Green roofs and Baltimore

Back in May, between getting back from Cuba and starting my new job at SMUSA, I headed to Baltimore to present some interesting findings on my green roof research. Myself and Melissa, a Masters student, co-wrote a paper with our supervisor to present at the Green Roofs for Healthy Cities' conference called Greening Rooftops for Sustainable Communities...got all that? haha

The best part was I was leaving Halifax for NYC/Baltimore about an hour after we got back from Cuba, so I was a little pressed for time. At the stop=over in TO they told us we weren't on the flight back to Halifax, "didn't you pre-select you seat?"...oh you mean in Cuba, where there's lots of Internet? So we made it on stand-by, thank god, and got to Halifax on time. I made all my connections and survived US customs.

Baltimore is a really cool city I probably never would have visited otherwise. It's only about 30 minutes from Washington, DC. which we also got the chance to visit. We checked in and went right to a free Orioles game at Camden Yard once we got there. The GRHC people got us VIP in the Bullpen, but crap is baseball boring, and we didn't stay the whole game. I pretty much hadn't slept since Cuba either, after a full night of travelling and finding out I was on stand-by during the time I was supposed to sleep and then another full day of travelling kinda messed all that up.


The conference was really interested. I met a lot of people I cited in my thesis, and saw a lot of very cutting edge research in presentations and posters.

We saw a lot of random tourist stuff in Baltimore. I can't really compare it to any other city I've been in. It was very "American", and had lots of monuments and historical sites and all that. Washington was nuts. It sucked I was in the US capital before Ottawa. There was security everywhere, even the streets had big spikes the jolted up from the pavement to control car traffic. In a whirlwind tour of only a few hours, we walked all around downtown seeing all the major land marks.


Flight home to Halifax took us to Chicago first. Which was a cool coincidence, because Chicago is the green roof capital of North America. The skyline was sweet to see from the plane, and I swear I saw the Family Matters house. Once we got back in NS, it was nice to settle in and not travel...for a little while at least.

Cuba!

Holy crap, Cuba is an awesome place that should not exist, it's too awesome. We had an amazing relaxing and adventure filled time in Cuba after exams. Lisa and Katie and Chris and I went down to Varadero for a week and stayed at a pretty cheap resort that was still amazing, Club Puntarena. We had perfect weather and did some amazing day trips: into Havanna, went to a deserted island on a catamaran and swimming with the dolphins, and walking into the town of Varadero then took a bus tour of the peninsula and all the resorts. It was pretty sweet to just lay on the big white sand beach and drink all day and night.

Thing's I'll never forget:
-crazy flight schedules (TO right after exam, then quick terminal change and off to Cuba, last ones to check in, haha)
-singing Feist on the moving sidewalks at Pearson
-the sketchy Cuba airport, no trouble entering the country, and then beers on our tour bus
-Morty and Sally, our stray dog friends since the first night
-swan towels, canal view, amazing pool, neon night shows, bubba kegs, wave rolling, coconut drinks, crystal cerveca, all you can eat dining room and pasta bar, Al Capone's house, crazy market in town, cars from the '50s, sunsets, and pesos
-resort with 5 bars open 24hrs
-smoking a Cuban cigar on the beach and the midnight burger club
-losing or having the camera stolen on the island
-amazing sights in Havanna: revolution square, cemetery, cigar shop, old buildings, the capitolio
-being out of commission for a full day from traveller's sickness, gahhh

It's nuts how environmentally self-sufficient they are. Mostly because it's a communist country, but it still shows it could be done. They have a lot of local food and really low oil dependence. Unlike most places with a beach full of resorts, there was still beach access for all the local people. A lot of the streets lead right to the beach, and we saw a lot of local fishermen near our resort. It was cool to see the culture of the place too. We got to go into the village of Varadero, not just see the resort. Our tour guide on way to Havanna was also really interesting. On the 2 hour drive in he talked about communism, the collapse of the USSR and how it affected Cuba, and how most people work 2 jobs (one government required job and something else on the side, like fixing cars or babysitting, to pay the bills). You can't build any new houses their either, so there is nice big houses next to slum houses with 2 or 3 stacked levels.

It sucked to leave, but I really hope we get to go back soon. Anyone, next April?

