Trevor Hancock, Author at Creatively United Community

This week, I begin to highlight some of our local “seeds” — groups and organizations that are working to create a One Planet Region. This is our local version of a good Anthropocene where we use only our fair share of the Earth’s resources while improving health and well-being in a way that is socially just.

The Hope of a Good Anthropocene

Sadly, there is not much good news about the state of the Earth these days. Climate change becomes more real as it starts to bite — just ask the Australians — and there is growing awareness of and concern about the extinction crisis we are triggering. We do have positive options, good choices and many opportunities.

Small is Beautiful — and Essential

Some readers will doubtless recognize the reference to E.F. Schumacher’s classic 1973 book Small is Beautiful, in which he introduced the world to the concept of “Buddhist economics.” The book’s sub-title was “Economics as if people mattered,” which today we might amend to read “Economics as if people and the planet mattered.”

Key Public Health Issues for the 2020s

I was prompted to write this column by an article in The Tyee (a Vancouver-based online news service) about public health issues in 2020. It’s not often people write about public health, as opposed to health care, so the attention is welcome. However, I found the... Read More

First They Came for the Whales…

While there has been an increasing public focus on climate change in the past few years, and a slow awakening to the threat it poses, we have yet to wake up fully to an even bigger problem. I noted in a September column that we face not only a climate emergency but an extinction emergency.

Faith in a Sustainable Future is Vital

I recently touched on the interest among local faith communities in the challenge of becoming a One Planet region. But that local interest is part of a wider national and global movement across many faiths that links concern with ecological change — especially but not... Read More

We’re Spending Our Children’s Inheritance

Photo: Petteri Taalas, secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization, says the world is on track for a temperature increase as much as 3 to 5 C. Photograph By TWITTER Courtesy of the Times Colonist No doubt you have seen — perhaps you even have — a... Read More

Recognizing the Spiritual Value of Nature

The Midwinter Solstice is nearly upon us, and it is a powerful time of the year. For our ancestors, the shortening days and the growing cold must have been a source of concern every year; would the sun come back, would winter end?

Poverty and Health is an Election Issue

Forty years ago, I wrote about two principles that I considered fundamental to the health of the population: Ecological sanity and social justice. If we do not pay attention to these principles and what we now call the ecological and social determinants of health, the health of the population will be seriously harmed.

Early Support For Children Is Essential

Brain development in infancy is astonishing. According to the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, a million connections are made in the brain every second — yes, every second — in the first three years of life.

One Planet Saanich – Thinking Globally, Acting Locally

Based on Bioregional’s 10 “One Planet” principles, the initiative addresses the “usual suspects” of sustainability — energy, transportation, food, materials and waste, water, green space and so on. But Bioregional begins with three principles about people and community: Health and happiness, equity and the local economy, and culture and community.

‘One planet’ Communities Look Forward

On July 29 we reached Earth Overshoot Day — the day when humanity’s overall Ecological Footprint (EF) exceeded the Earth’s ability to replenish sufficient biocapacity to meet our demands.

Fixing Primary Care? Help People Help Themselves and Others

Reducing the need for care means reducing the burden of disease within society. This requires both a government and society-wide provincial population health strategy and a much stronger commitment to public health and clinical prevention within the health-care system.

Fixing Primary Care? Focus on the Demand

Article, Energy, Housing, & Buildings

The primary-care crisis has been getting a lot of attention in the community and in this newspaper recently. But the focus so far has been on the supply side — we need more doctors and other primary care providers, more services and a better system, everyone says.

Urban Villages Can Combat Ugly Sprawl

An important contributor to our large ecological footprint is urban sprawl, an energy and resource-hungry form of development that we cannot afford. It also is bad for our health.

The Benefits of a Holistic Approach to Health

Courtesy of the Times Colonist Friday was National Indigenous People’s Day, a good time to reflect on Indigenous perspectives on health. There is much there that can be helpful in these challenging times. A good place to start is the First Nations Perspective on... Read More

The Need For Change Can Provide Opportunities

A few years ago, Naomi Klein wrote a book about climate change titled This Changes Everything. Her point was climate change is a crisis of capitalism and we need to radically rethink our society and economy, if we are to deal with it. But she was only discussing... Read More

Green New Deal a Pact for the Future

As of May 5, the pact is endorsed by 70 organizations from different sectors across Canada. There are nine in British Columbia, including the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, and many individuals, a high proportion of whom are leading musicians and actors.

