What does the Federal Budget mean for the Food Movement?
Article courtesy of Food Secure Canada. The 724-page federal budget tabled on April 19th shows that the social movements working for a healthy, just and sustainable society and food system in Canada are being heard. The budget made significant investments to address... Read more
Is there a 5G Tower Near You?
Here is a map that claims to have locations for 5G transmitters all over the world. You can zoom in to find where they are located near you. In Canada these would be transmitting using the 600 MHz frequency since the milliwave frequencies have yet to be auctioned by... Read more
Greater Victoria Naturehood
Greater Victoria NatureHood, a Nature Canada initiative, has launched Nature in the City: Guide to Many Adventures map! The map’s design tells stories of urban habitats, captivating species and local parks to explore. Detailed environmental information is woven... Read more
Wild Lives Matter
Our Regional Parks and the species that depend on them for survival are at risk. Mountain biking wants more access to our parks and the CRD is hearing from them. These are your parks too so if you have a concern about this please read on and take action!
Read moreClean & Reliable Water Matters
Water is life. A secure and reliable supply of water is essential for all life forms. This webinar explains that water is becoming increasingly insecure and unreliable due to climate change and increased demand by a growing…
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Active Transportation is Good for Mental Health
The physical health benefits of active transportation (walking, biking, public transit) are well known. Compared to cars, there are fewer emissions of carbon dioxide and various air pollutants per passenger mile, fewer accidents and more physical activity — I often joke that includes running for the bus.
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Keep Up the Pressure for Old-Growth in B.C.
Yesterday, new mapping revealed that the BC provincial government has approved 43% more old-growth logging during the period since it received the Old-Growth Panel Recommendations that it promised to implement last fall:... Read more
Artist Brings Personal Social Justice Stories to Light
I was recently gifted a copy of Olga Campbell’s multi-award winning book, A Whisper Across Time, a stunning tribute to her family’s story of the Holocaust told through a sumptuous collection of prose, art and poetry. Olga is a Vancouver writer and artist whose... Read more
223 Interntional Scientists Call on BC Government to Save Old Growth Biodiversity
This is a letter that was sent to the BC Government in 2018, signed by 223 international scientists agreeing that old growth logging should stop. They haven’t listened so here it is again.
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Creating Well-Being, from the Personal to the Planetary
In 1948, the World Health Organization defined health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being.” I find it a good and simple definition. One of its strengths is that it fully recognises both mental and social well-being, with the latter inevitably bringing in our relationships with others — our families, communities and society as a whole.
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Children of the Trees – An Essay
Children of the Trees engages with language, naming, chopping trees, disappearing words, and what might be a better stance to engage with living beings. Love as methodology. The call for saving old growth trees and forests is growing in BC. Join the fight.
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Deadline for Public Input on $35 Million Loan
The Township of Esquimalt is proposing to take out a loan for $35 million in order to construct a new Public Safety Building. In these challenging times, when funding is required for better access to public services and the need for climate education, mitigation and... Read more
Tuesdays for Trees Campaign
Tuesdays for Trees is a campaign devised by the Climate Action Research Team of Greater Victoria Acting Together. The idea is to have something happen every Tuesday to raise public awareness and pressure decision makers regarding the importance of trees and forests in... Read more
Rainforest Flying Squad Serves Notice to Appeal Injunction
The Rainforest Flying Squad (RFS) and others filed a Notice to Appeal in the BC Court of Appeal on April 28, 2021. This legal challenge requests a court hearing to argue that the April 1, 2021 decision by Justice Verhoeven be set aside. For the past nine months,... Read more
Share Your Concerns with Key Government Officials
The squeaky wheel gets the grease and that’s particularly true when governments are also faced with corporate pressures. Here is a list of some of the key people to share your concerns with: Find your MLA’s email here:... Read more
A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency
I’m writing to share some very exciting news – the launch of a new 5-year initiative, the Climate Emergency Unit. The response to my book A Good War has been very enthusiastic and gratifying. I’ve been giving about three book-related talks a week since the book was... Read more
Celebrating Mothers of the World
We enjoy thanking our mothers on Mothers’ Day, but on the second Sunday in May we can also celebrate more than our own mothers; we can give thought to all the women – many anonymous – whose mothering has benefited humanity as a whole.
