The carbon sink is clogged.

In his goal to reduce green house gas emissions by 30% by 2020, David Miller introduced the specific aim to double the tree canopy over the city. His goals are “aggressive, but workable” according to Councillor Paula Fletcher, chair of the parks and environment committee. At present, Toronto’s canopy covers 17% of the city. This might seem a trifling percentage in comparison to Washington, which has 40% canopy coverage and Ottawa, 27%.

Miller's plan may require some painstaking effort to succeed, but could have enormous benefit if it does. Incorporating trees into the urban environment would serve to reduce the amount of fossil fuels we burn and ease the damage of deforestation – the two main roots of climate change. Right now, homes and other buildings account for 30% of the greenhouse gas emissions in the country. Design and sustainability, both significant objectives in Toronto, can’t be sacrificed for one another. They must work together.

The city doesn’t “breathe” as well as a forest, contributing large quantities of carbon to the atmosphere with few sources of absorption. The earth, in order to give warmth to support life, needs a reasonable amount of greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide appears naturally in the atmosphere, exhaled by humans and involved in the photosynthesis of plants. Carbon is kept in check by a natural carbon cycle, a system which creates a balance between the carbon emitters (humans), and the carbon absorbers (plants). Oceans, land and air are all involved in the process.

After the industrial revolution, when humans began messing with the carbon levels in the atmosphere, the earth began to see increasing quantities of carbon being pumped into the system. And it’s been rising steadily since, resulting in a 1.4 degree increase in global average temperature. This might not seem like a lot, but consider the fact that the global average temperature during the last ice age was only 4 – 7 degrees colder than it is today, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The increase refers to the average temperature, not explicitly presenting the extremes on either side.

The city has taken a lot less time to grow than the forests, and we can't undo what has been built. But by adding trees into the urban landscape, we can contribute to the solution of the unbalanced carbon cycle. Placed around a house or on a rooftop, trees can cool a building by 40%. Cutting back on air conditioner reliance means a decrease in the human- made greenhouse gas hydrofluorocarbons. An appropriate mix of trees can filter 88% of air pollution in a park, or 70% in a street setting. The benefit isn’t just limited to homes and buildings. On the streets, trees slow rain fall and absorb water, reducing rain flow into our sewers. More trees on the street means less overflow from sewers into the lake.

More trees would attract wildlife, make the city more aesthetically pleasing, and create more jobs. The benefits are numerous. Trees and urban design are a winning team, combining to reconcile urban culture and nature, a gap that must be bridged in order to achieve a truly sustainable city. Restoring an eco system is slow and demanding process. And unlike simply building a condo, it is unpredictable. But adding these lasting structures to the city’s infrastructure would have a greatly advantageous impact on our environment, our resources, and our money.

The potential difficulties of Miller's plan lie in the nature of plant life. Will the slow growth of trees be frustrating enough for us to scrap the plan and come up with yet another quick and easy solution? Most of the trees that make up the canopy in Toronto were planted over a century ago, meaning that the skinny ones planted in addition will take equally as long to reach full growth. Cultivation in the urban environment won’t be easy, either. City trees die quickly in the drought of the hot summer months, as they bake against the concrete buildings and roads. If trees are to survive in the city, they would need to be planted in large groups and carefully tended.

Cities are built primarily with humans needs in mind. They create the illusion of a world solely for us. The goals of Mayor Miller provide promising step to a sustainable Toronto. So far, we have 8 LEED certified buildings in the city. The green building rating system commends the utilization of conditions like natural light, plants, local building materials, bike storage etc. It is a country wide initiative, taking into account the Canadian climate, construction regulations and practices. Ryerson’s 105 Bond St. was recently certified Gold by LEED, making it the first University building certified in Ontario. The building has a negative ecological footprint, diverting most waste materials from the landfill.

Toronto can and should set an example for other Canadian cities. Doubling the tree canopy is within our reach, and the cultivation of these entities will force us to recognize the true value of trees. The greater the esteem we assign them, the greater the benefit they will provide. Urban design and sustainability can no longer afford to clash. A green infrastructure starts with a return to the architecture of the natural world.

' there is no city that does not dream from its foundations '

- Anne Michaels, Fugitive Peices, 1996

styrofoam is the debbil.

