Category Archives: Eco

Apr11

I’m going to the JUNOS as their “on the ground” eco-blogger!

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I’m going to the JUNOS as their “on the ground” eco-blogger!

I’m very excited to tell you that I’m going to be attending the 2013 JUNO Awards this year as their “on the ground” eco-blogger!

I’ve been to the JUNOS for the last two years and it’s been so much fun! This year is going to be different because I’m going to be learning and experiencing about the efforts, projects and partners of The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) and the JUNO Awards to be more sustainable and I’m going to be blogging about it here and at the official JUNOS website too!

I am excited to share about Me to We Style and their partnership with CARAS and the JUNO Awards. Me to We is part of my favourite non-profit organization, Free The Children. Me to We Style partners with the JUNOS to sell limited edition Live Music. t-shirts made in Canada of organic cotton and bamboo. For every shirt bought from Me to We Style a tree is planted. I can’t wait to buy a shirt!

I’m looking forward to learning about Bullfrog Power and Carbonzero. CARAS has partnered with them to help reduce the JUNOS impact on climate change.

I’m so excited to go to the Royal Saskatchewan Museum for the exhibit – “The Power of Music: Sustainability and the JUNOS”.  The exhibit will have four interactive listening and learning stations and each one will have a different sustainability theme featuring a Canadian musician and their cause.  It will be cool to learn about the causes that Canadian musicians care about.

The JUNO Awards are all about celebrating Canadian music. I not only love the environment, but I’m a huge fan of music! I’m excited to do it all – JUNO Fan Fare, be in the JUNO Gala Dinner & Awards media room and of course the big televised award show hosted by Michael Bublé. I hope to have the chance to meet, sit down with and interview some of the 2013 JUNO nominees and performers including Marianas Trench, Carly Rae Jepsen, Metric, Serena Ryder and Hedley.

See you next week in Regina!

Juno Awards 2012, Ottawa, Ontario

Apr7

Earth Hour 2013

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Earth Hour 2013

So it’s after Earth Hour and I’m so happy to hear and see the amount of people who did my Earth Hour Pledge and made commitments of their own. I was invited by the WWF (World Wildlife Fund) be a Earth Hour 2013 Team Captian and to participate in a big event for Earth Hour in the Roncessvalles neighbourhood in Toronto.

The WWF invited me to be to their 7th team captain. At first there was only supposed to be 6 Canadian team captains but when the WWF people found my blog they thought that I had to be a team captain so I was their 7th. As a Team Captain I wrote a guest post on WWF’s blog about my passion and commitment to the environment. The WWF selected team captains to honour people who are really involved with making Earth Hour special. This means so much to me because someone really special has recognized my blog and thinks that a 10 year-old kid can make a difference.

Before the evening event we made crafty lanterns for a special walk through the neighbourhood. We walked with our candle lit lanterns and it was so fun! We did the walk to let people know about Earth Hour and it was time to turn off their light. There was also a choir walking with us from Etiobicoke School Of The Arts who sang one of my favorite songs, Don’t Stop Believing and then the lantern walk ended at the Earth Hour event stage.

WWF asked me one question on stage , she asked me “What are you doing for Earth Hour?” I told them about my stop, start and continue pledge. I met amazing people who worked at the WWF and I thanked them for choosing me to be the 7th 2013 Earth Hour Team Captain.

When me and other kids were making the lanterns I met other team captains like Karen who brought Earth Hour to Roncessvalle and other amazing people who did something really environmental and have made a difference in their community or the world.

Vancouver was crowned the winner of the Global Earth Hour Challenge between six others. Vancouver won for their actions on climate change and trying to make the world a better place. The entire world did amazing showing the rights for the environment and being together on that one night.

This year for earth hour was awesome, next year I think it will be even better. I would love to hear what you did for Earth Hour and what your planning for Earth Day on April 22nd, if you didn’t get to do the Earth Hour Pledge you can also get here.

