Article, Arts, Community, & Inclusivity, Energy, Housing, & Buildings, Nature & Conservation
Last week I discussed some of the problems that result from our focus on the economy rather than on ecologically sustainable human and social development. This week, I turn to a more in-depth exploration of the impacts of continual economic growth, and in particular the way in which growth, if unchecked, will dramatically increase inequality.
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Article, Arts, Community, & Inclusivity, Energy, Housing, & Buildings, Nature & Conservation
It’s been three weeks since the RBC AGM and our national fossil fool’s day mobilization. What did we collectively achieve, and what’s next? We went from 8% of shareholder support to … 26% At last year’s RBC AGM, a single resolution called for the bank to clarify its... Read More
Article, Arts, Community, & Inclusivity, Energy, Housing, & Buildings, Nature & Conservation
I recently came across an eloquent and powerful passage by Carl Sagan, the famed cosmologist, written in response to an image of Earth taken by Voyager 1 in 1990, from beyond the planet Neptune. The Earth was just a pale blue dot, which inspired the title of his 1994 book from which the following passage is quoted. Sagan wrote: “You see a dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us…
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Article, Arts, Community, & Inclusivity, Nature & Conservation
Highlighting actions and events related to art, nature, and social justice happening in Victoria, in BC and remotely! Check out the events below and browse the Community Events Calendar for more! What is Earth Week? • The first Earth Day, inspired by protests of the... Read More
Article, Arts, Community, & Inclusivity, Nature & Conservation
This is a key moment for us to ensure the many plants and animals that call B.C. home can thrive. And you can help! Local governments have the power to adopt or amend bylaws that support greater biodiversity, and it is up to us residents to urge them to take action.... Read More
Article, Energy, Housing, & Buildings, Nature & Conservation
Whenever I write about the problems of economic growth and our ecological footprint, I get emails asking why I don’t also address population growth. The short answer is that I have, on several occasions. The longer answer, as I wrote in a July 2018 column on this topic, is that the issue is complex, and the solution not just a matter of family planning.
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Article, Nature & Conservation
Courtesy of the CBC Photo: A timber operation in the Cariboo. B.C. passed amendments to modernize forestry legislation last year, including laying the groundwork for a new system of 10-year forest landscape plans to be developed in partnership with First Nations.... Read More
Article, Arts, Community, & Inclusivity, Energy, Housing, & Buildings, Nature & Conservation
Special Film Preview Creatively United for the Planet, in partnership with Climate and the Arts, presents the special Earth Day preview of our newest film, Changing Course: A River’s Journey of Reconnection. This 60-minute documentary features stunning footage by... Read More
Article, Nature & Conservation
Help prevent the extinction of the marbled murrelet. Act now by signing the petition.
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Article, Nature & Conservation
So much has been written about the urgency of the looming climate disaster that I’ll skip straight to the solutions. I am a climate alarmist, just as Churchill was a Nazi alarmist in the 1930s. But I am not a climate doomer. I am of one mind with Paul Hawken, author... Read More
Article, Energy, Housing, & Buildings, Nature & Conservation
Given that we only have one planet, we need to live within the carrying capacity of the global ecosystem that is Earth. Yet as I noted last week, Canada’s ecological footprint per person is equivalent to using 5.1 planet’s worth of biocapacity and natural resources every year.
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Article, Community Trees, Nature & Conservation
Photo credit: Nikki/Flickr The Victoria-based Community Trees Matter Network has created this handy letter to cut and paste, and send to Victoria City Council, or the officials of your choice, in an effort to protect and enhance urban trees and forests. The Letter:... Read More
Article, Nature & Conservation
Just a few days ago, Canada overshot its fair share of Earth’s biocapacity and resources, as measured by the ecological footprint in 2018, the latest year for which data is available. By March 13, Canada had already consumed its fair share of the Earth’s bounty for the year. Collectively, humanity passed its 2022 Earth Overshoot Day on July 28.
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Article, Nature & Conservation
This is a good summary of the main points of the IPCC report released yesterday. The new analysis, a synthesis of six previous reports by the United Nations’ climate group, presents a mixed picture of the world’s fight against climate change. Here are three takeaways.
