Feel Good Guru

Nature makes me silly happy. I love to skinnydip in a warm Canadian lake in the mountains on a hot summer afternoon after baking in mud from the Dead Sea. Or bathe in the healing waters of a hotspring in a eucalyptus forest in Northern California populated by spotted deer and soaring condors. Or sail in an ocean to Catalina, Sicilia or Mombassa, carried by soft salted winds.

Sitting by a campfire catching a purple midnight sunset on the inky Yukon River in gratitude and wonder. Lucking into dancing northern lights on a cold clear northern night, walking through an ancient rain forest entangled with millions of mosses and infused with the scent of the cycle of life, swinging from a tree in an alpine meadow breathing wafts of sage and evergreen… (more…)

Green food, green housing, green cream, green pets, green transport, green t’s, green beer and green wine.

Is going green as easy as attending a green living expo and spending all your green? No. As Kermie sang, “it ain’t easy bein’ green.” But if you want to make a few changes in your home and lifestyle, the Toronto Green Living Expo is a good place to check out the latest in green innovations.

Or just read this and watch our 2-minute vid. We did the checking for you. Here are some of our faves from last weekend’s show: (more…)

It’s Earth Day, fellow Earthlings, and I find myself wondering what’s a CHUPPIE (Conscious Healthy Urbanite with Passion & Power to Inspire Evolution) to do beyond turning out the lights, turning off the tap while brushing, and turning up the eco megaphone…What are YOU doing to honor your home planet?

Despite staggering statistics and overwhelming evidence that we are destroying all life on Earth, we’re still, for the most part, acting as if we can somehow give back all we’ve “borrowed” at a later, less inconvenient date. But let’s face it. Just like the world banks, we’re greedy and we have no intention of paying our debt to the planet. At least the banks get to restructure. Unfortunately, humanity doesn’t get a bailout… (more…)

The Dragons’ Den is the absolute best show on TV these days. While in L.A., we PVR the Canadian series and watch a bunch of episodes in a row on return to Toronto. For those who don’t know, on The Dragons’ Den, would-be entrepreneurs pitch their ideas or product to a panel of savvy business people and potential investors. Most often, they’re “slayed” by the dragons as having insane valuation or a ridiculous idea, but occasionally a gem is discovered…

The best product I’ve seen this season is EcoTraction, a volcanic mineral developed by a couple of dudes from Ottawa that acts as a totally green, environmentally-friendly slip-free surface outside on icy February days, replacing environmentally toxic and lethal-to-pets road salt. (more…)

Sustainability, green politics and music have mashed up in the mosh pit of Toronto’s hip and conscious culture scene. A local Afro beat collective called “Mr. Something Something” have put together Canada’s first pedal-powered sound system called “Sound Cycle” to encourage participation and joyful revolution.

Here’s how it works: human energy produces a current; current gets stored in batteries and converted; electricity powers sound system; amplified poly-rhythmic music causes spontaneous outbursts of dancing and other symptoms of happiness; enthusiasm is transferred back to the cyclists; energy grows and before long everyone in the room is groovin’ with the woowoo. Can my gym please hire these guys for spin classes? (more…)

I know that American Thanksgiving hasn’t even happened yet, is only just being cleaned off the plate, but I walked into Shoppers’ Drug Mart a month ago and Bing Crosby was crooning “White Christmas”, so whether we welcome it or try our best to ignore it, Christmas is coming at us like a freight train loaded with consumer goods.

It’s the season for giving, for gathering and for good cheer – all feel good stuff under normal circumstances. But this year feels different than the years of Christmas past when we were all blissfully oblivious to the long term effects of no-cap credit cards, no-limit consumerism and bottomless oil reserves… (more…)

Do you ever hold your breath while walking downtown during heavy traffic times? I do. I can feel the toxic soup of car and truck emissions in my eyes and on my skin, so I reason that if I hold my breath until my next vacation in Big Sur, I’ll ingest as little as possible into my lungs. But I’m getting tired of holding my breath.

That’s why I’m happy to read about BMW’s introduction of the MINI E - a zero emissions – that’s 0 – emissions – electric version of the iconic MINI for the urban driver soon to be catching your eye on Main Street, Wall Street, the 401 and the 405. It’s a beauty and it’s sure to inspire other auto-makers to set their electric dreams in motion! (more…)

Already cursing winter? Not gonna make it to spring? Need a distraction of the South Pacific kind?

Jean-Michel Cousteau Fiji Islands Resort is just the place to get you through the long winter ahead of soakers and frostbite. Go to the website and daydream of your oceanfront cottage complete with thatched roof and sultry breezes. Imagine a poolside “bobo” massage, a traditional healing practice done with rich tropical oils and percussive, long strokes to stimulate circulation and release tension. Fantasize of diving in the clear, warm waters of Savusavu and seeing the largest variety of fish and coral anywhere in the world…Or stop dreaming, get out your credit card and just book! (more…)

Let it be said here first. Pope Benedict XVI is groovin’ with the woowoo.

The Pope has declared environmental pollution a Cardinal sin and wants his followers (all 1.1 billion of them) to go green. He’s the Al Gore of the Catholic world with further reach and wider influence – and a bigger house and more cars.

In an effort to make Vatican City the first country in the world to go carbon-neutral, two and a half thousand solar panels have been installed on the roof of the Vatican hall where the Pope delivers his weekly audience.

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One of my favorite places on the planet is Christina Lake in Southern British Columbia. It’s Canada’s warmest fresh water lake, and, therefore, a favorite for recreation in the summer. With only about 1500 year-round residents, winter at the lake is pristine and still. Some of the humans I admire most in the world live here, making annual visits a welcomed ritual.

My partner, Ron, recently purchased a tiny piece of land on a residential cul-de-sac just a block from the lake. He bought it strictly as an investment, simply to take some green away from the volatile stock market and place it in something perceived of as more secure – land. (more…)

This guy’s groovin’ with the woowoo. Gary Strobel, a professor at Montana State University, travels the world studying plant life, seeking secrets of the universe and beneficial microbes.

In a major discovery that could have far-reaching implications in the efforts to wean the world from fossil fuels, Strobel found diesel-producing fungus inside the branches of an ancient family of trees known as the “ulmo” in the Patagonian rainforest. (more…)

So we checked out the Green Living Expo the other day at the L.A. Convention Center to see what’s new and happening in the post-Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth world. We found lots of interesting stuff, from the Zenn car (Zero Emissions, No Noise), made in Canada, to hemp and bamboo clothing, to vegan cheese, eco cleaning companies, organic, plant-based flea repellant, and clean alkaline water.

Feel Good Guru’s Favourite Find of the expo was Paradice – the “Green” game for today’s consciousness, invented by John O’Niell, whose company, Admcadiam, (more…)

It’s been a GREEN kinda weekend around here. We took in the Earth Day celebrations on the 3rd St. Promenade in Santa Monica yesterday. Today, the Green Living Expo at the L.A. Convention Center. A few highlights in the video above.

Loved the band Superbroke, spreading mirth and merriment with their funky brass and tin and string electric marching grooves. Read their manifesto on their myspace page. It’s kooky and fun. (more…)

There’s a good article today in the Toronto Star describing the benefits of greening your roof in the city. Aside from beautifying your own little rooftop world, in a city like Toronto, with temperature extremes from minus 40 to plus 40, a green roof can provide welcomed insulation from the elements. Also, when a heavy storm hits a city’s concrete and hard surfaces, water runoff, including sewage, can be drained right into the lakes. Green roofs help absorb storm runoff and prevent excessive water pollution.

A good resource for getting started on your own green roof is Green Roofs for healthy cities at greenroofs.org.