Mar12

Earth Hour 2013: Join me and make your own pledge to STOP, START, CONTINUE

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Earth Hour 2013: Join me and make your own pledge to STOP, START, CONTINUE

What is Earth Hour?

Earth Hour is when everybody turns off their lights and their electronics to show awareness and concern for climate change and the environment. It is sort of like celebrating an environmental new year. This year Earth Hour is Saturday March 23 from 8:30 – 9:30 pm.

Cool Facts about The History of Earth Hour.

The WWF (World Wildlife Fund) founded Earth Hour which I think is totally awesome. The very first earth hour was held in 2007 in Sydney, Australia. Over 2000 people participated. The next year Earth Hour was participated in all around the world – 371 cities and towns in more than 35 countries. 36 million people turned their lights out that second year.

I am proud to say that Toronto was the first city in 2008 to sign up for Earth Hour. Wow! Since then, more than 15 million Canadians participate in Earth Hour every year. In 2012 more than 6950 cities and towns across 152 countries and territories took part and made a change. That is amazing! It’s amazing that you can see how many people are concerned about the environment and their future.

Take the Stop, Start and Continue Pledge. Make Earth Hour last all year.

I have a project, a challenge and a goal for Earth Hour 2013 and it needs you.

This year when you turn of the lights off, take my pledge by yourself or together with your family, and commit to your Eco-resoulutions!

When you power down for the hour, I want you to spend that time and think about what you can do, what you change – what you can stop, start and continue. Three things.

I always say that every little thing adds up to make a change and the more people and families that take this pledge and make their commitments, the more change there will be. The earth needs it. The earth needs us.

       To Do:

  1. Choose and print your Pledge Certificate below.
  2. Browse the list I made (below) to inspire you to choose your own personal commitment.
  3. Write down your commitments for each action – Stop, Start, Continue.
  4. Sign it with your name.
  5. Decorate and colour it. Make it special.
  6. Find somewhere in your home, office or classroom to display it so that you will always be reminded of the commitment you made.
  7. When your friends and family see it and ask you about it, tell them to come back to my website and take the pledge. It starts on Earth Hour, but it can be done anytime.
Choose, Download and Print your Pledge Certificate:
   Family Pledge (Flowers)
   Personal Pledge (Flowers)

Suggestions for what you can pledge Start, Stop and Continue:

STOP:

  1. Littering
  2. Using plastic water bottles
  3. Leaving lights on when you leave the room
  4. Using plastic bags
  5. Being silent about my concern for the environment
  6. Pretending that there is not a problem
  7. Using the washing machine during peak hours
  8. Throwing out what can be donated or reused (clothes, toys, books)
  9. Stop using disposable cups, plates and cutlery
  10. Stop using pesiticdes on my lawn and garden

START and CONTINUE:

  1. Using my voice
  2. Unplug electronics when not using them
  3. Use biodegradable products
  4. I will organize a cleanup in my neighbourhood
  5. Get involved with local causes
  6. Recycling everything I can
  7. I will pick up garbage whenever I see it
  8. Buy more local
  9. Use only eco-friendly cleaning supplies
  10. Learn more about the real problems facing the environment
  11. Grow a garden and try to plant some of my vegetables
  12. Compost
  13. Conserve water by getting a rain barrel
  14. Drive less, and walk more
  15. Get outside more
  16. Learn about animals that are being endangered
  17. Form an eco team with my friends
  18. Continue to read up about people that are making change
  19. Turn off the water when I’m brushing my teeth
  20. I will learn about how to dispose of waste safely

I would love to hear what you are pledging. I hope that you’ll leave some comments here and let me  and everyone else here know what you have committed to.

A big special thank you to my friend Lindsay Brewda of Everyday Grace for designing the Pledge Certificates for me.

Mar8

On International Women’s Day 2013: An Interview with my Role Model, Severn Cullis-Suzuki

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On International Women’s Day 2013: An Interview with my Role Model, Severn Cullis-Suzuki

Today is International Women’s Day and so it is a good day to share this interview that I did with a woman who is my role model – environmental activist, Severn Cullis-Suzuki.

