Back from tapping the Rockies.

Although the photo took a long time (in notably coldish temperatures of the Alberta Rockies), the Canadian Water Innovation Lab was well worth it.  Being able to connect to people that are doing great things, many of which who really know their stuff.

While respecting the passionate ideology of some, the most valuable part of the “unconference” was a presentation by Top 40 under 40 venture capitalist Dave Henderson.  His presentation gave major perspective on global water use and where the largest gaps exist for water sustainability.

I hope to keep in touch with many who attended, especially a select group of facilitators and participants who I’m sure I’ll see and work with down the road.

 

Canadian Water Innovation Lab.

An organization called Waterlution is hosting the very first Canadian Water Innovation Lab in Exshaw, Alberta (just outside of Canmore).   October 21-24 on the eastern edge of the Rockiieeeeeeees.  So glad to get my big mountain fix, you need it every year or two.  Vermont doesn’t count.  Blue Mountain (especially) does not count.

After a lengthy application process, I was lucky to be one of 200 young Canadian leaders to be selected.  It’s an “unconference” – not too fond of the word, but I like its premise.  Unstructured dialogue that has a general theme, unrestrained by time and naggy moderators.  We’re covering it all – discussions on a national water policy, applying systems theory with the understanding that water affects dozens of other crucial sectors – energy, agriculture, health, economics, technology, politics, you name it.

Plus I’m probably sleeping in a teepee (tipi).

I plan on bringing the ruckus.  I may play devil’s advocate a lot just to give our conversations some context as I have a feeling that we are all fairly like-minded.  I kind of hope I’m wrong.  I will post back in a week or so utterly inspired and equipped to get my real advocacy boots on.  Right.  Wish me luck.

The water fluoridation debate.

I wrote a piece for K/W “cultural curator” Hilary Abel and her excellent blog/zine, Qatalyst.  It’s about water fluoridation.  You can read it below.

Over the past decade, water quality has become a greater concern for Ontarians. The (in)famous and tragic wake-up call occurred in May 2000 in Walkerton, where the public groundwater supply became contaminated with one of the few toxic strains of E. coli (0157:H7). Farm runoff from an intense storm impacted nearby municipal wells that were known to be vulnerable to surface contamination. This event resulted in at least seven deaths and 2,500 illnesses.
Although contaminants like E. coli are of significant concern to public administrators and water users alike, other water quality issues have received their fair share of attention. A prime example is the fluoridation of municipal water. Health units, researchers, and government bodies (including Health Canada) support water fluoridation, citing that the introduction of water fluoridation has resulted in improved dental health across the world (fluoride helps to prevent tooth decay and cavities).

Ontario drinking water engineers regularly monitor the concentration of fluoride in their source water, as many parts of Ontario experience high levels of naturally-occurring fluoride in their water supply. This is due to the dissolution of local minerals in bedrock or soil where groundwater is extracted. Anthropogenic sources of fluoride contamination do exist but are less common. Other jurisdictions which have low levels of fluoride fluoridate their water at treatment plants before it is distributed to users. Both Ontario and the World Health Organization have a Maximum Acceptable Concentration of 1.5 mg/L of fluoride in drinking water.

Although large government and scientific institutions continue to support fluoridation, significant opposition from the public and members of the scientific community has formed around the issue. Comprehensive studies from Canada (Locker, 1999), the U.S. (Yiamouyiannis, 1990), and New Zealand (Colquhoun, 1998) showed no significant differences in dental health between fluoridated and non-fluoridated areas. Western European countries have vocally opposed fluoridation and have experienced the same decline in dental decay as North America. Some studies have proposed many reasons why dental decay has decreased in non-fluoridated communities since the 1930s. They include the tremendous increase in nutrition and fresh fruit and vegetable consumption assisted by the introduction of household refrigerators. Cheese consumption has also greatly increased, which is known to have anti-decay properties (Colquhoun, 1998).

Even more interestingly, where fluoridation has been discontinued in communities from Canada, Germany, Cuba and Finland, dental decay has not increased but has actually decreased (Maupome 2001; Kunzel and Fischer,1997,2000; Kunzel 2000 and Seppa 2000). Other research indicates that the benefits of fluoride are much greater if they are applied topically (using toothpaste with fluoride to brush directly on your teeth) rather than systemically (drinking fluoridated water and spread throughout the body). This could make swallowing fluoride unnecessary and potentially harmful, increasing the risk of dental and skeletal fluorosis especially in young children.

So where does this leave us?

