Community Stories
Water Scarcity, Forced Displacement Among Challenges We Face
The UN Environment Programme’s new report Navigating New Horizons, produced in partnership with the International Science Council, is not easy reading. It’s not just that it is a dense 100-page document, but because it paints a grim picture of the challenges we face.
Monthly Garden Tip
Can you believe it’s already time to plant your fall garden? Your mission for the rest of the summer is to fill any gaps in your garden with fall and winter veggies. Pull out your mildewy peas, harvest your garlic, and get...
Power Play
Creatively United for the Planet was one of a number of community groups recently involved in PowerPlay, a free, family-friendly festival celebrating all things electric from EVs, E-bikes, solar power, heat pumps and more. One of the many fabulous finds at the event...
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We Can’t Afford To Miss The Shift From A Consumer To A Conserver Society
My recent columns have emphasised that we urgently need a rapid transformation of the major systems that make up society and underpin today’s dominant culture. Not only will this transformation protect the Earth systems we depend upon for our wellbeing, indeed our very survival, it will lead to improved wellbeing and quality of life.
Earth Overshoot Day is August 2nd 2023
What does it mean? What can you do about it? What does it mean? Earth overshoot day is the calculated (world bio capacity divided by world’s ecological footprint) calendar date representing the point in a given year when we’ve used up all of the natural resources that...
A Polycrisis Is Greater Than The Sum Of Its Parts
The polycrisis, according to the UN and Cascade Institute, includes the climate crisis, war, extreme economic inequality, financial system instability, ideological extremism, pernicious social impacts of digitalization, cyber attacks, mounting social and political unrest, large-scale forced migrations and an escalating danger of nuclear war…
We Have Already Passed Safe and Just Planetary Boundaries
A 2009 publication by Johan Rockstrom and his colleagues at the Stockholm Resilience Centre identified a number of key Earth systems fundamental to natural processes and human wellbeing, and “thresholds which, if crossed, could generate unacceptable environmental change” were identified.
Ecological Sanity Must Be Linked to Social Justice
More than a decade ago, a group of Earth system scientists developed the concept of planetary boundaries. They identified a set of a dozen or so Earth systems and proposed thresholds for each system beyond which it was likely that the system’s stability and resilience would be compromised.
New Proposed Changes to Natural Health Product (NHP) Regulations
Health Canada has proposed a “fee recovery” programme that would make herbal medicines so costly for small to medium sized TCM distributors that they may not be able to sustain their herbal product business, forcing them to drastically reduce their product lines or...
Climate action needs a greater sense of urgency
On June 12, Bill Blair, federal minister of Emergency Preparedness, said Canada is in the midst of its worst wildfire season in the past 20 years — and it was only mid-June. Then in a June 20 news release, Environment and Climate Change Canada said we can expect “higher-than-normal temperatures [in] most of the country until at least the end of August.”
Robots Will Have To Pay Taxes
I don’t know when I first heard the suggestion that robots should pay taxes, but it was some time in the 1970s, and the idea came from Japan. The concept was certainly in the air by the 1980s. Matt Novak, who writes the Paleofuture blog (about “the history of the future”), wrote in 2014 about an article in the March-April 1986 issue of The Futurist magazine.
Take Action for Old Growth
As summer is fast approaching, we (Elders for Ancient Trees, Stand.earth, Sierra Club BC, Wilderness Committee) ask for your continued support to keep the pressure on the BC NDP Government to follow through on its promises and work with First Nations to protect...
June 21st is National Indigenous Day
Today is #nationalindigenouspeoplesday It is a day to celebrate indigenous heritage, cultures and art, but it is also a day for settlers to get educated, give back, and join in solidarity Appreciating other cultures is important, but it is our responsibility as...
One Planet Student Challenge Winners Celebrated
A total of $1,000 was handed out to the winners of the One Planet Student Challenge competition during a ceremony at the Cedar Hill Golf Course on June 8. Part of the One Planet BC initiative, the challenge is in collaboration with the District of Saanich and...
AI — The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
There is much discussion about the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) for humanity. Many of its impacts are likely to be good — AI has already helped develop new and better antibiotics — but not all of them, and some may be downright ugly.
