Mushrooms!

Happy New Year to you all!
There's lots to do to protect and enhance our wonderful planet and its inhabitants of all sorts. There is also lots of fun to be had and we are kicking off the new year with a workshop on growing your own mushrooms at home. Yay! I love mushrooms, being part Hobbit.
Our volunteer Tom Nagy will be leading the workshop and here's what he says:

Ever been interested in growing your own crop of delicious or medicinal mushrooms, either inside or outside of your own home? Come and learn a variety of efficient and creative methods for growing your own varieties of mushrooms and how doing so can enhance your physical and mental health and our relationship with food, crops and the environment.
This presentation will begin with a short analysis of what mushrooms and fungi actually are, how we understand them, how they behave, and also how they differ from other kingdoms of life. Understanding fungi at least on a basic level is critical to effectively nurturing them just as one would do a plant in the garden or inside the home.
Next, you will learn the basic ways of which to grow mushrooms both indoors and out, including the importance of humidity, sterility, substrate and a number of other key components necessary for successful mushroom gardening. Oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus) will be the main focus, but other simple and delicious mushroom species will also be covered, and how some of them can be used in combination to increase the productivity of your vegetable garden.

When? January 25th, 2014
What time? 10-11.30 am
Where? Grace Lutheran Church.
1107 Main St. West Hamilton, Ontario

Now folks, this event is free but donations are welcome so that we can get Tom to host more of these workshops.

Show the World the Love with chocolates on Valentine's Day!

Valentine's day is coming in a month. Who's planning to buy lots and lots of CHOCOLATE? 

This year, whether you're buying chocolate for your lover, friends, or even yourself, be mindful of who you buy from. Most of the chocolates being sold today are made from cacao farms who practice slavery and child labour. Many of the children are hopelessly stuck in their situation through kidnapping and suffer unspeakable abuse from their bosses.  Other farms that are in "better condition" are paid an unfair price for their work, and as a result, can barely support their families - let alone sending their children to school.

Do you really want to support companies who engage in such immorality for their own profit?

The good news is, my fellow Hamiltonians, you can find the following Fair Trade brands quite easily:

- Cadbury (milk chocolate only) @ most grocery/ convenience stores (Fairtrade, ~$3 per 100g bar)
- Green & Black's @ Fortinos, The Barn (Fairtrade organic, ~$3.50 per 100g bar)
- Camino @ Fortinos, The Barn (Fairtrade, mainly dark chocolates, ~$3.50 per 100g bar)
- Gallerie au Chocolat @ Ecomystic (Fairtrade, hot chocolate available, $4.95 per 95g bar, $9.95 per 200g package of hot chocolate)

You can also find out more places to buy fairtrade products in the Hamilton Fair Trade Directory.

If you're thinking of giving several people chocolate, you can break up the bars and wrap them individually yourself using wax and tissue paper and ribbon or string. You can also buy from Sweet Earth Chocolates (online) who sell individually wrapped small chocolate hearts. Fairtrade Organic. http://mama-ganache.com/prod.itml/icOid/172 
It's also a great idea for a school fundraiser!

Buying organic also means the workers aren't exposed daily to dangerous chemicals (sometimes with little protection).  It also protects their precious water and soil from contamination, which is good for their health and the environment!

What I find about FT chocolates is that they have very interesting flavours you should try out (e.g. greentea, sea salt, ginger, butterscotch crunch, just to name a few)

FT isn't a perfect system-it gets especially complicated when talking about cacao products. The brands listed above aren't perfect either, but they're better than the big companies who don't even try.

If you want to be intense about making sure your chocolate is slave labour free, check out this amazing list: http://www.foodispower.org/chocolatelist.php . You may have to buy online but you have a month! ;).

Sharing with your friends and family, and take a personal pledge not to give or receive non-fairtrade chocolates or cacao products!

Picture modified from Fairtrade Canada's logo.

Some fun resources to get you started towards becoming an active friend of the environment!

Renewable energy resources play an important rule in actively contributing to our goal of giving back to the environment. There are fun and useful ways to test and display these renewable energies, like building a solar oven, or a hydro generator. www.re-energy.ca has plans and directions to show you how to make both of these, as well as other projects too! Check it out, you could make a pizza in your own backyard!

Are you looking for a new, easy way to learn how to be Eco-friendly? www.ecokids.ca has lots of fun games and interactive learning methods for you to do, right from your computer! Thumbs up to you, Eco-Kid!

