The King’s Green Pad

This May, I had the amazing opportunity to attend the Great Lakes campus (Michigan) of the Au Sable Institute for Environmental Studies. Three weeks of Natural History later, I have to say to everyone age 18 to 80, if you get the chance to take a course at any of the three campuses (two in the U.S. and one in India), go!

What makes Au Sable so great, you ask? I spent three weeks in one of the most beautiful natural environments I could imagine: a primarily deciduous forest all but obscured the view from building to building on the campus, bracken fern brushed against my waist as I walked along the wood-chip paths, and kayaking on the lake after class always offered a respite from the flies. The community at Au Sable is kind and active. Dish duty isn’t a drag when you’re doing it to music with four of your classmates! After-dinner volleyball matches, Ultimate Frisbee, jumping in the lake, and hilarity over Taboo, Cranium, and Settlers of Catan filled the hours when we probably should have been studying. Weekends, many people would catch a movie in town, go down to a cabin, or take a trip to Mackinack (pronounced “Mackinaw”) overnight. Those who stayed on campus would go to church together on Sunday morning, and Sunday evening saw Vespers bring the whole community together in the lodge to sing, reflect, and pray.

It wasn’t all perfect. The tent caterpillar infestation was particularly bad this year, and I have pictures of caterpillars as long as my finger clinging to the edge of my dorm room! At times, if you stood still too long, they’d start crawling up your shoe, and if you weren’t looking for long spider-like strings hanging from trees, you might end up with a collection in your hair! Flies were an annoyance too, but fortunately they weren’t of the biting variety, or we would have been a very itchy group indeed! We still got anxious about our midterm and our final exams, and still had reading and homework most nights, just like ‘real’ school. But the enthusiasm of our professor (Dr. David Dornbos, or “Double-D”) for what he taught, late-night ‘shining’ (where you drive through the brush with a bright spotlight, looking for light reflecting off dusk-roaming critters), and my first-ever field course experience made it more than worth the few struggles.

All-round, Au Sable was both an excellent academic and recreational experience. Many “AuSableites” come back year after year, and while I don’t have the time or money to travel there every year, I hope to return before I graduate. It simply taught me too much to stay away!

(Check out www.ausable.org for more detailed information on their campuses and programs, including internships, diplomas, certificates, and many courses in agriculture, biology, and chemistry)

This post was authored by Theresa Looy, a second year Environmental Studies student at The King’s University College.

One of the most important accomplishments of Galileo Galileo was his astronomical observations which confirmed that the Earth orbited the Sun rather than the Sun orbiting the Earth. Unfortunately, the conclusions of his research put him at odds with the Roman Catholic Church, which taught that the Earth could not move. In 1633, was brought before the inquisition which required him to denounce the heliocentric theory. Mr. Today, history is repeating itself. In the State of Virginia, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, in a blatant abuse of power for political ends, has targeted paleoclimatologist Michael Mann in order to treat him the same way as the Catholic Church treated Galileo. The basis of this inquisition is that several emails from the University of East Anglia, which were released to the public by criminal hackers.

Since the contents of those emails are known to the general public (and Mr. Cuccinelli) as a result of criminal activity, even if these emails did provide evidence of illegal activity, such evidence could not be used in court. The truth is that laws exist for the lawless, and this includes laws protect our rights to privacy and due process. These laws protect us from such fascists as Ken Cuccinelli.

The State of Virginia must not only remove Ken Cuccinelli from the office of Attorney General but must also charge him with criminal malicious prosecution. Until it does, people should not trade with or travel to Virginia. Some people might say that Alberta should not sell Virginia any oil, but I have a better idea; Ontario should not sell Virginia any cars.

This post was written by James P. Yushchyshyn, a part-time science student at The King’s University College in Edmonton, AB.