On February 25th I went to Roy Thompson Hall to see David Suzuki and his daughter Severn-Cullis Suzuki speak. Before the show Severn came early to meet me and I had a chance to interview her. When I heard that I was going to get to talk with her,  I was so excited. When I met her I couldn’t believe I was meeting my role model! After I did the interview I ran into David Suzuki, Severn’s father and I had no idea I was going to meet him. Their talk was amazing, Severn told me that it was the first time that they were giving a talk together. Severn shared her life-story with the audience and David talked about what we can do about the environment and the problems it is facing.

Mar6

My Interview with Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls

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My Interview with Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls

The Indigo Girls were just in Toronto for a show. They are my mom’s all-time favourite band and she never misses a show. This was my second time seeing them and their show was awesome. After the show I got a chance to go backstage and interview Amy Ray. Amy is really fun to talk to and I was so glad to hear all her messages and what they’re doing as social and environmental activists.

Jan3

I can be more eco-friendly in 2013. You can too.

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I can be more eco-friendly in 2013. You can too.

 How to Create Less Garbage and Create More Change

Happy New Year! All of us make new year’s resolutions – things that we are going to do better or different when a new year begins – and mine is to be more eco-friendly and to help the environment in many, many ways. I think that this will be one of my New Year’s Resolutions for a long time. If your resolution is the same as mine -  awesome. If not, it would be great to make it one of your goals. We need everybody to take care of the  environment. We need to do this together. Every little thing that we each do will add up to make a huge difference in the world.

To help get you and your family started, here are some things that I put together for you. These are ways we can create less garbage and create more change.

1. Recycling all around the house.

Other than the kitchen, we have the most garbage in the bathroom.  There’s so much stuff that we throw out in the bathroom that is not garbage at all. None of these things is garbage and should be disposed of in an eco way:  hair (green bin), toothpaste/ soapboxes (blue bin), cotton balls (green bin), toilet paper rolls (blue bin), tissue (green bin), empty cans and bottles (blue bin).

There’s a easy and simple way to turn your bathroom garbage can into a recycling center. To do that you need a big bin and get 3 smaller containers to fit into the big one. Then label them green bin, recycling bin and garbage.  This makes it really clear and simple.

2. Not everything you throw out is garbage

Everyone knows that paper goes in the blue bin and so do cans, newspaper and other paper good, but not a lot of people know that batteries, styrofoam, ink and toner cartridges, and electronics can also be recycled.  In every city there is somewhere where you can take all those stuff to recycle them!  Recycle things that are unwanted, things that don’t work, Recycle it!

If you have old toys, clothes that don’t fit anymore. Books that you don’t want, donate them!  Maybe you need things but someone else does! I have donated to a couple of charities, I donated baby blankets and towels to the vet to make the pets more comfortable.

Stuffed toys are not accepted  by most donation places because they say  that they are full of germs. I found a great solution to this and I donated a huge box of  my stuffed animals to the humane society. I was happy to give them all the dogs there something to play and sleep with.

3. Create a Recycling Centre

There are so many things that need to be recycled that can’t go in the recycling bin Things like: batteries, styrofoam, small electronics, clothing, books and toys. Find a space in your garage to make a recycling centre with bins that are labeled for each. When the bin is full, take it to the depot in your community for proper and safe disposal.

4. Make Eco choices when purchasing your school and work supplies.

There are a lot of products that are eco-friendly for school and work. You can buy recycled notebooks, biodegradeable pens and pencils, pencil cases made from recycled water bottles. When you are shopping look for  the recycled symbol- the triangle made for the 3 r’s- and make an ‘eco’ choice.

5.  Share what you are doing to help the environment. Inspire people to join you.

Tell your family, friends, neighbors and teachers what you are doing and they might be inspired to join you. Then they might pass it on and then those people will pass it on and it will keep going. This is how we can all make a difference.

