Greenhouse-gas emissions are clogging up the atmosphere. Children are forced to work in mines using dangerous machinery. Tomatoes are being modified to look more tomatoey.
One night you get fed up. You can't just watch everything go down the tubes. It's time to take a stand; every choice you make tomorrow will be environmentally friendly and socially responsible.
It's a very chic goal. Coldplay's Chris Martin would be proud. His band is featured on Sound Environment, two CDs whose proceeds go partly to the World Wildlife Fund. If Margaret Atwood knew about your goal, she might pat you on the back. Atwood has spoken publicly about the need for developers to build environmentally friendly communities.
But will it make any impact? You're just one person.
That's true, of course, but your decisions can be like a ripple in a pond. If you buy an energy-efficient car, you're not only saving fuel, says John Bennett, the Sierra Club of Canada's senior policy advisor on energy; you're also encouraging manufacturers to make more energy-efficient vehicles, and you're showing friends that a fuel-saving automobile is a viable option.
Plus, says Bennett, you're pressuring politicians to put more environmentally friendly regulations in place: Legislators are more likely to take on manufacturers if they feel there's public support.
So individuals can make a difference. Every single day.
You resolve to start the next morning, and firm up your commitment by going to bed wearing your new organic hemp-flax pajamas and clutching a copy of Greenpeace: The Inside Story.
7:15 a.m. The alarm clock goes off. Is it battery-powered or electrical? Many batteries contain mercury. When mercury is released into the atmosphere, it can be converted into the more toxic methylmercury, which accumulates in fish, according to Environment Canada.
As methylmercury goes up the food chain, it gets more concentrated. Among its risks, methylmercury can harm children's neurological development. You decide to junk your battery-powered clock (taking the batteries to a safe-disposal site, of course) and buy an electric model that day.
But electricity isn't much better if it comes from a coal-fired plant lacking adequate mercury controls, says Pollution Probe's executive director, Ken Ogilvie. Bullfrog Power, meanwhile, offers Ontario residents green electricity from wind and water. You sign up online, thrilled that tomorrow when your alarm clock goes off it won't hurt fish or pollute the air.
Now that you're up, you shuffle to the bathroom to pee. Do you use regular toilet paper or recycled? The latter, of course — saving trees one whiz at a time.
An equally life-changing question: to flush or not to flush? Canadians are among the highest water users in the world. That's partly because water is so cheap here, Ogilvie says.
You don't want to be a poster child for water waste, but not flushing grosses you out. There is another path: Most toilets use 13 litres of water per flush, but some models use only six, says Canadian Tire spokesperson Maeve Burke.
You have your period. Do you use regular tampons or pesticide-free organic tampons or reusable cotton pads or the tiny plastic cup known as the Keeper? You want the world to be a better place, but you're nervous about trying new products. You stick to organic tampons.
Now you need to wash your hands — but with what kind of soap? Regular or biodegradable and pesticide-free? Did you have to ask? No one wants to increase the world's store of pesticides, and soap that breaks down is vastly preferable to soap that just sits in the water.
7:30 a.m. You're still feeling groggy. A shower would wake you up, but you panic, unsure if a bath is better for the environment. It depends on how long you shower for and if you have a water-conserving showerhead.
What temperature should the water be? "It takes energy to heat water," Ogilvie says. A cooler shower is more energy-efficient than one that's "blasting hot." You turn the faucet to lukewarm and step in.
What kind of shampoo? A conventional brand may contain petroleum-based products that are difficult to filter out of wastewater. But there are many petroleum-free, biodegradable options on the market. You pour some on your head while singing Celine Dion's "A New Day Has Come."
It's time to deal with dental plaque. You grab a tube of biodegradable toothpaste. Of course, you don't leave the water running while brushing your teeth. Only a planet-hating amateur would do that.
7:45 a.m. At last, you're ready to go to the kitchen and make breakfast. Coffee and toast with eggs.
But is the coffee fair-trade?
