change

When I started blogging here, it was about me, my life and a little bit about the environment - my passion.

But things have been changing - it seems to be more and more about food and living the Gluten-Free life. It's been an amazing experience, definitely rocky at points and I'm happy to have a place to record it all. But things are getting complicated - I want to be able to share my GF info with friends and co-workers, without the complications of life involved.

So I made a new blog - Gluten-Free Goodness
http://gfgoodness.wordpress.com/

I'm not sure what will happen here, I may post, or it may fizzle - but the point is, I wanted to try something new, somewhere I can be dedicated to food - I've uploaded my existing GF posts, so all is not lost. I also decided to try out wordpress.

Well, hopefully this makes things simpler, not more complicated.
We will see.

change

I started my contract on May 15, 2006.

I have had an amazing 12 months - my job afforded me familiarity and ease, professional development opportunities and a chance to be outdoors with amazing people and really have a positive impact on the people around me and the environment in which we live. I have essentially spent the past 12 months absorbed in all aspects of stewardship. Awesome.

Today, was my last day. I am leaving this amazing position to try my hand in the provincial government. This will be an opportunity to expand my skill set, try new things and look at things from a BRAND NEW perspective.

I'm little bit sad, I'm a little bit excited and I'm a little bit scared, but isn't that always the way?

Climate Change Mortgage for Canadians

We are finally nearing the end of the renovation period of improving our apartment for sale...

Which means that the time for purchasing a new home is also approaching...

Imagine my excitement to see that Vancity (no suprise here - I've been talking about making the change and banking with them due to their comminment to the environment and community) is offering what they are calling a "Climate Change Mortgage".

What that means is that they will take the money that would usually be spend acquiring a mortgage and invest it into a fund to fight climate change.

What does that mean exactly? Directly from their FAQ's, see below.

• How will this fund help find solutions to climate change?
  
  We're working on it. Right now we have our Vancity and Citizens Bank of Canada climate change experts exploring the best way to invest the funds. It also depends how big the fund gets, but at this point we expect our focus will be on ways to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.
  
  We will keep you posted as we continue to work with the brightest minds in the climate change field to determine how the fund can be used to have the highest impact.

http://climatechangemortgage.com/

thoughts on Kyoto

I just used the David Suzuki Website to send an email to the Prime Minister about how important I believe the Kyoto Protocol to be.

This is the first time I have ever felt inspired to use one of those "form email" things, but the truth is I think it is a crock that Canada is ignoring their commitment to the Kyoto Protocol.

Here's what the letter says:

Dear Prime Minister,

I’m writing to let you know I’m concerned about global warming and I want Canada to do something about it.

Climate change is a global issue and the Kyoto Protocol is the only global agreement we have to address this challenge. We made a promise to the world that we would reduce our heat-trapping emissions and to ignore this promise would be an international embarassment.
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Kyoto was always designed to be the first step towards the long-term changes we need to make to protect our health, our environment and our economy. Like the vast majority of Canadians, I support Kyoto and expect Canada to take a lead role in this critical global issue.

Please don’t let us down.

Sincerely,
(your name and address automatically added here)

The form also allows you to add your own comments, so this is what I added:

As a Canadian I am embarrassed by the knowledge that Canada was the second country to sign the Kyoto Protocol and despite this excitement and eagerness we continue to look the other way with regard to Canada's contribution to Global Warming.

We all have to do what's right for ourselves - check out the website for more information.

changeeverything.ca

I heard about the http://www.changeeverything.ca website for the first time on the radio. I didn't really know what it was, but I was intrigued.

Then I heard about the changeeverything.ca website at work. I heard it was a vancity initiative that had their look and feel, but wasn't about banking. I was told it was a website designed to help real people make changes in their lives and connect with other people with same values, moral and/or goals.

Cool. I've been meaning to check it out for ages and I finally did.

It was easy to register, it's easy to post things you want to change in your life, your community or your world and it's easy to discuss a plethora of topics of interest to you. Of course for me, the environment is my primary interest for discussion, but that's certainly not the only topic people are discussing. I've already posted two changes I strive to make in my life and just finished commenting on a different discussion thread.

I think it's a great initiative, it feels proactive and I'm happy I've jumped on board.