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Article, Nature & Conservation
“Our forests are foundational to B.C. In collaboration with First Nations and industry, we are accelerating our actions to protect our oldest and rarest forests.” These are the words attributed to you, Premier Eby, in the February 15, 2023 government press release... Read More
Article, Nature & Conservation
Unlike the rest of BC, where the majority of land is under public management, 80% of the Coastal Douglas-fir zone is privately owned. Thus land protection is one of the most common conservation approaches, but is it sustainable?
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Article, Nature & Conservation
Please support the Federal Government in passing the emergency order to save the spotted owl. We need the Feds to take this on because BC doesn’t have species-at-risk legislation. Maybe the spotted owl’s right to survive can save some of our forests.... Read More
Nature & Conservation, Video
One of the planet’s most magnificent forests is the Coastal Temperate Rainforest of North America. The biggest parts of it are in the Canadian province of British Columbia, where logging companies are still clearcutting some of the last pockets of Ancient... Read More
Article, Arts, Community, & Inclusivity, Nature & Conservation
Thousands of people from all over Vancouver Island and the Mainland braved the cold to show their support for protecting and preserving British Columbia’s at this week’s Old Growth Forest Rally. Douglas and Government Streets in Victoria were closed down for more than 45 minutes as people streamed in filling the streets from the length of City Hall to the Parliament Buildings.
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Article, Arts, Community, & Inclusivity, Nature & Conservation
C-IRG emulates and supports a structure of quasi-fascism within Canadian government and policing, however many citizens are unaware of this government funded group. This post hopes to raise awareness and gain community support.
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Article, Nature & Conservation, Video
Many people are either contributors or beneficiaries of one or more of the pension plans reviewed by Shift Action for Pension Wealth and Planet Health in their inaugural Canadian Pension Climate Report Card and as presented in their webinar – Report Card 2022 —... Read More
Article, Arts, Community, & Inclusivity, Nature & Conservation
This event, featuring Anjali Appadurai, Seth Klein, Naomi Klein, Juan Vargas Alba (& others to be announced), will be a place to learn more about this campaign and plans to win a Climate Corps (nationally and in BC and Alberta). Plus, we will be debuting an... Read More
Article, Nature & Conservation
The stakes for old growth forests in British Columbia couldn’t be higher. The old growth forest ecosystem in BC is the most biodiverse ecosystem in Canada. Yet today, very little of the original old growth remains, due to the practice of clearcuts, TFLs (Tree Farm... Read More
Article, Community Trees, Nature & Conservation
The Community Trees Matter Network is asking anyone who lives, works, studies, recreates, or would like to help the urban forest in Saanich, BC, to please consider sending this letter to council@saanich.ca, or write your own. This letter could be used as... Read More
Article, Nature & Conservation, Video
Please watch and share our new BC Old-Growth Policy Update by the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance’s Executive Director Ken Wu. Note: it was filmed just before the positive new forest policy announcements by BC’s new Premier David Eby last week, which we... Read More
Article, Arts, Community, & Inclusivity, Nature & Conservation
United For Old-Growth March & Rally February 25 Walk: begins at Noon, Centennial Square (lək̓ʷəŋən territories, Victoria) Rally: 1:30-3:30 pm, BC Legislature Dear Friends of the Forests, We’re now moving into the final phase of coming together for the United We... Read More
Article, Energy, Housing, & Buildings, Nature & Conservation
FortisBC and Woodfibre LNG are beginning construction of a pipeline without the proper permits to house their workers safely. The process is an indication of their poor commitment to ensuring the safety of the community and the human rights of Squamish residents.... Read More
Article, Arts, Community, & Inclusivity, Nature & Conservation
An ancient forest is a home to more life than we can imagine. The project of colonization has left less than 3% of what once stood. On February 25 a united movement of thousands of people will be sending a clear message to the provincial government: Keep your promises... Read More
Article, Nature & Conservation
Courtesy of the Times Colonist Photo: Students at a rally in California in February 2021 call for in-person learning. Young people who wrote a recent report for the UN called Our Future Agenda aim to “unleash a new generation” by engaging young people as... Read More
Article, Nature & Conservation
As a climate champion you are no doubt aware that BC’s logging industry continues to cut down old-growth forests despite government promises to protect them. While new Premier David Eby has made encouraging statements, there is so far scant evidence to contrast his... Read More
Article, Arts, Community, & Inclusivity, Nature & Conservation
Together with the Goethe-Institut, we are excited to announce the 2022 Mentorship Award for Cultural & Artistic Responses to Environmental Change! Floods and forest fires, storms and disappearing species: the climate crisis is being felt everywhere around the... Read More
Article, Community Creativity, Nature & Conservation, Zero Waste & Circular Economy
We set out early in the morning. A wintry sun grudgingly appeared as we piled into the car. Mom and Dad, siblings and cousins made up our party. The roof-rack was securely in place on which to bring home the quarry: the perfect Christmas tree which we’ll flush... Read More
Article, Nature & Conservation
The air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, the materials and energy we use — they all come from nature. We are part of the web of life, and as the Duwamish elder Chief Seattle is recorded as saying more than 150 years ago: “Whatever we do to the web of life, we do to ourselves.”