And my other New Year’s Resolution for 2013 is this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dec22

Joe Strummer – One of the first Eco champions in music

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Joe Strummer – One of the first Eco champions in music

Joe Strummer from the band The Clash, one of my dad’s favorite bands, died 10 years ago today. My dad told me that Joe was the first musician to make the distribution of his albums carbon neutral by planting a lot trees. He also made the cases for his CDs from water bottles.

So, what does it mean to be carbon neutral? The idea of being Carbon Neutral is very important for the world and our environment. To put it very simply, it means trying to replace what you take from the environment. It also means taking steps to repair any harm that you do to the environment.

To understand what this really means, I had to figure out what Carbon Dioxide is and why it’s a problem. Carbon Dioxide is one of the most simple molecules in the universe. It is very important for all living things in our environment – plants, animals and people. The Carbon in Carbon Dioxide is what plants are made of and they release the oxygen that we and the animals breathe. Carbon Dioxide is created in our environment in natural ways – such as when plants die or burn. But Carbon Dioxide is also produced when we drive our cars, travel on airplanes, use electricity or burn coal or oil. We are producing too much Carbon Dioxide and it is one of the biggest causes of Global Warming.

Joe Strummer was passionate about the environment and wanted to take good care of the earth. At a campfire in 1996 he came up with the idea of starting an organization that would help people to be Carbon Neutral. It was first called Future Forest, and today is known as The Carbon Neutral Company. There are many great musicians and bands that are following his lead and are all doing what they can to help.

Barenaked Ladies eat organic and local food while they are on tour and they keep all of their broken guitar strings that get made into jewelery.

The Roots print their posters on recycled paper and they autograph and give away compost bins to their fans.

Radiohead would win my ‘superfriend of the earth” award. Every machine and car and truck with Radiohead while on tour runs on biofuel. They don’t ship their equipment by air, either. Instead of flying their gear, they bought two sets of guitars, drums, amps, everything and at one point even threatened to quit touring altogether because of their concern for the damage to the environment.

Here’s my dad’s favourite song from Joe and The Clash – London Calling.

Oct10

My Mom’s Eco-Friendly Cleaning Supplies Experiment

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My Mom’s Eco-Friendly Cleaning Supplies Experiment

I’m not the only one in my house that has been inspired by Craig and Marc Kielburger of Free The Children. I came home from school yesterday and it looked like my mom was doing a science project in the kitchen. Then she told me that it was and that we were going to do our own version of Marc’s science fair project and make our own eco-friendly cleaning products.

Marc’s Story:

When Marc was 13 years old he had to do a science project for the science fair and couldn’t think of a topic. He asked his mom if she had any ideas and she didn’t. She asked Marc to help her with her house-cleaning on a Saturday and when he was taking out the cleaning supplies he saw that they were all labelled with symbols and words for hazardous, toxic and danger. Scary stuff. He thought about his science project and decided that he would experiment to make his own safe cleaning supplies.

He went to talk to his grandmother to ask her what she used in ‘her day’ to clean her house. She told him that she used natural things and whatever else she had. She used things like lemon, baking soda and vinegar. Her friends did do and they told him that they didn’t have all these fancy things to choose from.

So, back to my mom and the science project in our kitchen. My mom told me that she had looked up “do-it-yourself” cleaning products and eco-friendly cleaning products on Google and decided on a few recipes for us to try. She said that we already had almost everything that we needed in our house and that she bought the rest in the afternoon.

My Mom’s Project

The Materials:

Borax, baking soda, rubbing alcohol, white vinegar, castile soap, warm water, corn starch, spray bottles, measuring cups, funnels, essential oils
*have a marker and labels ready to label them when you are done. My mom also wrote the recipe on the label so that it’s easy to make when she runs out.

 

All-Purpose Cleaner (makes 2 spray bottles)

  • 4 cups hot water
  • 1/8 cup white vinegar
  • 1/8 cup castile soap
  • 1 tsp Borax
  • a few drops of scented essential oils

Directions: Combine all ingredients,  pour into spray bottles and shake well.

