hexstatik

Today, at the paris auto show, Honda unveiled it’s redesigned “mild” hybrid Insight. Expected to get over 45mpg (5.2 L/100Km) and cost about USD$5000 less than the average USD$26,000 price of a Toyota Prius, I expect it will only ensure that American car companies continue to lose market share to their Japanese competition. While Ford continues to produce new vehicles like the Flex (and doesn’t even post fuel consumption estimates on its web site), and is producing a “fuel efficient” hybrid Cadillac Escalade that gets a whole 20 city /21 highway mpg (11.8 city / 11.2 highway L/100Km) with a price tag of over USD$72,000, it’s no wonder!

last friday, i met up with some friends at the vancouver art gallery to participate in my first critical mass.

Critical Mass is a grassroots reclamation of public space — a bike ride and skate — held the last Friday of every month. You are invited to enjoy the safety and comfort in the car-free space that we create by simply riding together! Bicycles, skateboards, rollerskates, self propelled couches, and any other form of human powered locomotion are all welcomed!

although i’d seen a few critical mass rides before, this once was quite large, with several hundred people. we rode through much of the downtown core, around false creek, along broadway to burrard street, over the bridge and around downtown some more. i’m pretty certain we did an excellent job of clogging traffic and causing chaos on the streets of vancouver.

it was very interesting to see the reaction of some drivers. while most took it in stride, enjoying the show as the hundreds of bikers streamed past, a few drivers got quite irate, some even getting out of the vehicles to yell at the “corkers” blocking traffic. they were always outnumbered and soon retreated to their vehicles once they realized the scale of the mass and the futility of trying to move their vehicles.

all in all, it was a great experience and a lot of fun. i do wish however that drivers would turn off their engines while they wait for the mass to go by - it seems a little pointless to protest against oil and our dependency on it, but then cause drivers to burn even more while they idle in traffic.

anyway, you can find a few photos on andy’s flickr page.

today was our 4th delivery from green earth organics since signing up for their service at the end of last month.

so far, everything has been great. the quality of the produce is fantastic and there definitely isn’t a shortage of fruits and veggies around our place. in fact, it seems that crystal and i aren’t keeping up at all, mostly i supposed because neither crystal nor i were really around very much last weekend. we’re drowning! i have a feeling we’re going to be eating a lot of salads and stir-frys for the next week.

I’ve also met “steve” our delivery guy, twice now. last week, steve went to great lengths to contact me after i missed a few of his calls because i was riding my bike home and didn’t feel or hear my phone in my pocket. he was standing at the gate of our building on the phone with crystal when i arrived to finally let him upstairs, and today, we arrived at the building at the very same moment, exchanging smiles over the coincidental timing of our arrivals. he even remembered my name.

i can’t say enough good things about the service, and highly recommend it if you live in either vancouver or toronto.

we have been avoiding trips to the grocery store for weeks now, which has resulted in far too many trips to local restaurants and lackluster lunches at work. so, after a recommendation from a friend, crystal and i decided to sign up for home delivery of organic fruits, veggies and other organic foods from green earth organics.  every week, they create a basket of fruits and vegetables, choosing local produce whenever possible. clients then have a chance to customize their box (individual, regular or family) by substituting up to 4 items before their order is delivered on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.

we received our first order last night and so far have been extremely impressed. the delivery was on time, without hassle and the quality of the produce has been excellent. i also really enjoy the fact that we don’t pick what goes into our box and that the resulting variety can bring a new surprise and challenge every week.

with our continued commitment to reducing our impact on the environment, eating organic, having a delivery service come to us (and others on the route), and not a single shred of plastic in our order is a great way to do this. it also means that we have more free time to hit up the local stores by foot for the rest of our grocery order, which is great for local merchants and stimulates the economy in our neighbourhood.

ever since stumbling upon my co-worker’s blog, Living Plastic Free, last year, i’ve been inspired to change the way i look at the world and reduce my impact on it. think about it. i mean, really think about what it would mean to the way you live your life.

living plastic free

now, i’m not saying that i have managed to reach the level of “plastic free”-dom that EnviroWoman has, but it has definitely changed the way i make the simplest of decisions everyday -from how i get to work, the choices i make at the grocery store, and even the clothes i put on my back.

every time you choose to spend one of your hard earned dollars, you are saying something to the manufacturers of the products you purchase. unfortunately, very often you’re saying that it’s “okay” for them to unnecessarily wrap products in plastic instead of more environmentally friendly choices. even in cases where the plastic chosen is recyclable, facilities to recycle may not exist, or people may simply dispose of it in the garbage instead.

our planet is suffering and we are consuming every available resource that we have at an astonishing pace. if we continue on this path, the planet will become so polluted, so desolate, so hot and dry that it will severely impact the human race’s ability to survive as a species. it may be 50 years from now, it may be 5000, but we will eventually obliterate ourselves into oblivion.

some would argue that it is the cycle of life. maybe. however, we are the most intelligent species to have had the chance to grace the surface of this planet, so to simply not recognize that we are extremely luckily to have been given the opportunity, well, it’s moronic.

it’s time we change the way we do things.