Author Archives: Mike Nelson Pedde

Being Green – Consciousness and the Environment

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Hi Folks:

Friday once again, and time for this week’s ‘Being Green‘ post.  I’m going to take a slightly different tack this week (and some people might think I’ve gone off track completely) but if you have a wander through the 14 different post categories on our site you’ll find that we cover scientific topics in some and more esoteric topics such as poetry and spirituality in others.  In truth, however, our lives are a blend of both and we make no effort to separate or distinguish our spiritual lives from our day-to-day existence.

Having said that, in this post I’m not going to be covering the topic of religion per se, but rather what some might refer to as esoteric sciences.  And no, that’s not a contradiction in terms.  Skeptics aside, there have been and continue to be a number of people who are working to combine the fields of science (quantum physics, for example) with fields such as parasychology and different spiritual traditions.  If I was going to pick two names off the top of my head I’d probably go with Dr. Fred Alan Wolf and Dr. Dean Radin, but there are many more, people like Lynne McTaggart or Dr. Marilyn Schlitz, current director of the Institute of Noetic Sciences. Continue Reading →

Being Green – Celebrate!

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Hi Folks:

Happy Friday!  End of the week and time for the ‘Being Green‘ post.  It’s going to be a short post this week, mostly because it’s too beautiful outside to invest too much time in front of a computer.  So, in honour of today’s beautiful weather and in honour of summer in general, I thought I’d just offer a couple of links to things that are worth celebrating (from a ‘green’ perspective):

First is a development I recently heard about in Germany called ‘Solarsiedlung (Solar Village)‘, which has the main building (Sonnenschiff (Solar Ship)) at its heart.  This community  incorporates many ‘green’ standards, including rooftop gardens, rainwater collection, passive solar orientation, a woodchip boiler for winter heating and Passivhaus standards for construction, but the reason for the ‘Solar Village’ moniker is the huge number of solar panels in use in the project.  Not only does their use make the project ‘net-zero’, it actually produces more energy than it uses.  Four times more energy… which definitely makes it energy positive.  The designer of the Solar Village project is Rolf Disch.  You can find out more about this and other projects on his website; he also has a site on what he terms ‘PlusEnergy‘.  In a time when people are wondering what they can do to help reduce their energy costs, this development proves that it’s possible to go far beyond that, in a practical way.

Second, Cree Lighting and Habitat for Humanity have begun construction on the first Habitat house that will incorporate all LED lighting.  According to the Cree website, lighting is the single biggest energy user in the average home, at 22% of energy use.  I did a blog post on lighting a while back, and while LEDs do have some disadvantages, at the moment they’re the most efficient and most environmentally friendly lighting technology.  Continued development can only make them better.

Next, a little fun with a story about three swimming pools on Park Avenue in New York city.  The project was done by the development company Macro Sea, in cooperation with the city of New York.  Each pool is made from a converted dumpster, and completely portable.  Drop it off the back of a truck, fill it with water, plug in the filter and have fun!  The pools opened at 7:00 a.m. daily, and from the images I’ve seen there was no shortage of participants!  Given the heat islands presented by most cities, this is a great idea.

And finally, for now, also from New York, the office tower at One Bryant Park has become the first office tower to achieve LEED Platinum certification.  That’s something that’s definitely worth celebrating!!

Okay, the links for this week include:

Okay, that’s it for now. Have a great week!
Mike.

P.S. Looking for something to do with your summer? How about making some giant soap bubbles? (YouTube video) We’ve had a lot of fun with ours over the years – we even had them at our wedding reception!! You can get them here: BubbleThing The ingredients are non-toxic, and they really are a lot of fun for kids of all ages.

Being Green… Why?

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Hi Folks:

Friday once again, so that means it’s time for this week’s ‘Being Green‘ post.  I usually come up with a subject for each week’s post sometime during the week based on an inspiration that I have or something I come across, but this week I was coming up empty…

Then today I came across a blog post with the title, “Why Ask Why? It’s a Good Sustainability Starting Point“.  The post does make some good points for any company at the beginning stages of determining their sustainability strategy, and is well worth reading. Continue Reading →

He Says, She Says… ‘Insights’ from the Celestine Prophecy

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Hello, Dear Reader:

When James Redfield’s book ‘The Celestine Prophecy‘ came out in in the early 1990s, we bought two copies of it and read them avidly.  The ideas contained within the book added nicely to the stores of knowledge we already had.  Time went by like it always does, and over the years the ‘insights’ from that book were overlaid and integrated with that received from other sources.  We heard a few years ago that a movie had been made from the book, but we never saw it.