Studying in the summer is just nuts

I think I've decided that I want to be a lawyer. Maybe not be a lawyer, but atleast go into Law. The first step is studying for the LSAT's, holy crap this sucks. Unfortunately reading about logic games didn't top the 10 things I wanted to do this summer, but here I am, haha. With a bachelor degree in environmental studies and biology, I am thinking about environmental law, but also international law. Being a lawyer is only a part of it, unltimately working for the UN or the government saving the world would be cool.

I realized at the end of my thesis, and also a little bit during, that I didn't want to do research forever. It's frustrating to complete a project, find interesting results, and everyone else just says "there, wow, let's file this somewhere for people to look up later". Where is the practical aplication, gratification, and immediate results? Maybe I'm wrong, but right now I want to be on the policy side of things, making big decisions and affecting change. Let's see if this all changes after another 2 months of studying arguement strategies.

Please watch this video

I don't watch a lot of YouTube videos, or Mad TV, I usually stick more with SNL, but this is hilarious. Please watch it and quote it and share it with all your friends.

AH

Elizabeth May on youth activism and not politics

I recently had the opportunity to listen to Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party of Canada and former President of the Sierra Club of Canada, speak at an environmental science conference. She was a fascinating speaker, and hardly mentioned politics during her talk, until most of the questions at tbe end focused on government. May spoke about the importance of youth activism in our current society, with the attempt to inspire the conference delegates into action. She talked about the need for science and how it is very relevant. We need to be innovative and find new solutions to many problems. For example, we are now changing the types of light bulbs we use, and finding alternate solutions to burning fossil fuels.

One of her coolest stories was about when she attended one of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The delegates from many different countries were having a hard time with negotiations. The youth delegates at the conference had a very impactful session where each on of them stoof before the assembly and said "look into my eyes and tell me my future is secure". This got the other delegates to realize the greater importance of what they were debating.

When the UN started hosting several conferences on climate change many years ago, not everyone was on the same page. One memorable quote the May said was "Humanity is conducting a global experiment...the consequences are second only to global nuclear war" -said at the a climate conference in Canada about 20 years ago. She spoke about how we need to make severe investments in reducing our CO2. Trees are only a 'feel good' measure, and there needs to be more green energy and carbon credits. She only travels for business, and usually by train, only plane if necessary. She doesn't take vacations to far away places.

By the end of her interesting talk, which was mostly preaching to the converted, many of the questions asked about her politics. May stated that the Harper government is anti-science. They have cancelled the position of National Science advisor. The IPCC graphs on climate change were removed from the Environment Canada website, and there have been significant cuts to research, etc. The White house had a reception when the IPCC and Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize, but the Tories did nothing for the Canadian recipient, so instead the other parties organized something. The Tories have also never been briefed by a scientist on climate change, ever, scary.

I'm hinking about going to Law school, so it was interesting to hear what else a former lawyer had done with her career. She mentioned how she understands policies very well, she sees the tricks and is ready for politics. Currently, she's studying theology, and spoke about how it wasn't to promote the religious dogma, but to be more critical when examining texts. She also joked about retiring as a priest after she is Prime Minister.

My favorite poem

Haikus are easy
but sometimes they don't make sense
refrigerator

The genuine progress index

GPI Atlantic is an NGO which measures the GPI or Genuine Progress Index: a new measure of sustainability, well being and quality of life. This is instead of measuring the GDP, which can be a false indicator because it is affected by high cost of living, crime, disease, natural disaster clean-up, war, and high cost of post-secondary education, among other things. But GDP, or Gross Domestic Product has become the convention method, even though it is a very scewed and unsatisfactory way of measuring our progress. GPI is a very interesting and critical way to ask questions about how we measure the success of our society.

GPI measures our overall well being and subtracts from the index for negative aspects, such as the social costs of obesity and tobacco use. GPI Atlantic has been resleasing reports over the past year on various topics, and when they are all completed it will be a unique description of the quality of life in Nova Scotia.

For example, their recent report on education showed the effects of increasingly rising costs of post-secondary education. This included things like students working longer hours at jobs while in school, and graduating with severe dept-loads. The report focused not on literacy rates, how long a degree was, or how much was payed for it, but instead on life-long learning and a range of 'literacies'.

