Lick Global Warming vs. Cow Farts

August 3, 2006air, climate crisis, energy, foodChris Tindal

Around noon today I sauntered over to the TD Centre courtyard in downtown Toronto to witness the launch of the Lick Global Warming campaign, a partnership of the Ontario Clean Air Alliance and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. The event featured people in cow costumes carrying picket signs, and (even more strangely) a 20-minute line full of Bay Street workers waiting for a free small scoop of ice cream in a cup.

I had a fun time trying to imagine what the Ben & Jerry’s boardroom brainstorm would have sounded like.

Ben: Ok, we need to do some sort of good-will PR thing.
Jerry: Let’s see…ice cream….
Ben: …cools you down…
Jerry: …when it’s hot…
Ben: Global Warming!
Jerry: That’s it! That’s so hot!
Ben: You mean cool.
Jerry: Is that what the kids are saying these days?

Or maybe Jerry really cares. The point isn’t to pick on my friends at the Ontario Clean Air Alliance, nor do I want to criticize anyone who makes delicious ice cream, but there’s one thing I find particularly bizarre about this campaign.

Can you spot it? No, it’s not the illustration of Earth in an ice cream cone (though I’m not quite sure what that’s about). And no, it’s not the fact that on the Ben & Jerry’s homepage there’s a flash animation (if you wait a few seconds) of a cow licking an ice cream cone (weird).

What really doesn’t make sense to me — and what I can’t believe wasn’t spotted or addressed by anyone at either organization — is the use of cows as an anti-global warming mascot. Why? Because cow farts cause global warming.

There. I said it.

Cows, though their farts and otherwise, produce large amounts of methane gas, which is the second greatest contributor to global warming after CO₂. Some studies have even suggested that in some regions cows contribute more to global warming than cars, while others have concluded that eating meat is just as bad for the climate as driving an SUV.

According to this blog’s first-ever anonymous source, the OCAA has already received several complaints about their partnership with B&J, including the observation that B&J’s products aren’t locally produced, meaning the involvement of long refrigerated-truck trips.

I’m glad to see the climate crisis getting people’s attention, I do think global warming campaigns can and should be fun, and I know I shouldn’t really be criticizing any company that wants to do their part. At the same time, global warming is a complex issue that cannot be easily solved. I don’t think we do ourselves any favours by reducing the whole issue to one paragraph, and then pretending to solve it with one sentence.

People are smarter than that, and deserve to be given more credit.

Ok, I’m done my party-pooping for the day. (And yes, after watching the protesting cows I did grab a delicious ice cream cone. It cheered me up a bit.)

Tags: lick, global, warming, ontario, clean, air, alliance, cow, cows, farts, methane

No Two-Time Losers Allowed

August 2, 2006conservative party, democracy and good governmentChris Tindal

This is kinda funny. From now on, if you want to be a federal Conservative candidate, you only get two tries. Anyone who’s lost two elections will have to get special permission from the Conservative Party’s executive before running again (even if they’re the democratically nominated candidate).

Of course, upon hearing this, I immediately thought of my previous Conservative opponent Lewis Reford. “Poor Lewis,” I thought, “he’ll only get one more kick at the can.”

And yet, there are at least two reasons this might not actually matter to him. First, he would almost certainly be granted an exception, mostly because he’s running in a Liberal stronghold, and only slightly because his wife sits on the Conservative Party’s executive.

Secondly, Lewis, who had quit his job to focus on family, politics, and volunteering, just took a new job today.

Isn’t that interesting?

ps. Yes, I know, applying this rule to the Green Party would be hilarious. Har har har.
pps. No, I’m not actually suggesting that Susan McArthur would act in conflict, or that today’s announcement of Lewis’ new job is anything but coincidence. I’m just suggesting that coincidences are fun. And aren’t they?
ppps. Oh great. Now I’ve got MacArthur Park stuck in my head.

Tags: conservative, party, canada, candidate, candidates, nomination, lewis, reford, coincidence

Warm Out Today. Warm Out Yesterday. Gonna Be Warm Out Tomorrow.