Questioned research from the original fluoridation studies in the mid 19th century, potentially better dental health in non-fluoridated areas, increasingly mixed opinions between the medical orthodoxy and new research, continued support from U.S. and Canadian health agencies, and the likelihood that all of fluoride’s benefits could simply come from your Colgate or Crest rather than your kitchen tap.

Mind the paranoid hysteria and Orwellian politics online, but educate yourself. Even as a water nerd, there are some big flashing signs to seriously question business as usual. Get on your boots.

And some top Google Search results for your consideration:

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hl-vs/iyh-vsv/environ/fluor-eng.php – Health Canada “Fluoride and Human Health” document

http://www.health.gov.on.ca/english/public/pub/ministry_reports/fluoridation/fluor.pdf – Benefits and Risks of Water Fluoridation. Please note the authors do not address topical vs systemic application of fluoride which can significantly impact its benefits and risks.

http://www.fluoride-journal.com/98-31-2/312103.htm – an article about New Zealand’s chief dental health official and why he changed his mind on water fluoridation

http://www.fluoridealert.org/50-reasons.htm – 50 reasons to oppose fluoride. At first I dismissed this “Fluoride Action Network”, but the list of researchers which are members of the network is compelling.

What I’m working on.

Environmental Site Assessments, Permits to Take Water, borehole analyses, dewatering calculations, for stuff like this.

Weekly reads.

This  took me forever, so you better read.  Read it good.

Toronto

Toronto Bixi rumours – first it was a go, now there are rumours that Toronto may be cooling off on bike sharing.

Whole Foods x more – Whole Foods expands to Mississauga and North York over the next few years.

Torontonian urban farmers fight for their poultry pets – The move towards cities incorporating urban agriculture into policy, and not pissing people off in the process.

Toronto’s R.C. Harris Water Treatment Plant – I love water treatment plants.  I love things we drive by but don’t see.  See the beautiful architecture of one of Toronto’s finest, thanks to the lovelies at Spacing.

Science

A caring God did not create DNA – It’s New Scientist [meh], but an interesting article featuring a new book rejecting the case for intelligent design.

Radiation exposure at Bruce nuclear plant – damn nuclear, why do you have to be so expensive and occasionally unsafe?  I want you to be good.

More on wireless electricity – throw some coils in your walls and you’re done.

Stephen Hawking actually coming now – Waterlooians, you know this, but you still need to strut.

Music

How to land that killer opening gig – the power of the booking agent in the music industry.

Environment

Cape Wind – an offshore wind energy project could save New England billions of dollars over  25 years.

Arctic warming will cost us billions – a Pew study says it will cost us over a billion, just in 2010.  Gorsh.  By choice or by consequence?

Bill Gates likes geoengineering – governments will throw money at it, and that money will be mostly wasted.

Why water is so weird – the universal solvent is the strangest liquid.

Political battles on suburbia – We’re all becoming more city focused, and so should our politics?

Denmark’s clean coal – see how their dirtiness works doubletime.

Algae isn’t all roses, maybe – some heat on the algae energy industry, although this article has been under scientific scrutiny.

Food

University student gourmets – more students are getting into cooking, and YouTube has helped bring their recipes to the world.

Digital food – MIT geeks create the ASCII Food Printer.  AKA Cornucopia, it combines basic flavours, changes the temperature and extrudes a flavour.  Yep.

The rise of the butcher – the newest and bloodiest of the culinary rockstars.

More Prince Edward County wine buzz – the wine is getting better, babies.

Cooking for the Mayor – see what Corey Mintz (Toronto food critic and culinarian) cooks for David Miller.

DIY Butchery Trends – now in Toronto.  Bring your knife steel.

Miscellanium

Google Street View goes national – Thank goodness, thanks Google.

The new Heinz ketchup packet – It was certainly time.  I used to push out ketchup harder than my toothpaste tube.  Nothin like a good ol fashioned dip n squeeze.

How curiosity works – If I had to impart one thing to my potential children, the first would be compassion.  The close second would be curiosity.  It is my fuel.

Bixi Toronto In Trouble?

News week.

Only 70 starred items to choose from this week. 

Politics

• Jim Prentice questions the purpose of Copenhagen – What a cop out.  Evidently Copenhagen is to find “common ground” and not to table an international agreement.  Common ground means they will agree that coffee in the morning is delicious and Kelly Clarkson only had one good song.

• Ontario gets first full time Green Party Leader – Mike Schreiner has been crowned Green Party leader of Ontario.  Watch a video of him here talk about food secruity/sustainability.  This guy is speaking my language.