Part of getting started is knowing where you stand with the environment.  www.zerofootprint.net has a scale that you can fill information into, and shows you how your ever day decisions effect your carbon footprint. This website also has ideas and suggestions that can help you be more environmentally conscious.

Earth hour, which is from 8:30pm to 9:30pm on March 31st, not only saves tons of energy, but also raises awareness about climate change. Learn more about Earth hour, as well as other ways to raise awareness about climate change at www.wwf.ca.

Get your youth group involved in "Off the Grid", a program dedicated to promoting the use of less electricity, and get get free t-shirts! Free stuff and saving the environment? you can't go wrong with that! Learn more at   www.justgeneration.ca


Now go get inspired!

Get There! Active Transportation Video

POSTER CONTEST

Green Venture and Clean Air Hamilton have partnered to host our second Fighting Climate Change poster contest for Hamilton high school students.  

Create a poster encouraging your peers to take action on climate change.  Express an action that people can take to combat climate change and lessen their impact on the planet.  

Make a poster, win great prizes, and get your work seen!  Deadline for entries is Feb 22nd at 4pm.  See details here.

All works will be displayed at an opening reception at Central Library on April 13th, as part of the James St N Art Crawl!  Top works will be displayed in the main lobby at Central Library, at Eco House during Doors Open Hamilton, and the Skydragon Centre (Homegrown Hamilton) for the month of June (including the June Art Crawl) and at other art events TBA. 

1st prize: 1 day workshop of your choice at the Print Studio, 1 year membership at the Art Gallery of Hamilton, $50 gift certificate at Mixed Media

2nd prize: 1 day workshop of your choice at the Print Studio

3rd prize: $50 gift certificate at Mixed Media

Get ideas for your poster:
The world’s climate is changing at a dangerous rate due to high levels of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in our atmosphere.  Many GHGs, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), are naturally abundant and harmless but society produces them at such high rates that it is leading to harmful, planet-wide changes. For more information on climate change and GHGs start here:

Hamilton 350

350.org

City of Hamilton GHG and air pollution report

GHG Sources

What's Causing Climate Change

David Suzuki Foundation –Four places to cut your carbon

It may sound overwhelming, but you can make a difference!  Every time fossil fuels (like oil and natural gas) are used as an energy source, GHGs are released.  Every small action you take to reduce your energy consumption also helps reduce the amount of GHGs entering our atmosphere, helping your community and our planet!  This is your chance to inspire other youth to fight climate change.  All actions help, and every way that we can reduce our use of green house gases will help reduce the impacts of climate change.

Help our environment, inspire others to take action, get your work seen, and win some great prizes!   

Contest Regulations

Poster must be created by Hamilton high school students, and can be made by either individuals or groups.  Any media is acceptable as long as it is on 11"w X 17"h paper (279X432mm / ledger size).  Submit original artwork by 4pm on Feb 22nd, 2012 to Green Venture at 22 Veevers Dr., Hamilton.  Poster must be accompanied by completed registration form and artist statement.  View registration form here.  Digital entries must be 300 DPI and can be submitted to air@greenventure.ca

Posters will be judged by members of Hamilton's artistic, environmental, and educational communities.  Your poster will be judged on creativity, message clarity, composition, and how well it portrays a tangible action and encourages people to take action.  Results will be announced on March 7, 2012.   

If you have a question, contact air@greenventure .ca or call 905-540-8787 ext. 113.

To see our winning entries from last year, check out our blog

Further details about art showings will be posted, so visit us again.

We can’t wait to see your posters!

Auditions: Otesha Morning Choices

Environment Hamilton Youth Group is organizing a play. It's the OTESHA play: Morning Choices.

Synopsis: Careless Consumer and Hopeful Hooligan are 2 average teenagers getting ready for school in their respective homes. Each teen goes through 6 sets of choices: water use in the bathroom,
clothes to wear, leisure time entertainment, buying coffee etc. Each set of choices have significant, tangible impacts on the Earth and its inhabitants.
Carless' choices have negative impacts. Hopeful's choices are a number of small, thoughtful efforts to consciously make choices that have positive impacts.
Mother Earth enters after each time Carless and Hopeful make a set of choices. She clarifies the situation and dispels myths with additional facts regarding each issue.

Auditions are February 2nd at Centenary United Church, 24 Main St W.
4-6pm.
This is open to grade 7-12

Please let others know about this opportunity as well! The play will be shown at that Bay Area science and engineering fair at the end of March. There will be a good 1,500 students who will see it! Maybe after this we can find other venues in which to perform it.

Art Contest