Thesis on green roofs

Soooooo good to be done my thesis. I can't believe I made it or that it's finally over. For anyone who didn't know, I spend the last year completing an undergraduate honours thesis in Environmental Studies. Last summer, an NSERC research award payed me to find and categorize green roofs (literally vegetated roofs, with lots of environmental benefits) and perform a couple temperature studies. After that, I had a lot of data to analyze, which I spent most of the fall doing. In January, the write-up started, almost 70 pages later it was finished in March. After a few revisions I defended my thesis orally in April.

The whole process was very challenging, but well worth it. I'm satisfied with the result, and feel like I've contributed something useful. It was a struggle at first to figure out what I was going to do for a year that was interesting and that I wouldn't get sick of. And it was hard to force myself to meet smaller deadlines that meant a lot to a bigger deadline, because I am such a procrastinator. You can't procrastinate on something that large though, haha.

So for everyone who hadn't seen me all semester, sorry, but now you know why. It was really hard to stay in or go home early just to work on it, but I guess I learned something...I'm glad I'm not graduating this year though, sort of. It would be nice to be all done, but I would have missed out on the "last" of a lot of things. I'll catch up next year, and at least I only have a few classes left.

Doing the research and writing it up was definitely something very different than what I am used to in most of my classes. In the short term it will probably help me figure out what I want to do next. Do I want to go to grad school and keep researching, or try something different? All that is left now is a couple revisions and to get it printed and bound. I will probably do a bit more analysis on the data, once I get around to it, and hopefully submit some of it to a journal to get published. I also got to present my findings at a green roof conference in Baltimore, which was pretty exciting.

Cool beans

April 24, 2008 2:53 PM

Minister of Environment Mark Parent introduced a bill today, April 24, to formally create a stand-alone department dedicated to the environment.

The move will allow a sharper focus on one of government's five priorities, protecting the environment.

"The environment is a priority for everyone -- our citizens, business and government," said Mr. Parent. "We are very excited about the renewed focus this new stand-alone department will bring to the environment portfolio. Our renewed focus will help continue to be environmental leaders in this country and around the world."

The Department of Environment will be responsible for dealing with climate-change issues, and advancing the province's goals outlined in the Environmental Goals and Sustainable Prosperity Act.

"We are committed to combating climate change, to reducing air emissions and waste, and providing increased protection of our land and water," said Mr. Parent.

The department will ensure Nova Scotia remains a leader in achieving environmentally sustainable economic prosperity.

Mr. Parent was sworn in as Minister of Environment on April 1. The previous department responsible for environmental issues, Environment and Labour, will cease to exist.

The Department of Environment's new website address is www.gov.ns.ca/nse .

In Antigonish with some environmentalists

So this random weekend in March I headed to St.FX in Anti-go-nowhere for the APICS Environmental Conference. It was a pretty cool conference, with people in undergrad and masters programs from universities all over Atlantic Canada. Dollie, Yukari, Chels and I headed out in our sweet rental car. We got to the sketchy motel on James Street to find no t.v., but wireless internet. A call to the desk confirmed that no one stole it, but we would be getting a tv the next day sometime.

During the conference there was lots of iteresting research presented and cool posters. I was a little nervous to present my thesis research. I don't usually get nervous but this was because there were lots of smart people there, my supervisor came for the day, and I wasn't completely done my research and data analysis. During the awards banquet, Dollie won best poster, congrats!

Other than just being at the conference, we got to check out the sights in antigonish. We did a little bit of 'shopping' downtown and visited a crazy busy liquor store. It was cool that I got to see Laura Gay. It was only for a bit, but we still got to catch up a little. It was aweseom to just hang out and drink with the Environmental studies people, because we really don't get to do that much outside of class. I got to know them a lot better. We showed everyone in Antigonish how to party like we do in the city, and how dollar drinks are really done. The finaly night there was a crazy rain storm, but we still made it home safe. One of the highlights of the weekend was getting to hear Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party speak, more to come on that later.

Many thanks

I just wanted to take a second and say thanks to everyone who helped out with my campaign for VP Academic, especially everyone who voted yes for me. Even though I was unopposed, it was still a stressful time. I would like to think that I worked hard during campaign regardless.