Read moreCold Matters: Our Arctic Connection
In keeping with the “what really matters” theme, Creative Solutions for a New World Climate and the Arts Series explores how much Cold Matters in terms of the roles in which snow, ice and permafrost play in the stabilization…
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How do we evolve a regenerative bioregional culture in the Salish Sea? – May Day Murmuration
I am in Olympia, Washington and my personal focus is on local government reform and restoration infrastructure to support the evolution of regenerative bioregional culture. I’d like to work with you on the development of a network of Public Interest Science and Design... Read more
Community-Based Social Marketing (CBSM)
Some thirty years ago, I coined the phrase “community-based social marketing” to describe a merger of knowledge between the fields of psychology and social marketing. I elected to call this amalgamation community-based social marketing for several reasons.
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Reform To Transform Campaign Launch
Climate Education Reform BC has just launched our official Reform To Transform Campaign!! We are a student-led organization advocating for a justice-driven Climate Change Education in British Columbia’s K-12 system. We are presenting the BC Ministry of Education 6... Read more
Throne Speech and Budget Fail Future Generations
The B.C. budget, delivered two days before Earth Day, confirmed what the throne speech had already shown: the environment is very much an after-thought for the NDP government, tacked on at the end and lacking any real substance. Thus they fail to address the most important long-term issue we face: our excessive and unsustainable demands on the planet.
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Call of the Forest – Support for Fairy Creek
As we maintain our presence at blockades to protect ancient forests, Rainforest Flying Squad members are honoured to receive support from the esteemed Dr. Diana Beresford-Kroeger. Diana Beresford-Kroeger is a renowned biologist and author, and the subject of the... Read more
We’re More Powerful Than We Think
Reading this I was reminded of a dance protest that I was in a few weeks back in front of the Legislature protesting the Fairy Creek issue as well as old-growth forest logging in the province. Fifty people, all six feet apart and masked, danced a specific routine to... Read more
Working Together Enhances Community Well-Being
We couldn’t help but share this good news story that shows what is possible when people come together to take a stand for common good. Fortunately, the developer of this project had the right attitude, was open-minded and understood how their actions would... Read moreWireless Networks and Climate Change
This Earth Day presentation has a lot of detailed information about the greater amounts of energy required for wireless devices and networks than wired ones. This information should be presented to anyone concerned with climate change. If people don’t care about... Read more
Old Growth Forest Defenders Share Facts Public Needs to Know
This past week, with hundreds of people busy mobilizing to multiple frontlines prepared to risk arrest for the last real forests at the peak of public support and pressure on government to act now to deliver on its promise to protect old-growth forests, the... Read more
May All Our Words and Actions be Shaped Like Compassion
When we give a tree all our attention, when we listen intently, there is much we can learn about living in community and caring for one another.
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Memo to John Horgan: Don’t Blow it for the Next Generation
I was struck by the immense irony of John Horgan’s recent exhortation to young people not to blow it for the rest of us with respect to COVID. The irony, of course, is that he and his government are blowing it for the younger generation by continuing to treat the environment as a resource for industrial activity and failing to protect species at risk.