• Harmonized Sales Tax getting tabled at Queen’s Park – Controversial bill arrives, gets hilarious opposition from tax-heavy NDP leader Andrea Horwath.

• Being a gay politician in Canada is juuust fine – more research is showing that people like George Smitherman have nothing to worry about – Canadians are showing maturity and tolerance towards their politicians.  We win.

• The media does NOT have a liberal bias – the fine art of punditry.

• LocalTVMatters vs. StopTheTVTax – the battle over local TV.

Science

• Some more insight into the mass dinosaur extinction – More evidence showing that asteroids in India (not Mexico) may have played the largest role in this mass extinction period.

• Can academics be entrepreneurial? – New York Times blog looks at how academics can unleash small business to help innovate.

• Musicians great for party socializing – research showing that musicians are better at repeating a sentence heard in the presence of background noise.

• Why can humans speak and chimps can’t? – finding the gene exclusively for speech and language.

• There is water on the moon.

• We’re aurally screwed – New Scientist shows how even quieter sounds can still cause ear damage.

Green

• Water purification failing in developing countries – easy water treatment for the poor remains a difficult process.

• Dwindling water in Australia – learn how a developing country is dealing with stressing water management issues.

• Skyscraper farming – A more indepth look at vertical (urban) farming.  Stretch those Malthusian philosophies, you guyyyys.

• Global tuna stocks in worrisome supply – sushi cravings causing major concern in global tuna stocks as fishermen are catching triple the limit

• Is solar energy competitively priced ? – with Smart Grid additions, found to be cheaper than coal.

• Putting a price tag on nature – Brtish economist part of the UNEP is trying to associate costs with our waters, trees, and air.  Good f’ing luck to you trying to put something completely unboxable into a box.  Way to go economists, good luck with that.

• Combining heat and power for a one two energy punch – it’s efficient, simple, and doable.  A closer look into CHP plants and how they’ll help our energy problems.

Total awesomeness

• Mustard Tigers ! – Trailer Park Boys back with a new show, The Drunk and on Drugs Happy Funtime Hour.

GOOD magazine goodies.

You probably know GOOD magazine.  Maybe it’s a blog, maybe it’s a website, I don’t know.  I don’t do journalism.  Really.  GOOD is the mother of all creations on the internet – the infographic.  A visual and concise way of displaying trends and many different types of information, from global energy use to meat consumption to healthcare spending.  It seems to try and tackle some of the bigthink, TEDesque problems we all face today.  I love this website.

Just today I read a great article on second generation biofuels (the ones that we all actually want that doesn’t take food sources away from people) and was given the link to a nice little diagram on how the smart grid would/should work when implemented.  Obama has given billions to improving the smart grid situation, and to me is arguably the most important initiative they can run with right now.

Oh and this nice video.  Just a quick reminder that insane amounts of water and carbon go into our daily lives.

 

 

“Second generation biofuels”

 

 

Our weekly news.

China’s water issues – After decades of dirty development, the Chinese government is aggressively pursuing more stringent environmental regulation, with a particular focus on water distribution and wastewater treatment. [NYT]

Urine-powered cars – Auto fuel that is easier to electrolyze and process than hydrogen fuel cells (although hydrogen as a fuel source won’t happen for a very long time if at all). However, authors warn that we’ll likely need our urine for other things, especially fertilizer.  Lots of phosphorus in urine, and it turns out we not only have peak oil, but peak phosphorus. [The New Republic]

All of our batteries – Exploring the primary source of the world’s lithium in Bolivia’s famous salt flats.  As you know, lithium is the main component in our iPods/BlackBerry batteries, etc. [Foreign Policy]

Toronto’s water.

[via CBC]

Bacteria resistant to some antibiotics have been found in Toronto tap water, a University of Michigan scientist says.  The water remains safe to drink, he said, but the finding raises the possibility that disease-causing bacteria will pick up the resistance genes.

OK, first things first – I definitely have my own biases/beliefs on water quality.  This topic has been a focus of mine the past few years with the schooling and the learning and the things of that nature.  So we have some almost-completely-harmless bacteria in our water.  Is anyone surprised?

Obvious statements – bacteria are a part of our lives, every second.  All but a few strains of E. coli are completely safe, many of which you need in your intestine to break down food.  Drinking bottled water will get more and more expensive as international water supplies decrease and the price of oil increases.   Bottled water is not an alternative, it’s a luxury.  The viability of shipping water hundreds of kilometres on a truck will soon be priced as absurdly as it sounds.  Bottled water is already 3-4 times the price of gas now, it will only increase over time.  Now don’t get me wrong, tap water in Toronto can taste like a pool bottom.  It’s heavily chlorinated, but it’s nothing that a fresh Brita and a few hours can’t change.

