Season 4 of Climate and Artists free webinar series premiered with positively uplifting and inspiring stories from eight fabulous guests committed to regenerating and transforming communities creatively. Learn how…
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From time to time, fierce debates erupt over proposals to introduce more dense housing into residential neighbourhoods. I suspect that part of the problem is a failure to distinguish between housing that is affordable, social housing and supportive housing, as well as a related concern about loss of property values.
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The list of unworthy corporate recipients of government (read tax-paying citizens) support is long, but surely right at the top must be the fossil-fuel industry, followed by industries such as mining, forestry, agriculture and fisheries (of which more next week).
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We can end chronic homelessness in Victoria. It’s going to take the same focused effort that so many have put in over the past year. If close to 600 people can move inside in one year, in the middle of a global health pandemic when everyone is already stretched and stressed, surely we can focus on the people remaining outside and set our sights as a community on what’s known as “functional zero”.
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Campaigners sense turning point as shareholders, boards and The Hague act to force Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell to cut pollution. The world’s patience with the fossil fuel industry is wearing thin. This was the stark message delivered to major international oil companies this week in an unprecedented day of reckoning for their role in the climate crisis.
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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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Knowledge Powers Action What specific actions can we all take to lower our carbon footprint and save money? We explore answers to this question and many others. Learn practicable and achievable actions that can move us along…
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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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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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Attaining carbon neutrality will have a profound impact on how we design communities and deal with waste. This webinar includes a number of pioneers who are creating innovative solutions to carbon neutrality and ways to…
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This special TEDx event, co-produced by Creatively United in partnership with BC Drawdown, features an incredible line up of inspirational solutions and talks by a variety of BC climate champions, including: Seth Klein, Meg…
Read MoreMany people who are concerned about the oncoming climate crisis and loss of biodiversity ask the following questions: “What can one person do? What can one community do?” These questions and others are addressed in this…
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In May, The World Health Organization released its “Manifesto for a healthy and green COVID-19 recovery.” It is in many ways an astonishing document, because it speaks briefly and plainly to the many global problems we face and how we need to respond.
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This poorly researched film suggested that reliance on solar & renewable energy is impossible. This is nonsense. When I lived in the North Island of New Zealand 47 years ago it already was almost 100% reliant on renewable energy. I quit watching the film after 30 minutes.
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The third-largest component of our ecological footprint consists of buildings, and almost two-thirds of that is the operating energy used for heating, cooling, ventilation, lighting, cooking and powering electronics. Most of the rest is the embodied energy in the materials used to construct the buildings.
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If you’re like me, you might look at this book and wonder how dry and boring it might be. This book is a wonderful surprise in that regard; once I started I could not put it down. This story contains so much information and is rounded out in such a way that you will soon find something that will pique your interest and take you down the rabbit hole.
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An important contributor to our large ecological footprint is urban sprawl, an energy and resource-hungry form of development that we cannot afford. It also is bad for our health.
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Considerable derision has been heaped on Victoria city council for endorsing a class-action lawsuit against the fossil-fuel industry, seeking financial compensation for the added costs the city will incur as a result of climate change.
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The environment of our buildings, and especially our homes, is enormously important for us. As Sir Winston Churchill remarked: “First we shape our buildings, then they shape us.”
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Canada’s postal worker union is at the bargaining table this year – with one major issue to negotiate. It’s not what you think: the only green they’re fighting for is the environment.
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In Episode 5 of our podcast Mission Transition we look at who owns our power – and who should own our power. Caitlyn and Sue hear from people in BC who are trying to bring energy ownership and production into their own hands.
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First Nations have been left behind by our mainstream economy. Now they are leading the way in BC when it comes to local, clean energy generation. In this episode we look at the innovative ways they’re producing clean energy and how this could spark an opportunity to work toward reconciliation.
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British Columbians tend to see our economy as resource based—with many people making their living in the forest industry, the oil patch or the gas fields. We’ve all heard about or benefited from the high paying jobs. In Episode 3 we challenge assumptions about energy jobs in BC and talk about what happens to jobs as we shift to the next economy.
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In Episode 2 of Mission Transition, we look at how the clean energy economy will change the ways we build. Susan Elrington and Caitlyn Vernon examine whether it’s better to build new or to retrofit existing buildings—and what this means for jobs.
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