You wade in the sea around the island? You know, then. It’s everywhere. Drumbeg, Whalebone, Sandwell… on and on. It brushes your legs as you walk about in the shallows, and waves about in the water as the tide comes in. It’s eel-grass, or sea-grass. And here’s an article on its importance from New Scientist: [...]
Filed in environment,Gabriola Island 2 Comments so far
From the Times Colonist: Ottawa sinks pollution checks. Nine marine scientists and staff in North Saanich Friday will lose their jobs as the federal government cuts almost all the employees who monitor ocean pollution across Canada. [continue] Sigh.
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If you worry about oil spills in the waters around Gabriola, you might want to take a look at this Times Colonist article: Is Canada prepared for an oil disaster? A ring of proposed pipeline and resource development projects surrounding Vancouver Island would dramatically increase the number of tankers and freighters in nearby waterways, and [...]
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This is the sort of technological news I like to hear. From inhabitat: Tesla and SolarCity Team Up to Create New Off-the-Grid Solar Power Storage System. Tesla may be best known for exceptionally good-looking electric sports cars, but their role in the automotive industry has honed their skills in battery-making too. Now, the company is [...]
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Using moss to generate power? Ok, that’s pretty cool. Inhabitat explains: Moss Table by Biophotovoltaics Generates Electricity Through Photosynthesis. What if your lamp and laptop could be powered by plants? ‘Moss Table’ by Biophotovoltaics is an innovative concept product demonstrating the future potential of Bio-Photo-Voltaic (BPV) technology. Here electricity is generated from the electrons captured [...]
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Ah, look who’s back on the island! Do you know who leaves sections of twine in the Gabriola forest? It’s the same people who sometimes forget a handful of elastic bands here and there in the woods. The same people who hang branches of salal in trees as trailmarkers. Got it now? Yes, of course. [...]
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From Science Daily: Keeping Wood Preservatives Where They Belong: In the Wood. Pressure-treated wood is great stuff, but the chemicals used to preserve it from decay can leach out, where they can be toxic to bugs, fungi and other hapless creatures that have the bad luck to be in the neighborhood. Now, a team of [...]
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From The Independent: How I built my house for £4,000. When he’s expecting visitors, Steve James watches out the windows so he can catch the look on their faces when they see his house for the first time. It’s always the same, he say. There’s an intense stare and total mystification, as if they can’t [...]
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Do people who own waterfront property worry about rising sea levels? I would, and if I were building a home near sea level on Pilot Bay, say, I might opt for an ark-style dwelling. Perhaps I’m not the only one thinking this way. From csmonitor.com: A growing answer to rising seas: floating homes A floating [...]
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In my dream world, BC Hydro is not part of my life: our house runs on solar energy, wind power, fairy dust, or whatever. Obviously we’re not there yet, but I do like reading about things that might bring us closer to that ideal. Like this, from Treehugger: When Is A Window Not A Window? [...]
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Well! I didn’t think anybody was using fire for meadow management anymore, but look at this from the Bella Coola blog: Burnt. One of the seasonal annual rites of passage in the Bella Coola Valley is the ‘burning of the grass’. I’m not sure which culture brought this long practiced tradition, but it’s been practiced [...]
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Who was telling me a while back that refrigerators use a huge amount of energy? Well, here’s a fridge that needs no power: a Zeer Pot, which is made of clay and sand. The Why Zeerpots? page explains how it works: We’re working with communities to make zeer pots – very clever fridges made using [...]
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Nick Doe wrote to say: If you are interested in maps of Gabriola (somebody isn’t?), one that’s missing is a map of the streams, creeks, swamps of the island including their old names. Though it isn’t the full scale map that everyone would wish for, I’ve recently complied a file of sketch maps from various [...]
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There’s a proposal for a marine conservation area that would start just south of Gabriola. I’ve mentioned it before (see Protecting the waters around Gabriola), and perhaps the topic is already on your radar. Now this suggestion, published in the Nanaimo Daily News: Plan to put Nanaimo River Estuary on the map could be key [...]
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From sciencedaily.com: Recharge Your Cell Phone With a Touch? New Nanotechnology Converts Body Heat Into Power. Developed by researchers in the Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials at Wake Forest University, Power Felt is composed of tiny carbon nanotubes locked up in flexible plastic fibers and made to feel like fabric. The technology uses temperature [...]
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You can bet that people who lived on Gabriola 100 years ago knew a lot about food storage that many of us don’t know. Now we have fridges, so it’s all easy. But maybe some of the food that’s in your fridge would fare better somewhere else, and maybe you don’t need an enormous energy-gobbling [...]
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This is from the Bowen Island Undercurrent: Bowen’s newest nature reserve is in danger. Some days ago, members of the Bowen Island Conservancy and a representative of the Islands Trust Fund, the two parties which will manage the new nature reserve for Bowen, noticed that the use of ATVs and other four-by-four vehicles has resulted [...]
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From the Daily News: Snuneymuxw chief worried about effect of Enbridge Gateway pipeline. Snuneymuxw First Nation chief Doug White fears for the First Nations and other people along B.C.’s coast if the proposed Enbridge Gateway pipeline proceeds.(…) White said the possibility of a dramatic increase of an activity in the area that could have devastating [...]
Filed in environment,First Nations,Gabriola Island 5 Comments so far
