Article Archives - Page 3 of 21 - Creatively United Community

Article, Energy, Housing, & Buildings, Nature & Conservation

Canada Lays out Plan to Phase out Sales of Gas-Powered Cars, Trucks by 2035 From CBC: New regulations being published this week by Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault will effectively end sales of new passenger vehicles powered only by gasoline or diesel in 2035.... Read more

Expansion of FortisBC Natural Gas Network in Okanagan Denied Despite Utility’s Warning of Shortfalls

An upgrade to FortisBC’s natural gas pipeline network in the Okanagan has been rejected by the BC Utilities Commission. The Okanagan Capacity Upgrade project would have included about 30 kilometres of new pipeline between Chute Lake and Penticton.

Creatively United 2023 Wrapped

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

We connected with more of you in 2023 739 Instagram followers 1574 YouTube subscribers 3.3k Facebook followers 30,000 unique website visitors gave our website 165,000 hits 279 organizations on CreativelyUnited.Org ‘s PairUp Directory We reached new heights with our... Read more

Reflecting On 50 Years In The Service Of Good Health, With More To Come

The end of the year is always a time for reflection, but more so this past year, which has been significant for me in four key ways. First and foremost, I turned 75. That’s three-quarters of a century, and that’s given me pause for thought — I really am getting old!

Neoliberal Elite Need a Christmas Carol-Style Conversion

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

It’s that time of year, when Charles Dickens’ story of Ebenezer Scrooge and the Cratchit family is everywhere. But it’s not just a charming story of how a mean old curmudgeon sees the light and becomes a kindly old gent and a generous benefactor to his employee, Bob Cratchit.

Low-Density Development Carries Much Higher Costs

Article, Community Trees, Nature & Conservation

This week, I continue this exploration by looking at key recommendations related to buildings. The next main recommendation is: “In addition to energy efficiency and fuel switching we will make greater gains if we reduce the material intensity of our buildings, and ensure they…

Seedlings Forest Education

It all started with a blank slate. Or, in this case, an empty patch of soil beside a park. As a research lead with Seedlings Forest Education, an organization in Victoria, BC that facilitates nature-based learning for children, it was my job to help the leadership... Read more

Sustainable Gift Guide 2023: For Family, Friends and Loved Ones

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

Here is our list of sustainable gift ideas for this holiday season! There are lots of ways to show the people in your life that you care while being conscious of your consumption and environmental impact Leave us a comment below with your ideas USEFUL • Break the... Read more

We Need Smaller, More Fuel-Efficient Cars, Not More Trucks and SUVs

Article, Transportation

Over the past few weeks, I have dug into the details of Saanich’s “four planets” ecological footprint, as calculated by CHRM Consulting, while recognizing this is an underestimate, in that it does not account for our impact on biodiversity or the extent of our…

Amnesty International Condemns Canadian Government and RCMP

Amnesty Canada has just issued a research report that documents and condemns a years-long campaign of violence, harassment, and racial discrimination inflicted upon the Wet’suwet’en Nation in British Columbia (B.C.). The land defenders at today’s press conference have... Read more

Let Your MLA Know That LNG Is Worse Than Coal

Article, Energy, Housing, & Buildings, Nature & Conservation

Tell your MLA to read this new research that disproves the LNG industry myth that LNG is a climate solution to burning coal. Dogwood has created a web page (link below) to allow you to quickly contact your MLA to get them to read new research out of Cornell University that adds to existing an existing body of information to dispel the myth…

Saanich Nudges B.C. Hydro To Reduce Tree Loss From Power-Upgrade Project

Saanich will once again be asking B.C. Hydro to justify its plan to cut hundreds of trees near Prospect Lake to make way for upgraded high-voltage power lines. Mayor Dean Murdock plans to send a second letter to the utility asking for an update on the project…

We Carry From Birth a Body-Burden of Toxic Chemicals That We Add To Along The Way

While biological wastes and materials going to landfill or recycling are accounted for, “Toxics and pollutants released from the human economy that cannot in any way be absorbed or broken down by biological processes … cannot be directly assigned an Ecological Footprint,” notes the Global Footprint Network.

‘Salmon Parks’ in Traditional First Nations Territory Aim to Save Habitats by Stopping Old-Growth Logging

Article, Arts, Community, & Inclusivity, Energy, Housing, & Buildings, Nature & Conservation, Transportation, Zero Waste & Circular Economy

Backed by a $15.2-million commitment from the federal government, a First Nations community on the west coast of Vancouver Island intends to buy out forestry tenures to stop old-growth logging in selected watersheds around Nootka Sound.

