Reasons for Buying Food that is Local, Regenerative, and in Season
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 moreRemembrance 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.
Read more
Good Eats
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
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)…
Read more
How To Address Climate Change Impactfully at Your Local Level
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
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?
Read more
Food Consumption and Waste a Big Part of Our Ecological Footprint
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…
Read moreGrowing 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
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
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…
Read moreJoin us! Save the Deer from Parks Canada Extermination
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.
Read more
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…
Read more
Where the Olive Trees Grow
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…
Read more
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?
Read more
Learn to Grow Trees From Seed for Cheap!
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
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.”
Read more
If We Want Energy For All, We Need To Stop Wasting It
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.
Read more
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
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.
Read more
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!
Read more
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.
Read more
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.
Read more
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
Read more
News Is Blocked On Social Media in Canada… Now What?
Did you hear? Meta and Google are blocking news in Canada in response to the Online News Act (Bill C-18). It’s scary living in a time when companies have so much power over what news we take in online. We aren’t exactly sure what to do about it, but here are some... Read more
Toward A Just Transformation To Earth For All
In the past few weeks, I have been stressing the need for a rapid transformation of our society if we are to ensure people around the world can have good lives within planetary boundaries. A recent article in a (British) Royal Society journal by Prof. Timothy Lenton, a leading Earth-system scientist…
Read moreImproving Urbanism in a Time of Climate Change and Housing Need
Renowned city planner, Brent Toderian, recently shared this insightful presentation to Langford. He has done a lot of work internationally in both large and small communities with a focus on the climate crisis. Here is the video (start at about the 7 minute... Read more
Biosolids are Everyone’s Issue
Biosolids are the dried residual of sewage sludge generated from a waste water treatment plant, such as McLoughlin Point in Esquimalt, BC. Biosolids contain toxic chemicals and micro plastics which do not break down in the environment – hence their name, ‘forever... Read more
BC is Burning – An Open Letter to Premier Eby
Eby Fiddles While BC Burns BC is on fire and you, Premier Eby, are busy fiddling while our forests burn. Your commitment to protect old-growth forest has gone up in flames just like 1.5 million hectares already burned this season. With more than 1,200 fires since... Read more
The Great Transformation We Need Must Be Socially Just
Last week I looked at the 1977 Science Council of Canada report “Canada as a Conserver Society.” The report recommended “Canadians as individuals, and their governments, institutions, and industries, begin the transition from a consumer society preoccupied with resource exploitation to a conserver society engaged in more constructive endeavours.”
Read more
Advocating for People, Planet and Place Over Profit
I want to share my thoughts on the recent Community Amenity Contribution (CAC) and Inclusionary Housing Policy decision of July 17, 2023. This decision has reduced CACs by 60% (although it includes a review in 1 year) from what was presented to council in March 2023.... Read more
We Need To Talk About Wildfires (and the Media)
You may have seen the news about devastating wildfires raging in Hawaii right now, with one town (Lahaina) being burnt down almost entirely. With wildfires happening across Canada this summer, displacing people in BC, Alberta and Nova Scotia, it’s hard to not feel... Read more
Transforming Communities with Art: A Toolkit for Educators & Leaders
This Masterclass explores the transformative power of art and how it can create change in your school, community, city, and beyond! Are you struggling to create real impact in the communities you serve? In this free 3-day virtual workshop we will give you the tools... Read more
How To Save Oodles of Precious Water!
Residents throughout BC were recently asked to start conserving water. Bowinn Ma, our new minister of emergency management and climate readiness, said water supply is already extremely low in much of the province. All of Vancouver Island is now at Drought Level 5, the... Read more
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.
Read more
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... Read more
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…
Read more
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.
Read more
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.
Read more
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... Read more
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.”
Read more
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.
Read more
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... Read more
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... Read more
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... Read more
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.
Read more
A Well-being Society Values All Four Forms of Capital
We may be economically better off, but we are not much better off in human and social development terms, and we are eating away at the Earth’s life-support systems on which we ultimately depend. Clearly, we need a new economic system, one based on growing all four forms of capital — natural, human, social and produced (or economic) capital — simultaneously.
Read more