Have Your Say for a Resilient Saanich
Here is an opportunity for Saanich residents to provide input to the District on issues such as zero waste. Please take a moment and let your voice be heard by following this link. Read more
Forest Defenders Needed for West- Coast Ancient Forest Frontlines
The Rainforest Flying Squad is looking for valuable long-term in-camp volunteers to help continue to grow this movement of direct action protection of endangered old-growth forests. Currently needed are responsible, hard-working, conscientious people, who can get... Read more
Fight against the OKI Strip Mine in the Highlands – Update
Thanks in large measure to the power of the BC Provincial Mines Act, OKI has recently won two legal decisions, one each against the Highland District and the Highland District Community Association (HDCA). While the HDCA has decided to appeal one of these decisions,... Read more
Old Growth Worth More Alive
Once every five years the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) reviews its sustainable forest management certification for BC logging companies and this is a chance to let them know that logging old-growth forests, 10,000 years in the making, is not possibly... Read more
“Sustainable” Forest Management Standards Clearly Not Sustainable
Once every five years the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) reviews its sustainable forest management certification for BC logging companies and this is a chance to let them know that logging old-growth forests, 10,000 years in the making, is not possibly... Read moreSpace Environmentalism with Moriba Jah and Aaron Boley
As you read this, approximately 26,000 human-made objects are circling overhead around the Earth. Some 3,000 of them are functioning spacecraft and satellites; the other 23,000 are pieces of junk left over from 63 years of the human use of space. Literally millions of... Read more
The 2021 Conversations Program
Our Conversations in 2021 will be focusing more on imagining and starting to design and create a One Planet Region, exploring what local and personal and actions are needed and the policy changes needed to support those actions.
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Stop Massive Landfill Expansion at Hartland
Did you know that 73 acres of precious urban forests situated next to our Hartland Landfill are slated to be destroyed in order to provide a bigger hole for more garbage? In an era of climate crisis, we, the Dogwood South Island Regional Team (SIRT) feel this is... Read more
Stop the Boys and Girls Club of Victoria from subdividing 40 acres in Metchosin!
Sign the petition here. As former BGCVIC employees, we are starting this petition to stop the application to subdivide an ecologically vulnerable parcel of land owned by the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Victoria (BGCVIC). This land has been used for decades for... Read more
We need your help – climate motion rejected by Victoria School Board
18 months ago, teachers, parents, and students ran a campaign to have the Victoria School District declare a climate emergency, and put together a climate plan. They passed the motion unanimously, including this provision, that the Board would: a) direct the... Read moreRe-Imagining Our Future – Charting The Way Forward
Season 3 of Creative Solutions for a New World launched January 13th, 2021 with policy experts, Bob Sandford and Jon O’Riordan, uncovering the systemic challenges to reach carbon neutrality and a review of national and local…
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We Need to Learn From Indigenous People How to be Stewards of Nature
The 2019 Human Development Report from the UN focused on inequalities in the Human Development Index, but did not look at an inequality that is particularly important in Canada: the HDI of Indigenous people. Happily, Indigenous Services Canada has done this, at the request of the Assembly of First Nations, although only for “Registered Indians,” which misses Inuit and Métis people.
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A Request for an Immediate Moratorium on Old-Growth Logging: A Letter to Premier Horgan and Minister Conroy
The Ecoforestry Institute Society encourages organizations and individuals passionate about our remaining old-growth forests to write their own letters to Premier Horgan and Minister Conroy. These irreplaceable forests are almost gone. Add your voice!
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Introducing Tuesdays for Trees
GVAT’s Climate Action Research Team launched their Tuesdays for Trees campaign on the first Tuesday of the New Year. Due to the current Covid restrictions, only a few of us set up signage and a repurposed Xmas tree at the Legislature and walked with signs around the... Read more
Canada’s Heavy Ecological Footprint Hurts Its Human-Development Ranking
Last week, I quoted from a Dec. 2 speech by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on the state of the planet. It made for grim reading, but it is the reality we need to face. Mr. Guterres did not end on a pessimistic note, however. Instead, he pointed to many indications of opportunity and hope.