What To Watch, Read, & Listen To – Climate Action and COP28

WHAT IS COP28? COP is attended by industry stakeholders, politicians, researchers and scholars, Indigenous stakeholders, NGOs and other members of civil society. However, these groups are not given the same representation and privileges at COP events and negotiations.... Read more

Ecological Footprint Doesn’t Include Impact of Methane, Loss of Biodiversity

Article, Energy, Housing, & Buildings, Nature & Conservation

mportant though the ecological footprint is, the way it is calculated means the estimate that Saanich’s ecological footprint is equivalent to four planets is an underestimate. That is because a lot of different activities — energy use, food growing, materials for buildings, modes of transportation, waste disposal…

Petition Calling on BC Transit & Translink to Ban Fossil Fuel Advertisements from Vehicles

Article, Energy, Housing, & Buildings, Nature & Conservation, Transportation

“Leadnow supporter Peter started a petition calling on BC Transit and Translink to ban fossil fuel advertisements from their buses and trains. Will you sign now to tell BC Transit and Translink to stop these greenwashing ads from plastering our cities?” There’s even... Read more

Public Narrative Managed by Marketing Firm

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

I just finished a stellar expose of the world’s most powerful global consulting firm with claims to be the most prestigious – McKinsey and Company. The book, When McKinsey Comes to Town, by New York Times journalists Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe, is a... Read more

Reasons for Buying Food that is Local, Regenerative, and in Season

Article, Energy, Housing, & Buildings, Nature & Conservation

Please don’t shoot the messenger! There is a lot of supporting information that we need to know! 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... Read more

Integrated Resource Management in the CRD: A Progress Report

In 2018, the CRD established an Integrated Resource Management (IRM) committee and issued a Request for Proposals from practitioners to apply the approach to waste management throughout the Region. Despite receiving many valuable proposals, the CRD Board cancelled the... Read more

Remembrance Day For Refugees

A call to care ever more deeply, widely. To see the interelated critical issues facing the world: Seven young activists who refuse to remain silent and inactive. A call for all of us to support them in their passions.

Good Eats

Article, Food & Health

I recently attended an online Saturday Solutions Session hosted by two of Creatively United’s board members, Sandi Goldie and Jim Bronson, who now reside in an intentional, low carbon footprint community in Oregon. I learned of this website from one of the... Read more

Non-Profits Save Big with Fee-Free Service

Article, Energy, Housing, & Buildings, Nature & Conservation, Transportation

Do you know of a non-profit organization that could use a break when it comes to credit card, event and donation fees? Creatively United has saved a small fortune in these types of fees thanks to a wonderful service we discovered called Zeffy. Zeffy is the only... Read more

Digging into our Transportation, Building and Consumables Footprint

I looked at our food consumption and associated food waste, which at 24 per cent is the largest share of the ecological footprint (setting aside the 46 per cent of the ecological footprint that is due to the local activities of the provincial and federal governments)…

How To Address Climate Change Impactfully at Your Local Level

Article, Energy, Housing, & Buildings, Zero Waste & Circular Economy

Thank you to everyone who recently came out in support in person and online (watch here, starting at 42:22) to learn how individuals and community groups can speak to their neighbours and local governments about impactful and proven solutions to addressing climate... Read more

100’s of Trees Slated for Removal at Prospect Lake

Article, Community Trees, Energy, Housing, & Buildings, Nature & Conservation

BC Hydro is planning to remove several hundred trees near Prospect Lake in Saanich in order to upgrade their power transmission lines. Among a number of questions that come to mind, what is Hydro’s relation to the development/real estate lobby?

Food Consumption and Waste a Big Part of Our Ecological Footprint

Article, Community Trees, Nature & Conservation

As I reported last week, CHRM Consulting has just completed an updated report on the ecological footprint of Saanich, which is available on the District of Saanich website. The report found Saanich’s footprint was equivalent to four planets’ worth…

Growing Trees From Seed

Learn how to propagate and plant native Pacific northwest trees from seed — save money and get stronger, healthier, more resilient trees! A great way to create stock for eco-restoration or wetland projects. Or offer to donate the seedlings to your local... Read more

Our Planet No Longer Has the Privilege of Supporting War

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

Our planet no longer has the privilege of supporting war- the waste, the proliferation of exploded armaments, the damage to infrastructure. War in 2023 should be illegal from a planetary safety point of view. The world should not allow War to destroy the fragile... Read more

