Kurt Archer

So it’s been 2 months since I’ve returned from an almost 3 year experience in Pakistan and India. So much has changed for me, that even still I find re-adapting to the Canadian culture difficult.

I suppose some of the experiences I had will never leave me, some truths you cannot just sweep under a carpet. Now that I am back in Canada, the hardest part is trying to share those experiences I had in a way that help people understand these truths that I have seen: poverty, exploitation, corruption, dishonesty. I guess this feeling is shared by anyone in the field of sustainability. The question eludes me, while I find myself stuck between a rock and a hard place. The worst of all, for me, is falling on deaf ears to the ones that are supposed to be closest and most beloved to us: our family.

The conundrum, in which I have befallen, is where to cross the line when on one side of it you know you cannot tell another person what s/he is doing wrong and how to live their life, on the other hand you cannot stand idle watching while ignorance is harming innocent people (and the environment) thousands and millions of miles away.

What would you do if stuck in this situation, crying desperately to be heard, to share some tiny morsel of experience, that may trigger an awakening to just how damaging the majority of North Americans live.

I know, I’m being harsh, accusing, judging. I know, but what would you do? What would you do if you knew someone was doing something that unbenownst to them is harming others, often, many others.

“What makes you so much smarter than us” or “who are you to think you know whats best for us” are two phrases I hear in defense whenever I point out the pointless obessive purpose to an electronic pepper mill. I wish I had all the answers, no one has all the answers. I do have a lot of questions though, like these:

Read the rest of this entry »

I just watched this Documentary on CBC called Forever Plastic that raised some excellent points about the life we have entered into, it also had some interesting historical facts that are more interesting than others.

Plastics were created in the early 20th century based on various chemical compounds, mostly petroleum based. In fact, Henry Ford rolled out a series of cars based on Soy plastics, he even invented a car fully manufactured from products grown in farms. So why did this trend end and oil based plastics take over? According to the documentary World War 2 is to blame, because they needed quick, cheap plastics for their soldiers, and from then on, the industry was set, and petroleum based plastics became our addiction.

Another interesting revelation made by this documentary is just how much consumers believe that this symbol of a triangle with a 1 (or up to 7) means that it is a recyclable plastic. This is a myth in practical terms. Yes a myth. Just because a product has this symbol does not guarantee that it will be recycled. Many plastics which have the potential to be recycled are not because there is no industry or technology good enough to recycle that product. One such example is clear plastics (not including plastic bottles) such as plastic egg cartons, plastic wrap, a lot of plastic casing/wrapping for the everyday products we buy.

Here is a short video about the struggle against plastic, just keep in mind, that this plastic ends up in landfills, and is not recycled into anything.

The documentary goes far to inform the consumers that the battle against plastics and oil addiction is far from over.  More technology needs to be invested in and onnovation needs to increase and smarter designs standards for materials use in our products needs to be pushed.  At least it is getting some coverage now.

A story to share from this morning, I’d like to know how often this kind of discussion erupts from your breakfast table?

The scene began with Ale emerging from the kitchen with a plateful of delicious fruits; oranges, plums, kiwi and apples. Sustainability has been an issue on our tongues for the past month now as the My Choice! initiative rolls out.

Suddenly, the colourful plate of fruit before me draws my attention to its uniformity. Every fruit slice, identical to the next especially the seedless oranges. My curiosity overcoming me, I grab one of the uncut oranges an sure enough by hypothesis was correct:

I was sitting in Bangalore, India eating Oranges grown in Australia and my friends were eating apples grown in Washington.

The absurdity of my situation grew into a discussion about food transportation, genetically modified (gm) crops, pesticides and mono cultures.

So I related this story to my friend who had purchased the oranges:

“Imagine being born, to a city where every single person looked identical to you, acted like you, sounded like you when they spoke. How could you imagine yourself in such a community?” Well these are the communities of monocultures that we are growing around the world to feed our desire to have the ‘perfect’ apple or ‘perfect’ orange, completely oblivious to how, and what cost was made to get these ‘perfect’ products to us.

What joy could we have by biting into an orange that is of the same concentration of pulp and juice as the next. In fact, remember the last time you ate Mandarine oranges for Christmas holidays? How bland have they become? I remember my oranges being so much sweeter and juicer as a kid.

The conversation continued on to hair products. Shampoo. Recently, in my rare visit to a super store, I was persuaded to purchase an organic shampoo. It was about the same price as the usual Fructus product I usually buy. I thought; heck it’ll try it! To my amazement, it works great!

Now this particular morning, fully charged on a sustainability epiphany, I compared the ingredients of a fructus shampoo and the my new organic shampoo. Well, needless to say the fructus won the battle in terms of number of chemicals it uses, total of 23, 4 of which were chlorine related, and 1 was perfum. Whereas the organic shampoo had 5 natural extracts, 1 of which was purifed water.

The math is simple, but the question on my mind was why do we need conditioner? Where did it come from? And why are we dependent on it? The answer was triggered by a comment made by William McDonough in an address to Vanderbilt University. The chemicals found in shampoo may clean your hair stripping it of many essential nutrients necessary for its own growth, but it also drys the hair making it tangly and rough, which is why you need more conditioner to make it feel smooth and silky.

What a con.

moral of the story: buy organic (locally)

 
While I was visiting the Roshni Village in Lahore, an eco-friendly farm and school who produces the best organic bread, I met the man who started it all. He shared with us this presentation he gave at LUMS on Alternative Economy, and I wanted to share it with you all.
 
 
Presentation on Alternative Economy
by Hamid Hellmut Hannesen, Roshni Association, Lahore
 
In ancient cultures all social and economical life was influenced by the religious life. Normally there was a group of religious people, not involved in any practical work, but teaching everybody and designing all social and practical life. Worldly leaders like kings and pharaohs were part of this.

Read the rest of this entry »