no.
design
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environment
product and interior designer,
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food
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05
wellness
ni Ka zu P anc,
CUTS A NEW EDGE ON PUNK ELEGANCE
clean livinG
PRESENTING OUR NEW COOKBOOK OF FABULOUS PLANT-BASED RECIPES ACTRESS CRUSADE TO
EMMA THOMPSON’S
save the north pole BIDDING FOR CHARITY
AT NAPA’S WONDERFUL WINE AUCTION
ARCH ITECTURE IN A BACKCOU NTRY HUT
CH A R LOTTE CA RSON Founder, Editorial & Creative Director
Even as this seismic event shakes the ver y stories in our Environment Section: Water, foundations of the civilized world, the urge to and the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Riding triumph over Trumpian tyranny is irrepress- the Marakesh Express, and Shooting Ourselves ible, and this issue of Clear Life celebrates in the Foot at the Top of the World, by Senior such indomnible spirit, in all its permutations. Editor Judith Stapleton. We all have to eat. In honour of the planet,
We roll out the good will and the wine in
we are proud to release Clear Living, our plant- Margaret Swaine’s stor y on Napa’s annual based cookbook, with recipes that will bring wine auction fundraiser, Roll Out the Barrels. you home to your kitchen, every day. The presales are ready!
In Edible, Sustainable Art, Paige McPhee introduces Chef Justin Cournoyer, who has
Leaving a smaller footprint means you can fit transformed his small-town roots in Actinolite, yourself into any sort of space, so we are pleased Ontario into a restaurant destination on to present the Backcountry Hut Company, a Toronto’s Ossington Street, where you too can little branch off the Leckie Studio tree. The 19th annual Interior Design Show comes to
make the farm-to-foodie transition. A good purge is therapeutic for everyone, and
the Toronto Convention Centre this season, and Holly Kenley shows us how with her story, Clean brings with it the latest in design materials and Out Digital Clutter:Make Room for Authentic concepts, including the punk elegance of works by Connection. award-winning designer Nika Zupanc, who talks with CL about her approach to functional art.
Plenty of other delights and surprises tucked in this issue too. Oh, and hot cross buns are
Without water, we are nothing. Our concern back in the bakeries…a sure sign of Spring, for threats to water is ref lec ted in three and optimism!
Charlotte Carson 2 | clear life
R ICHI EL CH A A R
JUDITH STA PLETON
Business Development
Senior Editor
EMILY FAUSTINO
R HEA NNA BA LATBAT
Art Director
Graphic Designer
HOLLI K ENLEY
K ATR INA JOHNS
Wellness Contributing Editor
Food Stylist & Recipe Wizard
hollikenley.com
clear life | 3
Edible, Sustainable, Culinary Art at Actinolite
photography, Arash Moallemi 4 | clear life
p. 30
Brian Sano, photographer, enjoys laughing and takes darn good pictures. His photography clients include Aritzia, Birks, Cole Haan, Harry Risen, Holt Renfrew, William Ashley, Kraft, Proctor and Gamble. His laughing includes time with the wonderful circle of friends he has. Louis Albuquerque, photographer, born in Portugal raised in Toronto, Luis is a product photographer who is known for his use of vintage props and mini vignettes. Luis has worked with clients such as Aldo, Best Health, Bite Beauty, HBC, HomeSense, Holt Renfrew, Le Chateau, Nike. Margaret Swain, journalist, has been writing regular columns in the National Post newspaper since its inception. Her most recent is Forks & the Road on culinary travel. She also writes the bi-monthly Global Gourmet column for www.travelindustrytoday.com. She is a principal critic and spirits columnist with www.WineAlign.com and pens feature articles for many publications including Zoomer USA Today, The Globe and Mail and American Express Travel. Paige McPhee, journalist, began her career writing children’s books and play reviews for The National Post in 2007. Since then, she has created content for the likes of PromCanada Magazine, Narcity Media and The Mizrahi Collection among others. Paige is currently finishing her honours Bachelor of Arts degree at The University of Toronto in Communication, Culture, Information Technology and Professional Writing. Her first book, I’m in Like with You, will be released in June 2017 with Life Rattle Press.
Interns Graphic Designers Betty Avery Yehjean Yang Photography Assistants Aeshin Yeo Hannah Matheson Kathleen Gillis Project Management Emily Shebib Mohammad Khan Flora Yan
Richard Dubois, photographer, has been shooting beauty, advertising and editorial fashion for the better part of two decades. His work has appeared in ad campaigns and publications worldwide, including ELLE magazine, Elizabeth Arden, Cashmere, Studio magazine (Italy), Tributé (Paris) and Highlights (Australia). His work has also been featured on Fashion Television, Project Runway, and Canada’s Next Top Model. In 2008 he received the International Press Association Award in Paris for Best Fashion Photography. Richard splits his time between Toronto, New York, and whatever convenient tropical location he can find. Arash Moallemi, photographer, has shot fashion, beauty, architecture, landscapes, portraits and food, and has directed motion ad spots. He’s been published in the pages of glossies like Hello! Canada, Glow, Sphere and Gioia. He’s worked with prestige brands such as Visa, Nike, Sears and the LCBO, over the past fifteen years. clear life | 5
Edible, Sustainable, Culinary Art at Actinolite
photography, Arash Moallemi
p. 30
environment
70 WATER AND THE RIME
design & arc H itecture
10 DESIGN IN ARCHITECTURE Leaving a Smaller Footprint 18 NIKA ZUPANC The World’s Designer of the Moment 22 IN WITH THE NEW WHITE
OF THE ANCIENT MARINER 80 WE THE PEOPLE—EARTH GUARDIANS RISING UP! 92 RIDING ON THE MARRAKESH EXPRESS En Route to Clean Energy? 100 EMMA THOMPSON WANTS TO SAVE THE NORTH POLE: Shooting Sustainability in the
ClearLife’s Hot List
Foot at the Top of the World
food
wellness
30 EDIBLE, SUSTAINABLE, CULINARY ART AT ACTINOLITE 38 CLEAN LIVING PLANT-BASED RECIPES by Clear Life 50 ROLLING OUT THE BARRELS Bidding high at Napa Valley Wine Auction
109 CLEAN OUT DIGITAL CLUTTER Make Room for Authentic Connections 116 TOP ORGANIC BEAUTY & SKIN CARE PICKS 122 HAIR TODAY but Where Tomorrow?
60 FIRE, WATER, STEEL The Cutting Edge
clear life | 7
8
Design & Architecture
LECKIE STUDIO ARCHITECTURE + DESIGN LEAVING A SMALLER FOOTPRINT by Judith Stapleton
10 | design & architecture
In the First World, the Tiny House Movement is a social transition—a change of expectations about the amount of space you will occupy. It is not for everyone. It takes a bit of a rebel and a change-maker because, in fact, it is a subtle act of civil disobedience. Most tiny housers are not afraid to buck the trend and take tangible steps to live in a manner that is more affordable and sustainable in the face of a massive culture of consumerism. The typical North American home is around 2,600 square feet, whereas the typical small or tiny house is between 100 and 400 square feet. Tiny houses come in all shapes, sizes, and forms, but they enable simpler living in a smaller, more ef ficient space. People are joining this movement for many reasons, but the most popular reasons include environmental concerns, financial concerns, and the desire for more time and freedom. An offshoot of the Leckie Architecture Studio in Vancouver, The Backcountry Hut Company follows in the footsteps inspired by IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad, to make affordable, well-designed products “for the many people.� Backcountry Hut has designed a turnkey option to small footprint housing with its prefabricated, flat-packed delivered system that is easy to assemble, scalable if your needs expand, and requires minimal site preparation. The hut system comes as a kit of parts with an engineered wood post and beam skeleton that is then infilled with prefabricated panels with simple nail-on window system. The whole assembly can be erected by volunteers in the tradition of a community barn-raising. The prefabricated wall and roof panels are appropriately sized to be lifted by hand and hoisted into place using a simple pulley and winch system. 12 | design & architecture
With a basic structural module of 10 feet, further additions in 10 foot increments can be easily combined, for increased floor area, additional sleeping quarters, and living space that would accommodate an expanding family. This hut system is designed to be deployed on any site that is accessible by truck or helicopter. There are a range of possibilities for interior fit-out options and exterior finishes. You can go rustic or you can go chic. The possibilities for location are limitless, and the size can evolve with your needs. These optional inserts make the building completely autonomous for real backcountry hideaways or a perch on the edge-of-the-cliff. The building can be virtually off-the-grid. Let us say something here about value. The basic hut is rustic and simple in nature, designed for durability and security against weather with a metal-clad shell engineered to last 50+ years. The simple form affords simple construction. You don’t need to hire a crew if you have able and willing friends to volunteer as your construction team. There is a Lego-like (or IKEA-like) assembly. There is passive cooling through ventilation in the roof. At low and high altitudes, the solar photovoltaic panels are oriented vertically on the facade, and at mid-latitudes the panels are oriented to 45 degrees on the roof.
