wongrs

i don't know a damn thing about photography but those are nice looking shots!

well that's exactly why i ask the question "what defines an eco-weenie". if it's about perspective, then jimmy-jo-poacher (or even perhaps rush limbaugh or ann coulter) would call you and i "eco-weenies" because we think fish should be conserved and not poached. for that matter, mr. poacher might accuse the provincial or federal government of being eco-weenies because they dare to impose catch limits or close down waters for spawning. well how dare a bunch of fisherman sponsor more patrollers on my poaching waters! eco-weenies! look at those eco-weenies cleaning up rivers...idiots! or perhaps exxon mobil believes we're eco-weenies because we would like them to pay their fine for the exxon-valdez catastrophe. to me the term "eco-weenie" implies that you are demonizing people who care about their environment and their environmental footprint. you've both noted that we should try to limit our impacts whether it they be land, air, wildlife or water impacts and obviously i'd agree with that. you are in fact trying to use the term to describe people that support in global warming. by the way, labeling people and demonizing them on their beliefs is also a form of discrimination. really people are going to have varying degrees to how much they believe an idea or not...it's not simply black and white. just because i (or anybody else) might be an eco-weenie doesn't really mean that i deserve a negative label because by reducing my impacts (whether they be GHG or other) it really benefits you in other ways. for example reducing my power consumption to reduce my GHG emissions would also reduce the amount of acid rain precursor emissions and heavy metal emissions that end up blowing over into saskatchewan/manitoba. it would also reduce the amount of mining operations going on in say the elk river valley. my ghg reductions are helping to reduce other impacts that you would care about. i don't think you have a problem with people that are eco-weenies. i think you have a problem with people telling you what to do or people telling you what to do while they do the opposite. those terms are called being 'bossy' or being 'hypocritical'. being an eco-weenie is a good thing. caring about your environment is a good thing and caring about bird kills in a toxic tailings pond is a good thing regardless of what's happening elsewhere in the world. and just so you know, most people are aware of al gore's and david suzuki's strengths and faults. they have good and bad qualities just like everybody else.

what's an eco-weenie? how would one go about defining an eco-weenie? am i an eco-weenie because i like trees and fish?

good to know jeffro. it's always good to hear a different perspective on things. i work more at a higher policy level so getting on-the-ground insight is valuable. i've analyzed the ECP program certification standard and it discusses citing wind farms to reduce impacts ("Not be detrimental do indigenous or migratory avian species"). i'd also note that ECP certification only shows that it is better than it's competitors in the same category. for example, suncor retail gasoline has the ECP label because in the eyes of EcoLogo they produce gasoline in an environmentally less obtrusive way than their competitors. i'd be interested to hear more about on-the-ground problems with citing wind farms. if have any online articles describing the issues, i'd like to read them. i know there's a lab at UofC that was analyzing bat hits at summerview but i haven't followed any results to date. are you aware of research that shows operations violating ECP?

thanks for the pics diggler. can you say how much conventional crude is produced from those 2 wells pictured above that would require 36000 m3 of water? would like to have an understanding of the water to crude trade-off (if you can call it that). don't need production stats; just a ballpark figure.

perhaps i can share a perspective. while absolute numbers of bird kills by buildings and cats are an important number to put things in perspective, they can also distort reality without the proper context. most importantly to be considered should be migratory flight paths. what say there are a thousand birds left of species X that migrate up and down the east side of the rocky mountains from gulf of mexico up to the NWT. along the way they stop off at the oil sands and get obliterated. the number of a thousand is insignificant in terms of absolute bird kills in north america but would wipe out a single species in a single year. in fact, environmentalists like myself use statistics (such as the ones that dryfly has presented) to re-enforce the effect wind turbines have on bird populations. the stats can be misleading if bird path migrations are not taken into account. luckily the federal government has thought of this and the Environmental Choice Program (EcoLogo certification standard) requires that wind turbines not be placed in the path of migratory bird or bat routes. this only applies to ecologo certified facilities. and while we're on the topic, the Environmental Choice (EcoLogo) program identifies other products such as gasoline, household cleaners, detergent etc that have been assessed to be environmentally friendlier than their competitors. just have to look on the label for the stamp. you can view the stamp here: http://www.ecologo.org/ just the perspective of a hippie-leftwing-treehugging-anarchist-whilst-I-smoke-my-doobie-in-my-hemp-clothing-humming-kum-buy-ya

if you pay for my flight (and my al gore carbon offsets.....zing!) and get for max to hook into a few fish for me and let me fight them, then i'll be there in a jiffy!

awesome! it must feel great to help haul out all that trash. congrats on a successful event!

glad to see there's interest for 2008!

those are beauties. well done.

ha ha, penguins are funny. on the radio this past weekend they were talking about putting a wetsuit on a penguin in a california zoo. it was balding and getting cold so the zookeepers got a wetsuit fitted for the penguin to keep it warmer. those crazy penguins!!

yeah, that's lame. i go out of my way to avoid stores like future shop and bestbuy. i always seem to get terrible service and feel like they're looking at me like i'm some sort of cattle. i usually try to seek out the smaller neighbourhood stores. same thinking as finding a neighbourhood fly shop. helps to support the smaller guys who aren't trying to take over the world. and obviously futureshop/bestbuy don't always have the best deals. i bought a vga cord for my computer and it was like half the price at the smaller shop. even for a flippin' cable.