Move From Denial, to Protests, to Building Better Mousetraps

Courtesy of the Times Colonist “Stop denying our Earth is dying,” read a poster held by a young woman taking part in a protest by the Extinction Rebellion group outside the BBC headquarters in London recently. Young people can see what is coming, and they are... Read More

We Face Alternative Health Futures

Article, Arts, Community, & Inclusivity, Food & Health, Nature & Conservation

The possible future encompasses all the things we can imagine happening, which can take it into the realm of science fiction. This is not to disparage science fiction; at its best, it can illuminate our present world and its values, and imagine and test ideas most of us have never considered.

Senate Needs To Protect Our Health and Environment

In recent weeks, we have seen large Canadian industries pressuring the Senate to favour their special interests over the wider health and environmental interests of Canadians. In the process, this unelected chamber is being asked to subvert the will of the elected House of Commons by delaying and effectively killing two bills.

Ecotoxicity and the ‘enormity of tiny-ness’

Courtesy of the Times Colonist Persistent organic pollutants, covered by the 2001 Stockholm Convention, are described as “chemicals that remain intact in the environment for long periods, become widely distributed geographically, accumulate in the fatty tissue of... Read More

Time To Shift The Bell Curve Toward Health

Life is lived on a bell curve. Many attributes of a population — height, for example — are distributed on a bell-shaped curve, with the average at the centre and then decreasing numbers of people as we get further from the centre.

Why we still need to love this planet

Article, Arts, Community, & Inclusivity, Energy, Housing, & Buildings

The proximity of Valentine’s Day and the plan by a University of Victoria student, Antonia Paquin, to create love letters for the Earth for Valentine’s Day, put me in mind of the work of Dr. Helen Caldicott, an internationally renowned Australian physician and anti-nuclear activist.

Local councils are right to sue the fossil-fuel industry

Considerable derision has been heaped on Victoria city council for endorsing a class-action lawsuit against the fossil-fuel industry, seeking financial compensation for the added costs the city will incur as a result of climate change.

Many global health threats linked to climate change

The World Health Organization recently released a report on the top 10 threats to health in 2019. Strikingly, several are related to global ecological change, marking perhaps a turning point in the recognition of the health implications of the rapid and massive ecological changes we are causing.

Planning To Feed A One-Planet Region

The concept of a one-planet region is simple: We need to reduce our collective impact on the Earth so we — and others around the world — can live within the ecological and physical constraints of this one small planet we all share. But at the same time, we want to... Read More

Solstice a timely reminder of our place in the universe

I have never lost the sense of awe I experienced one night as a teenager as I lay down in a dark spot and really looked at the Milky Way. It was overwhelming and humbling to realize what a small part of the galaxy our own seemingly vast solar system is, and what a tiny part of all that I am.

The Environment Should Be Front Page News

Article, Arts, Community, & Inclusivity, Nature & Conservation

‘Good evening. And now, here is the environment news.” Well, that is a daily news segment we won’t be coming across soon — although we should. But we do hear or see the business news on a daily basis, in fact many times a day.

One-Planet Questions For Candidates

As the Oct. 20 municipal elections loom, I suggest we should be asking all candidates about a very serious issue — in fact, in my view, the most serious challenge we face in the 21st century, both globally and locally: How do we make the changes that move us toward being a One-Planet Region?

We Don’t Pay The Full Cost of Goods and Services

Article, Energy, Housing, & Buildings

We need to create a societal system that is perfectly designed to enable all the people of the world to live good quality lives within the bounds of the Earth and its ecological systems. What might such a system look like?

Better Living Through Green Chemistry

Article

The phrase — often shortened to: “Better living through chemistry” — has lodged in the public mind as an unintentionally ironic comment on the sometimes dubious benefits of the chemical industry. This industry is the largest manufacturing sector in the world, according to GreenCentre Canada, which claims that: “Chemistry makes everything we do possible.”