Torontonians have their Lake Ontario, Waterlooians have their groundwater.  The quality of between surface and groundwater can be different, but forget the source of your water for now, as contamination is just as likely between the plant and your tap through the distribution system.  Most often, we’re using ancient water pipes and old treatment plants that often use chlorine as their primary treatment method.  The reason for all of this is simply money.  Repairing this infrastructure and investing in new treatment technology costs hundreds of millions.   These repairs are happening right now and will continue to happen, and less people will complain about the taste of chlorine because new treatments will reduce or eliminate the need for it.  Reverse osmosis, ozonation, and UV are just some of the new passive methods of water disinfection that won’t impact taste/odour.

The big message here is this – if we want popluations of people to thrive in a society in this day and age, the water in your tap will be polluted, period.   So is your bottled water, you know that.  Actions have consequences, remember?  Runoff from agriculture, discharges from industry, salt on our roads that enter the stormwater system, and leaky tanks and pipes.  Currently the Ontario government is implementing “source to tap” water protection policy – a massive, preventative policy to improve water quantity and quality for Ontario communities.  In the future, the inputs from typical polluters will likely be smaller and we will have the technology and infrastructure to distribute plentiful, clean water for the masses.  Get pumped.

Neat lakes.

Spotted Lake in Osoyoos, British Columbia.  Click for more neato lake photos here.

Watersheds.

Anna Maria Tremonti + watersheds = love.  Check out The Current’s series on water issues here.

Costanza was right.

It’s allllll pipes!  The crunchy man’s guide to water conservation:

The Girl from ‘Impeenema’ A TV ad campaign in Brazil urges folks to urinate in the shower to conserve water … and save the rain forests.

Read the article here.

Solutions.

Yeah TEDTalks, standard.  Us authentic post-hipster coolkats love pop knowledge and pop academia right ?  We need to impress people at parties as conscious and informed and global coolios… rightsies sies?  sies? Oh yeah, did you guys hear about Darfur?  I hear people are getting sick from wind turbines too.  You can’t win.

Cutting through – screw it.  We all like to learn things.  New, fun, enlightening, inspiring, motivating, humbling. I will wear a “cliché” tshirt if I have to.

OK, enough hyperawareness and self-consciousness.  Here’s a new video looking at water purification.  You may have heard of the LifeStraw, now a  pressurized “LifeSaver” nanofilter water bottle.  In the presentation he questions the whole water infrastructure system which threw my hair back.  As someone who may be already too steeped in pragmatic traditional water systems, I enjoyed thinking about how to deliver cleaner water in ways that are just as accessible as the source-to-tap system we currently have now.

Should Canada sell water?

The debate (via Canadian Business Magazine) is to examine if water should be considered a right or a commodity and in turn be sold.  Decide for yourself.

World Water Day.

Out of 8760 annual hours, let’s devote an exponential fraction of one for something we all couldn’t live without.  Of all causes, this is mine, if mine means time studied and money donated. Plus Greenpeace too.  I like Greenpeace because despite their “heightened methods”, their style of environmentalism at its core is straight up punk rock.

1 in 6 people in this world lack access to clean drinking water.  4500 children die every day from water related diseases.  I acknowledge the oddness of “days”, they can offer a few meaningful seconds of awareness and reflection for a few million people.  But I never want to overly stress Water Days, Earth Days, now being brought down to Earth Hours.  Better than nothing yes, I’d never scoff at meaningful promotion.  But… you know.  Putting an iGoogle image of clean water in developing nations on your homepage may make you feel socially conscious and aware, no complaints – it’s just not doing anything.

But hey look at me and my seconds.  charity:water is kicking ass as the charity of the 2.0‘s and 2000s.  They have spread their wings across a ton of web platforms – iGoogle, YouTube, Twestivals, all with beautiful photography and beautiful web design.

Cara and I have already planned for devoting a year abroad through Engineers without Borders,  Oxfam, Amnesty, or a water-based charity organization depending on who can take us, competition for good positions can be tough.  With my training in water systems and Cara’s counselling/sexual health training, we’re THE double threat. Not an empty promise, just like the round the world trip in a couple of years.  It’s f’ing happening.

Maybe spend those fractions right now watching this charity:water video?