I was thrilled to be part of the action here in Toronto for Earth Hour, as the host and MC of the concert and live event at Nathan Phillips Square.

The crowd was fantastic, over 10 000 strong, cheering on the bands and watching as the mayor of Toronto, David Miller flipped the switch at 8:30 along with Gerald Butts, president and CEO of World Wildlife Fund Canada.

Similar events were held all over the world, click here to see images of some of the earth’s most famous landmarks going dark in a show of support for conservation.

Earth Hour is just a symbol, of course, almost a gimmick really, but it sure was an effective one this year. The city of Toronto dropped its energy use by over 15% during the hour—more than twice the drop that was registered last year. Now of course shutting down the lights for an hour won’t do a darn thing to slow climate change. But what it does is show that millions and millions of people around the world are committed to making sacrifices to save the planet.

In December, world leaders will gather in Copenhagen to negotiate the replacement for the Kyoto Treaty, which expires in 2012. The global statement behind the light-dimming gesture of Earth Hour sends a strong message to the governments and representatives who will be in Copenhagen, telling them that we care.

Whether you remembered to shut off your lights last night or not, the gesture doesn’t have to end there. Write to your elected representative, wherever you live, and tell them you want to see a solid, science-based treaty that will force global action on climate change. Use the momentum that Earth Hour has created to keep the conversation going!

I hardly know where to begin writing about the extraordinary experience I had in Peru. What a beautiful and fragile thing the Amazon rainforest is. As I keep saying to my friends, “If I hadn’t already been an environmental activist before I left, I sure would be one now.” You cannot visit such an awe-inspiring and majestic spectacle of nature without being humbled into reverence for the earth. And seeing how imperiled that precious balance is, can only further the resolve to do something—fast.

For the moment, I am speechless. I will let some of my trip photos do the talking, how’s that?

We spent all day every day on a boat, exploring the tributaries and lakes that are swollen in the high-water season, from December through May.

We were in the Pacaya Samiria reserve, an area of the Peruvian Amazon that is roughly the size of Belgium. Scenes like this one give you a sense of how remote, unfettered and peaceful a place it is.

The water lilies on the Amazon are roughly two metres wide (that’s an adult-sized paddle lying on top of this one) and can support up to 25 pounds of weight.

So once we’d established that we were in a tributary with a tannic content that the caneros (like baby sharks) didn’t like, and that the cayman’s (like crocodiles) didn’t come out until dark, and that the Anacondas were… actually, I don’t think I knew about the anacondas yet. Anyway, once I decided I might live to tell the tale, that was enough for me. Swimming in the Amazon? Count me in.

It was the weirdest swim for this Canadian girl, used to the chilly temperatures of the Ottawa River, where even a mid-summer plunge is refreshingly cold. Not in the Amazon. It was like jumping into a lukewarm bath.

Stay tuned for more images of other Amazon adventure moments, and some thoughts on how to act locally to save the rainforest.

Okay, not actually me.

I was referring to this, the recently updated new and improved 5th edition of the Environmental Working Groups’ Pesticide Shopper’s Guide— it fits in your wallet so you’ll always know which produce are grown using the most pesticides.

Most of us can’t afford to buy all organic all the time. But we want to avoid the nasty chemicals used in conventional agriculture as much as possible. Using the EWG Pesticide Shoppers Guide, you can reduce your family’s pesticide exposure by up to 80%. It’s as easy as organic apple pie:

1. Log on to EWG’s website to learn what a respected and important ENGO they are and why theirs is the pesticide-products-to-avoid list of record.

2. Download their  handy dandy wallet-sized card to carry with you to the grocery store, to help you prioritize your organics shopping budget.

(Attention iPhone users, check back to the EWG site in April, they say the list will soon be available as an application!)

My fellow Torontonians, know this. It is better to eat local, shop local, travel local… and compost local.

The logic is the same. Why put your food scraps into a bin that gets trucked to a processing facility hundreds of kilometres away, when you can rig up a composter right in your own backyard? There are no greenhouse gas emissions when you take those orange peels (er, kale stems, since we’re talking local here) to a basic outdoor composter or indoor vermi-composter on your own property.

This has always been the case, but the subject is now top of mind with the recent revelation that the City of Toronto is trucking the overflow of compost material to the United States where it is not composted at all, but incinerated (read the full Toronto Star article here).