In the later 1950s, psychologist Harry Harlow conducted a famous series of experiments with rhesus monkeys that showed that well-being requires a secure and loving home base. Monkeys reared with an uncomfortable wire substitute ‘mother’ that provided only nourishment were paralyzed by fear, unable to interact with other monkeys or their environment. Those reared with a comfy terry-cloth ‘mother’ did much better: the comforting touch of the cloth reduced their anxiety, and they could explore their environment as long as they had this secure base. Of course, monkeys did best when reared by calm and competent actual rhesus mothers.

Research with young humans confirms this: As we gradually explore and interact with the world, we too need a secure base from which to venture, and to which we can return. We’ve all seen the abrupt release and relief of an upset young child when a parent arrives on the scene. When young, that base must be physically present—a source of comfort, relief from fear and anxiety, protection, nourishment. As we develop, we gradually internalize that loving base, carrying it within ourselves, but it serves a similar function.

People who have not developed healthy attachments when young struggle throughout their lives in multiple ways. They are often deeply lost, and deeply fearful. Love is the centre and foundation of our ability to flourish.

Our culture is one of fear, not of love. It isn’t rooted in a healthy attachment to anything. And thus, collectively, we live out of fear. There is a relentless and increasing clamor of voices speaking warningly, fearfully, depressingly of environmental and economic catastrophe. We’ve got to change things! Now! Before it’s too late! No wait—it’s already too late! We run about blindly, panicking. We either believe we can come up with rational solutions, give up in despair, or pretend the problems don’t exist. None of these approaches is going to help us because they are all built on the useless foundation of fear.

Henri Nouwen in his book “Lifesigns” argues that we must live in the house of love, the home of Christ. It is when we are “rooted and established in love [that] we may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that [we] may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:17-19) And “there is no fear in love…but perfect love drives out fear.” ( I John 4:18)

This house of love is no airy-fairy getaway cottage in an afterlife, but the secure ground from which we can move confidently in the world. Whenever the fear gets overwhelming, we are called to remember and return in our hearts to our home, where we are comforted, healed, and gently encouraged and guided as we venture forth.

I don’t know how to solve our environmental problems. I do that we are called to be rooted in love, and promised that when we are, we WILL have peace and power, through the grace of God, to experience and be instruments of transformation and healing. It’s the place to start.

This post was authored by Dr. Heather Looy.

The City of Edmonton is currently offering a $75 rebate for residents who purchase a Energy Star rated high efficiency washing machine. This is an attempt to encourage people to “preserve the environment.” The city’s environmental plan, “The Way We Green,” is the driving force behind this program, offering information on how adjustments in our lives can positively impact the environment.

Kudo’s to Edmonton for taking a great step. But is this really going to save people money? Is it really going to “preserve the environment?”

Our family bought a washer last year for $370. It would have been great to pick up one of those “high efficiency” models, but, as is the way of things for the average family, we were just too strapped to afford the $800 equivalent. Plus, after shopping around for the best deal, we were getting “agitated” to make the purchase, as the laundry was piling up at home. At our final stop, the smiley sales person whose cologne was too strong, ring too big, shirt too starched and teeth too white seemed to be loading us with a sales pitch too unbelievable. We finally left him standing in his aroma and walked over to the scratch and dent section, did an eenie meenie minie mo quickpick, and took our baby home.

So I was skeptical when I saw the announcements for the $75 rebate. Would that quick cash help an average Edmonton family if they had to make a purchase like mine? I don’t think so. The typical argument is that you also will be saving costs over the course of the next few years, so the upfront extra cash will be worth it in the end. I still don’t think so.

The City’s information indicates that a high-efficiency washing machine can save an average family approximately $150/year in utility costs. A recent Epcor publication indicated typical average annual savings of approximately $83.25. do the math. This would mean, according to the city’s numbers, that my machine last year would have been paid off in 33 months. According to Epcor’s numbers, 61. Regardless of the accuracy of either of them, sometime in between, the crazy machine would no doubt crap out anyways, and a new one would have to be purchased.