14 | design & architecture
In the case of the Backcountry Hut, economy and conser vation of both material and energ y in the production and in the assembly of the building components is achieved through the prefabrication process. You get the complete package delivered to you. Site preparation is minimal and requires neither heav y machinery nor major disruption of the site. Muscle-power is required to dig the piling post holes, and then concrete is poured into sonotubes to form the pillars of the foundation. Environmentally sensitive products are used for all materials: engineered wood products, FSC certified lumber, 100% recyclable components, and the Backcountry Hut Company is underpinned by a zerowaste philosophy in the design and implementation of all its products. So, if you plan to get way outdoors but leave a small footprint, this could be your Cinderella moment.
design & architecture | 17
by Paige Mcphee
The World’s Designer of the Moment
At f irst glance, Nika Zupanc’s work speaks softly; using light, feminine colour palettes and modern glossy hardware. The pieces— ranging from long, luxe 70s couches to shining gold desks—are stories, waiting to be told, communicating what Zupanc feels can only be said through design. “I like to ask questions with my objects, not necessarily give answers. If there’s one thing I’d like people to feel around my work, it’s excitement.” “When I was 13, 14, no one in my family felt the same way I did. No one was interested in designing,” Zupanc explains. “Of course, I loved fashion and photography, but there was this sense of urgency in me to do something different, to create.” Zupanc credits her hometown of Ljubljana, Slovenia as a source of inspiration. 500 or so kilometres from Vienna, Belgrade, Milan and the Mediterranean sea, Zupanc had strong cultural inf luences at the tips of her f ingers. design & architecture | 19
“For work, I have to be everywhere really— Japan, Sout h Korea, France. I’m ver y inf luenced by what’s around me. But it’s nice to come home to a small town, a safe creative space.” When at home, Zupanc likes to design f irst with her thoughts. She focuses on a certain question or a problem before setting off on a familiar hike—45 minutes each way - to allow herself to meditate and create plans. “I’m very much a product designer, so I do get put into a small box when it comes to my limitations - the materials I can use, the budgets I work within, the companies who commission my work. I do think the beauty and excitement of design comes from working within the box and getting creative.” “I was on a shoot once and someone once said to me, ‘Nika—make sure you look like a designer.’ What does that mean? Look serious? Wear black? That’s not me. I have long blonde hair, I’m a feminine person. I don’t conform to people’s expectations of what a designer should look like—especially a female one.” Zupanc’s latest collection displayed at South Hill Home was crafted with the Olympics, athletic and country clubs in mind—though they don’t translate as super masculine creations. Much like their creator, Zupanc’s work is multi-dimensional, translating a variety of meanings through careful construction, playful details, and materials that demand attention.
20 | design & architecture
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photography, Louis Albuquerque dĂŠcor, Charlotte Carson
in with the new white For elegant living at its best, try a simple clean palette and hints of color for visual high-style in a comfortable space. Clear Life shows you where to shop for interesting pieces this season.
22 | design & architecture
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design & architecture | 25
26 | design & architecture
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28
Food
EDIBLE S ST IN BLE
u a a
art
Chef Justin Cournoyer opens his culinary palette to the world, and it is delightful.
by Paige McPhee photography, Arash Moallemi 30 | food
J
ustin Cournoyer was born and raised in Actinolite, Ontario—a rural town just outside Bellville
that would eventually give name to his Ossington restaurant. Actinolite was where Chef Cournoyer was f irst introduced to the Canadian food landscape; foraging, hunting and gathering from a young age. Whatever Cournoyer’s family couldn’t grow or gather themselves, they would buy from their neighborhood farmer, baker, or brewer—unknowingly living a highly sustainable life. Chef Cournoyer never set out to incorporate sustainability into the design of his restaurant. After cooking under established chefs like Sursur Lee for a large portion of his career, Cournoyer had enough culinary credibility to cook what he knew successfully. In its original stages, Actinolite served various French, Mediterranean and European style dishes that pleased patrons but left Cournoyer dissatisf ied and displaced. It wasn’t until Cournoyer visited international restaurants, like Denmark’s famed Noma, where he was reintroduced to the rustic foods and f lavours of his home.
food | 33
34 | food
Almost overnight Actinolite changed their plates - featuring ingredients with those found within the forest, like juniper, pine needles and lichen. After a little exploration, Cournoyer found organic biodynamic farms to source meat & produce for the restaurant—a process of food production that allows a farm to sustain itself by regenerating waste and utilizing natural resources. By using organic biodynamic produce, Cournoyer shrinks Actinolite’s environmental footprint and offers economic support for farmers in his community, while providing more nutrient dense dishes. It wasn’t long until Cournoyer made one of his biggest culinary investments; shutting down the restaurant one day each week to educate and explore with his staff. “At f irst, it was just experimentation. Seeing what we could use from the land around us, but I really found myself working back to Actinolite, and back to my roots.” Cournoyer explains. “Everything we present is a ref lection of the Canadian environment and landscape. Pasture raised animals. All organic biodynamic vegetables. Come spring time, we’re foraging - but preserving for the winter at the same time. Going into summer, we’re preserving, fermenting, dehydrating for winter. It is a constant process of collecting, repurposing, savouring. It not only forces us to be more creative, but to value food all the more.” For this reason, the price of Actinolites various menus is very ref lective of the work and process behind each dish. The 2-course neighbourhood special, paired with a glass of wine, is about $30. The 4-course summary menu is priced at $60, with the 7-course chef ’s menu at a deserving $90.
When eating at Actinolite, it becomes clear that quality is vastly more important that quantity—as each dish is both beautifully and sizably prepared, some even on refurbished Actinolite rocks. Several thin slices of aged angus beef shoulder lie on my plate, joined by wild dandelion leaves, coated in a white pine oil. The beef is tender yet textured, tasting of strength. Red-meat is a rarity on Actinolite menu, though for good reason. Cournoyer details, “I like to treat the restaurant like I’d treat my family a hundred years ago. Back then, you wouldn’t have access to the volume of food we have today, especially meat. You would be lucky to get a Sunday roast that one day a week. To be sustainable, we should be eating less meat less often. And when you do, meat that’s high quality, organic, sustainably farmed.” As the chef ’s menu continues, Cournoyer’s philosophy of simple—but not simplistic— food transcends, each plate containing no more ingredients than you could count on one hand. Cournoyer prides himself on using ingredients of peak f lavour and freshness, allowing each element to give an independant impression. 36 | food
The miso dish is easily one of the most divergent and sustainable of the night, featuring squash, jerusalem oil and peony f lowers. Cournoyer explains that though the dish is Asian-inspired, it also classifies as Canadian food. “Immigration has greatly improved Canada’s food culture. We’ve obtained culinary histories from China and Japan, that inf luence what we prepare. We make 10 different misos here because we get to purpose fish guts—an ingredient that can be fermented and manipulated to be incredibly versatile. These are great f lavours that Canada provides.” Chef Cournoyer extends his sustainability beyond his plates to his bread baskets and beer glasses—using discarded grains from Burdock Brewery to bake fresh rolls, all the while stocking the restaurant’s bar with frosted bottles. Cournoyer has even got into the habit of handing organic waste over to partnered pig farmers, to use for a more dimensional feed. Sustainability as a mindset really allows one to transform their lifestyle, rejecting impulse and favouring thoughtfulness. If there’s anything Actinolite is as a restaurant, it’s extremely thoughtful, developed and decadent. An intelligent dining experience that not only betters your body, but your mind, community and environment.
food | 37
clean living plant-based recipes by Clear Life photography, Brian Sano food stylist, Katrina Johns studio, The Food Group
time to make a difference Download our plant based recipes and help with our mission to make a difference and fight child hunger. A large number of children across the world go without breakfast and lunch daily. Together we can feed these kids with our help. Donations go towards school lunch program to feed kids. Join us to fight children’s hunger.
FUNDRAISING FOR CHILD HUNGER 38 | food
toasted berry coconut oatmeal
Overcoming poverty is not a task of charity, it is an act of justice. Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings. Sometimes it falls on a generation to be great. You can be that generation. Let your greatness blossom. —Nelson Madela
40 | food
raw hemp algae bars
DOWNLOAD RECIPES NOW TO FUNDRAISE FOR CHILD HUNGER food | 41
kale, apple + red cabbage slaw with cider dijon dressing and caraway
42 | food
hunger statistics Some 795 million people in the world do not have enough food to lead a healthy active life. That ’s about one in nine people on earth. The vast majority of the world’s hungry people live in developing countries, where 12.9% of the population undernourished. Poor nutrition causes nearly half (45%) of deaths in children under five—3.1 million children each year. One in four of the world’s children are stunted. In developing countries the proportion can rise to one in three. 66 million primary school-age children attend classes hungry across the developing world.