A week ago we were at the local library getting some children’s books for visiting family and we came across the DVD version of the movie ‘by chance’.  Intrigued, we checked it out and took it home to watch it.  The movie matched the book fairly well (at least in our memories), but coming across those ideas again sparked new thoughts for both of us.  So, without further ado we thought we’d make this week’s ‘He Says, She Says…‘ post, “‘Insights’ from the Celestine Prophecy“.

Hugs,
M&M

Follow these links to read what He Says/She Says: Marcia’s View / Mike’s View

Being Green – Virtually

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Hi Folks:

Yes, it’s Saturday and I usually do my ‘Being Green‘ posts on Fridays, but we had family visiting and between you and me I’d rather run around with a 2-year old at the park than sit in front of a computer screen.  There, my secret is out, and I can expect my offical ‘geek’ status to be revoked.  Oh well…

So, last Thursday (August 5) was the ‘Global Green Expo‘, a virtual tradeshow that lasted roughly eight hours and featured virtual booths, webinars, speakers and more on the topics of being green, sustainability and corporate responsibility.  Before someone raises their virtual hand and exclaims that computers aren’t ‘green’ in and of themselves, yes, I’ll concede that point.  Computers, from their manufacturer to their use to their disposal as ‘e-waste’ pose their share of toxic challenges.  However, it’s also true that computers aren’t going away anytime soon, and more and more people are transiting from stationary desktop units to web-enabled cell phones and tablet computers; if nothing else, less material is used in their construction.  Anyway, I’m not here to debate that point.  Even people like Dr. David Suzuki have lamented that his job of raising awareness on environmental issues requires him to travel in airplanes and make use of the  television/radio/ internet airwaves, but it’s a cost he accepts. Continue Reading →

He Says, She Says… Letting Go

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Hello, Dear Reader:

Mike received an e-mail from a friend yesterday with the following quote from Bashar:

“Healing is allowing, not making, not trying, not forcing: it is allowing. Just let go, relax the expectations. Relax the resistance and you automatically glide smoothly back to centre.”

If you’ve read our other blog posts recently you’ll know that we’ve both been uncovering and recovering from our own challenges.  With that in mind we thought we’d make the topic of this week’s ‘He Says, She Says…‘ post, “Letting Go“.

Hugs,
M&M

Follow these links to read what He Says/She Says: Marcia’s View / Mike’s View

Photo of the Month

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Hi Folks:

Last day of the month, and that means it’s time for me to sort through the images I’ve made this past month and pick my favourite. I’ve actually started working on a book of photographs (details will surface somewhere down the road when I get closer to my goal), and part of that means going through, sorting out and editing about a thousand images in Lightroom so that’s been taking up a lot of my time. Continue Reading →

Being Green – A Hand Up

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Hi Folks:

Well, since my absence from this area of our blog last Friday, in a way one could say this is last week’s ‘Being Green‘ post.

The phrase ‘A Hand Up, not a Handout‘ is a common one among those involved with programs around the world that help people improve their life situations, and in its own way it is a common thread running through all of them. There are many, MANY good programs around the world that are working in myriad ways, and while it’s impossible to profile all of them, I thought I’d mention a couple with the intent that these provide impetus for you to start your own search to find one that resonates with you. Many of these groups deal with food in one way or another, and while food may the most basic ‘green’ subject of all, the procurement of food is such a basic necessity that it can overlay other, larger concerns, like environmental destruction, deforestation, wildlife loss, etc. My own knowledge of this first came through a couple of friends who volunteered their time with a group called Plenty Canada. My friends and I have parted ways over the years, but at that time Plenty Canada was involved in a number of different projects around the world – from teaching farmers in Dominica to grow soybeans for consumption and sale rather than sugar for export – to installing wells and catchment basins for clean drinking water and planting fruit trees in Africa. I’m sure their work continues apace. Continue Reading →

Being Green – Literally

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Hi Folks:

It’s Friday once again, and normally that would mean today’s ‘Being Green‘ post. However, a few days ago a somewhat persistent bacteria decided to move in, and I’ve invested my time since then mostly in bed with all of the usual effects – fevers and sweats and general malaise. One might say I look a little ‘green around the gills’ as the saying goes. So, no post from me this week, but I do encourage you to continue living a ‘green’ lifestyle in all ways but this one!

Mike.

He Says, She Says… A Recap

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Hello, Dear Reader:

We were trying to decide on a topic for this week’s ‘He Says, She Says…‘ post and were both surprised to realize that we’ve already written 31 posts in this category (plus one announcing the birth of our newest grandson).  Therefore, rather than adding to the list this week we thought we’d provide an index to the topics we’ve already covered (in alphabetical order, no less).  Enjoy!

Continue Reading →