Further, these rebates are only available for 1,500 households, first come first served. I’ll tell you right now … the majority of people able to rush to purchase a high efficiency washer, most likely own perfectly working machines already. I had an interesting conversation with an online rep from an appliance retailer about it this morning. When I asked her about the cost savings in purchasing a high-efficiency machine, and the city’s rebate offer, she surmised that for most families, they wouldn’t be able to afford a new machine, so $75 and residual energy savings really wouldn’t do them much good.

Having said that, the Climate Change Central Program, the organization administering the rebate, offers a coupling of municipal and provincial rebates to this particular initiative. If you live in Edmonton, your rebate could total $175 … that’s getting better. Regardless of all this, there are still other concerns I have.

Like hey … it’s good for the environment, no? Think again … have you been down to the dump lately? You could build a lego-like, life-sized model of the Edmonton high rise skyline with the appliances that have been dumped along the corridor of the Edmonton waste management properties. Don’t fool yourself. After this rebate plays itself out, there will no doubt be a silent increase of working washers magically appearing in our landfill. Nice.

Plus, the thing that really irks me: Why are high-efficiency washers so much more expensive anyway? I understand the R&D costing factor of “creating the better mousetrap,” but once these things are designed, and production has been established for years, are they REALLY that much more difficult and costly to build? I think people are paying more for the “green” than the machine.

Here’s my suggestion: The city may do better at offering 200 new machines to low income large families. This would mean that the people who need the machines would use them. Plus, they’d use the machine far more than a middle-aged couple with no kids who could afford the new machine, and the resulting decrease in energy consumption would be markedly better. Finally, families who need cash wouldn’t be as inclined to dump their old machine, but would resell them, so the resulting environmental impact on our landfill would be minimal.

As for me, I’m paying for food, clothing, school fees and gas this month. I’m not going to be throwing my baby out with the washer water any time soon.

Having said that, for anyone hoping to take advantage of the program, regardless of my cynicism, I surprisingly still encourage it. Find out more here.

This post was authored by Dee-Ann Schwanke, Executive Assistant to the President at The King’s University College. You can read more at Dee-Ann’s blog HERE.

Can you guess what this video is about?

Frantically hunting unpegged, errant undies that enjoyed brief freedom with neighbouring briefs in New Zealand was my first experience with letting it all hang out. I now dismiss the clothes dryer for the energy guzzling hog that it is in favour of joining the 80 per cent of Canadians who have at least once opted to air their clean laundry.

Since my current summer town in northern B.C. is situated in a wind tunnel that passes itself off as a valley, using the clothes line that spans the backyard – over our outdoor fire pit, no less – is a no-brainer. If the sun’s rays from longer days fail to dry my clothes, then the prevailing Chetwynd winds are sure to carry away any residual moisture.

To get the most out of airing your no-so-dirty laundry, follow these tips from Eniromom

* Save real estate on your clothes line by hanging wet laundry on hangers.
* Clip only one bottom edge of your clothing (like a t-shirt) to the line and let the other part hang open in the breeze.
* Use the extra spin/max extract cycle to wring out as much water as possible to decrease drying time.
* Turn dark clothing inside out to keep from fading.
* To save on clothespins, use one clothespin to clip two pieces of clothing together.
* If your line isn’t in full sun, then your clothes might not dry as fast as in the dryer. If you want to dry all of your loads on the clothesline, don’t wash back-to-back loads. Maybe one in the morning, one in the afternoon. (Yes, the dreaded advance planning.)
* Towels will get crunchy in the sun, so if this bothers you, use the dryer.
Line drying coupled with washing with cold water, investing in a high efficiency washer and wearing clothes more than once before relegating them to the hamper will not only make your wallet smile, but more importantly the planet.

Just don’t forget pegs.

This post was authored by Sheri Connolley, a recent graduate of the Environmental Studies program at The King’s University College.