We all know that the world is full of carcenogens left right and center, but here are some numbers that will make you feel even worse about your coffee shop addiction.

Styrofoam cups take 50 fucking years to biodegrade. And 'biodegradable' paper cups take 5 - 15 years. 57 chemicals are found in styrofoam, polluting the air and the coffee they contain. Paper cups are often lined with polythylene, which makes them virtually unrecyclable. The average second cup goes through 5000 paper cups per week (just for hot drinks) and there are some 400 locations in Canada. Plus lids and stir sticks. WACK ! B.Y.O.M(mug). and save the world a little bit.

check this out ... http://www.earthresource.org/campaigns/capp/capp-styrofoam.html

Toronto Mafia ?

There is something about Toronto that gives me the feeling that underground ventures have a bigger part in our lives than we realize. This notion was triggered by my finishing The Godfather by Mario Puzo. I promptly decided that Toronto, similar to New York with its many districts, must be propelled by at least some shady deals. There is so much more to this city than what appears on the surface.

What truly runs the city? When I think about it, my personal daily activities are dictated by a series of external factors, mostly institutions. We are slaves to our institutions. We need education, we need to eat, we need to party, we need 49 cent wings on Wednesdays. We rely on the hands that feed us to the point that we are no longer skeptical of any of it. We just need to look at the mountains of garbage building up on the street to realize just how painfully reliant we are on the city services. The city strike has forced us civilians to live in our own filth for the past month. We are entirely subject to the powers behind these institutions. “They” allow us to get a side of fries with our sandwich. “They” like us to print clearly on our tax return forms. “They” don’t approve of drinking in the park. Who are they, who posses such authority over our meagre city dwelling lives ?

There are just some people you can’t say no to. In the business world, ‘connections’ are building blocks to the top. It seems like every restaurant owner has infinite connections to other restaurant owners, event planners, salami dealers ... the list goes on. Where is the line between networking for the benefit of one’s business and hustling, plain and simple? Like the mafia, everyone running a business respects one another’s territory, sometimes borrowing a bag of milk here and there, asking a few small favours, but when it really comes down to it, deny the wrong man a request and you’ll fucking wake up with a horse head in your bed.

Overtly provocative companies like the Hot Box Cafe make me wonder - how can an organization that is based on entirely illegal activities thrive in the public sphere? That place has been raking in cash by the pile for nearly 10 years. I can only assume that operating such businesses is a matter of forming ‘friendships’ – a cycle of debts and favours owed and given. Everyone has a different idea of friendship, particularly when it comes to business. Illegal activities happen in broad daylight all the time. The dark figure of crime goes unnoticed; it’s always lost somewhere in the day to day shuffle.

But is it really just lost? I’m not sure yet. The Godfather taught me that those truly in power never show it to the world. So in the meantime, I remain highly sceptical of my Italian neighbours at College and Shaw, whose cooking smells like a dream, but whose wrath could be nothing less than nightmarish. Think twice before accepting the pizza that bubbles with the hot cheese of a con.

A sweet quote I found in Broken Pencil Zine ...

“The funny thing about the economic crisis is that a lot of artists and writers don’t notice it. Their life is always the same – they’re really poor. They either have welfare or a job or some under the table way of getting money. You do your music, your writing, your art, the years go by. […] Until their own cafes lay them off, they’ll think [this recession is] full of shit. […]I’m writing a new book right now and trying to decide on a publisher who will make it through the recession. There’s a damn good chance many won’t be around in a year or two.[…] If there’s one thing we learned in the ’90s recession, it’s that there’s certainly no less underground publishing, writing, music or film. No one had money to buy magazines off the newsstands, but everyone would come to the local zine launch and buy the zine for a dollar or two. When times get that tough that fast, that’s when people have the time and motive to sit down and make something themselves. DIY gets a big boost. There’s nothing wrong with having a lot of time.”

-Louis Rastelli, author of 'A Fine Ending', a book about Montreals recession in the 90's, and its affect on artists.

Money Aint a Thing.

A few summers ago, I lived in Calgary and worked on as a cook on a golf course called Wintergreen. It was an enjoyable summer. I only had one major qualm with my stay in Calgary, and perhaps it was born from a strange complex of my own. My qualm was this: the minute anyone found out that I was from Toronto, they seemed to have something questionable to say about it. Being a proud (recent) Torontonian, I have noticed that those who like Toronto seem to like it a lot. And those who hate it, despise it with every cell in their being. And in my few years of travel, I find that the latter type generally possess the same reasons for loathing - too fast paced, too many douche-bags, too big, too unfriendly, too intimidating ... the typical ‘big city’ complaints.