Many municipalities provide curbside household organic waste collection. When the system works well, a great deal of heavy waste is kept out of garbage trucks and landfill sites and turned into garden compost that is sold for commercial use. (I have always called compost a most elegant, if icky, solution.)

But the supply of icky—and stinky—organic household waste has outstripped the capacity, leaving municipalities like Toronto in a scramble to get new facilities online and to dispose of the waste quickly in the meantime. In short, the system is not working well, not right now.

So what’s a well-intentioned citizen to do, knowing that their scraps aren’t actually going to end up fertilizing flowers after all? Get a home compost bin —and keep it local.

Residents of Toronto, click here to find out how to purchase your home composter at a subsidized rate through the city. If you don’t have access to a yard, you can have a vermicomposter in your kitchen (no, the worms won’t crawl out in the night and come find you in your bed!) Click here for how to set one up, click here to order your worms online.

As a committed Green for Lifer who is also a television personality, I have to tell you I have been awash in guilt and consternation for the past several years every time I’ve had to colour my hair. Yes, my three boys have taken a toll on my brunette locks, let me tell you. (If you’d endured nearly 11 years of all-male pre-dinner pandemonium, your hair would have its share of gray too!)

So every couple of months, there I am, the home-made organic vegetarian cook who rides a bike everywhere and cleans her house with vinegar and baking soda…soaking my head in chemical horror all in the name of vanity (…and keeping my TV career intact). Shame on me.

And so I’d wager no one is more excited than I about the launch of a safer, more natural hair dye that really works! Schwarzkopf International, the largest hair care company in the world, has just released a new line called Essensity, with a commitment to providing more sustainable solutions for their customers (read their mission statement here). Essensity includes shampoos, conditioners, colourants and styling products in a line that is committed to going easier on our health and on the environment. Because even though we forget about those suds as they swirl down the drain, they continue having an impact as they reach the water stream. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found that 80% of the waters it has tested were contaminated with “emerging contaminants”, including parabens from personal care products, which damage marine ecosystems and destroy wildlife.

Now, Schwarzkopf is totally up front about admitting that the Essensity line is not perfect—not yet. The company has a reputation for top performing salon-quality hair care products which they are not willing to compromise. So whenever possible, they have eliminated dangerous chemicals and replaced them with natural alternatives. But the products do still contain some synthetic ingredients. But here’s what they DON’T contain: artificial fragrances, silicones, paraffin- and mineral oils and parabens.

Here, in a quote from the Essensity website, is what Schwarzkopf has committed to: “We promise to replace synthetic ingredients wherever possible without compromising performance. We commit to enhance our products using purest organic ingredients. We use formulas that are pre-dominantly biodegradable. We use raw materials which are synthesized from plant based material using renewable sources. We avoid using aerosol applications and folding boxes. We use packaging material that is 100% recyclable.”

I spoke at the Schwarzkopf sales conference last month where they launched the Essensity line and I can tell you that the company is really committed to this. Yes, they still manufacture and sell zillions of other hair product lines that are loaded with all the old nasty chemicals—they have not completely gone green. But the Essensity line offers an option for those of us who want to minimize our chemical exposure. They coloured my hair for me (as you can see!) and there was NO SMELL whatsoever. You know that terrible stink on your hair after you colour it? Essensity has none of it. And the bonus is my hair felt fantastic, the gray coverage has lasted brilliantly for nearly 5 weeks now. In short, I’m sold.

So ask for Essensity on your next visit to the hairdresser. After speaking to a hair colourist after a speaking engagement recently, I’m not sure who will appreciate this more, the colourist or the client. She says her hands and skin are taking a beating after years of working with so many toxic chemicals.

Thank goodness those of us not immune to vanity now have a cleaner, greener option!

How exciting and encouraging it is to be able to hail a government’s decision on environmental action! I am happy to report that Ontario is a world leader on pesticide reduction. The Ontario government has just passed an addendum to the Cosmetic Pesticides Act of 2008 which makes the legislation much more solid.

Starting April 22nd (Earth Day! Nice touch, Mr. Premier), stores will not be able to sell banned pesticides. The list of banned ingredients is quite lengthy—95 toxic chemicals—which will translate to some 250 products being pulled from store shelves.

This is a significant improvement since the old legislation prohibited the use of certain pesticides, but not the promotion or sale of them—a ridiculous gap in logic, one that was nearly impossible to enforce. As my father the lawyer has always said, legislation is only as effective as its ability to be enforced.