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Need Trees for Projects? Growing Canada’s Forests Program
In 2020, the Government of Canada launched a program to plant two billion trees in Canada over 10 years. On Feb 24, 2021 the federal government issued calls for Requests for Information (RFI) under the Growing Canada’s Forests program which are due May 27, 2021... Read more
Earth Week 2021 Events Roundup
Since 2012, more than 10,000 people have attended Creatively United’s live zero-waste Earth Day events. Now, every day is Earth Day on CreativelyUnited.org’s free community solutions sharing hub where people can post and see events, information, resources,... Read more
Canada Needs Action, Not Just Words
This lead story has some great assessments which could form the basis of an open letter to Trudeau (under a title, introduction, or close such as “Why I am ashamed to be Canadian”, or “All talk, no action”, “We are now a force for extinction”, “Can the hypocrisy... Read more
Saanich Housing Strategy Task Force Report Survey
We would like your feedback on strategies to improve housing affordability, choice, and supply in Saanich based on the Housing Strategy Task Force recommendations. Your input on Task Force recommendations for principles, focus areas, strategies, and actions is... Read more
Meaningful Action for Earth Day
Why have a special day to celebrate and care for the Earth? Shouldn’t we do that every day? Well, as organizers of the first Earth Day in 1970 realized, it’s an opportunity to raise awareness about climate issues, get on the political agenda, and create... Read more
Sooke Rally – Protect Fairy Creek & Support Blockades – Sat. April 17
Hats off to all who attended last Saturday’s Sooke rally. And thank you to Rene and Jane for being safety peeps and Wow to banner makers! yes!! We can support the Rainforest Flying Squad and help protect Fairy Creek… We will rally to defend Fairy Creek and... Read more
Historic Moment for our Forests and Climate Change
John Horgan will have an emergency cabinet meeting on the Fairy Creek situation and our old growth forests this month. This is a good time to send letters to the premier and MLAs. Contacts are provided below. Please ask your friends, family, neighbours and other... Read more
Metchosin Wilderness Camp Update
As a new step in Metchosin’s response to concerns with subdivision of the Metchosin Wilderness Camp, community members have initiated a Go Fund Me campaign, to assist in bringing professional legal knowledge in the practice area of non-profit and charity law, into the... Read more
Petition in Support of Farmer’s Market Program
With the support of MP Gord Johns of Courtenay – Alberni, the BCAFM is bringing a petition forward to the House of Commons asking the Government of Canada to help expand the Farmers’ Market Nutrition Coupon Program (FMNCP) across the country. The FMNCP connects... Read more
Circling the new local economy with the six R’s
Becoming a One Planet region is a mammoth challenge, but one we have to meet unless we prefer to leave it to Mother Nature to do it for us (and to us). But that is not going to be pretty! The key to becoming a One Planet Region is in principle very simple; use and consume a lot less stuff and energy — especially fossil fuels — and produce much less waste.
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REFORM to TRANSFORM: Climate Education Reform BC Action Toolkit
As youth who grew up unaware of the magnitude of the looming Climate Crisis, our team’s concern arose knowing how complacent our governments and the educational system has remained amidst the downfall and unnecessary destruction of our natural world.
Read moreCitizens Stand to Protect BC’s Old-Growth Forests
Premier John Horgan will be making an announcement at a forestry convention Thursday, April 8th Please get your emails and letters in today as soon as possible! On April 1, the BC Supreme Court handed down a decision to impose the injunction sought by Teal Jones. The... Read more
The Hidden Torture Chambers Nobody Thinks About
On World Day For Animals in Labs we educate ourselves about the virulent reservoir of cruelty to animals which exists in the international network of experimental labs, & take time to communicate with our political representatives on the issue.
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Esquimalt’s Active Transportation Network Plan
Have your say in developing Esquimalt’s first Active Transportation Network Plan! Get involved There are multiple ways to share your feedback! You could check out: Complete the survey to help us better understand the existing barriers, issues, and opportunities... Read more
Creating Communities Fit for the 21st Century
Last week, I noted three ways proposed by Prof. Graham Smith to reform our democracy to safeguard the future, and dealt with two of them: re-shaping legislatures and constitutions and bringing an independent voice to decision-making.
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Old Growth Forest Rally
So great to see such a fantastic turnout for the old growth forest rally at the Victoria Legislature. Thank you to everyone for taking a stand for our forests. Here’s a letter, complete with email addresses to share: Subject: A call for a New Forest Framework in... Read more
International Dark Sky Week
International Dark Sky Week (April 5-12) is just around the corner! We invite you to take a look at the new International Dark Sky Week website. There, you will find a map with popups that tells the stories of a small snapshot of the beautiful International Dark Sky... Read more
Fernwood Farms For Sale
Fernwood Farms for Sale- Interested in living in Victoria on a large city lot that has been developed into edible landscape based on permaculture principals? There are 6 veggie beds, drip irrigation with 18 fruit and 2 nut trees + 14 types of berries
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Practising Democracy as if the Future Mattered
Too often, politics is focused on the short term. We see it everywhere: Support for clear-cutting the last stands of old-growth forest, fishing to the last fish, maintaining and even expanding the fossil-fuel industry — the list goes on. Only when it is almost too late do we act — and not always even then.
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