And now it begins.

We’ve just passed the two month mark for the BP oil spill.  Seems we’ve also gone from estimates of 1,000 barrels a day (BP’s initial claim) to what might be up to 100,000 barrels a day (as discovered from a U.S. Congressman who evidently got hold of an internal BP memo to that effect).  All this, and seeing the CEO of BP on a racing yacht last weekend … well, I’m about to explode myself.  This seems to be sitting somewhere deep in my kishkes (somewhere in my belly) and I’m aware of this ongoing disaster all of the time.

So, here’s what happened last Monday.

I was walking home from my fitness class and, as I often do, I stopped into a couple of the shops along the way.  The first one I come to as I meander home is a used children’s “stuff” store and I like to go in there and browse through the clothing that would fit my grandchildren; I often find the most beautiful things for little Freida there.  Then there are two women’s clothing stores side by side.  They’re owned by the same person I think and have very similar – and quite fabulous – items, and both have a great sale rack at the back which is why I like to go in.  The first store, one I think of as “the pink store” because of the bright pink exterior was fine.  Then I went through the open door of the second store, one girl who …. As soon as I got inside I could feel how cool it was, and it was a very very hot and humid day.

So I said to the sales person: “Don’t you think that you should have your door closed?  You’re wasting a lot of energy with the air conditioner going full-blast and the door wide open.”

Her response was “sure, I’ll tell the owner” .  I wasn’t so sure that she was taking me seriously, so I followed up with:  ”Please do me a favour.  Tell your boss that I really like shopping here, but if she keeps the door open with the air conditioning on I won’t be shopping here any more because I can’t support businesses that are not environmentally conscious.  Also, would you let her know that I’m going to tell as many people as I can reach that they should be saying and doing the same?  Thanks so much.”

That felt pretty good actually.  Here’s an issue I care about and I’m trying to do something about it.  Read on to the end and I’ll tell you the ending of my interaction with one girl who.

Later in the day I took our very beautiful dog Isis for a walk.  Actually, I’ve been trying to do the 10,000 steps/day routine (and doing pretty well at it) and some of that is a promise I’ve made to Isis to take her for a big walk through the ravine any day it isn’t raining.  I was going to meet my son Motti at the foot-bridge that crosses the ravine so we could walk together.  Well, just as I was getting to the bridge my path crossed with a woman hiking in the other direction who was wearing a t-shirt that said “Be The Change“.  I said hi to her, and that I loved her t-shirt, and from the slogan knew we were kindred spirits.  She introduced herself and we chatted a bit, commiserating about the oil contaminating the Gulf and the ongoing violence and the coming G20 in Toronto (I will write about that after it’s happened so I can include both my own feelings and observations – for instance on $1.2 Billion spent on security alone – and some of the events that truly unfolded; for now I’ll just say it’s a terrible pain in the royal behind).

And then the penny dropped for me!  I told her about my reaction in the shop earlier in the day and that I’d decided to boycott any store that had air conditioning and an open door if they didn’t close their door – and keep it closed – after I’d talked to them.   She was very enthusiastic about the idea and said that she would do that too.  I asked her to tell all of friends as well and I’d do the same.  Standing there on the grass at the top of the ravine I realized that perhaps this was the start of a true grass roots action.  You know, the city of Toronto has been running a Doors Closed campaign since 2008, doing just what I’m talking about … telling shop-keepers that it just plain isn’t alright to aircondition the sidewalks.  They’ve made a lot of progress over the past few years and some stores and restaurants have been getting the message.  This year they’re even partnering with the  Ontario Power Authority, Toronto Hydro, greenTbiz (and other Toronto Business Associations) to keep the campaign running and to provide stores with other ideas and information that will help them save even more energy!  Indeed, New York City passed legislation requiring many stores to do something simple yet groundbreaking; shut the door when running the air conditioning.  New York city’s utility, Con Edison, estimates that if 1,000 businesses keep their doors open, they would be wasting 4,600 barrels of oil and releasing 2,200 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. That’s the equivalent- in greenhouse gas emissions- of taking 425 cars off the road for a year.  For every 1,000 businesses we can get to shut their doors!
So here I am doing it, hoping to build on the good work being done by others, and hoping that this is something you care about as well.

