New Media

When those deja-vu inducing promos came out for “Who Killed the Electric Car?” a while back, I started wondering whether the technology for an environmentally friendly, non-oil sheik supporting car would ever be brought to the mass market. The most highly-skilled engineers in the world could build a magic flying carpet a la Alladin, but if entrenched corporate interests didn’t like the ramifications (ie. oil profits plummet) then the final product just ain’t gonna fly.

The proposed Hydrogen Highway of hydrogen refueling stations stretching from beautiful BC down to sunny California could finally get the hydogen-powered vehicle industry moving. After all, no one’s going to buy a car that they can’t drive because there’s nowhere to fill it up. It truly is a case of “build it, and they will come.”

Congratulations are in order for Leaf Rapids, the first North American community to order retailers to stop giving away or selling single-use plastic bags as of today (Stores that break the law face a C$1,000 ($865) fine).

I’ve recycled plastic bags for as long as I can remember.

Still, re-using a Safeway bag a couple of times for lunch until it inevitably tears or gets covered in leftover grease still leaves a hundred bags or so per year in the landfill (or the recycling box at the liquor store, after which it will eventually end up in the landfill anyway).

That’s about 5,000 bags over my lifetime that might get stuck in some poor bird’s stomach. They take a thousand years to break down, so it’s quite plausible that I might just choke a few birds with the same bag. Not a pleasant thought. Besides, these bags are made from oil, which we seem to be running out of faster than us consumeristic Westerners would like.

Since I’ve been on a bit of an environmental crusade of late, it’s time to up the ante: no more plastic bags. From now on, it’s canvas all the way, baby.

Canada’s seal hunt is once again generating some bad press for our otherwise inspiring nation. Animal activists and environmentalists will go head to head with Inuit hunters demanding their traditional hunting rights and residents of a depressed province trying to earn an honest buck.

If seals weren’t so darn cute, this wouldn’t be such an issue. We cull about 300,000 of the critters a year. Newfoundland’s fisheries minister notes that Germany hunts 1.2 million deer and over 500,000 wild boars a year, without any international condemnation. Hundreds of millions of fish are harvested from our oceans every year.

PETA’s protestations notwithstanding, much of the human species depends on readily available animal protein and products to live. Besides, we have international laws to protect endangered species.

The seal isn’t actually designated as endangered. Until such a time as that designation is given, seals are fair game.