Peddle Power!

Bike Month!
The fuel crisis getting you down? Buck up. I have the remedy. Peddle Power! Just add yourself, a bike, a good meal and go!

Action
June is Bike Month. The sun is out, it’s warm and you want to shed a few pounds. What better time to challenge yourself.

• If you don’t normally use a bike for transportation, plan using one once a week to travel to work, school or run errands.
• If you sometimes bike for transportation, commit to doing more, such as an additional day.
• If you’re a bike enthusiast like me, commit to overcoming personal challenges, such as travel longer distances or don rain gear and ride in the rain.
• Join or start a cyclist union such as the Toronto Cyclist Union to fast track positive change for cyclists in your city.

Harper, Harper, Wherefore Art Thou Harper?*
Prime Minister Harper has not responded yet to my request that he secure his place in history as the coolest leader ever (literary). Surly he knows that the costs of lame action far outweigh the costs of significant action. Perhaps he’s too sleepy as suggested by the National Post. He probably just needs more convincing. There are a number of interesting options available to him. He can consult with the Union of Concerned Scientists or have a pleasant chat on the couch (on a beach) with arch conservative Pat Robertson and liberal Al Sharpton.



Meanwhile, Obama’s waiting in the wings and local and regional leaders are offering to step up to bat – such as Ontario and Quebec. Why wait for Obama to be the leader of our time, they ask.

Premiers McGuinty and Charest are proposing a ‘cap-and-trade’ plan for carbon emissions, thumbing their noses at Harper’s ‘intensity-based’ solution, which everyone knows is no solution. Intensity targets don’t address an industry’s overall carbon footprint. With ‘cap-and-trade’, government sets carbon and pollution limits and provides companies with carbon allowances that can be traded. Companies that exceed their allowance may sell the excess to companies that do not. There are pros and cons and lessons learned from cap-and-trade schemes in Europe and the US. For more information on cap-and-trade visit:

David Suzuki Foundation – Supports cap-and-trade

Grinning Planet – Outlines pros and cons

Transnational Institute – Highly critical of cap-and-trade

*’Wherefore’ actually translates as ‘why’ and not ‘where’ – a common misunderstanding. Juliet asks: “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” She is asking why Romeo (the hot guy she just fell in love with) must be Romeo (the son of her father’s enemy). She’s not looking for him in her backyard. Technically I am not asking Harper where he is, but why – why does he continue to be old conservative Harper and not the much needed progressive and courageous leader required for our time.

In the News

Today’s “Food Crisis”: A Crisis in Capitalism

Carnivores Like Us

How Green Is the College? Time the Showers
The Science of Denial

UN Conference Divided over How to Protect Biodiversity – How much is biodiversity worth?