Sources: State of Food Insecurity in the World, FAO, 2015 State of Food Insecurity in the World, FAO, 2015 Series on Maternal and Child Nutrition, The Lancet, 2013 Prevalence and Trends of Stunting among...Children, Public Health Nutrition, 2012 Two Minutes to Learn About School Meals, WFP, 2012
pumpkin curry with peanuts, peas + crispy spice-crusted tofu
If you can’t feed a hundred people, then just feed one. — Mother Teresa
DOWNLOAD RECIPES NOW TO FUNDRAISE FOR CHILD HUNGER food | 45
crispy cauliflower tacos with slaw and avocados
46 | food
Hunger is not a problem. It is an obscenity. How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. – Anne Frank
food | 47
Poverty is a very complicated issue, but feeding a child isn’t. – Jeff Bridges
vegan coconut, pistachio + fig ice cream with cardamom crumble topping
clear life has a very simple mission: Make a difference. With your help, we are able to help change the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.
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50 | food
by Margaret Swaine
Bidding high for charity at Napa’s annual wine fueled community fundraiser
I’m strolling around the grassy f ields of the for the 36th annual Auction Napa Valley. The posh Meadowood Napa Valley Resort trying Wine Auction draws thousands of partic ipants to get near to the action without singeing my every year and makes millions for charity. hair. South American chef Francis Mallman
This f inal night of dinner, wines and fast
and his culinary team have played with f ire paced live auction is the centrepiece of a to create our meal using age-old techniques four-day long weekend of festivities. Celebrities, from his home country.
business tycoons and other deep pocketed folks
All around me are deep pits lined with red all try to outdo each other in their bids for overhot stones (curanto method of cooking) to roast the-top awesome wine-centric lots created by vegetables. Nestled under hot embers and ash Napa wineries at their own expense. is squash cooking away “rescoldo” style. Two
The best years have raised upwards of $10
parallel fires with a cooking level in-between million in a single night for Napa Valley (the “infiernillo” technique) have been set up to non-prof its. Since its incept ion in 1981, cook wild salmon crusted with salt. Rib eye and Auction Napa Valley has invested more $170 chicken hang on strings over rings of fire—the million in local charitable causes such as dome method used to slow cook them. Chefs OLE Health Centre, Boys and Girls Clubs and their helpers are running about stirring up and Family Centres for the linguistically or embers, stoking fires and darting through flames. economically challenged. Some tangible examples of the Auction’s
Abundant hearts and wallets in wine country.
impact on the community are that every child in Napa County has access to health insurance, thanks to the Community Health Initiative (Napa Valley Vintners is the largest private
Mallmann is considered South America’s funder of this program in Napa County). most famous chef. His book “Seven Fires: One in six residents use OLE Health as their Grilling the Argentine Way” available on primary care provider, the largest recipient Amazon, covers seven varieties of f ire-based of Auction funding and Napa County’s only grilling techniques. In Mallman’s own words non-prof it health clinic. this is barbaric cooking: the goal not some
English language learners who participated
conventional mastery of the grill, but a virile, in the Napa Valley Early Learning Initiative primitive, godlike ability to control f ire.
(NVELI) were three times more likely to be
To describe the evening as hot would be an fully ready for kindergarten than English lanunderstatement. Dante’s Inferno comes to my guage learners who did not participate. Up mind but then the result was heaven sent and all to $5 million in Auction funding has been for a good cause. As the evening heated up even committed to this initiative to help close the more under a big white tent, the bidding began academic achievement gap in Napa County. 52 | food
Aside from this charity appeal, contribute and have lots of fun doing what gets the high rollers to open it. Some make this an annual ritual their wallets with such abandon? The I met one couple who were enjoying auction lots. They are irresistible—if their 17th consecutive year of attenyou are f lush in cash.
dance. A full four-day package cost
As an example, the Lokoya Spring $4,000 per person last year and a VIP Mountain auction lot featured a f light package $20,000 per couple. However, for four people on a private jet to dine you can also pick and choose which at four elite chefs’ establishments: events you want to attend. Chef Daniel Humm’s three- Michelin
The weekend kicks off on Thursday
starred Eleven Madison Park in NYC, night with Vintner Welcome Parties. Chef Grant Achatz’s three-Michelin The one I attended in 2016 was at starred A linea in Chicago, Chef Sinegal Estate, a new Napa winery Josiah Citrin’s two-Michelin starred in St. Helena which just opened in Mélisse in Santa Monica and Napa the fall 2015. Owner David Sinegal Valley’s three star Michelin The popped opened French Champagne French Laundry by Thomas Keller. for our group of about two dozen Accommodat ion wh i le in Napa people while we toured his cellars was two nights at Lokoya’s Spring munching on elegant hors d’oeuMountain villa. Then the foursome vres. Then we dined at one large would be taken to Lyon to dine at cozy table beneath the stars in his the three-star Michelin Paul Bocuse gardens beside a pool. Restaurant. Oh and the winery threw It was a magical evening with genin a 5-litre bottle of each of the four erous pours of excellent Sinegal Estate Lokoya mountain wines.
sauvignon blanc and cabernet sauvi-
There were 36 such lots. About gnon wines to match with lobster salad $100,000 seemed to be the starting and juicy ribeye. Everyone made new price for most lots and some went for friends and learned perhaps too much close to a million. Ah to be so f lush! about each other’s private lives as the Perhaps it’s an irony that the auction wine took effect. enriches lives for the rich as well as the poor. Or perhaps it’s f itting.
Friday is designated for the Napa Valley Barrel Auction. Last year’s
While bidding at the live auction took place at the venerable Robert may be a pipe dream for all but Mondavi Winery, in the midst of its those in that top one percent tier of 50th year anniversary. Under the hot, income, there’s plenty of other ways to 105 Fahrenheit sun, dozens of top 54 | food
food | 55
This charity is not just for the Fabulous People! This tiny pocket of paradise has a big heart.
56 | food
local restaurants served up a cornucopia of I saw a parking lot of limo drivers and black edibles such as pulled pork, lobster and corn cars, obviously the smart way to arrive. The soup, BBQ ribs, kale salad, smoked salmon location was beautiful: 85 acres of v ines and artisanal chocolates. It was impossible straddling Sonoma and Napa Valley appelto try all but every bite was so good I tried. lations. Steve Pride introduced us to his Napa vintners poured their wines – more winery with bubbly and hors d’oeuvres on a than 100 current releases.
terrace as the sun set with glorious colours
Tents, stalls and in some cases solid roofs over the vineyards. covered much of the area but it was still
Chef Peter Hall delivered a dinner to
incredibly hot outside. In the cool barrel remember of wine poached prawn salad, cellars, bidding heated up for the highly r igatoni w ith buf fa lo bolog naise, B& N touted 2013, 2014 and 2015 vintages served ranch lamb medallions, farmhouse cheeses directly from the barrels by winemakers and and honey panna cotta. The Pride Mountain vintners. A case of each of these limited-of- wines were equally impressive, especially the fering wines eventually went to the top ten intense, velvety 2006 and 2010 syrah and big bidders for each winery. Excitement rose as rich 2001 reserve cabernet sauvignon. the bids on a case went higher and higher
On Saturday, there were al fresco lunches—
and the amounts were posted live on screens mine was with vintners R ick and Elaine about the room.
Jones of Jones Family Vineyards and vintners
Anyone who wanted could taste the wines Willinda and Peter McCrea of Stony Hill and offered from the barrel and most of us did started with a tour of some of the places that partly to cool down in the air-conditioned receive funding from the auction. cellars but also because the wines were so
T he fest iv it ies cl i ma x w it h t he L ive
amazing. It was a sip and spit situation for Auction Celebration—that confetti-f lying, many, me included. I had to drive early in paddle f lashing extravaganza under a big the evening to a vintner dinner at Pride white tent. Adding to the drama in 2016 Mountain, which was 2,100 feet above Napa were the f lames and f ires cooking our meal Valley, reached by a long windy narrow road just outside the canvas. in the Mayacamas mountain range.
It was an unforgettable long weekend
When I f inally reached Pride Mountain a nd what ha s to be t he world’s best Vineyards at the summit of Spring Mountain, community fundraiser.
food | 57
58 | food
The 37th Auction Napa Valley 2017 takes place June 1–4. Registration opens February 1st. www.auctionnapavalley.org Napa Valley, California’s first legal American breakfast and coffee spot and Market, a fresh Viticultural Area (AVA) declared in 1981, may market American cuisine restaurant with great be small in size but it’s mighty in the wine world. cocktails and no corkage charge on BYOB wines. The Valley produces just 4% of California’s
The region’s signature sustainability program
wine grape harvest and is an eighth the size is Napa Green. More than 70,000 acres of Napa of Bordeaux, but its wines are among the most County land are in the Napa Green Certified cherished on the globe with reds regularly Land program and 45% of Napa County’s 45,000 topping $100 a bottle.
vineyard acres have been certified. More than
The valley floor is only about 50 kilometres 7 million cases of wine tare produced annually long and eight kilometres across at its widest at Napa Green Certified Wineries. In 2015, the point so really easy to navigate and see all. It Napa Valley Vintners (NVV) established the goal should have only taken me 90 minutes to get that all of their eligible members will be in the from the airport to my destination of St. Helena, Napa Green program by 2020; to date, nearly one of the farthest sub-appellations within 40% of the members have achieved this goal. Napa (but rush hour traffic is an issue from San Francisco north to Napa).
