Check out this eclectic selection of our new books on environmental topics:

This Crazy Time: Living Our Environmental Challenge by Tzeporah Berman with Mark Leiren-Young

From blockades to boardrooms, Tzeporah Berman has been a leading activist in Canada for the past two decades. This book is part memoir and part manifesto and is required reading for anyone wanting to understand what we can do at this critical juncture in humanity’s history.

Creating Wealth: Growing Local Economies with Local Currencies by Gwendolyn Hallsmith and Bernar Lietaer

New systems of exchange like local currencies and time banks can help create vibrant local economies and address issues of food security, health care, education and environmental problems. Case studies pepper the chapters discussing local economics, and examples of complementary currencies provide real-life examples and inspiration.

Bird, Bee and Bug Houses: Simple Projects for Your Garden by Derek Jones

Learn how to build bird, bat and bee houses and even houses for ladybugs and butterflies with a few easy steps (and power tools). Your garden will love you for the pollinators and seed-spreaders that take up residence!

Bicycling: A Reintroduction: A Visual Guide to Choosing, Repairing, Maintaining and Operating a Bicycle by Karen Ruth

This book covers it all: bike riding skills, safety on the road, clothes and accessories, parts of a bike, and how to make common repairs.

Sunday morning some friends and I had a beautiful run downtown and around the zoo as participants in the
8^th Annual Gorilla Run. It was my second year participating in the Gorilla Run, a unique and enormously fun running race in which all of the proceeds raised go to conservation efforts.

Half of the money raised goes to the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, which sends money to support local efforts in Africa working to protect the gorillas and gorilla habitat. The other half goes to the Calgary Zoo to support their conservation efforts working directly with communities in developing countries.

If you’re interested in protecting great apes and their habitat, you may want to go to Banff this Friday, October 21 to spend an evening with Jane Goodall. Famous for her work studying chimpanzees, Jane Goodall is also namesake of a Canadian organization, the Jane Goodall Institute of Canada, that not only supports efforts to protects chimpanzees and their habitat, but also supports international environmental and humanitarian initiatives. Here is information from the Banff Centre on the Jane’s Journey event:

"Jane Goodall, acclaimed environmentalist, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute, and UN Messenger of Peace, will present an exclusive screening of Lorenz Knauer's 2010 documentary film, Jane's Journey, followed by a question and answer session."

For more information or tickets to the Jane's Journey: an evening with Dr. Jane Goodall, visit the Banff Centre's website.

If you're interested in running for gorillas and conservation at next year's Gorilla Run, go to the website and hook up with them through email, Facebook or Twitter. The run is well organized, fun and you'll be surrounded by like-minded people and get a funky running t-shirt~

← (the image on the left is from this year's shirt).

According to a recent Angus Reid survey commissioned by the Calgary Herald's Project Calgary, more than half of Calgarians drive to work or school and only five percent carpool. While thirty-seven percent of people polled said that they would prefer to walk, Calgary's size (and Calgarians' love affair with driving) often make walking to work or school unrealistic.

October 17 is the beginning of Calgary's 9th Annual Carpool Week. The City of Calgary, along with Carpool.ca, launched the first Carpool Week Campaign in 2003.

If you register to participate in Carpool Week, you are eligible to win an iPad, a Kindle, a GPS navigation system and $100 fuel gift cards. In addition to being better for the environment, carpooling also saves you money. According to the City of Calgary, carpooling one day a week can reduce commuting costs by 10 percent.

Save money, be eligible for prizes, get the warm fuzzies for helping the environment, and perhaps even enjoy some good company on your commute—what are you waiting for? Try carpooling if you haven't already. So you can drive my car (or at least sit in the passenger seat. Let's fill some empty seats!).

And maybe I'll love you. (Beep beep'm beep beep yeah.)

Read more about the Angus Reid survey and about Project Calgary in this Calgary Herald article: "The long drive to work eats away at happiness."

Learn more about the Calgary's successful Regional Carpool Program.

Some time ago, a co-worker and I visited the closing sale of a store which sold a variety of green products. One of the items at a drastically reduced price was a deodorant stone, which I purchased. If you haven’t tried one yet, then give it a shot.

The stone looks clear-ish, like quartz. It’s a cube shape, but with rounded corners. You just wet the stone and rub away, as you usually would. Interestingly, the stone is unscented, leaves no residue, requires no or very little packaging and isn’t heavily manufactured or harmful to skin or clothing. And, it works like a charm!

Why had I been using traditional “pit stick” for so long, given its toxic ingredients and wasteful packaging?

You don’t need to be a granola cruncher to realize that smearing anything into your skin is the equivalent of eating it. So, go natural or try to incorporate less harmful products into your routine.

Check out resources like this, to get started:

Don’t Go to the Cosmetics Counter Without Me, by Paula Begoun

Green Beauty Recipes, by Julie Gabriel

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Making Natural Beauty Products, by Sally W. Trew

On October 16th, I’ll be attending an event called Take Off Your Clothes, which is a giant clothing swap for women. Here’s the idea: before the event, people take stylish but unwanted items to drop-off locations, and exchange them for coupons. They’ll use those coupons to “purchase” new items in a swappers market.

And here’s why I like the concept:

The experience of swapping reminds us that there are alternatives ways of consuming, and that purchasing new items may not always be necessary.

The clothing left over at the end of the swap will be sent to charity stores, to have its lifetime extended a little further.

Local designers use the swap as an opportunity to showcase their creations - and thriving local economies keep cities vibrant and interesting.

Visit the facebook event page!