Introducing me!
Hi, I’m Gail - your newsletter editor and Green Room host. Thought I’d tell you a little bit about myself.
I was a science geek in high school, dabbled in ‘pre-med’ but graduated in English Literature and Art History. I’ve always worked as a writer, but my favourite jobs involved science in some aspect - health care or the environment.
I was raised to believe that every person is obligated to participate in the healing of the world and volunteered for years with the David Suzuki Foundation before being invited onto the Nature Challenge team.
I have a 20-year-old son, a husband (of 30 years!) and an orange cat. I practice yoga, design and make quilts and take courses at UBC when I can find the time.
Looking forward to chatting with you all!
May 14th, 2008 at 6:27 am
Glad to see that the David Suzuki Foundation is blogging. I’ve been wondering when it would happen. Congrats!
BTW, check your blog templates - in both IE and Firefox, I’m not seeing most of the text around this comment form (it’s white on white), and most of the text in the date stamps under your blog posts are also pretty much invisible.
May 14th, 2008 at 8:33 am
I’m very excited about this new forum. I checked out the new personal/home cleaning products videos and think they’re fantastic! Can’t wait to try them out - unfortunately sometimes it seems there are only 20 hours in the day so I may have to continue buying the products I already do. I really hope the new Cosmetic Detox forum offers a place to go where people can list products they use which get a sign of approval or disapproval from the foundation. I’m attaching a link to a website out of Nova Scotia that I found about a year ago. It’s been a great help for me when I venture into stores.
http://www.lesstoxicguide.ca/index.asp?fetch=personal#lotio
May 15th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Thanks for the note, I am working on fixing the template bugs…G
May 19th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Thanks for that link, leeser. As a not-for-profit, the David Suzuki Foundation can’t recommend specific brands or services. That’s one of the reasons for creating this forum - because you can! We want to hear about your experiences and the things that work and don’t work for you.
In the meantime, check out this link: http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/ if you already haven’t - you can check by product name or by ingredient.
May 23rd, 2008 at 5:44 pm
Hi Gail:
Great forum. Am looking forward to participating. Just wondering about the hyperlink on http://www.reyouzd.com It seems to link to Microsoft’s Vanmail and looks for a username and password instead of linking directly. (Although I am not sure if it does so in every category where my intial comment is posted) Perhaps it isn’t the intent to link directly (?)…I’m new to blogging.
May 24th, 2008 at 6:08 am
Hi Lynne - You’re right! Thanks for checking that. It works here in your comment, but not in the other listing. I’m checking with my web mavens. We’ll figure it out and fix it.
June 3rd, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Gail: I would like to comment on the easiest way an individual can make a measurable impact on green house gas….REUSE.
Used goods require no new agricultural or industrial practices, no new manufacturing processes, no new packaging and no transglobal transportation to marketplace. The more we can use the goods that we have already manufactured, the less strain we will place on the environment.
Consider a simple cotton garment. The raw materials have to be grown using agricultural practices which involve clearing of lands(and last time I checked, we weren’t growing cotton in Canada!) , extensive use of mechanical equipment and gasoline for planting, maintenance, and harvesting, insecticides, and pesticides to maximize yield, transportation of the raw materials to processing plants (often in countries off shore from even the countries of raw material origin) which spew waste into the air and waterways, factories to transform the materials into products which also draw excessive amounts of variable energy sources and come with their own requirements for equipment and fuel, packaging which in most cases requires some level of plastics and paper goods (or worse), and then often transglobal transportation to marketplace. This is only one simple example of our purchasing. Imagine the impact of our yearly expenditures!
In contrast, each time a person’s needs are filled by anything pre-owned-be it clothing or accessories, reading materials, building materials, recreational equipment, health equipment, transportation needs, or even our fine art, there is a very measurable reduction in the impact of our lifestyles on our living environment
Buying used goods is not only an environmental responsibility, it is a necessity if we are not to be overcome by our own excesses. If you want to add to the Nature Challenge in a positive and effective way, make a conscious effort to buy something, ANYTHING, that has been preowned-need a book written by David Suzuki? Check out your local used bookstore (or book eco-retailer as we call them) to see if they have the title you are looking for. Lost or gained weight and need some intermittent clothing? Buy from a fashion eco-retailer. Want to try learning a new musical instrument? Buy a used one and try it out first. Likewise, have a child who wants to try a new sport? Buy used sports equipment and let them test it first and that goes for those pieces of infamous exercise equipment as well.
And when you are filling your house with meaningful pieces of art…have them make a real lifestyle statement. Make sure the artist has incorporated reclaimed materials into their work.
http://www.reyouzd.com will expand your understanding of this issue. We are in complete support of the David Suzuki Foundation and their goals for a sustainable lifestyle.
Sincerely,
Lynne Taylor
Principal, http://www.reyouzd.com
December 23rd, 2008 at 2:10 am
Thanks for the informative post.. and thanks for adding our comment to the blog.