Some coffee farmers in countries like Mexico, El Salvador, and Nicaragua are forced to sell their coffee beans to middlemen at prices lower than the cost of production. That creates a cycle of poverty by requiring farmers to rely on loans to produce next year's crop.
By contrast, the coffee in your mug is made with fair-trade beans, which means they came from a co-operative of farmers with direct access to the market, who can thus sell their beans at a fair price. Toronto is dotted with shops that sell fair-trade coffee, teas and chocolate.
Now that you're caffeinated, you poach two organic, free-range eggs (frying them wouldn't harm the environment, unless you have a Teflon pan — see below). For seasoning, you sprinkle some dill from your mini-indoor greenhouse.
In the summer, you'll plant the dill in the ground outside. You wouldn't even consider adding pesticides. Pesticides can wash off gardens into the Don and Humber rivers, which would then funnel them into Toronto's source of drinking water: Lake Ontario.
While poaching the eggs, you put a piece of organic 12-grain bread into the toaster. No pesticides were used growing that grain, you think to yourself happily as you settle down to eat.
8 a.m. After putting your dishes in the sink, you wonder what to wash them with. Most cleaning products don't have ingredients lists, says Rob Grand, owner of Grassroots environmental products. But many soaps contain chlorine and dyes. To be on the safe side, you use dish soap made from corn and coconut oils.
8:15 a.m. You head back to the bedroom to get dressed. Not an easy task if you want to clad yourself responsibly. Often clothes are made in sweatshops overseas where staff are underpaid and prevented from unionizing. Finding out the conditions of workers isn't easy. You promise yourself to ask more questions the next time you buy a T-shirt.
Most of your wardrobe is cotton. Cotton is one of the most polluting crops in the world, according to the Pesticide Action Network North America.
Guilted out of wearing designer garb, you pull on a pair of organic cotton underwear. You check yourself out in the mirror. Yup, still sexy, even in organic fibre.
You put on an organic-cotton red top and organic-cotton khaki pants. For socks, you wear a pair made mostly of wool and recycled polyester. You look for a pair of shoes. That's a tough one, because shoes are often made with glues and dyes that can be harmful to the environment. You put on your scuffed-up boots but promise to look for ones made from recycled rubber next year.
You grab a rain jacket — but which one? You've heard that a chemical in Teflon is also linked to waterproof clothing. A quick excursion onto the Internet tells you that Delaware-based Dupont Co., which owns the Teflon brand, is the North American manufacturer of perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA.
The chemical is used primarily to produce its salts, which are needed to make polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), a chemical that's used not only to give cookware a non-stick surface, but also to make fabrics water-resistant. You're a bit queasy about the link between your coat and a frying pan, and you've already made the point of poaching your eggs.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency began investigating PFOA in 2000 after it was found in the blood of the general population throughout the United States. Media sources recently reported that a board of scientific advisers to the EPA voted to approve a recommendation that PFOA be considered "a likely carcinogen." At the present time, the EPA "does not believe there is any reason for consumers to stop using" products that contain this chemical.
That doesn't make you feel any better. You're slightly afraid of your raincoat.
And what about the fabrics used for coats? At least you have a solution here. You pull on a jacket made entirely from recycled polyester.
8:30 a.m. Time to head for work. You grab your briefcase and close the front door. As you lock it, you wonder if the company that provided the trees for it replaced the ones it had chopped down.
You vow when you buy a house the front door will come from Ecoitaly. The Ossington Ave. store stocks a line of upscale Italian doors made of 95 per cent recycled wood.
In the meantime, you notice the paint on the door is chipping. You think, I should strip off the old paint this weekend and repaint. After all, first impressions matter. Good thing you've stocked up on a chloride-free paint stripper that is also biodegradable.
Paints often release low-level toxic emissions because of volatile organic compounds, which until recently were considered a necessary component of the paint. This weekend you will pick up some non-VOC paint and spruce up that front door.
