10.30.2009

French Ideal of Bicycle-Sharing Meets Reality



NY Times Oct 30, 09 - PARIS — Just as Le Corbusier’s white cruciform towers once excited visions of the industrial-age city of the future, so Vélib’, Paris’s bicycle rental system, inspired a new urban ethos for the era of climate change.
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Residents here can rent a sturdy bicycle from hundreds of public stations and pedal to their destinations, an inexpensive, healthy and low-carbon alternative to hopping in a car or bus.

But this latest French utopia has met a prosaic reality: Many of the specially designed bikes, which cost $3,500 each, are showing up on black markets in Eastern Europe and northern Africa. Many others are being spirited away for urban joy rides, then ditched by roadsides, their wheels bent and tires stripped.

Full article here

Moncton Urban Chickens - Poules urbaines de Moncton





10.27.2009

Lasagna Gardening


From Mother Earth News

If someone told me years ago that he or she had found a way to do an end run around the sweat equity of traditional gardening, a way around digging, weeding, and rototilling, a way to produce more regardless of time constraints, physical limitations, or power-tool ineptness... well, I would have checked that person for a head injury. Yet such a system is actually possible, though I never would have believed it if I hadn't stumbled upon the basics myself.

Full article here

10.24.2009

350.org International Day of Climate Action in Moncton

350 Moncton! Represent!

Pas juste une constatation d'un fait. Nous souffrons déjà des actions environnementalements destructives de nos ancêtres. Allons-nous faire encore pire à nos propres enfants?

A beautiful group of people out in the cold fall rain to tell our Canadian deleguation to the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen that we want Canada to commit to reducing our emissions to move below the safe threshold of 350 parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere.



Loosening up with a bit of laughter therapy.

Behold! Brussel sprouts!

Copenhagen or bust!


Like so many things in New Brunswick, Brunswick News is owned by Irving. Times and Transcript is a part of Brunswick News. It would seem that Times and Transcript supports Canada taking action on climate change. Can you guess what the next association is?

Un beau groupe du haut du pont de train


Un des posters...merci pour tout ton beau travail Françoise!


Being polite and not disturbing Main Street traffic...even though we should have

Paul Pellerin, Moncton City Councillor and President of the Environmental Committee (one of the good ones)

Françoise, notre organisatrice extraordinaire



There seems to be a theme to these signs...


350 pointing to our Canadian flag

Giving Steve-O a call!

Silver deers in support of politicians getting their act together.

Stephen Steeves, Green Party of Canada


Du haut de l'hôtel de ville de Moncton...cette photo et d'autres ont été envoyées pour afficher sur le site 350.org avec tout les autres de partout au monde


Chris Collins, Member of Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick supporting climate change initiatives

10.07.2009

Chickens are the new dog


From the Huffington Post - Oct 7, 2009

I'm completely fascinated by a recent phenomenon that I have not only observed, I have become an unwitting participant as well. It seems that chickens are the new dog. There are a variety of breeds - some beautiful, some homely, but whichever someone has, they are apt to be fiercely protective of their flock. Friends and associates are cordoning off space, whether it be a sprawling backyard field or a postage stamp city slicker's pen. Facebookers are updating the status of their laying, Twitter is seeing a cacophony of tweets about how to look after this canine replacement and entire sites are being devoted to the care of these domesticated birds (see TheCityChicken.com, UrbanChickens.org, and MadCityChickens.com). While the trend of urban poultry farming is clearly on the rise (without firm national statistics, we can point to the upwards of 30k members on sites like BackYardChickens.com, with an average of 100 new members a day!), the most interesting thing is that this meme seems to have many explanations rather than one specific origin.

Full article here