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Every day we are faced with a myriad of decisions: paper or plastic, beer or whiskey, left or right hand, cracker or toast; life certainly is complicated. Even in snowboarding, an activity pursued as a means to escape daily life, we are constantly making decisions: frontside or backside, groomers or glades, powder or ice (some decisions are much easier than others). How often, however, are you faced with a decision that will impact your future ability to ride? You might just be surprised at just how often we are faced with just such a choice and by some accounts make the wrong decision. When it comes to making choices about the environment, as snowboarders we should probably tend to those that won't make the planet warmer. We like snow, so global warming should be a severe pain in our collective asses. Although when faced with certain choices, that decision isn't quite so easy. The answer might not be obvious, so how do you come to a decision?

Recently a colleague sent me an article explaining how, by reducing our consumption of meat by 10%, we could reduce our CO₂ footprint by up to 25%. The premise being that factory farming practices are responsible for the creation of massive amounts greenhouse trapping gasses via the release of methane from bovine bungholes. Who knew our ability to shred could be so affected by flatulence (fart jokes: they're not just for the juvenile anymore). This idea of reducing one's carbon footprint by eating less meat is by no means a new idea, vegetarians have been arguing this fact for years. There is a gaping hole in this argument, however, which is often overlooked, namely the point of origin of our food.

I have much respect for people who choose to be vegetarians. In fact, for a period in my life, I myself was vegetarian although it caused me to become under weight and sickly (I'm too lazy to want to spend two hours a day cooking good vegetarian meals that will keep me from losing weight). If being vegetarian works for you, that's great, there are many advantages to a non-meat diet. A smaller carbon footprint, however, is not necessarily one of them. The reality is, that pretty much anywhere where you snowboard there's winter. This means that for a good part of the year, the basic elements of a vegetarian diet are not available locally and must be imported. This usually involves trucks which are heavy emitters of greenhouse gases thus negating the reduction in cow farts.

For more significant reductions in your personal carbon footprint than cutting meet out of your diet, you should look to buying locally grown food whenever possible. I'm pretty sure this would have a much greater impact on the environment in general as well as bolster the local economy. Besides the real culprit is not diet but mass consumerism and the lengths industry goes to in order to support it. By eliminating factory farming, Adam Smith's invisible hand of the market would do what it should and give beef it's proper natural price (which ought to be much higher than it is now). Increases in the cost of beef would be a significant step toward reducing our daily intake of it (in developed countries, people typically eat about 224 grams of beef per day whereas in Africa most people consume only about 31 grams per day), not to mention a decrease in cow farts thus ensuring a continued state of winter.

I realise that this is straying somewhat from the topic of snowboarding, however, this relates back to the old adage of thinking globally and acting locally. This can be interpereted as meaning that the global impact of your daily decisions should be taken into account. For example:

• Left or right hand? Try the stranger, it feels like someone else is doing it.
• Cracker or toast? Here's an idea, avoid the circle jerk in the first place.
• Frontside or backside? Surprise me.
• Powder or ice? Jeeze is there really a decision to make here?

What's important is that these are things that should be kept in mind when faced with choices, namely the more global impact of even the smallest decision. I'd like to be able to keep snowboarding for many years to come, so I'd hate to feel even partly responsible for the disapearance of winter thus negating my ability to...

Keep Shreddin' the GNAR!

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Nearly 1,000 diplomats from around the world are meeting in Bonn Germany this week to draft a new global treaty to control greenhouse gases to replace the Kyoto Protocal which expires in 2012. The conference began on Monday, just days after the U.N.-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its third major report on global warming. Earlier this year the panel declared that the warming of the earth's climate system in unequivocal and attributable to human activities. On Friday the group of 2,000 scientists said the means and technology to prevent global warming exist but that citizens of the world and governments must quickly take action.

LISTEN TO or READ more from Democracy Now's radio show broadcast:

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/09/1513200

Democracy Now! is a national, daily, independent, award-winning news program airing on over 450 stations in North America. Pioneering the largest public media collaboration in the U.S., Democracy Now! is broadcast on Pacifica, NPR, community, and college radio stations; on public access, PBS, satellite television (DISH network: Free Speech TV ch. 9415 and Link TV ch. 9410; DIRECTV: Link TV ch. 375); as a "podcast," and on the internet.

Published On: 5/9/2007

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Well, last time I posted on here, I called on volunteers for an experiment to verify the validity of the statement that “forking is better than spooning”. Reviewing various literature (usually hidden behind the cardboard on the top rack of the magazine stand) and peers, there is much evidence to support this notion. Additionally it was suggested that “spooning” often leads to “forking” (thanks Joe). So this mysterious philosophic postulate found on the garment care tag of my Westbeach jacket seems to be well supported but not yet empirically verified. Even though supporting evidence is being discovered daily, the nature of research is such that the more questions are answered, the more questions need to be answered. So the following is a report documenting the progress of this latest useless research endeavour.