Healthy Homes – The Basics & Beyond

The environment of our buildings, and especially our homes, is enormously important for us. As Sir Winston Churchill remarked: “First we shape our buildings, then they shape us.”

Tools For Healthier Built Environments

Article

We are lucky in B.C. to have two useful initiatives to help us create healthier built environments. The first, which I described briefly last week, is the Healthy Built Environment Linkages Toolkit. The second is a B.C. Ministry of Health-funded initiative, PlanH,... Read More

We Can Create Healthy Built Environments

The B.C. Healthy Built Environment Alliance was established by the Provincial Health Services Authority in 2007 to provide leadership and action for healthier, more livable communities.

Population Growth Only Part of Our Ecological Problem

My recent columns about the ecological crisis we face and the need to reduce our ecological footprint generated emails from several people saying I should address the issue of population growth. They have a good point, but the issue is complex, and the solution is not just a matter of family planning.

Finding Hope For Our Planet’s Future

Finding hope can be challenging these days, what with the global ecological crisis, high levels of poverty and inequality, nasty xenophobic and nationalistic politics, and the general failure of governments and societies to respond effectively to these and other challenges of the 21st century.

Let’s Shed A Couple of Planets’ Worth of Ecological Footprint

The ecological footprint measures our impact in terms of the amount of biologically productive land and sea we need to provide the crops and fish we use for food, the grass and feed crops we use for livestock, the timber we use for paper and wood, and the land we need planted in trees to absorb our carbon emissions (“energy land”).

Does Mental Heath Matter Most?

There is an interesting common thread underlying many of my recent columns. It is the question in the headline: Does mental health matter most?

Solastalgia: The Painful Result of Man’s Ongoing Reviling of Nature

The term solastalgia was coined 15 years ago by Glenn Albrecht, an Australian philosopher. He derived it in part from the idea of nostalgia, which means home-sickness. In the 19th and into the 20th century, he wrote, it was considered a medical condition caused by a desire to return to one’s home.

Alberta Proclaims Its Right To Pollute

Nature & Conservation

Not all resources must be mined, used and exported; the sorry story of asbestos proves that point, although it took a long time to overcome stubborn government support for this industry. The last asbestos mine in Canada closed in 2011, and Canada finally agreed to ban the use of asbestos as of this year — 30 years after the World Health Organization declared asbestos a carcinogen in 1987.

Pandora’s Box and the Canada Pension Plan

The World Economic Forum released its 2018 Global Risks report last week. One business reporter dubbed it “the Pandora report,” and that is a fair assessment. If you have an interest in the welfare of future generations — or, for that matter, young people alive today — it makes for sober reading.

Finding Hope at the Turning of the Year

I often find reason for hope — if not optimism — at the local level. Experience has shown that good things often start locally and move up, which explains why we should think globally, but act locally.

Many ministries could be Ministry of Health

Courtesy of the Times Colonist Despite its name, the Ministry of Health is anything but focused on health. Like the “health-care system” it directs, it is largely focused on managing people with all manner of diseases, injuries or disabilities. Only a small part of... Read More

Protecting health in our chemical society

Arts, Community, & Inclusivity

Courtesy of the Times Colonst Last week, The Lancet — one of the world’s leading medical journals — published another in its series of commission reports on various aspects of planetary health, this time on pollution and health. Next week, I will delve into the report... Read More

Community Uniting for Common Good

There is an emerging community-based movement in the capital region — and elsewhere around the world — that recognizes that ecological, social and economic conditions and human well-being are not separate issues but are inextricably linked. In Victoria, some related initiatives have sprung up, mostly in just the past couple of years, that are working to address these intersecting issues holistically, but in different ways.

Good mental health needs good start in life

Not only is poor mental health costly to manage, it also represents a large burden of human suffering and loss of human potential and — to the extent it is preventable — a tragic societal failure. So it is good to see that, finally, we are beginning to pay attention to improving the mental well-being of the population.

We are being marketed to death

But let’s face it, the purpose of marketing is to persuade us to buy more of their products — why else would a business spend all that money? And therein lies perhaps the greatest danger. Because marketing feeds into and supports the dominant narrative of growth, it stimulates us to want and need more products, more “stuff.”

If we want to save lives, control alcohol