August 1, 2006air, climate crisis, cycling, energyChris Tindal

I’ve been experimenting with different ways of getting to work. I’ve tried driving (took me 35 minutes), walking (30 minutes), taking the subway (20 minutes) and biking (15 minutes).

This morning I wanted to try something new, so I swam to work. You know, through this soup we Torontonians sometimes refer to as “air.”

Southwestern Ontario is seeing some of its highest temperatures ever recorded today, and last night was Toronto’s warmest evening on record. Add to that the deadly pollutants that make up smog, and we’ve got one thick, sticky, stinky situation on our hands. (Stephen Colbert has started referring to environmentalists as “airhuggers.” As in, crazy hippies who are so out of touch with reality that they think breathing air is important.)

Unfortunately, all this heat doesn’t appear to be a coincidence. The Earth is warmer than it’s been in 400 years or longer, and the science suggests that human activity is the cause.

One of the best ways we know of to heat this planet up as fast as possible is by using lots of energy on things like air conditioners. So, when it got hot today, of course the natural thing to do was crank the AC. People in my office building have been shivering all day, and during one meeting I noticed pronounced goose bumps on my arms — it’s genuinely cold. (That might have something to do with what the people who make the decisions are wearing.)

The result is, we’ve burned too much fuel, which is making it too hot in here, so we’re going to turn up our air conditioners, which necessitates burning even more fuel, which in turn will make it even hotter. And the circle of life goes on. (Never mind that a recent 40-year study showed air pollution deaths in Toronto outnumber deaths caused by extreme heat 8 to 1.)

Heat was the number one story on the radio this morning, with the IESO predicting we’d break another energy consumption record by 5pm today.

They were wrong — it only took us until noon. Ontario’s demand for power reached 26,331 megawatts, topping last July’s record 26,161 megawatts. Power consumption has continued to break records every hour since. The IESO is now predicting that we’ll hit 27,225 megawatts any minute now. Brownouts and blackouts are a serious possibility, though not as serious as the increased numbers of people who will show up at emergency rooms and/or die prematurely today because of smog-related respiratory problems.

What should the government do? For one, make energy prices reflect their real cost. The fact that my office is still too cold for comfort, even in the face of all this, is a pretty good indicator that energy prices are too low.

What can you do (besides turn stuff off)? I recommend making use of this handy vacation planning calendar.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go change into my swimsuit for the long swim home.

Tags: toronto, smog, air, airhugger, pollution, energy, prices, stewie

Hard-Wired to be Partisan?

July 31, 2006democracy and good government, green partyChris Tindal

Have you ever noticed that politicians you disagree with are really stupid? The way they just don’t make any sense, contradict themselves, and constantly exhibit hypocrisy?

Lord knows I have. Yet, at the same time I’ve always believed that politicians are generally good people doing what they honestly think is right (I wouldn’t have become one if I didn’t). Sometimes it’s been difficult to reconcile this apparent contradiction.

As it turns out, there may be a biological explanation. According to a report in the Washington Post, our brains actually do the psychological equivalent of plugging our ears and running into the other room going “na na na I can’t hear you” when, for example, I hear Stephen Harper talk about transparency.

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The result, the author argues, is that we’re hardwired to be increasingly partisan.

As one blog points out, however, there’s a lot of nurture going on here too. We’re taught “with us or against us,” and “liberal or conservative,” as if there are no other options. We’re taught to only see black and white, never gray.

Likewise, we can unlearn it. At a campaign event early this year a supporter came up to me and told me that “the ideology of the Green Party is pragmatism.” Indeed, that’s one of the things that had attracted me to the party. I really do believe we’ve taken the best of all the other parties and incorporated it into our platform as much as possible. Now that we’re increasingly popular, one of our greatest challenges is to maintain that openmindedness.

Now that us humans know we may be pre-disposed to closemindedness, we can fight against it even more strongly. That may be the most useful application of this report.

I’m doing my part. Why, last week I even found two things that Margaret Wente and I agree on!