Tag Archive for Canada

K-Cups: Love and Hate

September 19, 2020 Comments Off on K-Cups: Love and Hate

K-cup coffee pods are very easy, very convenient.  Which is why we buy 10 billion of them every year, enough to encircle our planet 10 – 12 times. The package says “recycleable” (at least the plastic portion), but the problem is that they often are not. That’s because the machines in recycling plants can’t process items that small.  So they go into the landfill instead, which the Earth hates.

One bright note is the small program in Canada that turns them into cement. They dry out the K-cups, shred them, then burn them up at 2000 degrees Celsius. The ashes are turned into cement.

Although this is a small program, it offers hope.  We aren’t going to give up our K-cups, except those of us who can handle reusable ones.  We must, therefore, find a way to recycle them.  Come on, scientists—Get with it!

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Are Household Cleaners Making Your Kids Fat?

October 13, 2018 Comments Off on Are Household Cleaners Making Your Kids Fat?

Come on, you’re kidding, right? Not according to Canadian researchers who studied the effects of household cleaners on children as young as 3-4 months. Granted, other scientists think the study is flawed. However, it’s something for parents to think about and maybe not take a chance with their little ones’ health.

Read the article Are Household Cleaners Making Your Kids Fat? and decide for yourself.

[Thanks to Tina Blease for this article.]

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Stop the Deep Sea Mine

August 20, 2016 Comments Off on Stop the Deep Sea Mine

Imagine a deep-ocean mine, right next to a very rich eco system, run by a failing company with no experience on this large a scale, one that  just might be tempted to take chances that would destroy that eco system and do further harm to our already already-fragile, dying oceans.  Who in their right mind would allow it?

The Canadian mining company I just described has actually been given a licence to do deep-ocean mining off the coast of  Papua New Guinea, near a treasured eco-system.

It is possible to stop it, though.  The financially troubled company is seeking investors.  If enough pressure is put on these investors, the project will not go through.

Go to Papua New Guinea: Stop the deep sea mine to read more and sign a petition that will be sent to potential investors.

 

 

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Great News for Monarch Lovers

March 9, 2016 Comments Off on Great News for Monarch Lovers

I’ve missed those gorgeous orange-, black-, and white-winged visitors to my yard.  There used to be many, but for years I’d be lucky to see one on their 3,400-mile yearly migration. That’s because the Monarch butterfly has been dying out, thanks, in large part, to logging and herbicides killing off the milkweed they need.

Efforts by the U.S., Mexico, and Canada are starting to reverse that loss of color in our world.  We’re planting milkweed along 1000 miles of their migration path.  And Mexico is successfully stopping illegal logging on the Monarch reserve, logging that has been destroying the forest that protects those butterflies in the winter.

The progress is encouraging. I look forward to their return to my yard, pollinating my plants and brightening my summer.

 

 

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Fence out those Immigrants!

November 20, 2015 4 comments

I live in California, a state that has a large population of immigrants coming in illegally.  I should, I suppose, jump on the bandwagon of the Presidential candidates who insist on building a fence to keep them out.  It’s expensive, they all agree, but worth it, say some, or will be paid for by Mexico, claims one.

I don’t understand.  Aren’t those candidates aware that many people come in through Canada, too?  Or overstay their visa or HB work permits?  What about them?  A fence won’t help.  Also, haven’t they seen the statistics that show that  2009-2014 more Mexican immigrants have been choosing, on their own, to return to their families in Mexico than have come into the U.S.?  In addition, those reports show that the theory that they’ve been returning because of our bad economy is false–it has always been better economically here than where they came from.

Come on, candidates, make that bandwagon actually count for something–like plans to solve poverty, under-education, discrimination, bigotry, and violence in our nation.

 

 

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Cooking Dinner for the Garbage Can

August 31, 2015 Comments Off on Cooking Dinner for the Garbage Can

Tonight, cook dinner and throw away 1/3 before you serve it to your family.  Sounds not only wasteful but downright stupid, doesn’t it?  However, that’s the amount of the food that we grow in our world that goes to waste.  And yet there is famine, hunger, and food insecurity among children while our landfills overflow.

Supermarkets put out only the perfect produce for us to buy.  They know that we won’t pay their prices for misshapen vegetables or fruit that has a slight bruise. Not that we get the chance to buy it, because stores toss it out, even though it tastes the same and is just as nutritious.  After all, it’s all grown the same, in dirt or dangling from buggy trees.

I like the idea of a Canadian company who is packaging its appropriately named  “No Name Naturally Imperfect” produce.  These fruits and veggies can sell to markets cheaper, and markets can sell to us for less.  In fact, Raley’s Nob Hill has announced that they’ll do just that in the near future.

I’ll be in line to buy it.  I like saving money, getting a bargain, and eating apples that aren’t perfectly rounded or a shiny uniform color.  Who knows?  I might even learn to eat healthy.

 

 

 

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Immigration Oddities

February 13, 2013 Comments Off on Immigration Oddities

Immigration is a hot topic right now.  People are determined to stop all those service-sapping Illegals from violating our Southern borders.  May I offer two observations?

1) Most of the immigrants in Santa Clara County have college degrees.  Most immigrants find jobs and pay taxes.  Why can’t we offer services that help the rest of them become self-sufficient, taxpaying workers?  Isn’t that a win-win situation?

2) If we’re closing our Southern borders, why aren’t we doing the same in the North?  Is it more okay for all those immigrants to come in illegally from Canada (or overstay student and work visas)?  Are European Illegals desirable when Hispanics are not?

………I was just wondering…….

 

 

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