Earth Day at Vanier!

Earth Day at Vanier was time well spent. I definitely learned more than I thought I would learn. I went to see one of my classmates in my Culture, Politics and Geography class, because he was doing his oral assignment on earth day. He talked about plastic bottles and how they affect our health and many other things. One thing that shocked me was the fact that not only do plastic bottles cause both breast cancer and prostate cancer, but they can cause health problems such as uterine fibroids. The chemical Bisphenol A is a dangerous toxin found in our plastic bottles. It's time that we stop using plastic bottles and switch to stainless steal bottles, I know I did. I bought one from the Vanier Book Store and it's pink. :)

For the first time in my life, I ate a vegan brownie. I thought it was delicious. I loved it so much that I grabbed the recipe and for those who didn't taste it, I'm including the recipe so you can make it and try it yourself.

Easy Vegan Brownies

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups demerra or turbinado sugar*
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons instant coffee granules
1 cup hot water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 359 degrees F. Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan with some vegetable oil.
2. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, backing powder and salt.
3. Stir coffee granules in hot water until dissolved. Add water to the dry mixture. Add vegetable oil, applesauce and vanilla.
4. Mix well, until blended. Add nuts, if you're using them.
5. Spread evenly into the pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the top is no longer shiny. Let cool for at least 20 minutes before cutting into squares.

*Granulated sugar can be refined sugar derived from sugar cane. If it is, then the purification process involves filtering sugar through activated carbon, or charcoal. Many can refineries use bone char, which is charcoal made from animal bones, to filter their sugar. Some people feel that this can make granulated sugar non-vegan. Demerra or Turbinado sugars do not go through this process, making them a great vegan choice!

There was a team in our class who made a poster on animal cruelty and there was garfield drawings and cartoons, I thought it was adorable and proved a great point. Plus it was very well drawn. After earth day, when I went home, my mom had made hamburgers and I was upset, because I didn't want to eat it, so I drove to IGA and bought my FIRST veggie burger. I was so proud of myself, plus it tasted really good.

On earth day, my psychology teacher showed us movie called Can We Save the Planet Earth. And I jotted down some interesting facts about how we can do something to help the planet.

1. Keep the fridge clean, because a dirty fridge that's filled consumes more energy that one that is clean. ( I told my mom to clean the fridge and she did this weekend)
2. Lower the thermostat to 19-20 degrees
3. Keep the television unplugged and DVD players or anything electronic unplugged when you're not using them.
4. Keep the house nicely insulated.
5. Buy more locally grown foods. (So we can reduce the Food Miles)
6. Change the way we drive by driving more fuel efficient cars.( I know this one is hard, because we can't all afford cars like that, but my psychology teacher actually decided to walk on earth day instead of taking her car and I thought that was cool.)

I was also happy because our poster on obesity got some attention. People didn't realize how much of the food they ate had High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). Overall I think our class did a great job on the posters. The Car Pool one was pretty cool too.

Personally, I don't think that we can drastically change the world and change everything about our lifestyles, but we can all make small changes that will benefit not only the planet but our health as well in the long run.

Interesting links:

Use of bone char to filter sugar :

http://www.jivdaya.org/sugar_and_other_sweeteners.htm

49 simple ways we can save the earth :

http://www.mattneuman.com/49simple.htm

Rita Minassian