According to the Napa County Agriculture Commissioner, in 2015 (the most recent year
The wineries are small (nearly 80% produce available) there were 104 certified organic farms less than 10,000 cases annually) but numerous— growing wine grapes with 3,210 producing about 475 physical wineries in Napa County acres. Ehlers Estate just off Highway 29 in St. producing more than 1,000 different wine Helena is one of the oldest in Napa Valley. The brands. About 400 have tasting rooms. Napa 42 acres of vineyards are all organically farmed Valley is the appellation (called an AVA or and in fact take it a step further by following American Viticultural Area) and there are 16 biodynamic practices. The tasting room is in an sub-appellations starting with Los Carneros in old stone barn dating back to 1886. Winemaker the south and ending with Calistoga in the north. Kevin Morrissey was in the barn while I was I based myself in St. Helena, a few AVA’s south sampling wines and boy was he ever passionate of Calistoga. The town, population about 6,000, about his craft. He takes a holistic approach to is tiny but lovely with good eats and shopping. every aspect of farming and winemaking and It’s also home to the CIA – no not that one it shows in the pure expression of the wines. -rather The Culinary Institute of America at Tasting are $35 and if you go in the morning Greystone. My hotel, the Wydown, was right on include a croissant from Bouchon Bakery. Main Street near Model Bakery, a local favourite www.ehlersestate.com
Chefs the world over claim that there is no short cut to a sharp knife. Whether the steel blade has been forged and artfully handcrafted or cut from a sheet and manufactured in a mill, the consensus is that the sharpness of the knife matters because it affects the taste of the food. A perfectly sharp knife makes the food taste better. 60 | food
the cutting edge Calgary Shop photography, Jared Sych food | 61
Life as sous chef under the legendary Fergus Henderson at St. John restaurant in London honed Kevin Kent’s chops, and proved to be a great training ground for an entrepreneurial life eight years later. Kent opened his f irst Knifewear shop in Calgary in 2009, and he has been keeping the culinary industry sharp ever since. Though 80% of his customers are from the industry, foodies shop here too, for the sharp wit and the rock vibes. Clear Life investigated the world of blade science with Kent, knife aficionado and ambassador of the culinary cutting edge, who takes us on a tour through Japan’s heritage of the master knife craft in his documentary film, Springhammer. Japan’s renown for the slow crafts, the Kutani sword, and the samurai life of dedication, deftness and dexterity, came to a grinding halt at the end of WW II, and the generations of families whose stature had been elevated by the achievement of the perfect edge arrived at the end of the pavement, with no path in sight. The war in Japan destroyed everything. With no physical or social infrastructure left, it became necessary to f ind ways to make money quickly, just to survive. Because of the devastation, the system of ordering had to change from slow, manual craftsmanship to fastgrowth industries. And the world of “disposables” was launched. Cheaply made, temporarily adequate items generated sales and inf luenced consumer psychology. Decades of tiny transistor radios and plastic toys and utensils transformed the Japanese economy, and shaped the culture of consumption everywhere. The same existential confrontation between Past and Present affected the economic culture of Germany, where increasing levels of technology and manufacturing before the war had served as evidence that theirs was an inherently superior culture. Like a Phoenix, the German steel industry emerged in the following decades with a new focus—the straight razor. Gone were the grand mustachios and full beards of the Edwardian era. The clean shave helped produce the new face of a new Germany.This re-emergence of the steel industry in Germany created a resonance in the soul of the Japanese blacksmiths who had gone quietly back to their forges, one by one, to look for the f ire that would rekindle their skills as craftsmen. Confident that Japanese handcrafted steel could be better than German manufactured razors, the old generation of steel craftsmen got back to work. A resurgence in the reverence for ref ined craftsmanship reminded some people of the pleasures of using a beautiful tool. 62 | food
Calgary Shop photography, Jared Sych food | 63
Calgary Shop photography, Jared Sych 64 | food
“To ordinary people, blacksmiths are a mystery,” says knife master Takamura. Forging steel by hand is a physically demanding, arduous, repetitive job. By the end of the 19th century, the spring hammer had brought mechanical engineering into the manual process, but the ref inements of shaping were still the métier of the master. The metal reaches 1000 degrees in its malleable form, and even as it is hammered hundreds of times, it can’t be allowed to cool down until it is shaped. “Forging changes the microstructure of the steel,” Kent explains, outside a temple near Takefu, surrounded by lotus f ields. After the blade and the blacksmith have reached their agreement, annealing takes the internal pressures off the steel, and it cools down in preparation for a new life of service. “Carbon steel produces the sharpest blade,” asserts Takamura. “Rust is the disadvantage,” he says, “but the sharpness is worth it because it makes the food taste better.” This master smith is known not only for the excellent edge of his hand-made knives, but for his use of layers of two different types of steel, and the delicate designs he produces on both sides of the blade. These knives are truly works of art for which Takamura has achieved the status of “meister” craftsman. But in his own estimation, Takamura feels that his level of skill is six out of ten, if ten is the peak of mastery at his death. To a knife master, it is a long road of self-improvement. For some young men there is a yearning to practice this craft and preserve this tradition, particularly in families where generations past were respected for their dedication to the perfection of exquisite tools and utensils—knives for hunting, straight razors, and all kinds of service knives for the kitchen.
food | 65
There is agreement among the younger generation of knife craftsmen that it is not a career for making money. As a craft, it will pull you towards your own personal perfection, if you have the dedication. It is for your own improvement. Satisfaction is not the goal, it is the end of improvement. If you are diligent, and fortunate enough to avoid injury, the point of satisfaction should come at the end of your life. Meanwhile, you must strive. In Kent’s documentary, the springhammer itself serves as the bridge between centuries and methodologies, but also as a conduit through which an appreciation of the human sensibilities about beauty for its own sake, and the skill it takes to achieve it, are forged together, inseparable in their structure and function, and signif icant in their inf inite usefulness.
Calgary Shop photography, Jared Sych 66 | food
68
Environment
waiting for disaster: OIL COMPANIES REFUSE TO PUT WATER FIRST
by Judith Stapleton
W
ell, here we are at Nero’s last dinner party and we have a fabulous view of the f ire! Just recently added to the conf lagration is the Kinder Morgan pipeline, which runs
from the tar sands of Alberta to the community of Burnaby, British
Columbia, and out to beautiful Burrard Inlet, the shallow-sided coastal f jord that def ines the city of Vancouver. This is the body of water that makes Vancouver one of the most livable cities in the world, and where you will see tug boats and log booms, kayakers and paddle boarders, swimmers and wind surfers, small craft and yachts, and other cargo container ships that come and go daily. But we at the dinner table have to ask, “In whose world could approval of this expansion make sense?” The Canadian National Energy Board refused to examine the project’s impacts on climate change beyond direct CO2 and methane gas emissions, and declined to even consider the latest research on the extraordinary risks and liabilities associated with spills of diluted bitumen. Of course, if you don’t do the research, then you can’t be held to its standards. It’s not in your bailiwick. Texas Kinder Morgan is presently carrying $43 billion worth of debt, and oil prices are in free-fall, yet it has NEB approval to twin its pipeline, and increase its capacity from 300,000 barrels per day to 890,000 barrels per day. Who among us would want the NEB managing our family budget? Expansion would encourage a doubling of oil sands production, from 2.4 million barrels a day to 4.8 million barrels a day by 2040. “I beg your pardon! What did you just say?” As a result of this project, oil tanker traff ic along the B.C. coast would increase from four or f ive a month to 34. The Vanterm Port in Burrard Inlet would be the f illing station, and the bitumen would travel through some of the most densely populated parts of the province. To date, the best science concludes that there is no established or competent method for cleaning up diluted bitumen once it has been spilled in any aquatic environment. The tar sands produce among the world’s most costly and water-wasting oil, and are already the largest source of greenhouse gases in Canada. environment | 71
The International Energy Agency says in its study concludes that, under business-as-usual latest Oil Market Report that, “There is cur- human- induced green-house gas warming, rently little evidence to suggest that economic by the year 2100 the earth will likely be 5.9 activity is suff iciently robust to deliver higher degrees C above pre-industrial levels. oil demand growth.” We put down our forks for a moment to ask,
Someone at the table drops a glass. Dr. Pangloss is clearly stunned. “You mean,”
“Could this possibly be a trend? What’s OPEC he stutters, “that a child born today would doing lately?”
see the earth get close to that limit, in her
Many communities oppose the project, lifetime?” including the cities of Vancouver and Burnaby.