I am really excited to work with the incoming team and fulltime staff. After I found out that I won, it hit me that now I have to accomplish all these things I said I was going to do.I think I am ready for the challenge. This year, SMUSA has to overcome some major challenges like a governance restructuring, campus sustainability, and making SMUSA and its services more relevant to students. It is going to be a busy year, but I am looking forward to it.

I wonder who we'll kidnap this year??

Going to Cuba!

It is getting closer and closer until the day we leave for Varadero. I really can't believe it. It seems like I have too much to do to be going away for over a week, oh well. I procrastinate from getting work done and studying too much by looking up travel reviews and what to pack.

I think we got a really good deal on our trip. We watched all the sales on all the websites and finally picked our dream placce for really cheap. It was really hard to find a week where we were all available, between exams and summer work. We ended up flying out of Toronto, so there hopefully won't be any issues making any connecting flights (knock on wood). In the end, there's only 4 of us going, but it's still going to be an awesome trip. Too bad 10 or more of our friends couldn't go though. The reseort is awesome. It has lots of stuff to do, a big new pool, amazing views, and right on the beach. There is also 24/7 all you can drink liquor, which might make remembering the trip difficult. Hopefully we can take a road trip into Havanna to experience culture and see some sights.

We are going shopping soon to get a lot of stuff for the trip. The shopping is going to get us even more excited. Of course, there are lots of environmental issues with going on a big trip down south, and not to be a downer, but I find it hard to ignore them. There are lots of issues with the local people accessing the nicest beaches, which most of the resorts are on. Maybe I'll just have to see it for myself in order to form an opinion. Flying that far is also bad. It is kind of ironic that we fly out on Earth Day (April 22). Of course, we will try to lessen the impact while travelling, and I'll work even harder to save the world when we get back.

I would do anything thing for love

Future News: News from the Future

Check out this video we made for my VP Academic Campaign. It was a blast to make, and even though I'm running unopposed, it was still pretty effective at reaching a lot of people throughout campaign week. Thanks for all the people starring in the video, and special thanks to Andrew Seymour who filmed and edited this for me.

Happiness sucks?

MSN Slate
Happiness Sucks
Why joy is bad for you.
By William Saletan

A study suggests extreme happiness may be bad for you. Findings: 1) "The highest levels of income, education and political participation were reported not by the most satisfied individuals, but by moderately satisfied individuals." 2) Extremely happy people "earned significantly less money" and earned lower school grades than moderately happy people. 3) They "may not live as long," either. Theories: 1) Happiness makes you complacent and kills your drive. 2) It makes you slow to adapt. 3) It makes you too optimistic and insufficiently vigilant about your health. 4) It may overstimulate your cardiovascular system. Researchers' conclusions: 1) "Happiness may need to be moderated for success." 2) "Extremely high levels of happiness might not be a desirable goal." Human Nature's conclusions: 1) Success may need to be moderated for happiness. 2) Extremely high levels of success might not be a desirable goal.

Streets of Halifax

I was talking to Chels just the other day about how none of our close friends don't just get together to chill and hang out like we used to. Everyone lives off campus and keeps to themselves more often. Most of us are just a lot more busy than we used to be. Jenny is heading to France for 5 months to study (French maybe?) and we all went over to 5311 South last night to give her a surprise. We dressed up as people you see on the streets in Halifax. It went along with the street sign theme of their house, after they had 'borrowed' a lot of construction signs from the South end. Jenny got there and Katie met her at the door as a super-excercise freak. Jenny: "Katie, why the hell are you dressed like that?" Haha. Anyways, it was an awesome night to catch up with everyone and just chill, plus everyone was hilariously dressed up. I was the Liquor store pirate, Lisa was a pregnant hooker, Chels was the flower guy, Jenna was a walk of shame, Seymour was a squeegie kid, Kaitlyn as an American, and Cathy was a Starbucks cup. I guess all it takes to get your friends all together is to go far away. See you soon Jenny, bon soir!

The new music

Before Christmas, I bought the new Radiohead album online. The album took my favorite band about two years to finish. Wow, it is amazing. Every track pushes the boundaries of music. It takes music to more than just beats, I think it is more like an art form that you can listen to. This release is the band's first album after the end of their contract with EMI and the end of the longest gap between studio albums in their career. Because they were not under contract with any company, the record was released online in a digital format. In a completely revolutionary move, the band let fans choose the price of the album. Radiohead will not confirm how many records were bought online before the release in store, or how much they made off this online sale. Despite these advance sales, the album's release topped the charts around the world as the number one album for sales.

