Following my reflections last week on Jeremy Lent’s ideas about connections, I found myself musing about beginnings and endings – my own, life on Earth and the universe – and the connections they imply. I thought about and partly wrote this column while sitting under the great trees in Heritage Grove in Francis-King Park, feeling both connected to and in awe of nature.
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In his 2017 book The Patterning Instinct, Jeremy Lent suggests there are three forms of disconnection that lie at the heart of the global challenges we are creating and that are “inexorably leading human civilization to potential disaster.”
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There are so many unique and nourishing ways you can use your personal gifts to stand up for forests. Over the next few crucial weeks, it’s going to take as many of us as possible to shine a light on the danger these ancient trees are in.
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Some of the key proposals are focused on significant reforms to the present financial system. B.C. should establish a Green Investment Bank of B.C. that would “be used to finance recovery investments that support B.C.’s climate action targets and other goals”.
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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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et me turn to Guy Dauncey for an alternative that is neither communism nor medieval. Dauncey has been an interesting, thoughtful and — in the best sense — provocative thinker, writer and activist on ecological and social issues in this region for years.
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This World Unity Week webinar is about the unity of the youth climate and social justice movement. The panelists are all young change makers who are invested in creating a more just and safer future for the next generations…
Read moreThe COVID pandemic and the global response to flattening the curve provide a once in a lifetime opportunity for the world to re-set its policies to flatten the carbon curve. This panel consists of three leading thinkers on this transformational moment.
Read moreThe Story of the Great Bear Rainforest: Transition to Sustainability The Great Bear Rainforest is one of the largest intact temperate rainforests in the world. It stretches from the northern tip of Vancouver Island to…
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Wildwood is a 77-acre forest nestled on the shores of Quennell Lake in the Ladysmith area of Vancouver Island. The Ecoforestry Institute Society (EIS) is a registered charitable society and the owners and trustees of…
Read moreFind out why science is more important now than ever and water is the nexus of climate with two of the world’s leading scientists, Dr. John Pomeroy and Dr. Trevor Davies. Joining them is award-winning author, Bob Sandford…
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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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One of the main ways we can help create the change we want to see, is to send letters and call our elected officials. The more people who do this, the better. To simplify this process, we have drafted this letter which we invite you to cut, paste and share by email and on social media by sharing this post.
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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.”
Read moreIan McAllister is the author of a multitude of books, has been honored by the Globe and Mail as one of 133 highly accomplished Canadians, He and his wife, Karen McAllister, were named by TIME as “Leaders of the 21st Century” for their efforts to protect…
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Learn from two of Vancouver Island’s leading foresters about the fascinating history of eco-forestry, its role in nurturing nature’s ecosystems and how we can protect and restore our forests as part of the climate change solution.
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Feeling cooped up with the lockdown? Imagine living in a 200-ft-tall redwood tree for more than two years. Twenty years ago, Julia Butterfly Hill did just that, to draw attention to the continued clearcutting of California’s remaining redwood forests.
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Jim Bronson and Sandi Goldie are offering their first online 5 session class “Getting Into Action” with solutions, based on the book Drawdown, The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed for Reversing Global Warming by Paul Hawken.
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Orca Awareness Month 2020 (June) will be a spontaneous upsurge of creativity spreading the “help whales” message in a time of physical-distancing. We can’t have talks & meetings so will do public art displays. 73 remaining SRKWs have never needed us more.
Read moreAnn Mortifee is an inspirational leader in both the environment and the arts. She is Canada’s National Performing Treasure, a recipient of the Order of Canada, beloved by thousands for her penetrating wisdom and humanity….
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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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In his daily briefing on April 9, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said: “Our country will come roaring back.” I understand why he might want to reassure people that everything would be fine, that this is just a temporary, if large, disruption to business-as-usual. But it’s much more than that.
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You can join with others who are eager to get into action on projects to reverse global warming! Go to bcdrawdown.org to learn more about the book Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming.
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Because of Covid-19 we stand yet again at a crossroads of history. Too often in my lifetime we have stood at this same crossroads, and each time we have taken the wrong path. Will we get it right this time?
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Can we call city parks, even large uncultivated ones, “natural”? Given that over half of humanity now lives in cities, and that by 2050 an estimated 68% will, preservation of large urban green spaces is the only way most kids will grow up without “NDD”
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It seems amazing that medical and political officials obsess about social distancing but have NOTHING to say about the cause of the pandemic – i.e. nothing about addiction to animal products. (Telling us don’t go outside, but keep buying meat?!?)
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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.
Read moreSadly, 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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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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