The Trees of Yellow Point

The Trees of Yellow Point

Yellow Point/Cedar area on Vancouver Island is a beautiful and diverse area within the Coastal Douglas‐Fir (CDF) ecosystem.  It lies between Nanaimo and Ladysmith, with Highway 1 forming a logical boundary to the west and the coast to the east.. Click here to visit... Read more
Stories and Music Combine to Bring Climate Solutions to Forefront

Stories and Music Combine to Bring Climate Solutions to Forefront

Gail O’Riordan, Jon’s long-time wife and life partner, passed away in 2018, and the Climate and the Arts Legacy Series was established to honour her memory. “Gail was passionate about the arts and felt that combining climate stories about how humanity can change course with music and the performing arts would enrich the discussion and motivate people to act differently,”

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Just Which Predator Needs to be Controlled?

Just Which Predator Needs to be Controlled?

An opinion piece in this newspaper on June 4 from the B.C. Chamber of Commerce and the Thriving Orcas, Thriving Communities Coalition (composed of a number of coastal communities’ chambers of commerce) warned that coastal communities are on the brink of extinction because they rely on recreational fishing, which is in jeopardy.

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How to Flatten the Other Curves

How to Flatten the Other Curves

As with COVID-19, this demand far exceeds the system’s capacity — only this time, we are talking about the Earth’s biocapacity. So far, we have only seen the ascending part of this chart. But as with any species that exceeds the carrying capacity of its ecological niche, at some point the curve reaches a peak and starts to decline; we might call it “The Great Deccelaration.”

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Camas and Beacon Hill Park

Camas and Beacon Hill Park

This is an excellent article from the Beacon Hill archives that describes the Garry oak meadows of Victoria in 1843 and then the human impact of foot traffic by 2005. Please read and pass this bit of history along to all you know. Camas Country By Janis Ringuette... Read more
The Butterflyway Project

The Butterflyway Project

Wild pollinators such as butterflies and bees are crucial to human survival. Climate change and widespread pesticide use are compromising their habitat and food sources. The David Suzuki Foundation’s Butterflyway Project encourages to people to step up and help our... Read more
Wolves: The Takaya Legacy

Wolves: The Takaya Legacy

Takaya led a remarkable life for a wolf. His adventuresome spirit brought him to an unlikely place. His calm demeanour, fabulous good looks, resilience and intelligence brought him fame. For many years he lived alone on Discovery Island, off Victoria, until he swam... Read more

Earth Day 2020

I am fired up and inspired this Earth Day! Why?

This 50th Anniversary for Earth Day, in this pause in our ‘normal’ we have the space to reconnect to what matters and to envision, imagine and create our new way forward.

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When Climate Met COVID

When Climate Met COVID

We face not one but three simultaneous inter-connected crises: the COVID-19 Emergency, the Climate and Biodiversity Emergency, and the Crisis of Capitalism. We urgently need connected constructive responses. When you recall the movie When Harry Met Sally, your horny... Read more

The Hope of a Good Anthropocene

Sadly, there is not much good news about the state of the Earth these days. Climate change becomes more real as it starts to bite — just ask the Australians — and there is growing awareness of and concern about the extinction crisis we are triggering. We do have positive options, good choices and many opportunities.

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Small is Beautiful — and Essential

Small is Beautiful — and Essential

Some readers will doubtless recognize the reference to E.F. Schumacher’s classic 1973 book Small is Beautiful, in which he introduced the world to the concept of “Buddhist economics.” The book’s sub-title was “Economics as if people mattered,” which today we might amend to read “Economics as if people and the planet mattered.”

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Birds Need Trees

Birds Need Trees

When I first moved to James Bay, I often awoke to the sound of robins warbling in the trees, the chatter of sparrows and the sight of swallows elegantly swooping in between buildings. Sadly, this is no more. There is a strange silence in my neighbourhood. The reason?... Read more
First They Came for the Whales…

First They Came for the Whales…

While there has been an increasing public focus on climate change in the past few years, and a slow awakening to the threat it poses, we have yet to wake up fully to an even bigger problem. I noted in a September column that we face not only a climate emergency but an extinction emergency.

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