MyWestworld

Bowen Island: One Man’s Eco-Quest

Posted on 19. Feb, 2010 by BCAA.

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How I built an eco-shed, ditched my SUV, alienated the in-laws and changed my life forever
My name is James, and I drive an SUV. It is a golden-pearl Premium Edition Lexus rx-300, with all-leather interior, genuine walnut wood dash, seven-speaker Nakamichi sound system, seat heaters, moon roof and sport racks. It is a high-riding icon of luxury, a mobile conspicuous-consumption statement, a prosperity public-address system – the sort of vehicle that valets named Chip park in front of five-star Indian fusion restaurants. Let me be clear, though, that the rx-300 is not an indication of my hard-won success as a writer. It’s a hand- me-down from my father-in-law, who offered it to my wife, Elle, and me as a gift just as our 1994 Volvo station wagon threatened to die with our two tired babies in the backseat some night on a lonely New Mexico byway well beyond the fringes of Sprint-Verizon’s digital safety net.

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Stikine: The Great River

Posted on 19. Feb, 2010 by BCAA.

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Stikine River Country is raw wilderness. Its headwaters region, the wildlife-rich Spatsizi Plateau, is North America’s equivalent to Africa’s Serengeti Plain. In its mid-region, the mighty river continues to deepen the spectacular 100-km-long Grand Canyon, which has only once permitted the passage of humans. The Stikine’s estuary, with its broad-fanned delta of layered silt, is a vital and irreplaceable migratory bird stopover along the Pacific flyway.

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Vancouver: Low-Car Diet Gets a Boost

Posted on 05. Feb, 2010 by Anne Rose.

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“In fact, it was the cost-breakdown of car ownership on the AutoObesity website that eventually convinced me to give up my car altogether and start biking and taking transit. The average car costs between $8,000 and $10,000 per year to own – and anything that saves me that much money is worth looking into.”

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Vancouver: Trash Talkin’

Posted on 25. Jan, 2010 by Bernice Paul.

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The Clean Bin Project documents a year of living zero-waste
On a dark and rainy Vancouver evening, I paid a visit to the trio behind the Clean Bin Project. Jenny Rustemeyer, Rhyannon O’Heron and Grant Baldwin are housemates who more than a year ago decided they’d simply had enough of ”stuff.” They also realized that if [...]