You vow that when you buy a home you will install cabinets made from wheat board, a straw waste product. Your kitchen walls will have tiles made from recycled glass. Your wooden floors, bookshelves and computer table will be made by companies that believe in replanting the forests they take lumber from.
8:35 a.m. Twenty-five minutes until you have to be at your office on the other side of the city. It's too far to walk or bike. How do you get there?
A transit rider creates 65 per cent less greenhouse gas emissions than a car user for the same trip, according to a paper by the Canadian Urban Transit Association.
But your work is in an area where public transportation isn't quite up to snuff. Carpooling may be the better way.
"It allows people to share the cost of gas but also cut their emissions at least in half," says Ryan Lanyon, project director of Smart Commute, a partnership between the cities and regions of the Greater Toronto Area and Hamilton, with funding from Transport Canada.
Smart Commute runs the Carpool Zone, an online program on which people can register for free to find carpooling partners. Since the launch in November, almost 1,500 people have signed up.
You're one of them. You found a guy named Fred who lives two blocks away and works in the same office complex as you.
Which type of car do you drive?
Yours is a one of the new hybrids, which has a gasoline engine and an electric motor. The electric one is used when the car is moving at 40 kilometres per hour or less. At 41 kilometres per hour, it flips to gasoline. When a hybrid car uses the electric motor, it creates zero emissions, says Andy Acho, Ford's worldwide director of environmental outreach and strategy.
Other companies that manufacture hybrid vehicles include Honda and Toyota.
8:40 a.m. You pick up Fred. En route to the office, you try to drive the car slower than 41 km an hour. With the traffic on the highways, it's easy. Once you've arrived, you say goodbye to Fred in the lobby (no elevator for you) and walk up to your fourth-floor office.
Did you leave your conscience in the parking lot? Well, it is possible to encourage employers to make sustainable and ethical choices. The Toronto Catholic District School Board passed a "sweatshop-free uniform policy" last month.
But many people work for huge corporations where it's difficult to know if the company's suppliers are environmentally friendly or pay their staff fairly. You likely can't have any impact on the company's purchases. Would you go on strike if your employer refused to put recycled paper towels in the washroom?
Though finding a job that matches your green goals may be too hard, investing isn't. Around noon, you get a call from a financial adviser suggesting you invest in oil stocks. Some oil companies, such as Shell, have publicly discussed the importance of cutting greenhouse gases. Others won't acknowledge that burning fossil fuels affects the environment.
You tell your adviser to buy mutual funds from one of the few companies that evaluates firms not only financially, but also ethically — how they treat the environment and their employees.
5 p.m. Finally, the workday is over. On the way home, you make Fred wait while you stop at an organic grocery store and pick up some pesticide-free chicken, romaine lettuce, pears and baby food (your sister and her four-month-old are coming for dinner). Feeling good that your groceries won't further taint your body or your guests', or Toronto's drinking water, you drop off Fred and head for home.
5:30 p.m. Time to start cooking. In order to conserve energy, you don't use the fan over your stove, opening all the windows instead. And you sauté the chicken in a cast-iron pan, having safely disposed of your Teflon-coated skillet.
6:15 p.m. Your sister and her daughter arrive. As you eat dinner you tell her about your conversion to green living. She looks at you like you're crazy but says the meal is excellent. After eating, you serve fair-trade organic green tea. Your sister changes Sarah's diaper in the washroom. She puts the used diaper in the green bin to be recycled into compost.
Two hours later they leave and you go online to check out which protests are happening this week. You scan the events calendar of the Toronto Women's Bookstore, Activist magazine and rabble.ca.
9 p.m. You switch on the TV to watch CBC's The National. It pleases you to support public broadcasting, even if Peter Mansbridge isn't as hot as some of the CNN anchors.
10 p.m. You climb into bed. It's been a long day. You're exhausted from all those decisions but at peace knowing your choices may in some small way help make the world less scary. Plus, it will impress the hell out of your date tomorrow night, an avid outdoorsman. You're meeting him at an organic restaurant. You'll be walking there, of course.
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