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CRD extends public consultation period on draft Solid Waste Management Plan
Mount Work Coalition (MWC) welcomes the CRD’s decision to extend the public consultation period on its draft Solid Waste Management Plan to February 15, 2021. MWC, joined by other community groups, requested the extension so that more people could review and comment... Read more
Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability Commitments
The following profile those portions of each of the Premier of British Columbia’s (John Horgan’s) new Cabinet member’s Mandate Letters sent to Provincial Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries on November 26th, 2020 that highlight ‘climate change or environmental... Read more
Climate Action – International to Local
The following are a sampling of climate action-related updates, activities or reports from an active Fall 2020, both internationally and closer-to-home: Internationally: On December 2, 2020, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres presented a sobering State of the... Read more
To heal the planet, we need to embrace solutions that are already here
On Dec. 2, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres gave an important if somewhat overlooked speech at Columbia University’s World Leaders Forum on the state of the planet. Guterres was blunt: “To put it simply, the state of the planet is broken,” he said. “Humanity is waging war on nature” – and that is “suicidal.”
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Climate Action Update
On November 19, 2020, the Climate Action Program presented an update to Victoria City Council on the progress made to meet our emissions reduction targets and advance the actions outlined in the Climate Leadership Plan which was released in July 2018. Information on... Read more
Money Talks… So Have Your Say!
Many people pay into the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) through paycheque deductions and become beneficiaries of the same when they retire. For those of you that are concerned on where your investments are going, including the CPP where one of the largest pension plans in... Read more
Zero Waste, Circular Economy Possible
The CRD just released its draft solid Waste Management Plan for the Victoria region and wants your feedback. Landfills are not sustainable, produce greenhouse gases and should not be expanded. Other options are available. The CRD needs to do more to move to Zero Waste... Read moreThe SOLUTON for the Season – An Eternal Gift With Special Benefits
A rare opportunity exists to give a beautiful living gift that will not only last lifetimes, supports everyone in our local community and beyond, is convenient, plus is a climate solution in alignment with zero waste. If you are looking for the best Christmas gift,... Read moreWhere Do We Go From Here? – Season 2 Finale
Unlike COVID-19, there is no vaccine for curing the climate crisis. At best, we have to become carbon neutral by mid-century to have any chance of managing this existential threat. In this video, a panel of leading solution…
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THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
This November marks the 4th anniversary since Madame Justice of the BC Supreme Court gave the Ecoforestry Institute Society the right to buy Wildwood, keeping it in the public domain forever. We could not have done it without your unwavering support, your generous donations and your love and hard work. It took hundreds of people three years and a big pot of money to get this done.
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The Climate Vaccine
At present, our planet is doubly afflicted. We have become the most dominant and most dangerous species on Earth. We have only one serious competitor – and that one happens to have been around for more than 2 ½ billion years before the appearance of multi-cellular life and that is the virus and, but for vaccines, it could still win.
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Will the candidate you vote for in next month’s election work to protect Victoria’s trees?
Will the candidate you vote for in next month’s election work to protect Victoria’s trees? Elections provide an opportunity for us to compel our future politicians to focus upon issues of special concern, and to record their stances so that we can hold them to account... Read more
Petition: Ban Landfill Expansion Plans at Hartland Dump
Sign the petition here. Landfills worldwide must be decommissioned and not expanded as we move to a society that embraces zero waste and carbon neutrality in the future. We are living in a climate emergency and other cleaner alternative waste management solutions can... Read more
Creative Community Partnerships Help Reduce Carbon and Waste and Save Natural Spaces
Creatively United is committed to championing solutions at the community level to support a shift to carbon neutrality by 2050. Both the federal and provincial governments in British Columbia are committed to achieving carbon neutrality. A number of local councils... Read moreTreaty Negotiations and Ecosystem Monitoring
Learn from members of one of Canada’s leading international river basin negotiating teams how they are working to restore ecosystem health in the Canadian portion of the Columbia Basin following the damming of the River in…
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New Park for South Jubilee Neighbourhood
A new park has arrived in the South Jubilee neighbourhood thanks to the City’s purchase of a 12,700 square foot parcel of land comprised of a Garry oak meadow at the corner of Leighton Road and Bank Street. The new park is named Agamemnon and Eleni Kasapi Park in recognition of the family’s preservation of the property in its natural state for the benefit of the community.
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US Naval Testing Harmful to Whales
Our Canadian government fails to file any objection to the planned US Naval testing in the habitat of Southern Resident Killer Whales. I have no idea why only the Greens raised this issue in Parliament. Only one news agency, the National Observer, carried any... Read more
Gasification Q and A: What is it and will it solve our waste management and climate challenges?