(I say fuck that, with all due respect.)

One golf club member in particular felt compelled to tell me that:
“People from Toronto want things to move too quickly, they miss out on things”

(Obviously, this is an enormous generalization and this man was an idiot.)

I told him “If you move too slowly things will miss out on you”
As you could imagine, I was so self satisfied after this that I never forgot it to this day.)

I really dug Calgary, (with the exception of the stampede, which was like being stuck in an all encompassing Gretchen Wilson video and furthermore, a vegetarian nightmare), and I also dig many other small towns in the world where things move slowly. But Toronto is truly one of my favourite cities in the world, and I feel completely at home in the busy streets. To be fair though, maybe this man did have a grain of truth in his statement. After all, my (enduring) defence wasn’t an attempt to thwart it, just to justify it. And I only have myself to blame.

In the city, the reason we move so fast is because we are such a success oriented society. This is what I meant by “things will miss out on you”. We attempt to please everyone, to achieve the unattainable idea of success that we end up spreading ourselves thin. To be successful in the urban world involves business suits, elevators, late hours and back pain. And when it comes down to it, harms our families, our health, and the people around us. Success is killing us.
Cowboy hats and country music aside, Canada suffers from the Western syndrome of unfeasible standards. Endless goals ‘pathways to success’ are promoted in schools, etched into our minds at a young and tender age. Are we meant to constantly feel like we aren’t enough?

Let us take a moment to notice the differences between Italian and North American ways of life. Perhaps the most significant difference is the pace. Fast food is basically a metaphor for North American culture. (George Ritzer called it the McDonalization of society – the principles of the fast food restaurant are coming to dominate American life, and gradually affecting the rest of the world.)Even Europe is being affected. It pains me to think that one day, the entire world will have a McDonalds on every corner.

The laissez faire lifestyle of European countries is, to me, the most opposing aspect of our two cultures. The term laissez faire means to let events take their own course. For one thing, its an exotic and appealing notion and the North American admires it for a second before mowing down on cheese cappelletti at the neighborhood east side Marios. Italians live longer, have healthier diets, and a hell of a lot less stress in their lives. Sure, the traditional Italian meal is riddled with saturated fat and wine, but the simple fact that they linger over a meal for like, 3 hours longer than any hamburger – scoffing American is telling. It’s a pleasure principle.

We North Americans have a completely different conception of pleasure. Quantity is quality for us. And that can be seen in our excessive use of condiments alone. Ketchup, salt, pepper, HP sauce, hot sauce. Does a hamburger even exist anymore under all those toppings? Why do we feel the need to cover shit in sugary tomato paste? You would never see that going down at an Italian family dinner. We’re not even eating food. We’re eating xantham gum, corn syrup, hemlock, arsenic... you get the point.

(I have an unhealthy addiction to hot sauce.)

On that note, I came across a quote by Thomas Merton one day that really resonated with me. He said “the plain fact is that the world does not need more successful people. But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, storytellers, restorers, lovers of every kind. So be anything you like, be madmen, be drunks, be bastards of every shape and form, but at all costs avoid one thing: success.”

This quote makes so much sense, and yet, the ideal is so persistent and carved into our minds that who knows how long it will take for the world to actually benefit from peacemakers and healers? But I do believe that things flow in cycles.
As a (very successful) rap star once said, “Bling bling, money aint a thing.” The truest words are the fewest words.

Another soil outburst. Sorry.

Here is a cleaned up version of my previous rant about sustainable urban farming. It's going to be in the July Ryerson Free Press, so keep your eyes peeled!

Every once in a while, the need for environmental awareness manifests itself in the form of a new “green” initiative, be it an alternative product or an eco friendly service. The Toronto eco scene is good for business, but the revolving door of trendy small scale initiatives will not heal the world. We can’t expect to find a technical solution to a problem that requires our full attendance.

