US Environmental Stance Draws Heat

"When you walk around the conference hall here, delegates are saying there are lots of issues on the agenda, but there's only one real problem, and that's the United States," said Bill Hare of Greenpeace International.

a coworker of mine in washington worked on stopping drilling in the arctic wildlife refuge and said that she has started calling the 'climate change' a 'climate disruption'. the climate is always changing, but now that change is happening in a different way (and faster) thanks to human impact.

the US could do so much - they could be a leader in environmental issues.

'could' is the key word there....

found myself looking for some music today. i think i gushed about josh ritter here last february, when i saw him in my university town of kingston, on. i first heard of him when i attended the banff mountain film festival a couple of weeks before he played kingston. the music in one of the ski movies was so intriguing that i waited to see the credits to find out who it was. apparently, many people agree - when i searched 'josh ritter banff' i found this:

'banff: music in the films'

the ski movie was amazing. the music even more amazing. 'snow is gone' and 'harrisburg' will always remind me of that wonderful year at school...funny how music so often has a time and place associated with it, ya know?

it snowed last night.

quite a bit.

happy WINTER! :)

that, or hell has frozen over, as i FINALLY am only weeks from being able to work here in canada. thought the day would never come....

i now have a very official looking open work visa for canada. which means i can work any job with it. which means i can finally work the job i have (supply teaching) with it. however, i have to wait for my social insurance number (should have it by wednesday) and approval from the ontario college of teachers (which requires a social insurance number to apply)...so my countdown to being gainfully employed for more than $7 an hour has begun! it makes me want to really enjoy my days of few commitments and short to-do lists...

i've just spent three weeks on some of the most gorgeous beaches in the continental US: olympic national park in washington state. the reason i was there? to collect 'marine debris' - aka beach garbage. volunteers during the summer collected the debris (everything from ropes, boat floats, a giant 40 gallon plastic barrel that once held greek olives - complete with greek writing, lots of tires...) into big caches. piles of, often, over 40 bags. the crew i was working on was hired to go to these caches and carry them out. we collected over a ton (2,250 lbs) of trash. it was some of the hardest physical work i've ever done: carrying 50lbs up muddy trails, getting pushed off the beach by storm surges and having to bushwhack through berry pushes taller than we were...it rained every day. it was so satisfying, though, to know how important the work we were doing was....to have those beaches clean again...