i played league/tournament CPA in hamilton before moving to calgary. when i got there, i looked for CPA and there wasn't any leagues. then i investigated others (like VNEA) and found the travel requirements and green fees too high for my liking so i gave it a pass. it also fairly evident that calgary is a bar-box kind of town as i could only really find 1 'pool hall' (stix on richmond). i'm now registered in the Regent Pool League but am figuring on selling all my pool gear to get more fishing rods! anybody want a falcon tr-1 (w/ predator shaft) and a sneaky-pete jump-breaker? i'll give you the house special! jk, i'm keeping it for now. and just watching the control that dr. cue has in those videos is astounding. speed and angle control is phenomenal.

for anyone else interested, the full list of Energuide retrofit rebates is posted here: http://www.oee.nrcan.gc.ca/residential/per...rant.cfm?attr=4 (came across it today at work).

that's exactly the type of person i want representing me in the house. the ignorant stereotyping type. Lukiwski for PM!! that's my tax dollars at work. are we stuck in the 50s or what? oh, i almost forgot. BASH THOSE NDP! those socialist dreamers are all a bunch of unrealistic do-gooders. ghad, when are they gonna learn that ideals like the universal right to education and health care are for sissies!

those ducklings never saw it coming. pike must get a lot of protein from eating ducklings. better start tying up duckling dries.

i've searched generation in motion's website and i can't find anything related to the sale of carbon offsets. i've also typed into google "generation in motion carbon offsets" and still nothing comes up. the only thing i can find is the following: http://www.generationim.com/news/memberships.html of which GIM describes that they get their carbon offsets from the CCS or from the Carbon Neutral Company. dryfly, can you advise if Al Gore owns either of these 2 entities? if not, can you advise if Gore owns other carbon offsetting retailers?

i found some pretty decent pool videos while surfing youtube today. thought i'd share them for the pool players on the board. the vids are a series of 40 progressing from beginner to more advanced shots. search 'dr cue' in youtube. they've been put together by the APA (or American PoolPlayers Association). they are not bad if you're into 8-ball, 9-ball or 14.1. last i checked, APA (or CPA; the canadian derivative) did not have league or tournaments in calgary.

i've looked at these sites and i can't find the disclosure on carbon offsets anywhere. any help or was this more gore-bashing? interested in offset project details.

try this: http://oee.nrcan.gc.ca/corporate/incentives.cfm?attr=0 follow the links through to water heaters (pm me if necessary to find hot water heaters). ah hell, here it is: http://oee.nrcan.gc.ca/residential/persona...ment.cfm?attr=0 'heating equipment and controls' has hot water heaters under it. this was the program that was implemented by the liberals, criticized by the tories, axed by the tories, and then re-implemented by the tories under this new name. guess they agree on something after all! not sure if alberta has a rebate program.

it seems fairly clear that the author is trying to mislead the reader. they mention that customers are supporting "organizations bent on taking the right to hunt away from you" yet fail to mention all the other conservation initiatives that they support. and as rusty as pointed out, they fail to mention the good work they are doing in labour practices from their manufacturers. they are one of very few companies out there that give a damn about the working conditions where their products are made (moreso than patagonia). fail to mention overwhelming dollars spent on other conservation initiatives + fail to mention MEC's upstanding commitment to labour practices overseas + fail to provide any details as to which anti-hunting campaigns were pursued = ================================================ FAIL! there is not another company that works harder on labour practices overseas: http://www.mec.ca/Main/content_text.jsp?FO...D=1206989992546 and the author bashes MEC because he wants to hunt grizzly's? pretty one-sided and selfish.

has anyone on here ever tried relieving pressure on big fish? i've done it a few times in the past couple years when fish have gotten downstream of me and as soon as the pressure was off the fish (still some pressure though), they stopped, turned around and swam back upstream of me back to their lie where i started to fight them again. i think i might have read MTB mention that once before. and i'm talking 20+ inch fish. anyone else had that experience?

hurray for power!

thanks for the thread. trash sucks. timmies cups suck and cigarette butts suck. if i came across a shop that gave a dang about environmental issues, i'd shop there even if their products cost 1.5 - 2X as much.

the majority of coffee on the planet comes from either latin america or africa. the french don't grow their own beans; they probably just roast and/or brew it slightly different. places like colombia and bolivia (which have undergone economic structural adjustment programs that tend to flood the market with coffee beans and lower prices btw but that's probably a discussion for another day). my perception is that there are long lines at tim horton's in the burbs. the tims in the downtown areas are usually overloaded with other smaller coffee shops or chains that sell better quality coffee beans. i would think it's the people that can't get out of their cars that go to tims in the burbs on their way to the hockey rink or on the way to fishing. tims market share seems to be larger in the burbs than in the downtown congested areas where people are on foot/transit. also there's the perception that tim's is a canadian icon even though they were sold some time ago. and then there's the sponsorship of minor hockey which gives people the warm and fuzzies. that's just my perception. i also think that people enjoy tims coffee because they like their double-doubles with super-fatty cream and lots of sugar. here's a hint, you can replicate your tims double-double with good quality cream at home.