Defend our Coast Toronto Solidarity Event 2

_{Follow-up of Defend our Coast Toronto Solidarity.}

Last Sunday, I visited the "Defend our Coast Toronto Solidarity Event." There weren't many people at first, but once Olivia Chow came into the park on her bike, people started to gather. Olivia started the event with having people singing. She then had a spokesperson from Greenpeace talk about the pipeline and its potential impacts.

After the speeches, papers with a picture of a pipe was given to people participating in the event. The pipe pictures were used to display people's messages and each person was suppose to hold up their pipe while standing beside another two people holding up their pipes. The idea was to make a pipeline with people's messages. I did not have the chance to take a picture of the people in line with their pipes, but there were a few others there that did along with videos. Olivia said that she would send the pictures and videos to Harper.

There were stickers and information flyers being handed around during the event. The larger flyer had good facts as to why the pipeline shouldn't be built. I did not know that the current running pipelines had 804 spills between 1999 and 2012, but then, I would have wanted more information on the size of the spills and how serious their discharges were.

I didn't stay for the latter half of the event, because I had a meeting later in the day. I have never been to a solidarity event before, so I did not know what to expect. I was wondering if it was more like a forum, but it turned out to be a series of short activities. I wonder if this solidarity event will have an impact to the pipeline construction decision? Guess I'll never know.

More Bins Please 2

Right now, Markham has the above two waste bins available, excluding general garbage. I'm not sure where the waste goes after leaving it at the side of the curb on garbage days, so I don't know how effective the city is with properly managing waste for low environmental impact.

Anyways, I sketched some bins with actual colours this time instead of keeping them black and white:

As you can see, I am not one who draws often. Hm... I forgot the Tim bin. Next time, next time.

Olive Eyes

Sarah Anderson has inspired me to draw this:

Title: "Not Captain Obvious Enough"
Doodle Time is very enjoyable. Thank you, Sarah!

October 2012 Morning

While half of the sky was cloudless, the other half had a cumulonimbus.

On my way to downtown from the GO station at 7:30 AM last Friday. It was a long day that day.

Reve tegro, Jo. T'degnah uo.

Defend Our Coast - Toronto Solidarity Event

While I was volunteering for Toronto's environmental film festival Planet in Focus, I was told about an upcoming solidarity rally against the construction of the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline. The host of the event is Olivia Chow, the NDP Member of Parliament for the federal riding of Trinity-Spadina.

Location: Bellevue Square Park, Toronto, ON
Date: Sunday, October 21, 2012
Time: 1 PM - ?
Event page at Facebook

I don't know much about this pipeline project even though it's been in the news often, so I looked at the project website for more information on it. From what I understand on the website, the purpose of the project (which is currently just a proposal) is to build a petroleum and liquids pipeline system between Alberta and British Columbia's coastline, and possibly ship oil between Canada and other countries across the oceans. It is a mega project that will [supposedly] create more jobs and bring economic benefit to Canada, but at the cost of potential local environmental damages to all communities, biophysical resources, and biotic life living around the pipeline. If the environmental damages actually occur, it would affect not only the local environments in its proximity, but the whole natural system on the Earth itself (because everything is connected).

Personally, I don't like the scale of this mega project. Forget about how long it would take to finish constructing the pipeline, the real question is can they finish constructing it at all? From what the media portrays and the people who I know, there are hundreds (maybe even millions) of people inside and outside of Canada who are against this whole project. Those people may be capable of stopping the whole thing half-way through its construction. It would suck if Enbridge started building the system but was never able to finish it; that would be a total waste of time, money, and natural resources.

The whole project itself is a good way to slap people on the wrist though. If we don't built a pipeline system to transport oil, where would we get our oil? I mean, I remember living in Prince George, British Columbia for about 3 months. In that short amount of time, it was pretty obvious that you won't get anywhere around that small town without a vehicle. Public transit felt non-existent, and biking or walking would take way too long to get anywhere. Heck, getting to the town itself requires driving a long way or taking a smaller airplane from Vancouver. What I'm trying to say is that people on the west coast depend on oil as much as anyone else in the rest of Canada, and we aren't going to change our habits of using oil-consuming vehicles in [most likely] the next hundred years. We also want our economy to flourish, which Canada does by exporting its natural resources.

To built the pipeline, or not to build it-- I don't know where to stand firmly. I am concerned about the environmental impacts, but I also know that people need oil for products and their daily activities. I will still attend this event though, because I am interested to see what they will do and discuss.

More Bins Please

I saw a brown bin at Seneca for coffee cups and I thought: what if the Greater Toronto Area had more bins than the blue, green, and gray bins? What would they carry? I could only think of an alternate brown bin and a Tim bin. The brown bin would be for burnables and the Tim bin would be for anything from Tim Hortons (except the food, since it should go in the green bin).

Too bad it may never work out. It's hard to get people to separate their waste.

Squirrels could take over the world 9

I was going through old pictures taken with my iTouch, and I found a picture of a squirrel from back in January. It looks like I took it at York University. The squirrel looks so cute holding onto the paper bag, desperately looking for food they shouldn't be eating.

Zellers

After news of Zellers closing, my father wanted to visit one. While looking for old and rare video games for my sister, we visited the Zellers at Hillcrest Mall. What was interesting about that Zellers is an old-style family diner. It was like McDonald's in a Walmart, but more retro. I wanted to try the food, but it was already closed for the day.

My family agreed to visit it before mid-December. I wonder if it will be open when we visit Zellers again?

In other news, that Zellers actually had a new and unopened Professor Layton and the Curious Village game for Nintendo DS. It was on a shelf full of old games in brand new condition, which was unbelievable but amazing.

Puccho in Disguise

Mission: Make a banner for Puccho Facebook page.

Solution: Draw the needed pictures on paper, then enhance it in Photoshop.

One of the deliverables:

Superb.

I give myself three pats on the shoulder.

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Puccho is a Japanese candy by UHA. Check out their website at: www.puccho.jp.

Seneca College

For the past two months, I've been studying Project Management at Seneca College.

I was studying in the West side of the Newnham building the day before yesterday when I noticed mist hovering around the top of Seneca Towers (I think that's what they're called). It looked nice.

One of the classes talked about how Canadians are energy hogs at one point. When it was mentioned, all I could think about were hogs. I totally agree though: Canadians generally like their energy a little too much, as do I.

An image of part of my class notes: