New Thermal Imaging Camera Kits Available at Local Libraries
Thermal Imaging Camera Kits are now available at local libraries throughout Victoria, BC. These kits provide residents with tools and activities to test and improve the efficiency and resiliency of their home. Discover air leaks, measure appliance electricity use,... Read More
Public Transit Climate Solution
We Need a Hero to Save Our Buses! Who Will it Be? We need a hero to save our buses! Who will it be? Without new funding, up to 50% of your bus service will be cut, as well as 30% of rail service. Transit is an essential service that we can’t do without. If the... Read More
World Water Day Resource Fair, Film Screening & Expert Dialogue in celebration of UN World Water Day 2025
Our celebrations will begin with a Water Sustainability Resource Fair in the Student Union Building. Then, we’ll gather at Cinecenta for a screening of the new film The Spirit Who Swims (2024). Immediately following the film, Laura Brandes (Communications... Read More
Science Alliance for Forestry Transformation February Newsletter
You have to check out the Hummingbird Collective’s launch of Nature Creative Commons showcasing the Forest Carbon Project. Check out the website for open-access, educational, and visually engaging materials to dispel myths surrounding forests, carbon, and wood... Read More
Where the Liberal Leadership Candidates Stand on Proportional Representation
First, we want to say a huge thank you to the thousands of supporters who registered as Liberals during the federal Liberal leadership race to send a strong message to the candidates about proportional representation. Over the past six weeks, you chipped in for a... Read More
Simple Everyday Ways to Talk to Your Kids About Giving
Courtesy of Charitable Impact What You’ll Discover in This Blog: Everyday moments are opportunities to talk about giving. You don’t need to be an expert—parenting is about learning as you go, and conversations about generosity can happen naturally in daily life. Car... Read More
BC Old-Growth and Endangered Ecosystems Alert
Endangered Ecosystems Alliance has issued a SEND a MESSAGE action alert to tell the newly re-elected BC NDP government to protect the endangered old-growth forests and ecosystems across BC. Please share:... Read More
We Need To Take Steps To Be Better Ancestors
This month, I turn to an aphorism that became popular in the 1970s — “we do not inherit the Earth from our parents, we borrow it from our children.” Often attributed to Duwamish Chief Seattle in the 19th century and seemingly popularized by American novelist, poet and activist Wendell Berry in the early 1970s, this is…
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Can This ‘Burnt Toast’-like Substance be a Key Tool in the Fight Against Climate Change?
Biochar is a charcoal – like substance derived from thermally processing woody material, sewage sludge and biosolids. Bio-char can be used for a range of uses such a adding nutrients to soil, strengthening asphalt and concrete and storing large amounts of... Read More
2025 Point in Time Count – Call for Volunteers
The Community Social Planning Council (CSPC) and Volunteer Victoria are recruiting volunteers to take part in the biennial Point in Time Homeless (PiT) Count, which consists of conducting surveys with people experiencing homelessness in Greater Victoria. The PiT Count... Read More
Fossil Fuel Companies Funding and Supplying Misleading Climate Education to Canadian Schools
Toronto | Traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat | February 18, 2025 — Amid concerns about rising misinformation, disinformation and corporate influence, a new report by the Canadian Association... Read More
Seeking Volunteers for Air Quality Study
As part of a research project on wildfire smoke infiltration in residential buildings, the University of Victoria’s Clean Air Lab (cleanairlab.ca), led by Dr. Minet, is seeking volunteers to host air quality sensors in their homes next summer. The goal of this study... Read More
CRD Biosolids Update
On Wednesday, February 19, the CRD Environmental Services Committee reviewed an academic literature review of toxic chemicals embedded in biosolids produced by the Greater Victoria sewage Treatment plant and processed at the Hartland landfill. The review was ordered... Read More
BCCIC’s 2025 Booklist: Pathways to Planetary & Collective Healing
A microscope reveals what was always there. As more people become personally affected by crises, they are looking at issues once seen as distant and distinct now coming into sharp focus as deeply interconnected. With rising food insecurity, femicide, wildfires,... Read More
And The Gods Breathe Æther
In the beginning was the word and the word was of GOD and that word was LOVE. And so LOVE is the You•niverse of harmonious oneness. And the frequency of LOVE creates the sound of LOVE that propagates through the æther; a genderless medium giving rise to the polarity... Read More
There Is Only One Earth — Deal With It
I have spent much of my life working as an educator, whether as a professor teaching graduate students or as an in international consultant working with communities, organizations and governments around the world. Over the years…
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Fairy Creek Updates 2025
Even though it’s not as big a topic in the news these days, there are still some major updates on Fairy Creek that you should know: • Climate activists and land defenders are still facing legal issues. Zain Haq, a climate activist married to a Canadian citizen, was... Read More
Let’s Force the City to Re-Examine Retrofitting the Crystal Pool
Replacing the Crystal Pool is a wasteful, uncreative solution to problems that could be addressed through a less costly retrofit. FINALLY, on New Year’s Eve I was able to do my one-kilometre swim again at the Crystal Pool after its 6 weeks of maintenance. I miss the... Read More
Why I’m Voting NO in Crystal Pool Referendum
On Feb 8 the city of Victoria is asking residents to vote YES or NO to borrowing $189 million to replace Crystal Pool and for your preferred location: the current pool site in Central Park (NORTH) and right next to it over top of the Steve Nash basketball court,... Read More
Crystal Pool Referendum — Vote YES! to a Retrofit, Vote NO! to a Replacement
Some of the reasons to say NO to the demolition of Crystal Pool: With 25% tariffs coming, the Globe & Mail (Jan 30, 2025) cautions, “Now is not the time to borrow.” To demolish the pool, the City is asking to borrow over $160 million. Building materials, such as... Read More
Survey: Financing Conservation on Private Land in the Capital Region
Here’s an easy-to-do survey that I hope you will complete and share with your contacts. It involves rating your support for a series of statements on a 5-point scale. It comes from the Coastal Douglas-Fir Conservation Partnership and pertains to support for... Read More
“Clean Energy” Comes at a Cost
In my local area in Courtenay BC, ozone damage is very severe because we live near the BC Hydro power station on the Puntledge River. I have spoken with the local authorities about the tree deaths along the river which is exacerbating the soil erosion caused by high... Read More
Submit to Ripples Youth Art Zine
Learn more about Ripples, a youth arts zine released annually for World Water Day! Ripples is brought to life by works of art, poetry, and photography, created by kids and youth (between the ages of 6-25) from across BC.
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City Needs to Rethink Priorities
Two death knells for any city are the loss of urban trees/green space and the arts. People are attracted to Victoria, BC’s downtown area because of its inherent natural and architectural beauty and the vibrancy of the wide variety of art-based programming... Read MoreSue Big Oil Sooner!
Let’s lobby municipalities to sue Big Oil. We are more than 3/5ths there to reach the half million residents involved needed to support a suit fought all the way to the Supreme Court. Read More
Save Our Neighbourhoods in Central Saanich
Hovey Road development in Central Saanich that violates the Official Community Plan Zoning. Do you live in Central Saanich and are concerned about uncontrolled development?
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Why Women Are Key To Solving The Climate Crisis
There’s no denying women are leading the fight to save our planet. In every society worldwide, women and girls are responding more effectively in times of crisis and actively working towards creating a more just and sustainable future for all. Yet, gender inequalities... Read More
Toxic Biosolids Promoted as Fertilizer
This article from the New York Times highlights the growing and inevitable public health and environmental harms associated with the land application of biosolids that contain PFAS and other toxic chemicals, and the EPAs associated liability in encouraging the use of... Read More
Towards A Well-Being Society and a Healthy One Planet Community
Throughout my career I have focused on the well-being of people in our communities and around the world, and on the state of the Earth’s ecological systems, which are the bedrock of our well-being.
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The UDI Successfully Lobbied the Government Against Environmental Streamside Protection Regulation
The UDI successfully lobbied the government against environmental streamside protection regulation. This ‘achievement’ by the UDI took place about 2 decades ago. Despite numerous indications to suggest lobbying activity at all levels of government, the UDI does not... Read More
How to Reduce Holiday Waste: 50+ Eco-friendly Tips
As someone who has been involved in the world of social media storytelling for environmental causes for over a decade, there is one piece of content that I always look forward to seeing circulate at this time of year: an image from Toronto artist Sarah Lazarovic... Read More
The Little Town That Could
It is the year 2019. The skies are clear with white low clouds. A climate emergency has been declared in the small town of View Royal, but little did the town know that it would lead the way for climate actions across British Columbia in the years to come.
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Good News from Dogwood
It’s a WIN! Enbridge’s Westcoast Connector Gas Transmission line is officially dead. It was one of several pipelines previously slated for northern B.C., but was hotly contested by Indigenous communities and allies along the route. The WCGT is the first project in... Read More
Life Expectancy Gas Grown Since 1970, But So Has Inequality
When I look back over the length of my career, it is clear that in many ways we have created a healthier future. One important indicator is life expectancy. According to Our World in Data, in 1970…
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Save Harewood Plains
by Wylie Thomas, conservation biologist Please send a message to BC’s new Minister of Water, Lands, and Resource Stewardship, Randene Neill, to let her know how important it is to protect Harewood Plains in the Nanaimo area on Vancouver Island (and please cc the... Read MoreDesire for Better Public Policy Sparked Early ‘Green’ Parties
In my concluding major paper for my master’s degree at the University of Toronto in the late 1970s, I identified two major principles that have guided my career ever since. The first is ecological sanity…
Read MoreCorporations Out In Force at Biodiversity, Climate Conferences
It’s global conference season, and once again the corporate sector is spending huge amounts of money — money that comes from us when we purchase their products and services — to lobby for their own…
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Help Call for an Urgent Moratorium on the Commercial Herring Kill Fishery in B.C.!
Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) is currently accepting comments on the 2024/2025 Draft Integrated Fisheries Management Plan (IFMP) for Pacific herring until November 27, 2024. Send feedback today. In solidarity with the WSÁNEĆ hereditary chiefs, we once again call... Read More
Langford Adopts Plans for Increased Tree Protection
Thanks to Mary Wagner and citizen support, Langford Council supported Wagner’s five part motion based on the Urban Forest Management Plan to help preserve and protect more of Langford’s urban canopy. Staff had a recommendation for part 1 and 2, and points... Read MoreWhat a Trump Presidency Might Mean for the Planet
Thanks to tens of millions of Americans who just voted to turn the American Dream into the American Nightmare, we now have to deal with the consequences of a second Trump presidency. Let’s be clear: Donald Trump is not only a fascist who is a threat to democracy in America, as two former generals…
Read MoreNovember Concatenations
This month of November has witnessed an especially abundant series of worrisome events, from local to global. These include billions of dollars of catastrophic damages from newly emerging wildfires, flooding, and storms. Warfare is on the increase, not only in the... Read More
Why Eat Regeneratively, Locally, and In Season
I do not want to overwhelm you, with more information yet I feel that this information is some of what we need to know, so we will have the knowledge to be motivated to do everything possible to secure a future on earth not just for humans but for the whole... Read More
We Need to Investigate Links Between Chemical Industry, Governments
Over 40 years ago, in the early 1980s, I co-led a major report on “Our Chemical Society” for the City of Toronto’s Department of Public Health. In it, we sought to step back from what we called the “chemical of the day” problem — so many chemicals of concern, so many requests to look at them…
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We Are More Than Just An Economy, Stupid
We awake this morning to a Trump world. This, despite his lies, his racism, his hatred, his divisiveness and complete disregard for democratic ways and institutions. He has already declared his intention to become a dictator, stating there will be no need for further... Read More
CRD Biosolids Update
On October 30, 2024, the CRD approved a provisional budget for 2025, which included the establishment of an Innovative Project Work Unit. This decision indicates that the CRD is turning the corner from a focus on waste dumping to a growing emphasis on green... Read More
Have Your Say on the City of Victoria’s 2025 Draft Budget
Each year, the City of Victoria’s financial planning process provides an opportunity for Council to set service levels and approve an annual budget. You are invited to provide feedback on the City’s 2025 Draft Budget to help inform Council’s budget decisions. The... Read More
Loss of Nature Has Huge Impact, but Doesn’t Get Attention it Deserves
There was a lot of attention paid in the recent election campaign to the provincial deficit, by which various politicians and commentators meant the budgetary deficit. But important though that might be, there is another deficit that is much more concerning, and yet largely ignored…
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