Mahatma Gandhi is one of my heroes and role models. One of my favorite quotes is attributed to him: “You must BE the change you wish to see in the world.” He certainly lived what he believed, and in so doing, changed the world.

I’ve always wanted to make a difference, yet despaired. The world is a very large place, and the impact of one person among 6.5 billion will rarely make more than a small local ripple, let alone a transformative sea change. The problems are so huge, and I am so small, so ordinary. Who is going to listen to me? And who do I think I am, anyway, that I might think it worthwhile for anyone TO listen to me?

Henri Nouwen reminds me that there is nothing wrong with being ordinary:

“When we think about Jesus we mostly think about his words and miracles, his passion, death, and resurrection, but we should never forget that before all of that Jesus lived a simple, hidden life in a small town, far away from all the great people, great cities, and great events. Jesus’ hidden life is very important for our own spiritual journeys.  If we want to follow Jesus by words and deeds in the service of his Kingdom, we must first of all strive to follow Jesus in his simple, unspectacular, and very ordinary hidden life.”

If I want to care for creation, then, I need to do it AS an ordinary person. I can’t clean up the Gulf oil spill, but I can vote for more public transit…and use it. I can’t clean the atmosphere, but I can plant and nourish trees in my yard and neighborhood. I can’t break the back of Big Food, but I can help with my local community garden and shop at the farmer’s market.

I know many will argue that these steps are too little, too late, or that they do not lead to the deep structural change which is ultimately required. But I can’t singlehandedly cause structural change. I CAN listen, and learn, support organizations who work for structural change, and vote wisely. I can talk about what I do and why I do it with trusted friends and neighbors. These are not only deeply important, they are what I CAN do.

If I want shalom for the world, I to live it myself. Perhaps the peace, fruitfulness and joy that result from trying to BE the change will encourage others. Perhaps it won’t. I’ll be a small ripple on the ocean and maybe, just maybe, the ripples from others will cumulate and eventually God will make a tidal wave. But whether or not that happens is in God’s hands. I just need to BE.

This post was authored by Dr. Heather Looy, Professor of Psychology at The King’s University College.

It has been waaay to long since I’ve blogged on here, but I’m back and
hopefully will be a little more diligent with my blogs!

This past fall, I began working at the Strathcona Farmer’s Market for
Four Whistle Farm, owned by Marius De Boer. It has been a great
experience so far, and I’ve learned to love it (even getting up at the
5:15 am on Saturday morning!). The atmosphere and the people at the
market are unique. I feel blessed to be able to be apart of this
community and be able to contribute to one of the Market’s philosophies of
providing local food to Edmonton. In my second year here in Edmonton, I
worked at Steve and Dan’s Fruit for a while, and that’s when I first had
a taste of the “market life.” I had some friends that worked for Marius,
and heard from them that he needed someone else. I jumped on the
opportunity and have thoroughly enjoyed working for him (and have
learned a lot about meat!).

Yup, we sell meat at our booth. Marius raises cows, sheep, chickens,
turkeys, ducks, and pigs on his farm to bring delicious fresh meat and eggs to the market every Saturday. He lives on his farm in Millet, Alberta with his wife Twiggy. They immigrated to Canada in the early ‘90s and have been farming since ’97!

We sell eggs of all sizes, fresh and frozen chicken, turkeys (fresh ones for
Thanksgiving and Christmas), ducks (on occasion), hamburger patties,
bacon, sausages, lamb, pork, veal and a lot of beef. We have a variety of steaks and roasts and ground beef. We also sell a specialty raw dog food and dog bones. The list is long! To see what else we sell, come down to the market and check us out.

All our meat is FREE RANGE. This means that the animals have access to fresh air and sunshine. We don’t use any hormones or medicines, animal by products or antibiotics – the animals are fed grass and grain. We are proud to label our meat all-natural. Personally, I’ve tried a few of our products and they are delicious – (the new york strip loin steak – awesome!). Knowing exactly where my food comes from, whats in it, and knowing that the animals were well treated is important to me and my health. I don’t know if you’ve seen Supersize Me or Food Inc., but after those movies, it’s scary to think of where our food comes from. Four Whistle Farm provides delicious local meat. I know this may sound like I’m solely trying to advertise so we’ll get more sales, but I honestly think its important to know what your consuming and make sure that it hasn’t used too much fuel to get to your plate!