What a cool way to get music. Hopefully the band tours somewhere near Halifax this summer. The frontman for Radiohead, Tom Yorke, has stated many times that he is not in favour of touring simply because of the negative effects on the environment and the contribution of Carbon Dioxide to the atmosphere causing climate change. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to get tickets for a Boston or Toronto show. Shipping things around the world also gives off a lot of pollution. Although CDs are a very small thing to ship, it still helps to download the album in a digital format to save on shipping.

Drunk teenagers, let's start a fight, I'm getting hammered on a Saturday night

This past Saturday we at a big party at our house. 5215 Green street was party-proofed before everyone got there, and we took special measures to make sure the cops didn't show up this time. The window blinds were shut, the apartment downstairs wasn't going to be home, and the front window was covered with garbage bags. Everyone started arriving and we started to play catchphrase. It's a hilarious game where you have to get people to guess a word without rhyming or doing actions, etc. Once more people arrived and we all had a little more to drink, Joel Plaskett was pumped from the living room to turn the floor into a dance hall. The police never did show up and it was a great night with lots of friends from home, from SMU, and AIESEC people. Of course, we ordered 3 large poutines for a late night snack after most people left. Thanks to everyone who came and had a good time, stay tuned for the next party.

World Events of 2008 so far

While I was away in Montreal for a week, I was a little isolated from everyone in the outside world. Sometimes it's nice to be disconnected from the internet and media, but you also miss a couple big important events. At conference, we had a new updates on PowerPoint every morning. A couple of the big events so far this year were:
-Elections in Kenya and the rising violence
-Cease-fire stopping in Sri Lanka
-Oil hitting $100 a barrel
-Canada winning Gold at the World Junior's for the 4th straight year
-Obama pulling ahead in the races for the Democrats

What else will 2008 bring us?

Resolutions

Welcome to 2008. Last year flew by, it was an incredible year. One of my goals for this year is to start and continue to blog again. So hopefully that works out. It's been a long time since my last post, almost a year.

Here's a very brief summary of the things that happened to me last year:
-became SRC Science Rep for SMUSA
-received a NSERC research grant to do research on Green roofs for the summer at SMU as my co-op workterm
-got a certificate of Distinction for Charter day from SMUSA for work with AIESEC, Environmental society, and volunteering
-finished off year as Returning RA, won Best Rice RA and best Returning RA
-became a student Ambassador for SMU doing campus tours
-Dump and Run Yardsale
-went to AIESEC's National Leadership Development Conference at Ryerson in Toronto. Saw Niagara falls and partied in TO, had awesome sessions at conference related to leadership, etc.
-moved into a house in the south end of Halifax with 5 other people (after just a few renovations), living at 5215 Green street with Chels, Jordan, Robyn, Katherine, and Christian (and some awesome subletters for the summer)
-SMUSA 24 hour relay, for the NS Abilities Foundation
-spent a lot of relaxing weekends at my cottage in Brule, loving the beach and the hot summer
-finished research on green roofs in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and urban microclimates
-going to miss Jenna Delaney
-Summer: Jazzfest bartending, bbq's, Multifest, science building meetings, beach trips, Canada day camping, learning to drive a stick, Joel Plaskett concerts, Lokanda pub crawl, boat cruises on the Silva
-road trip to NYC with Lisa, Seymour, Alison, Jordan, and Sarah: saw everything in NYC in a weekend, and drove from Hali and back
-final Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book release
-Frosh camp
-mumps shots for everyone
-Working with SMUSA, SMUES, AIESEC, etc for a busy semester
-Matt Good and Tragically Hip in concert
-SMU winning the Uteck bowl and advancing to the Vanier Cup in TO
-new job at the TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) Centre as a Cultural Assistant
-writing up my honours, presenting the data at GRHC conference in Baltimore, but writing it up over Christmas break
-going back to work at Canadian Tire for Christmas
-Skiing with friends in early December
-Chevy's reunion night
-going to Montreal for National Congress 2008, kicking off AIESEC's 50th anniversary where it all began

If you read this blog, please comment on some of the posts, let me know what you think.