Since I wrote a post titled “Autism: An urgent public “health challenge” or just another smoke screen?” I have spoken with an MD, a scientist and a pediatrician about it and suffice to say I feel a bit misunderstood. But one thing is sure: it is definitely difficult to write about the topic of vaccination without running the risk of being put into either the pro or the anti vaccination category. Continue Reading »

Here is a post to let family and business friends know that no, I did not know about that 350 day of action event. On October 24^th I was in Miami with my 4 year old son, we took the bus to go to the beach (a one hour trip), we walked quite a bit (I’d say 4 miles total), had fun swimming, and oh … did not see anyone with a 350 sign. Well, Miami is not particularly known for having environmental genes. Two characteristics about Miami that have left a long lasting impression: it has been developed on a lie and it has the largest population of holocaust survivors. But I was a bit curious about that 350 event and if anything in Miami had been done to promote this event. So … I went to yourversion.com (great stuff, for all of you out there who have ever dreamed of dumping Google, this is it!) and looked for green events in Miami … unsurprisingly, the internet can give us a good overview of what’s going on in a geographical area before you even get there … keywords: green +Miami … I see GreenerMiami, a site listing ecoevents … there was an event on the 24^th that I missed (I would not have gone anyway, a bit too far), the “Edible Garden Festival at Fairchild”, the previous posting dated October 13^th and then another one dated October 2^nd … then I went on the Miami New Times web site and did not find anything but one event on November 4^th and another on November 14^th, no mention of 350 Day of Action or any significant international event … time to wake up Miami, if the ocean sea level keeps on rising, you might wonder what you should have done and it will be too late!

It is not “that” difficult to create a useful and accessible online tool when the will is there. Trust me, I have experienced it first hand. Imagine getting 10 of the largest cities in California to collaborate on making available to other cities across the world their best green practices and actually to make it happen in a record 9 months time … Of course, some of the cities started to feel the increasingly heavy burden of answering requests from other cities and consultants interested in learning from them the how’s, the what’s and the why’s of say waste reduction policy and practices in Oakland or San Francisco, San Jose or Santa Monica. But that was not the only hurdle. In time of financial crisis, allocating a budget of roughly $100,000 to eventually save money and promote sustainability practices is a hard sell, even though everyone understands it has to happen: By switching to 100% recycled paper, GCC members annually have saved since 2008: 8,600,000 pounds of CO2 emissions, 19,600,000 gallons of water, 11,500,000 kilowatt hours of electricity, and 67,000 trees. The list of achievements goes on covering energy, waste reduction, urban design, transportation, environmental health and water. Continue Reading »

Does any Autism Spectrum Disorder or ASD news report strike a chord within you? Are you feeling prompted to open the news link and read it in hope there is finally an answer or even the beginning of one? Or do you just avoid it fearing that you will emerge a lot more frustrated and confused than you were the last time you read about ASD? When I read about ASD, whether it is a – sad – story, a new research study, a governmental agency’s report (…) my first thoughts go to these hundred of thousands of children who have been diagnosed with ASD or other biochemical and psychological disorders, to their families that endure the heart breaking journey of raising and caring for these kids with special needs, feeling hopeless 9 days out of 10. I know almost certainly that this piece of news will make mention of a probable correlation between some vaccines and ASD and the most anticipated reality will strike again … “we do not know what is causing it” … is it so? Continue Reading »