18-year-olds to get involved, make friends, and have a blast while exploring and caring for Metro Vancouver Regional Parks in their community. They can sign up as either participants or peer leaders. Cost: free! Registration deadline: June 13.
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