There is widespread agreement in the scien-
Two people at the end of my side of the table tific community that civilization as we know it are overheard to ask, “What’s that thing we could not exist in a climate at that level. And say about doing something in your own nest?” reknown scientist James Hansen of Columbia The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on University has said in an op ed for the New Climate Change) noted that, “The issues York Times: If Canadians continue to develop raised by the Trans Mountain Pipeline pro- the tar sands, then it is essentially Game Over. posal are among the most controversial in
This is the context in which the young
the country, perhaps in the world, today: the Canadian Prime Minister, father of three, rights of Indigenous peoples, the future of has authorized the expansion of the Kinder fossil fuel development in the face of climate Morgan pipeline. change, and the health of a marine envi-
The bitumen it carries will go to China
ronment already burdened by a century of and India where it would be ref ined, and cumulative effects.” A little distracted by the strains of Nero’s
burned, obviously. “What,” the dinner guests are now asking,
playing, Dr. Pangloss, at the other end of the “ happened to the v ision of Canada as a table, pipes up. “Hang on a minute, you gloomy moral leader?” diners, you’re spoiling the entré! Surely Science will figure out how to fix the environment, no matter what the oil barons do!”
By 2100, earth’s surface temperature would be 5.9°C hotter.
Let’s consider Tobias Friedrich’s article, published in the November 9, 2016 issue of the Journal of Science Advances.
“When,” says an indignant yet injured voice, “did it stop seeing itself as a beacon for justice
Warm air holds more water, and the clouds in the world?” holding that water are getting taller and moving
“What about the Paris Agreement? Didn’t that
towards the poles. This is unusual. Using esti- commit Canada to certain targets, albeit rather mates of warming over the next 85 years, the low targets, set by the previous government?” 72 | environment
environment | 73
When Steven Harper was Canada’s Prime Their bailiwick is within six miles of said Minister—and one of the world’s leading body of water. They have not signed off on climate obstructionists, Mr. Trudeau’s Liberal pipeline construction. Party roundly criticized him for proselytizing such pathetically low targets.
The National Environmental Act, which was the f irst (1971) environmental policy
So it is remarkable that, today, as Prime legislation in the U.S., requires that before Minister himself, Justin Trudeau is now telling anyone can get a federal permit to change the world that, “Canada is back!” “Canada is the value or the use of public lands or “the a moral leader!” “Canada is going to confront commons,” an environmental assessment and the climate crisis seriously, and responsibly!” impact statement (cost/benef it analysis) must No one at the table can reconcile these be completed. inconsistent claims and behaviour.
The XL pipeline had such an assessment
But several of the guests admit, quietly, that done. It did not pass, and it is not getting built. they recently attended the protest against Fear of such an outcome must be the motivating the Kinder Morgan expansion outside the factor in Energy Transfer Partners’ failure to Vancouver CBC headquarters, where there submit to this process for the Dakota Pipeline. was a polite but passionate crowd.
And that fear is not surprising. This pipe-
As the servants exchange the main course line crosses and disrupts 209 streams and plates and silverware for the dessert course, grave sites and Sioux cultural territory— some of the guests begin to feel quite uncom- given to the Lakota, Oglala, Arapaho, and fortable in view of the spreading conf lagration other tribes in the Treaty of Laramie negooutside across the harbour, the orange f lames tiated by General William T. Sherman in seeming to expand as they are ref lected in 1868. Later, when gold was discovered in the the water, where several ships spark and f lare Black Hills, violations of this land became before sinking under the surface. Nero plays on.
I
common, and often violent. Today, there are over 300 tribal groups
n the small but historically signif icant massed on this site in protest against the pipecommunity of Standing Rock, North line cons truction, which continues despite its Dakota, another pipeline threatens lack of legal authorizations. It is the largest,
another body of water, Lake Oahe and the peaceful assembly of Native Americans in a
Missouri River. It is a critical threat to the hundred years. water supply for eighteen million people and the largest agricultural area on the planet.
Robert Kennedy Jr., president of the Water Keepers Alliance, has reported from the site
The United States Army Corps of Engineers in a number of media about the profound has the f inal authority for any construction recognition in this convocation that they are of any kind near any water on public lands. doing something not just for Native People, 74 | environment
but for American people and for all humanity. They are standing up, at Standing Rock, for the rights of all species to clean water and an environment unpolluted by the carbon that is going to contribute substantially to the destruction of civilization and the planet. “—There is no argument on the side of American energy independence: this crude oil is going to China. There is no argument on the side of national security: which does the Pentagon believe is the greater threat to national security—ISIS, to which we are devoting vast resources, or global warming, to which we are devoting very few? There is no argument on the side of Jobs: like the XL, this pipeline might produce 30 –40 jobs. That is all.”
The National Security Agency and the Pentagon
The moral imperative to protect water and
have already answered these questions in its environment moved the United Nations a comprehensive report, which concluded to resolve, in 2010, that clean drinking water that the biggest threat to civilization and to is a human right, being “essential for the full American security is climate change.
enjoyment of the right to life.”
In the wake of Kennedy’s analysis, the guests A weekend warrior, sitting mid -table, speaks at the table fall silent. Nobody knows what to up from behind the candelabra and f lower say. The heat from the f ire is now palpable, arrangement. “Well, I’m certainly glad I and may have slightly stretched the strings on live in Canada, where we have thousands Nero’s instrument, causing the notes to oscil- of freshwater lakes, and the rivers are so late wildly, changing the tone of the music. clear you can see the rainbows on the trout!” Beads of moisture appear on the Emperor’s Some guests are clearly relieved to hear this upper lip, but he is undeterred.
good news.
However, unlike most other industrial countries, ground. Mine safety experts and media artiCanada actually has no national standards for cles have called the spill one of the biggest drinking water, which is one key reason there environmental disasters in modern Canadian are 163 Drinking Water Advisories for First history. British Columbia’s government iniNations communities alone.
tially insisted the dam failure was not an
In British Columbia, in 2014, the Mount environmental disaster. Polly Mine’s tailings pond collapsed—a
No Canadian has devoted more effort to
catastrophe that released 24 billion litres of making research into Canada’s water availmineral waste, including arsenic and sele- able to the public than Maude Barlow. She nium, into the creeks and streams that lead is worried about fracking. It uses more than into the pristine waters of Quesnel Lake—the seven billion litres of water in British Columbia source of drinking water for the local com- alone, and is responsible for a notable increase munity and a major sockeye salmon spawning in earthquakes in the province.
For the NSA and the Pentagon, climate change, not ISIS, is the biggest threat. If fracking increases, as planned under the provincial Liberal government, Barlow predicts the water needed to blast the gas out of the shale rock “will increase 500 percent or more.” The bottled water industry in B.C. pays virtually nothing for our water, but it is not only the western-most province being bilked. Nestlé pays Ontario $2.25/million litres for its water in the rural town of Elora. The threats to water north of the 49th parallel are endless. Problems associated with the Site C Dam, new mines, the clear-cutting of forests and excessive logging are all impacting sources of clean water. Raw sewage is still dumped into lakes and oceans. And then there is the peril from drought, and the forest f ires that follow. The droughts in California, environment | 77
Oregon, Washington State, and B.C. are all the consequence of global warming, which is going to get worse over the next decade. Renown ecologist, William Rees (“environmental footprint” mapper), makes a persuasive argument that government of f icials who ignore their duty to protect the well-being of their citizens may be guilty of criminal negligence. He cites Section 219 of the Criminal Code, which states that,“lack of intent to harm is no defence if the damage results from conscious acts performed in careless disregard for others.” Peter G. Prontzos cites this argument in his Vancouver Sun article discussing Barlow’s newest book, Boiling Point: Government Neglect, Corporate Abuse, and Canada’s Water Crisis. No one at the table is interested in dessert. In fact, several women have been sick behind their chairs. Four men have fainted, either from the heat or from the smoking bricks of facts that have sucked all the oxygen out of the room. To the meandering strains of Nero’s f iddle, as the city and everything around it burns, one elderly man stands as erect as he can, and beg ins to recite a long poem—long enough to push aside his thoughts of pending death. It is Samuel Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner. 78 | environment
“…Water, water everywhere, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water everywhere, Nor any drop to drink…”
IS “LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL” POSSIBLE IN THIS CLIMATE? by Judith Stapleton
EARTH GUARDIANS—Rising Up!
