polar bears, nature trivia, the gig and kitsch on keew

If you missed this weekend’s show you also missed my latest rant about polar bears. This will come as no surprise to most regular listeners, I expect. It’s no secret that I’m a sucker for a polar bear.

This particular discussion focused on a tv feature my mom told me about. The show looked at an educational program designed to raise awareness about the plight of polar bears by giving young people first hand experience with polar bear/human relations in Churchill, Manitoba. Polar bears have been considered a nuisance in the town, but they’ve also become a major tourist attraction, and the community has adopted non-harmful ways of dealing with bears that wander into town.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get much of a chance to bask in an optimistic glow about polar bears’ future prospects. According to a report issued by the WWF this week, five of the world’s 19 polar bear populations (all of the five are in Canada) are suffering from declining numbers. As I look out my window and see not even the slightest hint of snow it only reinforces my sense that the outlook for polar bears is not good.

Here’s a little Nature Canada trivia we also mentioned in this week’s show:

• If 10,000 people use only recycled copy paper over the next year, we'd save 12,000 trees.
• If 10,000 people wrap a gift in 100% recycled paper, we'd save about 64 trees.
• The world's entire orangutan population exists on two Indonesian islands -- Borneo and Sumatra.
• Orangutans spend 95% of their time in the trees, where they eat fruit. In roughly the last 15 years, an estimated 80% of the forests where the orangutans are found have been destroyed to allow illegal logging and palm oil plantations.
• Of the world’s most recent 175 bird extinctions, 93% of those occurred on oceanic islands.
• All but one of the 175 extinctions was caused by humans. The other one: a hurricane.

We threw in a couple of metal xmas ditties in honour of the season for making merry, but the musical apex of this week’s show was our interview with Stu Block, vocalist of Into Eternity. Trev and I have both developed a strong appreciation for the band’s new record, The Scattering of Ashes, so it was good to have an excuse to feature it.

If you’re in need of something to listen to on December 28 (3-5pm EST) tune into CKMS for our anti-holiday extra edition of KEEW.

On a side note, we brought up the Cancer Bats/The End/I Hate Sally/etc. show at The Gig on January 12 and went off into a little diatribe about local music venues… turns out The Gig isn’t a bar. It is in the old Hyland Theatre in downtown Kitchener, but the place has been converted to a community/arts venue (that also holds worship services!?).

A couple more side notes before I forget. The Von Trapps, sadly, do not sing with Austrian accents, but they do make good use of harmony. And the Stitch'n'Kitsch craft show was a great place to buy Christmas presents! Someone's getting a Herman Munster necklace... :)

Kill Eat Exploit the Weak guide to holiday shopping

If you missed last night's show, you also missed our suggestions about how and where to spend your xmas money. Lucky you, we promised to post the list here.


independent local retailers (KW):

Green Door Vegan Variety
10-509 Wilson Ave, Kitchener, 519-896-1500

Delirium Clothing
23 King St N, Waterloo, 519-886-8480

Scaredy Cats Costumes and more
64 King St E, Kitchener, 519-576-5340

The Catacombs
108 Queen St S, Kitchener

independent artists online:

The Royal Sarcophagus Society Store

online veg friendly shopping (Canada):

WWF Panda Store

Comondi

Grass Roots Environmental Products

PhytoAromatics

Downbound

online veg friendly shopping (US and international):

Jorubo

Crafters for Critters

Anatomy of a Skirt

Whammy Industries

Green House Framing

Super Vegan

Lekkner

Food Fight Grocery

If you're feeling ambitious you can also check our website's Causes page. Some of the charities listed there sell items to raise money for their efforts. And there's always the option of making a donation to a good cause in someone's name...

On a slightly different note, while I was browsing through Herbivore Magazine looking for shopping ideas I came across an interview with Michael Franti. At one point he talks about the importance of realism in the "politics of veganism," and since what he says is very close to my own philosophy I wanted to share it with you here:

"I find that people come to vegetarianism a lot more easily through attraction than they do through shock tactics. I'm somebody that really believes in that. I don't preach my diet to other people. If people want to talk about it because I'm eating certain things, I'll talk to them about it. If people want to know if there are some political beliefs, some economic reasons, or some health reasons behind it, I'll explain it to them. I don't try to belittle other people for where they're at in their evolution as a person.

"There should be some realism to the politics of veganism. For example, if we could get everyone in America to stop eating half as much or even 30 percent as much meat, it would be a much greater effect on the meat industry than if we just get a handful of all-out, 100 percent vegans. So, while I would love to see everyone benefit from the health effects of veganism, I would also like them to see the effects of the meat industry on the environment, on the suffering of animals, and on the consumption of oil and other natural resources ... of deforestation ... all of these things could be significantly reduced if we encouraged people to eat less and less and less meat. Over time, hopefully, people find the benefit of being vegan or vegetarian."

Michael Franti (Spearhead, Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, Beatnigs) in Herbivore Magazine, Issue 12, p.52

next on-air KEEW: Dec 16, 11pm ET

keew joins the blogosphere

I’ve finally done it - I’ve broken down and started a blog. The possibility's been on my mind for a few months already (living with a very blog-conscious fellow lover-of-cyborgs will do that to you). The fact that I’m so bad at updating the KEEW website is another motivator, so this is an experiment of sorts. (if you said ‘expeeriment’ to yourself while reading that you have my appreciation)

I'm in the process of redoing the main Kill Eat Exploit the Weak site, and when it's done, you should be able to read the all blog posts there. If you want to comment and interact though, this is the place to be.

Anyway, check back for an intermittent stream of commentary to complement our on-air insights and chatter.