We’re A Long Way From Being A One Planet Region

Article, Energy, Housing, & Buildings, Nature & Conservation

That should have been been obvious all along, but never more so than since 1972, when two key books — Only One Earth and The Limits to Growth — were published for the First UN Conference on the Environment in Stockholm…

Join us! Save the Deer from Parks Canada Extermination

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

Please join us for a very important demonstration in Sidney! ParksCanada is embarking on a $6 million project to kill all the Fallow and native Black-tailed deer on Sidney Island by helicopter and using dogs. This is a cruel and unnecessary cull.

Joe Brewer, Cultural Evolution and Bioregional Regeneration

I first came across Joe Brewer’s work some years ago in an article he wrote critiquing the failure of universities to address in a comprehensive manner the complex ecological, social and cultural challenges we face. He began his 2017 article “Why Are Universities Failing Humanity?” with this statement…

Where the Olive Trees Grow

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

The Wisdom of Tree Symbology, a poem. Living on the plains of hope and dotted throughout the hills, The ancient olive tree is standing oh so still, Its roots have survived over all these years, Bearing fruit that when pressed cries salt free tears, A national tree shared by two feuding nations…

Thinking Globally, Acting Locally — and Bioregionally

I have spent the last couple of months exploring the global polycrisis and the set of responses — great turnarounds — proposed in the Earth For All report. But what, you might reasonably ask, does this all mean for us here in the Greater Victoria region? How can its concepts be translated into local action?

Learn to Grow Trees From Seed for Cheap!

Article, Community Trees, Nature & Conservation

Join professional arborist and commercial and non-profit tree grower, Ryan Senechal, and the Community Trees Matter Network for this fun, practical workshop! Learn where and when to gather seed or cuttings (now is a good time), propagation basics, container culture,... Read more

The Economy Must Serve the People and Respect the Earth’s Limits

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

Earth For All is the title of a September 2022 report from the Transformational Economics Commission to the Club of Rome. It is also “an international initiative to accelerate the systems-change we need for an equitable future on a finite planet.”

If We Want Energy For All, We Need To Stop Wasting It

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

The fifth great turnaround proposed by the Earth For All (E4A) initiative of the Club of Rome is a complete restructuring of our energy system. But it’s more than that, since energy is so bound up in all we do. Energy has powered our civilization ever since we first learned to use fire to warm us, cook and scare off predators.

Zoning is the Magic Wand of Local Government

Last month, a Leger poll showed only six per cent of Canadians blame the country’s onerous housing costs on municipalities. As local government, we must remember we are the most powerful level of government for affordability and environmental sustainability because of... Read more

Small Community Could Lead Way to Showcasing Real Climate Action

Article, Energy, Housing, & Buildings, Nature & Conservation

In 2019, a major step forward for climate leadership was taken by the Township of Esquimalt Council with potential far reaching outcomes for Canadians. A report was commissioned to explore the feasibility of thermally converting municipal solid waste( garbage) into... Read more

We Need To Change The Way We Farm and Eat

The first three of the five “great turnarounds” in the Club of Rome’s “Earth for All” report address different aspects of inequality. But the final two, to which I now turn, are concerned with two of the most fundamental determinants of our health: food and — next week — energy.

Artist, Speaker, Community Engagement Specialist

Get the tools you need to use collaborative art to ignite change in your communities! This virtual Masterclass explores the transformative power of art and how it can create change in your school, community, city, and beyond!

Good News for Preserving the Marbled Murrelet and its Nesting Habitat, Old Growth

We are an organization of concerned community members and scientists who have recently filed an Action in the Supreme Court of British Columbia to save the Marbled Murrelet (MaMu) and its nesting habitat, Old Growth trees.

Earth For All Requires The Empowerment Of Women

The report’s authors stress the need for improvement in “women’s access to education, economic opportunities and dignified jobs, and all life’s chances that these bring.” The education and empowerment of women and their involvement in the economy, they note, is strongly linked to reduced fertility rates and a reduction in population size.

A Quick Glance At Glacier Media’s Real Estate Connections

Glacier Media is the parent company of the Times Colonist. Both Glacier and the TC are paying members of the UDI development/Real Estate lobby and the TC is an open “Media Partner” with it, which has raised serious questions for many about its independence

News Is Blocked On Social Media in Canada… Now What?