We are located at the back corner of the Strathcona Farmer’s Market
(10310 83 Ave – just off of Whyte Ave.) right beside Gull Valley Greenouses, and across from Quiche Niche and the Quillow Lady. Come check us out every Saturday morning from 8am til 3pm!

For more information, come check us out at the market!

Tel: 780.387.2333
Cell: 780.499.2726

This post was authored by Kory deGroot, a fourth year student at The King’s University College.

Given how emotional the issue of climate change can be, I usually remind myself of three points in my response to counter claims toward climate change, or when I try to comprehend what we should be doing about it.

1) Listen to experts
For most people, listening to experts for expert advice comes normally – we go to doctors when we’re sick, bring our broken cars to mechanics and get our hair cut by hairdressers. We don’t bring out cars to the hairdresser or ask mechanics about our aches and pains. But when it comes to climate science, somehow it seems logical to some people to only read newspaper articles or websites and put their trust in untested, disproven, illogical arguments. Don’t ask an economist about climate science, but you’re of course welcome to ask them about the impacts that climate change or mitigation might have on the economy. Likewise, feel free to ask a lawyer about the regulatory frameworks necessary to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but don’t ask them for details about solar radiation, El Nino Southern Oscillation or proxy indicators of past climate. When you want to know about climate science, ask a climate scientist.

2) Take out an insurance policy
Even though most homes will not be succumbed to a fire, and many people won’t get into serious car accidents, we still have insurance policies that protect us against these kinds of unforeseeable events. If you tell someone that these events are unlikely, they’ll probably still keep their insurance policy because the risk of something going wrong is too great to ignore. The risks of climate change are also too great and too widespread to ignore, and even if things don’t get as bad as we think they might, it’s just simply responsible to have insurance against catastrophic climate change by acting on it now. (But, climate changes are actually happening faster than scientists used to think, for example see http://www.copenhagendiagnosis.com/ which is not just a website but an updated report written by scientists as an interim report between the IPCC’s 4th and 5th assessments).

3) Be a good steward
Whether inspired by religious reasons or other motivations, stewardship of the natural world is important not only because the creation is not ours and there is no Biblical license to destroy the Earth, but because we are pieces of the natural world and our prosperity and health depends on it.

This post was written by Rebecca Ellis, alumnus of The King’s University College currently attending graduate school in Australia.

The environment lies in crumbles from our mismanaged role as stewards. Listening to the news every night about the oil spill off the shores of Mexico will render anyone to question the planet’s state of existence, or so one would hope. Instead, many respond with, “who cares we won’t be here for the damage”. This sort of attitude breaks my heart, but as I advocate for change I still do the same as before. I tried to have a conversation about the environment at work and realized I do not know anything about hydrogen fuel efficient cars that are being used in British Columbia, nor did I realize that acid rain really isn’t acidic to us but it rather affects the bodies of water as it destroys the oxygen that plants and fish need to survive. I try and recycle, I joined Greenpeace, I planted a garden, but this just does not seem to be enough. I want to help but I feel I can’t do it alone.

Swim Meat

I don’t know what has come over me

All I can do is cry

And think when will this be over

I am left alone with the rising tide that has left my ears ringing

The memories shooting through my veins starve me of oxygen

The walls blanched white

Colour – a splash I will forever need is too blurry to see

After the rounds, like clockwork sink in

Will I be free to be me – amongst the rocks and salty seas

Instead the torrents of alarmed praise dissect me into the pulp

That you find me in….

Within this tuna can.

This post was authored by Amber Dobson, a student at The King’s University College.