Glass Cleaner (makes 1 spray bottle)

  •  2 cups warm water
  • 1/4 cup rubbing alcohol
  • 1/4 cup vinegar
  • 1 tbsp corn starch

Directions: Combine all ingredients, pour into spray bottle and shake well.

Tub Scrub (makes small container)

  • 1 cup baking soda
  • 1/4 cup castile soap
  • 1 tbsp vinegar

Directions: Mix baking soda, soap and water well to make into paste then add the vinegar and mix well. A fork works best to do this. After you use it on the tub, rinse it off with cold water.

The Results:

Our homemade eco-friendly cleaning supplies were amazing. They worked really well everywhere my mom used them – the kitchen and bathroom counters, sinks and floors – all clean and smell really good too. Each one cost less than a dollar to make. Now that we have all the materials and recipes we can make more when we run out.

Do you have any eco-cleaning tips for me and my mom?

Oct9

Planet In Focus – 13th Annual Environmental Film Festival. Toronto, October 10-14, 2012

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Planet In Focus – 13th Annual Environmental Film Festival. Toronto, October 10-14, 2012

The Planet in Focus 13th Annual Environmental Film Festival is taking place in Toronto this week – October 10-14 and I’m going! It is Canada’s largest environmental film festival with more than 70 movies and documentaries from Canada and around the world. Some of the filmmakers will be there too.

On Saturday (October 13) it’s a special day for kids at the festival. They have a free screening of some great eco short films and then an animation workshop.

For more information you can visit their website: www.planetinfocus.org

They sent me some films to preview and I wanted to tell you about two of my favourite ones.

The Girl And The Fox
Director: Tyler.J Kupferer

This is a short film. I mean, really short. It’s only 4 minutes long but I’ve been thinking about it a lot. The movie is about a girl hunting out for a fox. When she found the fox and was about to kill the fox they looked into each other’s eyes and she decided not to kill him. The fox ran away back into the woods and the girl was running home when it started to snow. She fell in the snow and seemed to be hurt and closed her eyes. The fox saw her and noticed that she was alone and was cold. The fox crept up to the girl and curled around her so she would be warm and safe.They fell asleep. I’m not going to tell the ending, but what I learned from this movie. Sometimes animals aren’t always mean or scary. But I did promise my parents that I wouldn’t make friends with a fox. I liked this movie a lot!

YERT (Your Environmental Road Trip)
Directors: Ben Evans and Mark Dixon

This documentary is about 3 friends – 2 boys and 1 girl – who go on an environment road trip for a year. My favourite quote of theirs was “Our awesome planet has an awesome problem. Us.”

They drove to a lot of cities and talked to a lot of people about the environment and different things that people were doing across the United States to be more eco. While they travelled, they were trying to create a less garbage. They’re going to restrict their garbage to to one shoe box full a month. After the first month on the road they sorted through their garbage, piece by piece. Half of what they had was able to be recycled and the other half was bag true garbage. Their goal was to reduce all of their waste – both garbage and recycling. They said that even recycling is bad because it takes up a lot of energy.

They visited Terracycle – they make products from garbage. It’s cooler than it sounds. They use packaging from chip bags and juice boxes. They made duffle bags out of kool aids and they made a lunchbox out of cookie bags. I even have a business card holder made of a Lay’s Chip bag! It was cool to see the people who made it.

My business card wallet from Terracycle. Cool, right?

When their eco road trip was over they had only 11 shoeboxes full of garbage! They created that little garbage! The people at Terracycle explained that “garbage is something that is entirely man-made. It does not exist in nature.”

I really enjoyed watching their experiment and watching the amazing and interesting things along the way, they participated in every city they went to!

There are people everywhere making small changes to make a big difference.

This movie is not from the kids selection for the festival, but I really liked it. It was really interesting to follow their journey. They were funny and really believed in what they were doing. I learned a lot with them through their road trip. I would recommend this movie for anyone – kids too. You can learn more about YERT at their website, http://www.yert.com.