The folks at the Canadian  Cancer Society must be cheering today, they have long been calling for a ban on pesticides, the increase of which has an eerie parallel to the increase in cancer rates. The Registered Nurses Association of Ontario has already come out with a statement praising the decision.

Ontario children will grow up in a healthier province thanks to this ban.

I can’t quite believe I’m saying this, but it’s true…  I am about to get on a plane for Peru to begin a week-long trip down the Amazon. Holy %*$)!!

My husband and I, both active environmental communicators, are part of a contingent going to explore and learn about the environmental degradation taking place along the shores of the mighty Amazon. We are traveling with the venerable travel company Butterfield and Robinson, but this is not one of their regular trips. Every so often they put together a trip to an ecologically sensitive area, for a new series they’ve created called Destinations at Risk.

Traveling by boat along the river, we will be guided by Celine Cousteau (Jacques’ granddaughter) as we learn about how oil exploration, deforestation, mining runoff and other human impacts are affecting the magnificent wildlife and life force of the Amazon.

I expect to be blown away. I hope to come back invigorated to continue the fight to save the planet. I’ll be on a boat, so no photo postings from down there, but will be sure to include some when I return.

Just a quick post to say I just attended my first meeting as a member of the Board of Directors of the Evergreen Foundation.

I was blown away by what I learned at this first meeting about how passionately and succesefully Evergreen has been helping urban communities reconnect with nature, for nearly two decades. The values and commitment of the staff are unparalleled in my experience in the ENGO world. I feel absolutely thrilled to be a part of this important and exciting organization.

If you aren’t already familiar with Evergreen and the fantastic work that they do greening school grounds and urban landscapes across Canada, be sure to check them out! Find out how they might be able to help your community become more green.

How delighted I was recently to open a package and find I had been sent beautiful jewelery! No, not diamonds and gold —too much eco-horror attached to the production of that kind of jewelery for my liking. Not sent from a handsome stranger or a lovestruck stalker.

No, this was about the best kind of jewellery I can think of. Beach glass found along the shores of Lake Ontario, turned into gorgeous necklace and earrings by a Kingston-based artist. Reclaimed, recycled and locally made… does it get more Green for Life than that?

Beach glass artist (and instructor) Lindsey Fair generously showed me her wares so that I may in turn share them with you, dear readers. And here they are.

This is me sporting my new necklace…hung on tubing made from recycled rubber, natch!

Why do I love beach glass jewelery? I confess it does have some sentimental association with the countless hours of delight I have shared with my children collecting the worn shards of frosted glass along the Toronto beachfront and imagining where they came from. But beyond that, beach glass (or “sea glass” as some of our friends call it) art is a lovely illustration of sustainable style.

To find beach glass you must be on the beach, which is to say out in the fresh air, connecting with the place where water meets land. Collecting beach glass—or wearing it as jewelery—recognizes the beauty in such simple and everyday objects. Art or fashion that has a story behind it is to me the most beautiful. The story behind much of what we wear is a soul-less journey from a factory conveyor belt to a shipping container, ending at the loading dock of the nearest mall.

Beach glass jewelery is a statement that goes beyond fashion. It is a nod to the beauty that surrounds us every day if we pause long enough to see it. And it is a creative way to make use of what we have around us, without depleting the earth’s resources to make more, more, more.

Check out Lindsey Fair’s website to learn about how to make your own treasures from found materials. (Maybe it’ll help me figure out what to do with the pocketfuls of beach glass my boys and I have collected!)

I’m off for a few days to Washington D.C to the Real Screen Summit, the annual TV festival where independent producers (and host/producer types like me!) peddle their wares to the networks.

My producing partners from Code Green Canada and I have some fabulous green tv shows that we’ll be pitching down there.  My children have instructed me to spend my spare time on the prowl for Ovetchkin and Obama. In that order, of course.

Green for Life travel tips: Carbon-offset my flight? Check. Pack light to reduce weight (and jet fuel burned) while in the air? Check. Bring my own toiletries to avoid using hotel soaps and shampoos (non-biodegradable, heavily scented) in wasteful little plastic containers? Check. Turn off the power bar in my office to avoid wasting (and paying for) any phantom power while I’m away? Check…er, as soon as I sign off here.

Adios!