This is going to be the trial of the century! Earth Guardians is a Colorado-based non-profit organization of young people with members across five continents. Twentyone of those who are American citizens are exercising their Constitutional rights to a future that includes a chance to reach a normal adulthood. Their claim is as serious as a heart attack, and could well lead the children of other countries to sue their governments for a callous disregard of the conditions required for life. Appropriately, it was on August 12 last year, International Youth Day, that the suit was filed against a government failing in every respect to protect American Constitutional rights to life through its promotion of the use and development of fossil fuels. In response, the U.S. Government joined with the fossil fuel industry in a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. But in November, Judge Ann Aiken, District of Oregon, issued an opinion and order denying their request. This was an historic ruling. Judge Aiken said: “Exercising my ‘reasoned judgment,’ I have no doubt that the right to a climate system capable of sustaining human life is fundamental to a free and ordered society.” “This decision is one of the most signif icant in our nation’s history,” said Julia Olson, counsel for the plaintif fs and executive director of Our Children’s Trust. Even as newly elected President Donald Trump promised “unfettered fossil fuel extraction,” youth Director of Earth Guardians and one of the plaintiffs, 16-year old Xiuhtezcatl Tonatiuh Martinez, of Colorado, made their judicial motivations clear: “The federal government has known for decades that CO2 pollution from burning fossil fuels was causing global warming and dangerous climate change. It also knew that continuing to burn fossil fuels would destabilize our climate system, significantly harming my generation and generations to come. Despite knowing these dangers, the defendants did nothing to prevent this harm. In fact, my Government increased the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere to levels it knew were unsafe.” environment | 81
This lawsuit is not about the fossil fuel indus-
Peaceful petition-signing by concerned
try and global warming. It is about the human citizens, and even mass action by environright to life and liberty on a planet where a mental groups, is never going to be effective “free and ordered society” is possible. The aga inst a cl imate- deny ing, sel f-ser v ing whole diagnosis of “liberty” will move under the egomaniac and his courtiers, all of whom microscope with this trial. And in light of President imagine they live on a different planet from Trump’s edicts during his first weeks in office, the rest of us. But it was the Obama adminwe will be a long time in the lab.
istration that had the fossil fuel industry join
The most widely used instrument in the the government in an ef fort to overwhelm whole f ield of science—the microscope—is the children and frighten them of f the legal exactly the right one to employ, metaphor- path. Quite likely, an administration under ically, in this task. For it is the scientif ic Hillar y Clinton would have taken up this method itself that is under attack by the new baton, and run with it. U.S. Administration and its minions. The
The issue of genuine liber t y and the
very idea that evidence doesn’t matter fuels common good is not a plank in any powthe chaos of each new pronouncement from erful political party’s platform. Judge Aiken the White House, whether it concerns immi- made this socio-political reality clear: “[The gration or f inancial regulations or renewing defendants and intervenors] are correct that plaintiffs the coal industry. We are seeing the same likely could not obtain the relief they seek through corruption of power that all tyrants assume. citizen suits brought under the Clean Air Act, the White-collar criminolog ist, William K. Clean Water Act or other environmental laws. But Black, author of The Best Way to Rob a that argument misses the point. This action is of a Bank is to Own One, teaches economics and different order than the typical environmental case. law at the University of Missouri Kansas It alleges that defendants’ actions and inactions— City (UMKC), and has a long list of experi- whether or not they violate any specif ic statutory ence in litigation against institutional fraud. duty— have so profoundly damaged our home planet In a recent interview Black says, “What you that they threaten plaintiffs’ fundamental constituhave to understand is people like Trump and tional rights to life and liberty.” the people he’s put in his cabinet hate the
This generation of children has the most
rule of law. The rule of law is the only thing to lose in a future without the essential elethat can bring them down. And throughout ments for life—water, air, a livable climate, their careers they’ve been able to simply cut and the optimism required for the pursuit of through the law with impunity because of happiness—and these kidwarriors will not be their political contributions...] And those hiding under their desks! are the people, and that is the mentality that is in power now.” 82 | environment
The Atomic Scientists (including 15 Nobel Laureates), whose research and monitoring
So the kidwarriors may be our last best hope.
environment | 83
“This lawsuit is not about the fossil fuel industry and global warming. It is about the human right to life and liberty on a planet where a “ free and ordered society” is possible.”
of the conditions for life on the planet, have
Yet, even as the number of nuclear warheads
just moved the Doomsday Clock another half has diminished, (there are now about 5,000 minute to midnight. In its most recent annual each in the U.S. and Russia), more countries announcement, the Science and Security have them, and these include China, India, Board of the Atomic Bulletin warned: “T he probability of global catastrophe is very
Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea. But it is not just the weapons that pose
high, and the actions needed to reduce the risks of nuclear threat. In this industry, nuclear-matedisaster must be taken very soon. [In 2017, we find rial security is poor worldwide, and theft, loss, the danger to be even greater, the need for action more regulation violation, and contamination are urgent. It is two and a half minutes to midnight, the common. In the U.S. alone, between 2010 and Clock is ticking, global danger looms. Wise public 2015 there were 58 such security breaches. officials should act immediately, guiding humanity Further risk results from pathetically poor away from the brink. If they do not, wise citizens storage of weapons-grade uranium and plutomust step forward and lead the way.]”
nium. In fact, Russia and the U.S. alone have
This dire assessment is informed by a about 2,000 metric tons of nuclear material convergence of conditions, all of which are stored—leaking into groundwater and oceans, controlled and exacerbated by the U.S. gov- fracked crevices and soil—a heartbeat away ernment, and all of which are at stake in the from spreading even more uncontrollably in outcome of this trial. The Cold War conditions of threat to life
an earthquake or tsunami or hurricane. The conditions of threat posed by sea-
on earth—conditions that trained school level rise are widely recognized not just in children of the 1960s to “hide under their the island nations forced to relinquish their desks”—arose from the build-up of nuclear sovereignty and completely relocate (think weapons in the Soviet and American corners all of Micronesia and Tuvalu), but in the of the sandbox of international politics. By late1989, fort y-four years after Winston Churchill’s famous “Iron Curtain” speech, the Berlin Wall fell, symbolically ending the Cold War. The following year, one Eastern European countr y after another (Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania) freed itself from Soviet control and, by refusing to resist this diffusion, Mikhail Gorbachev halted the ideological battle for Europe, and signif icantly diminished the risk of all-out nuclear war. environment | 85
infrastructure planning of all urban centres to be the warmest year in the instrumental anywhere near a coastline (think New York, record. (More detail is available at http://data. Vancouver, New Orleans, Miami). Low- giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/ and http://www.columbia. elevation areas are home to 634 million edu/~mhs119/). people—roughly 1 in 10. The effects are well
There is no time for delusional political
underway. In and around Miami, for the manoeuvr ing. Climatologist James E. Hansen last several years, saltwater seeping in from of the Goddard Institute has joined his 16 the ocean has been spreading west, fouling year old granddaughter as plaintiffs in the underground freshwater supplies that provide Earth Guardians’ law suit. “This is a critical most of South Florida’s drinking water, and step toward solution of the climate problem and collapsing roads and building foundations.
none to soon as climate change is accelerating,” he
The NASA chart that tracks sea-level rise said. “Now we must ask the court to require the showed an increase of almost twenty feet from government to reduce fossil fuel emissions at a rate 2010 to 2014. As of springtime last year, the consistent with the science.” reported rate of change of sea-level rise was
For 17-year-old plaintiff Victoria Barrett,
3.4 mm per year. This rise will only increase from White Plains, New York, “It’s clear Judge in rate, not decrease —at lease until all the Aiken gets what’s at stake for us. Our planet and our polar ice has melted.
generation don’t have time to waste. If we continue
According to NASA, in 1996 the extent of on our current path, my school in Manhattan will Arctic sea ice was almost 8 million square be underwater in 50 years. We are moving to trial kilometres. In 2014 it was 5 million. The and I’m looking forward to having the world see the National Snow & Ice Data Centre Arctic sea incredible power my generation holds. We are going ice extent for December 2016 was the second to put our nation on a science based path toward lowest December extent in the satellite record. climate stabilization.” The particular planetary condition that
Long before the Trump Administration
fuels the Earth Guardians’ lawsuit is the level appointments began, it was clear the U.S. of atmospheric Carbon Dioxide. NASA and government and the fossil fuel industry have NOA A track CO2 levels in parts per million a hand-in-glove relationship that gives both (ppm). In 2006, CO2 levels were 382 ppm. parties the warm wealth of the palm not-soLast year they were over the alarm threshold discretely covered by the glove of legality, of 400 ppm, namely 406 ppm.
and both parties would apparently rather
In the most recent update from the Goddard sacrif ice their children’s futures than curtail Institute for Space Studies (GISS), analysis of their shared grasp of this particular source global temperature (GISTEMP) f inds 2016 of their power. 86 | environment
“...wise citizens must step forward and lead the way.�
environment | 87
“The probability of global catastrophe is very high.�
88 | environment
For Michael Brune, Executive Director became a tyranny, if a dictator ever took charge in of the Sierra Club, “If the U.S. continues to this country, the technological capacity that the intelapprove new gas pipelines and power plants and li-gence community has given the government could if the majority of politicians continue to spread the enable it to impose total tyranny and there would be falsehood that gas is a clean fuel, we will fail to meet no way to fight back because the most careful effort our climate commitments and put our future and our to combine together in resistance to the government, children’s future in peril from the climate crisis…] no matter how privately it was done, is within the This isn’t building a bridge to a cleaner future; it’s reach of the government to know.” building a super-highway to climate disaster.”