This past weekend, I purchased a new pair of Westbeach snowboarding pants. West 49 was having a “Going out of Winter” sale, my trusty Quicksilvers are getting pretty shredded in the bottom, so I thought it was time. I bought a pair of Pit Stop pants with a really loud khaki camo pattern (this is sometimes distracting while riding... no doubt the phrase “I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you my pants are too loud” will be uttered by me before the season is through). Judging by historical precedence, I deduced that some form of philosophic wisdom would be handed out by the garment tag on my new duds. This was in fact a correct assumption, right beneath the French care instructions I found the following: “Save a tree, eat a beaver”.

In the modern age of climate change and CO2 credits, trees are an important part of our enviro-economic reality. The unnecessary felling trees is a burden on both the environment and the economy. This I believe is the message being conveyed by this particular tidbit of wisdom. By saving a tree, we ensure that greenhouse gases are being more efficiently processed to ensure more epic winters to come (this should be evidently important to snowboarders). So “save a tree, eat a beaver” is very topical advice from the cunning linguists at Westbeach. Even if we accept this postulate as being true however, we have to determine what effect the state of said beaver will have when it is eaten. Is there any benefits, other than aesthetic, of eating a shaved beaver? What about feasting at 30,000 feet (affectionately known as the mile high club). Have our brave Westbeach philosophers considered the consequences of red wings? What of pink tacos? These and many other questions need to be answered and more research money will need to be spent. I'm currently petitioning Natural Resources Canada for additional funding for this project.

Here's what we know so far:

• Garment care tags are a good source of knowledge on topical issues such as climate change and gender roles (The latter is based on discoveries brought forward by Carrie).

• Cunning linguists and muff divers may inevitably become the saviours of our current climate (so say my Westbeach pants).

• Laundry, although a tedious domestic chore, has proved to be a great source of amusement. WASH YOUR CLOTHES PEOPLE!

Garment care tag philosophy is proving to be a valuable tool in finding solutions to the problems of our collective day-to-day life. My research budget is drying up however, and this important field of research needs to be explored more thoroughly. If you have any garment care tag philosophies to share, please do so; science shouldn't be bound by budget. Until next time...

Keep Shreddin' the GNAR!

J.

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It’s For The Earth!

April 22nd is Earth Day, a celebration to remind us that we need to take care of our planet…every day. For the occasion, the collaborators at Hilltrip wanted to remind its fellow mountain lovers to be environmentally friendly...every day. To do so, we organized, with the precious help of Base Energy Drink, the Hilltrip Hoedown Party, a western theme party at Garfinkel’s, one of Whistler locals’ favourite bar.

Our goal: increase awareness for Earth Day and raise money for Hilltrip’s carbon offset project to make up for some of the greenhouse gasses produced by our beloved snow sport enthusiast with a people auction.

Our result: Hilltrip purchased $185 worth of Wind Power Certificates from Pembina as part of its carbon offsets project. That means, 6.37 MWh of clean energy was bought and contributed to reduce CO2 by about 6,370kg, which is equal to not driving a car for 27,711 kilometres or planting 32 trees! By the way, based on Pembina, the average annual household electricity consumption in Canada is approximately 11.4KWh.

By having a western theme party, the idea was to show that even cowboys, who like to chew on tobacco, kill things and burn gas, can become aware of the importance of balancing our ecosystem and be part of the solution by contributing in offsetting some of the greenhouse gases that are produced by us, snowboarders using snowmobiles to enjoy the pleasure of a cliff line in a remote backcountry area.

For those who didn’t have a costume, cowboy vests made out of grocery paper bags were provided and recycling bins were on site to minimize waste. The highlight of the night was the people auction animated by Scott Musgrave. All people auctioned came with a gift certificate from one of the best restaurants in town, including Sashi Sushi, Sushi Village, Caramba, Milestones, and the Brew House. Thanks to Phil, Paula, Emily, Claude & Marc, and especially Rex Thomas for being one of the beautiful people auctioned.

Through small steps towards restoring and protecting the earth, it’s possible to be part of the solutions. For example, you too have the power to do something about climate change by choosing Wind Power by Pembina. For more information on how it works, visit www.pembina.org/wind_power.asp. If you are not ready to spend money to offset some of the greenhouse gases you produce, you can also reduce your production by entering The Nature Challenge at www.davidsuzuki.org/WOL/Challenge.

Thanks to our sponsors Base, a Canadian energy drink made of natural ingredients; Snowboard.com, the world’s largest snow sports website and Bacardi, the source and solution to all our problems…is us.

A special thank you to Catherine Viens Charron for organizing the best beautiful people auction from whistler and for the amazing decor, Kelly Saldat Brix for her Earth Day awareness support, Andree & Phil St-Germain for their precious help when needed the most, Scott Musgrave for being such a good MC, Eric Blouin for his great graphic design skills and Base Energy Drinks.

To see pictures of the event or for more info, visit www.hilltrip.com

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