Our destructive habits are a testament to our attitude that the solution is simply too foreboding to consider. We want clean air, clean water, and clean organs, but our actions portray the belief that the environment, in its magnitude, will simply absorb the chemicals we use on it. Similarly, our lifestyles reflect a faith that our bodies will absorb the toxins we consume, including the chemicals used in industrial farming. A “won’t hurt” mentality is costing us our health.

What can we do to ditch the small scale approach and work toward an effective solution? We can start by implementing a University degree for sustainable farming – agriculture that allows minimal damage to the environment and in turn, the human race. Instilling passion for the eco system in young people and cultivating knowledge of plant life, the harms of pesticides, and importance of nutrients is a vital step to ensuring a successful future on earth. While learning about soil may not jump to mind when we think of higher education in a contemporary urban setting, Toronto’s green initiatives are the seeds of interest that could alter our urban landscape and improve our health.

An urban institution like Ryerson could take advantage of its city landscape to instruct hands–on urban farming, the practice of cultivating food within a city. Often using a bio-intensive method incorporating organic crop growing on a minimum amount of land, long term sustainability is the goal of urban agriculture. The benefits lie in the addition of new vessels for composted urban waste and black water, an increase of local food, reduction of fossil fuel use, community growth, and a lot more green space. The reduction in food travel time would allow the elimination of preservatives, and a restriction of chemical sprays would result in maximum nutrients reached in each plant. Farming in an urban environment would instil compassion, time management, and appreciation for food, nature, and life in its participants. Rooftop farms could be the new rooftop patio.

In 2004, Toronto passed a city wide bylaw which called for a limited use of pesticide, and the adoption of more sustainable approaches to lawn and garden care. Within the first three years of implementation, the city saw a 60% decrease in domestic pesticide use. More recently, in April 2009, Ontario pesticide regulation came into effect, restricting the sale and use of cosmetic pesticides across the province. The decision to regulate pesticide use began in Quebec in the early 90’s. It has since inspired some 154 Canadian municipalities in seven provinces to pass such bylaws.

Created in the interest of public health, these bylaws demonstrate the fact that we have come a long way since the days of promoting DDT as a harmless material. Since the basic element of DDT is carbon, the building block of the living world, it was classed as an organic substance. But carbon can unite with an infinite possibility of other atoms, and in the case of DDT, hydrogen and chlorine, to create a highly toxic chemical that will contaminate every life cycle it touches. However, none of these municipal developments change the fact that farming on an industrial scale is oriented toward mass crop production with little regard for nutrient content or the environment.

In reality, there is an entire universe in the soil with its own unique language. The main difference between organic farming and industrial farming is that the former focuses on the processes involved in food production. The soil itself is seen as a living organism. New materials are constantly being contributed to the earth in a cycle that is without beginning or end. Rocks crumble, organic matter decays, and rain contributes a variety of natural gases from the atmosphere. At the same time, other materials are being taken away and used by living creatures. Chemical changes are constantly occurring in the soil, converting the natural elements from air and water into nutrients for plants. One teaspoon of soil contains billions of bacteria.

Around 1950, when the insecticidal properties in DDT were discovered, we altered the soil for the worse. In the interest of expedient crop growth, we poured synthetic pesticides over the soil and disturbed hundreds of millions of years of the balanced natural cycle. Dumping chemicals on crops is easier for producing mass quantities of crops, but bigger isn’t always better. These chemicals not only rob plants of their nutrients but also add complications to our health, ranging from nerve damage upon a single exposure to cell alteration after repeated contact. A study conducted on mosquitoes in the early 1960’s showed that several generations of exposure to DDT resulted in bizarre organisms that were part male and part female. Such risks are a high price to pay for increased yields.

The University of Guelph boasts an extensive Department of Plant Agriculture and has recently opened a center for urban organic farming on one hectare of the schools (165 hectare) arboretum. The Organic Agriculture Program, offered at both an undergraduate as well as graduate level, strives toward the goal of a brighter future for food. Offering classes such as Organic Plant Production, Fertilization, and Marketing, it is the only major of its kind offered in the country. The program sets students up for proficiency in organic profitability and sustainability, offering opportunities to work with organic entrepreneurs in the “real world” environment of the arboretum.

Hopefully, this unique initiative will pave the way for other institutions in the future. Sustainable farming as a university degree could produce a new kind of entrepreneur – one who sets out to make space for farms, not buildings and billboards, and paints a whole new landscape for the future.