Since our community meeting with Creatively United for the Planet and other community groups concerned with the CRD’s proposed massive landfill expansion plan at Hartland Landfill (and announced agreement in principle with FortisBC which financially motivates CRD to... Read more
Zero Waste Means Not Expanding Hartland Landfill
A lot of what we acquire — all that “stuff’’ — ends up as solid waste, while inefficient energy use leads to high levels of energy waste. Not only does this contribute to excessive use of resources — with all the pollution and energy use associated with their extraction, processing and distribution — but it fills our landfills and pollutes our local environment or, if we export it, other people’s environment.
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We Are an Ocean Province, Let’s Act Like One
What do people think of when they think of British Columbia? Chances are they think of the mountains, the forests, the coast with its salmon and orca, and Indigenous people and cultures. Indeed we are an ocean province, with a 25,000-kilometre-long coastline.
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A Zero Waste Response for Regional Tree Protection
“The natural world is the larger sacred community to which we belong. To be alienated from this community is to become destitute in all that makes us human. To damage this community is to diminish our own existence.” — Thomas Berry Thank you everyone for your interest... Read more
Hartland Waste Management Plan – Send This Letter to the CRD
Send this letter to: Denise Blackwell, CRD Board Vice-Chair (dblackwell@crd.bc.ca) Susan Brice, Director (sbrice@crd.bc.ca) Barbara Desjardins, Director (bdesjardins@crd.bc.ca) Fred Haynes, Director (fhaynes@crd.bc.ca) Lisa Helps, Director (lhelps@crd.bc.ca) Mike... Read more
The Blessed Unrest and the Public Good in BC
We, meaning government, First Nations, communities, scientists, academics, non-government organizations, industry and citizens, must find a way to pool our collective efforts to responsibly steward the precious natural resources given to us. Blessed Unrest – that’s... Read more
Tree Seedlings Available Nov 2-6
The District of Central Saanich, thanks to the generous donation of Mosaic Forest Management, will be giving out 100 Douglas Fir seedlings the week of November 2 to 6, 2020. The seedlings will be available outside Municipal Hall, at 1903 Mt Newton Cross Road, from 9... Read moreAn Appreciation for Trees
The Vancouver Island branch of the Royal Commonwealth Society hosts this Trees for Life video discussion to highlight the role trees play in our lives, communities, and the longevity of our planet. Join Dr. John Innes (Dean, Faculty of Forestry, UBC), Sarah Abbott... Read moreThe Call for a New Forest Framework
What’s wrong with how forestry is practised in BC today? Why are old growth forests so precious? What are the solutions and implementation timelines? Join Kathy Code, of the Ecoforestry Institute Society, and Jonathan…
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Our Fisheries are as Badly Managed as our Forests
Courtesy of the Times Colonist Photo: A fishing boat passes a Canadian Coast Guard helicopter near Fisherman’s Wharf by Darren Stone Here is an astounding statistic: Of the roughly 196,000 tonnes of wild seafood harvested by B.C. fishers in 2018, worth about $476... Read more
Our Forests Are More Than Mere Resources
Courtesy of the Times Colonist Photo of Francis King Regional Park, Darren Stone – Times Colonist Last week, I explored how poorly governments of all stripes have been, at all levels, in protecting nature — and thus in protecting us. British Columbia is renowned... Read more
A Surprising Note of Advice for Voters from The Economist
The primary American research body tracking Global Warming and its affects, NOAA, just noted that September was the warmest September since modern records began in 1880. Seven of the warmest Septembers since 1880 have occurred in the past 7 years. So far, 2020 is the... Read moreArts of Laughing, Arts of Weeping: Equipment for Earth’s Lovers
Bob Haverluck, a Manitoba artist-educator and theologian who works with community groups using the arts, especially comedy to help engage issues of violence against the earth and her creatures; and Gennadiy Ivanov, a…
Read moreCreeks and Communities
This video demonstrates how a small group of individuals can can make an impact to tackling the climate and biodiversity crisis by restoring ecosystem function in creeks within communities. The individuals are associated with Aqua-tex Scientific Consulting Ltd., This... Read moreCountdown TEDxBCDrawdown
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…
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OUR PARKS – The Ultimate Essential Service
Our parks and protected areas and their ecosystems that keep us fed, sheltered and alive are the ultimate essential service. They are at risk. The upcoming election in BC is your opportunity to get them on the “Build Back Better” agenda.
Read moreBC Drawdown and Countdown to Change
Many 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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