I’ve started a petition — ACTION ON AIR – being the change – (you can reach it just by clicking on the blue ACTION ON AIR here) to help spread the word.  Now I know that many of you likely think what’s the point of signing a petition.  Well, here’s the point.  It’s a way of reminding us that this is important.  It’s a way of forwarding this idea to your friends and making them a little more aware.  My goodness; I just posted the petition yesterday and in less than 24 hours, and with nobody being told the petition was there, somehow 30 people from as far away as Australia have already signed the petition.  I hope that you will sign too.  I hope that signing will encourage you to tell shopkeepers in stores that you frequent that you’d like them to close their doors.  The petition – you can print it out – gives all of us something to carry around and show shop-keepers that we’re not single voices with concern about this.  My goal is to reach 1,000 names on that petition; that’s not a bad beginning for getting the message across.  If you pass the petition along to your own email lists and tell your friends about it … well, each of us could likely add another 1,000 signatures in a short time.  Together, we could really really make a difference … we can reduce the demand for thousands and thousands of barrels of oil.  I hope you’ll join me in this:  Just click here  ACTION FOR AIR another way to reach the petition easily … I hope you will).  Thanks.

The day before this was posted I picked up my mother and Ellen and the three of us have left town (not quite in time to avoid G20 craziness unfortunately) and will be spending two weeks at a cottage on the shores of Crowe Lake.  David and I drove up there last Sunday to bring up suitcases, some food, books and magazines, my computer, and of course my kayak.  We sat on the deck looking out over the lake as we had a picnic supper before driving home.  I’d already been kayaking and it was so glorious to see my paddle go into the water and be able to see it all the way through each stroke; the water was so clear and clean.  That little island you can see just offshore in the picture has a family of loons living on it and they’ve recently had babies so there are lots of wonderful loon calls to calm the spirit.  I’m going to spend a few hours early early each day writing and then the rest of the day will be kayaking, swimming, sitting on the deck in the sunshine (or the shade), reading, eating and drinking and playing.  My daughter Nili and two of her kids will join us for a few days.  Hopefully my son Motti will come up the second week, when a couple of my friends are coming as well. As we were preparing to drive home, I told David that I really wanted to just go hide under one of the beds and stay there … returning to the “big smoke” wasn’t easy.

I’ll be back from the cottage on July 10th and on July 11th I’m flying up to Iqaluit, the capital of the Canadian territory of Nunavut.  That pale yellow shape you see at the top right of the map is Greenland.  The orange island is Baffin Island, and Iqaluit is on the southern shore.  To give you an idea of how far north it is, the Arctic Circle is 66.5 degrees north of the Equator, and Iqaluit is 63.5 degrees north.  It will definitely be a week out of the summer, but Nunavut is the only Canadian province / territory that I haven’t visited and I’ve wanted to get there for some time.  Nili is going up to help  out a doctor for a month and I’ll be there the first week to take care of Noam and  Freida who’ll be there with her.  I guess we’ll be spending our days going for lovely walks on the tundra.  Imagine that.

Anyhow, I’ll still be posting so will keep you up to date, more or less, on what I’m thinking and doing.

I hope that you’re all enjoying the beginning of summer too.  I’ll look for you on the petition!  Don’t forget to pass this along to your friends please.

AND NOW, AS PROMISED:  You might be wondering what happened at one girl who… after I talked to them about closing the door.  They did!!  I went in again today and talked to the same young woman and she said that they’d be keeping the doors of both stores closed from now on.  What a great response!  I encourage you to shop there if you’re anywhere near St. Clair and Bathurst and Toronto – one girl who …. is at 647 St. Clair Avenue West.

(One more easy opportunity to show that you care about the environment.  Do take just a minute and sign up and then take another minute and please forward this all to your friends and others on your email lists.  I will be grateful … and more important than that you’ll be doing something good for the earth …. so don’t forget okay?!)

‘