Even in efforts to protect the environment,
As President Trump paves the way for per- this open conduit of the internet has become sonal aggrandizement through nepotism and the biggest threat to individuals and groups bellicosity, the courts will be the one sane who engage in protest and civil disobedience domain in which justice, evidence, and good because, as Edward Snowden has made all too sense may prevail. The fossil fuels industry clear, the government has a mass data collecis the most powerful lobby in the United tion program that doesn’t require warrants or States, and perhaps in the world. In this reasonable justif ication. They collect everylight, it is worth noting that, from Kandahar thing, and if the net drops on you someday Airf ield, fuel is f lown to Forward Operating down the road, they rif le through your words Bases at $300 a litre. War is great for the oil and habits, your contacts and memberships, and gas industry. And on this front, there is and assemble a case that paints you as a terno end in sight. Outside the justice system, there are very
rorist under the Patriot Act. So the kidwarriors may be our last best
few avenues free of randomly placed civil hope. Judge Aiken’s ruling means that all rights landmines.
young persons, age 9 to 20, from all over
But A mer ic a n s h ave b e en w a r ne d America, have a legal standing to let their about this sort of thing at least since the case go to trial. Imagine if this turns into a founding fathers drafted the Constitution. class action embracing all American youngIn 1975, Senator Frank Church, chairman sters against their government and their of the Senate Select Committee to Study country’s most powerful industry! Such a Governmental Operations with Respect to case would occupy the moral high ground Intelligence Activities, was interviewed on of the twenty-f irst century. Nothing short of NBC. He said then: “If this government ever their rights to life are at stake.
environment | 89
RIDING ON THE
Marrakesh EXPRESS:
En route to clean energy?
by Judith Stapleton
90 | environment
92 | environment
At the Climate Change Summit in Marrakesh in November, the World Meteorological Organization brought a whole new meaning to this beloved song by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. The North Pole has been recording alarming temperatures at least 20°C (36°F) above average. The Arctic experienced a record low extent of sea ice (28.5% less than 1981-2010) in October, just when the water is normally freezing over solid. It is night now in the Arctic, 24 hours a day, and that normally means it should be super-cold up there. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) declared this year’s October the third in a row of warmest ever.
NOAA Climate Scientist Jessica Blunden has stated emphatically that, “The Arctic is the canary in the coal mine” for global warming.
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The hockey stick graph of earth’s warming trend continues off the chart, just as Al Gore predicted, and as Michael Mann demonstrated in his book by that name (The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars).
But are we finding some good news in Marrakesh that just might gently apply the economic breaks to this train? 94 | environment
Eight former investment bank analysts have given up working for prof its-at-any-cost, and started the Carbon Tracker Initiative, under the leadership of Anthony Hobley, former corporate lawyer for a globalist f irm and asset manager for The Big Guns like Jupiter, Henderson, and City of London. Other members worked for Duetsche Bank, Barclays, HSBC, and other beneficiaries of bailouts. They still use the same skills, doing investment-grade f inancial analysis on climate risks and what that means for financial markets—particularly, the risks of the low carbon transition. They do the numbers. When interviewed, Hobley pointed out that the big difference between the 2009 Copenhagen COP2 and last year’s meeting in Paris was the Paris Agreement, a treaty with international commitments, and he is conf ident that this treaty has the economic backbone to survive a Trump tenancy in the White House. Just as no president could have stopped the technological developments that led the transition from the steam locomotive to the automobile, the land-line phone system to the cell phone, or the manual typewriter to the personal digital computer, a Trump administration is not going to be able to stop the technological developments in the green growth industries, and this group of global financial analysts have the numbers to persuade the markets. Their analyses show that we are already in a technology-driven low-carbon transition, and this summit in Marrakesh, and other constituent international meetings, hash out the policy frame-work that speeds the transition suff icient to deliver a stable climate that keeps us within the 2 degree carbon budget. At the Paris Accord, Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, kicked off the whole process with the Financial Stability Board Climate Task Force. Michael Bloomberg leads that task force in inf luencing the f inancial markets to develop a sort of criteria under which business and financial markets would disclose environment | 95
climate risks in their practices and investments. Transparency of that risk to the climate shapes their motivations to make the “right decisions.� In other words, as long as the markets can achieve expected outcomes by making money from a return on investments, they can invest in green energy projects, keep people employed in those industries, grow those industries, and spread the benef its by economy of scale: the more photo voltaic panels you make, the cheaper they are.
The more investment in the clean-up of oil and gas industrial mess, the more stable the workforce, and the more co-investment there will be in government-funded and privately funded green industries. Hobley knows what he’s talking about. He, and a number of other investors from the private sector, chair high-level ministerial committees dedicated to scaling-up climate f inance, where governments may use a hundred billion dollars to leverage at least 10 times that amount from private sector f inance. This COP has been fuelled by people prepared to provide a kind of climate f inance roadmap laying out exactly how they can mobilize that hundred billion dollars of taxpayer money. Roadmaps depict human ways to navigate a f ixed geography. We want to go towards desirable destinations while avoiding hazard. There is no question, we have to invest in climate change. And there may be a way to keep the wheels greased even while the brakes are applied to this momentous train. But the environment is not f ixed, and climate change knows no borders. Earthquakes and melting ice, super storms and unpredictable wobbles in wind patterns around the globe make steering this train almost physically impossible. Perhaps we can just slow it down.
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SHOOTING SUSTAINABILITY IN THE FOOT
EMMA THOMPSON
AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD by Judith Stapleton
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F
or biological systems—Life—to remain diverse and productive indefinitely, Earth’s interconnected ecological communities have to be protected against human assault. It’s as simple as that. The evolution of Life on our planet depends on the cessation of hostilities.
That is why actress and environmental activist Emma Thompson has recently been in the Arctic again, to draw attention to the international decision to make the tiny and remote Nunavut community of Clyde River into a sacrifice zone, in favour of paving the way for more oil and gas drilling. The preparation for drilling comes in the form of seismic blasting by a Norwegian consortium of oil and gas companies, in which huge percussive blasts of air are bounced off the ocean floor. In 2014, the Canadian National Energ y Board denied the communit y ’s case to stop this testing, on the grounds that there had been “suf ficient 100 | environment
consultation” and that this testing in ways that we’re only beginning to find “was safe.” A federal court has upheld out, in the same way that we’ve only just the Energy Board’s decision, in spite of started finding out the damage of naval the absence of research on the impact sonar on underwater mammals. of seismic blasting on marine life. The It’s urgent, actually, to stop all of this. They people of Clyde River have taken their [marine mammals and fish] are subjected case to the Supreme Court of Canada, to massive amounts of noise—I mean, and on November 30, they will find out these things go off every 10 seconds over whether their sovereignt y over their a huge area of Baffin Bay for months on livelihoods on the sea has been sold, end. That is the proposal. And it’s hard or whether, indeed, they ever had it. to believe that the mammals who inhabit As the polar ice melts, the definition of the ocean could possibly be unaffected their “remoteness” necessarily changes. by the scale of noise constantly going off Thompson traveled to the Arctic on for months on end.” the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise,
with
Professor
Chris Williams, chair of the science department at Packer Collegiate Institute and adjunct professor at Pace University, in the Department of Chemistry
“As the ice melts, the oceans become less and less saline. If the marine life dies, we can’t live here anymore.”
and Physical Science. Thompson com- In spite of the Paris CO2 Accord, many mented on her fresh understanding of governments support the oil industry’s the physical process of seismic blasting. increasing quest towards the Arctic “I really began to see what a disastrous as oil and gas reser ves become more activity it is. And the way in which it accessible as climate change causes would af fect this communit y really large areas of Arctic sea ice to melt. marks the difference between survival Global oil companies including BP, and not surviving.” The cost of commer- Chevron and Shell all own drilling rights cial foodstuff here is off the charts!
in the Greenland Sea and are the likely
Professor Williams is among many sci- customers for the data being gathered entists who point out the obvious: “I by the Norwegian geophysical company think it’s clear that not only should we that is doing the seismic testing, TGSnot be doing it because the objective is Nopec. It is unlikely Canada would be wrong, but it damages sea life directly a customer.
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Seismic testing has been conducted Thorium was commonly used as the light ever y summer in Greenland since source in gas mantles before concerns 2011. In April, TGS announced it had about its radioactivity removed it from also begun doing seismic testing of the general circulation. I can remember the Barents Sea. A 2014 agreement with bright light it produced in the Coleman Canada grants TGS the rights to per- lanterns we used at our family summer cussion testing in the “Canadian Arctic.” cottage on an island in Georgian Bay, Clyde River (pop. 1,100) sits on Baffin where we had no electricity, and used Bay, the bod y of water bet ween Naptha and propane as fuels. Nunavut—Canada’s most remote geog- This gripping series makes it all too raphy—and Greenland, an autonomous clear that ending our dependence on countr y under the political umbrella the carbon of long-dead, pre-historic of Denmark. DeSmog UK has reported life forms will have to be a concerted that it is Nor way leading the charge ef for t, with the sor t of international in Europe for Arctic oil development. agreements that were achieved in Paris Production at its first offshore oilfield last year, and will be achieved this year is immanent.
in Marrakesh.
For lovers of the Netflix series Occupied, it Meanwhile, shale fracking continues, will come as no surprise that Norwegians and the quest for oil turns the land, and are well aware that their dependence the Western Ocean, black and gold. For on oil is leading to environmental and, Norway, Clyde River is a gnat on their conceivably, geopolitical catastrophe. radar screen. In reaction to the desire to see the A rc t ic c amp aig ner Sune S cheller, “ Western Ocean painted black and on-board Arc tic Sunrise headed to gold,” popular author Jo Nesbo has imag- Greenland, said, “Shell and other oil ined a Norwegian success in replacing companies are hoping the world won’t uranium with thorium in nuclear reac- know that seismic blasting exists, even tors, abruptly and proudly opting out less notice the danger it poses to of further fossil abuse. This is certainly endangered whales and other marine physically possible, though, as far as we life, but we ’re here to expose this know, no fully functioning thorium reac- madness and keep eyes and ears on a tors have yet been completed.
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harmful operation.”
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Wellness
As soon as you enter one of our salons, your day's stresses lessen. Each member of our team is taken through extensive training to ensure your visit is relaxed and comfortable. Upon arrival, you will be introduced to one of our international caliber celebrity stylists who will give you a detailed consultation. You will be pampered with a shiatsu scalp message, a lesson on your hair maintenance and an individualized styling experience that will ensure your hair is picture perfect. Your experience will leave you looking and feeling your absolute best. To pass time, wireless internet access and iPads will be provided should you choose to stay in touch with work, family or friends. If you prefer to leave the outside world behind, lay back and relax while our espresso bar Barista serves you a drink of your choice and a sweet treat to enjoy.
We at Marc Anthony strive for perfection and to exceed expectations, we guarantee you will leave happy and eager to return for your next pampering. Most would call it a salon; we call it an experience. 38 Avenue Road Toronto, ON, Canada, M5R 2G2 Tel : 416.413.1521 1918 Avenue Road Toronto, ON, Canada, M5M 4A1 Tel : 416.789.1212 w w w. m a r c a n t h o n y. c o m marcanthonyto
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by Holli Kenley — hollikenley.com Have you ever dreaded turning on your phone or lap top? Have you ever wondered how on earth you are going to respond to all the emails, texts, tweets, uploads, posts, or messages? Have you ever felt like your digital life has taken over your real life, or at the very least determined the quality of it? If you have answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, you are not alone! Of course, we enjoy our relationships with technology and most of us need an on-line presence in order to get anything done. However, I think there are more of us than like to admit that we are drowning in our digital clutter! Not only does clutter contribute to feelings of anxiety and stress, but the time required to manage or monitor it robs us of our most healthy commodity— authentic connection.
Let ’s get started by implementing three practical and effective steps as we Clean Out Digital Clutter!
1
Clean out social networking accounts T his step is really important. It requires some time depending on how many social networking accounts you have, but it only needs to be done once or twice a year. First, take an inventory of your social net-working accounts. Do you need them all? Do you use them all? If not, get rid of those which have been dormant or are irrelevant to your needs. Then, with each account, clean out your friends, followers, contacts, etc. If that feels harsh, at least shore up your settings so you are not receiving “their” clutter! A couple of weeks ago, it was time to clean out my Facebook page. As I was going through my ‘friends’, I came across a few folks who were complete strangers! Away they went!
2
Clean out emails, documents, folders, downloads, photos, etc. T he next step is something I do at least once a month. By staying on top of this, it really does not take very long. First, clean out and prioritize your emails. Unsubscribe to promotions, forums, blogs, etc. which no longer interest you. Clean out and condense your ‘labels’ eliminating any which are not being used. Shorten that list! Get into your documents, downloads, photos, etc. and recycle any which are unnecessary or un-needed. Move remaining items into folders or reorganize them.
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3
Clean up degree of device interaction and distraction T his step may be a little harder – it requires behavioral changes on your part. We know from research that as we spend more and more time communicating and interacting through electronic communications and multi-tasking from one device or program to another, we are becoming less focused and less productive. In short, we are f illing our minds with too much clutter—all at once! To begin, take an honest inventory of how many hours per day you are spending on your technology (all devices). Contrast that to the number of hours per day you spend in face-to-face or direct communication or interaction. Is there a healthy balance? If so, great! If not, commit to making changes and adjustments which will create a balanced diet of direct and indirect communications. As you clean up your degree of device interaction, take notice of how your sensory hyper-stimulation settles down and your focus returns. Secondly, when you are on your technology, work on one task, one site, one program, or one activity at a time. Avoid switching or f lipping back and forth or clicking one link, then moving to another, etc. Again, we know from research that multi- tasking is not creating a more productive mind. In fact, it is conditioning the brain to become easily distracted and disoriented, thus making it more diff icult to concentrate or to return our attention to the task at hand. Almost a year ago, I started moving my phone to a different room from my off ice where I was researching and writing. Without the constant clutter of buzzes, tinging’s, and rings, my mind stays focused. My attention is centered. And, I feel more relaxed!
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M any of us are extremely invested into our relationships with our technology. Why do I say that? Because of the time we spend with it and on it. That is not a bad thing, unless it is at the expense of our health and our personal relationships. Cleaning out the digital clutter contributes to a more clear mind—a more healthy mind. However, it is critical in living more quality lives that we Make Room for Authentic Connection! Connect with self Multi-tasking, especially in our digital lives, takes us away from being mindful. We cannot be in the present—taking in and absorbing the beauty, purpose, and meaning of the moment—and simultaneously fill our minds with clutter. Therefore, each day for a minimum of 10 minutes, spend time connecting with yourself in ways which are important to you. Perhaps that is praying, meditating, walking, listening to or playing music, drawing or painting, exercising or stretching, etc. Whatever you choose, be still with yourself. Focus on your breathing. Focus on one thing or thought. Allow your mind to rest. It has earned it. Connect with others V irtual games and virtual reality are no substitution for real life experiences. In the space and time created by cleaning out digital clutter, connect with others - face to face. Silence the noise of digital distractions and cultivate quality relationships by implementing activities which include empathy building and positive face to face social interaction. Put down your devices and practice giving your attention to your children, family, loved ones and friends. During conversation, look them in their eyes and really listen. Be available. Be present. As you shower others your full attention, watch them bask in the rays of human connection.
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Connect with nature O ur digital devices can provide us with access to almost any virtual reality. However, nothing can take the place of being in nature and connecting with her. In deciding if your digital clutter is determining or interfering with the quality of your life, consider the following: Have you spent more hours staring at a digital screen instead of searching for creatures running through f ields or swimming in streams? Have you taken up your day texting on your phone instead of touching the bark on an old oak tree or tenderly fingering the silkiness of grass? Have you lost countless hours searching through your social network sites instead of sifting through the soft beach sand or savoring the calls of faraway birds? Have you felt empty after liking, posting, uploading, tweeting hundreds of short-lived irrelevant clutter instead of f illing your spirit and soul with the meaningful sustainable gifts of Mother Earth? Take a few moments. Answer honestly. Ref lect. And then, consider connecting with nature. She is waiting. A Clear Life means that we not only clean out what is taking away from it but we replenish and nourish it. Start today. Start now‌ Clean out digital clutter and make room for authentic connection. As your life clears, so will your purpose.
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photography, Brian Sano
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Good Gloss, Lip Gloss $26.00 • certified organic coconut oil, shea butter and jojoba. • Free from: parabens, gluten,perfum, animal oils, musk, petroleum, triclosan, sodium lauryl sulfate (sls & sles), peg, dibutyl phthalate, dea compounds, butylated hydroxytoluene (bha), synthetic f lavor, toluene, chemical sunscreens, nano particles, fillers. • 100% Cruelty Free
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BUT WHERE TOMORROW?
photography, Richard Dubois hair & make-up, Gianluca Orienti, Judy Inc. wellness | 121
C
lear Life is dedicated to all the ways we can reduce our impact on the environment. And so, lately, we were thinking about hair.
Here’s what we discovered. Alarmingly, the majority of salon waste, such as hair colour and foils, ends up down the drain and in our water supply, or in the trash headed to a landfill. While some industries have access to paid recycling for paper and plastic, the bulk of salon waste—hair itself, metals, excess chemicals, and much more—has always been destined for the trash bin and sink drain. Here are some scary facts from salons across North America:
69,180 lb. of hair clippings get swept up in salons every day. 42,122 lb. of hair colour gets chucked out, every day. 109,512 lb. of foil and colour tubes get discarded every day. 206,392 lb. of waste paper and various bottles go into the bin, daily. In other words, over 427,206 pounds of salon waste are left behind as we walk out the door with our new hair do. And here’s a creepy fact: hair left sealed in garbage bags in a landfill will mummify over time, giving off methane gas! But some salons are now diverting all hair out of landfills and into other more sustainable projects. One new company leading the charge to recycle is Green Circle Salon. CEO Shane Price is based in Toronto, but his collection company, GCS, is stretching its tendrils across the continent, enlisting more salons every day to Go Green and give them their waste.
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We all understand the ecological impact of conscientious waste disposal now, but there are some surprises here. Re c ycling aluminum uses roughl y 5% of t he ener g y required to create virgin aluminum from bauxite. 95% of all aluminum can be recycled over and over again, including the foils and colour tubes that are used in salons across the planet. Now properly recycled, this step will help reduce the need for more landfill space, reduce our dependence on non-renewable resources, and decrease the amount of toxins going into our landfill sites. Look for the Green Circle Salon logo at your favourite barber. If you don’t see it, consider intro-ducing the idea of greening your salon. It ’s a step in the right direction.
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