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Article, Nature & Conservation
North Cowichan is conducting a consultation to determine the fate of our community forests — to log or protect our Six Mountains. No matter who you are, or where you live, near or far, our Council invites you to participate, to give perspective, to fill out our... Read More
Article, Energy, Housing, & Buildings, Nature & Conservation
From nature’s perspective, human civilization has been a disaster. It has caused the loss of 83% of all wild mammals and 50% of plants. Between 1970 and 2016 alone, humans wiped out 68% of the world’s mammals, birds, fish and reptiles. The world’s governments support this destructive activity with subsidies…
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Article, Energy, Housing, & Buildings, Nature & Conservation
The Great Transition scenarios, detailed in the 2022 Great Transition essay, stand the test of time. All six are alive and well, not as scenarios but as realities. In the two Conventional World scenarios, market forces still determine almost everything, regardless of... Read More
Article, Energy, Housing, & Buildings, Nature & Conservation
Courtesy of the Times Colonist Photo: Young activists lobby world leaders at the COP27 United Nations Climate Summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, this month. NARIMAN EL-MOFTY, AP Although I intended to continue my examination of Earth For All, the astounding hypocrisy... Read More
Article, Arts, Community, & Inclusivity, Nature & Conservation, Zero Waste & Circular Economy
WHAT IS BLACK FRIDAY / CYBER MONDAY? The term “Black Friday” had been used in the mid 1800s to indicate a decline in gold prices that caused a market crash The term became associated with this time of year, right around American Thanksgiving, in the 1950s when... Read More
Article, Arts, Community, & Inclusivity, Nature & Conservation
As hope to substantially delay a 6th extinction fades it is, for me, being replaced by deep curiosity as to how it will all spiral down. How much, if at all, that impacts lifespans is in itself another matter for curiosity. And for what as well as how intensely the... Read More
Article, Arts, Community, & Inclusivity, Community Creativity, Nature & Conservation
How best to speak of our society’s ongoing self destructiveness in a way that our eyeballs, ear holes and heart might get it? How to “fool” us into a little unlearning of our learned disconnect from the watery animally earth? How to tease out a thread, a rope, an... Read More
Article, Arts, Community, & Inclusivity, Energy, Housing, & Buildings, Nature & Conservation, Zero Waste & Circular Economy
More than 40 years ago, in my major paper for my master’s degree, I sought to identify the fundamental principles underlying public health. I concluded there are two: ecological sanity and social justice. The pursuit of these principles has defined much of my work to create a healthier society ever since.
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Article, Arts, Community, & Inclusivity, Nature & Conservation
Hello Elders, This is a very short callout, mainly to let you know about what’s coming up in November. As BC’s new Premier is being sworn in, we Old-Growth Supporters need to raise a bit of a ruckus to encourage David Eby to implement old-growth deferrals immediately.... Read More
Article, Arts, Community, & Inclusivity, Community Trees, Nature & Conservation
Since CTMN began, in 2018, our various passionate members have been involved in a variety of projects: Educational Outreach to the Public via technology: We created a website filled with information about trees and ways citizens can protect them, at... Read More
Article, Energy, Housing, & Buildings, Nature & Conservation
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned last month the world is in “a life-or-death struggle” for survival as “climate chaos gallops ahead,” while the World Health Organization calls climate change “the single biggest health threat facing humanity.”
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Article, Arts, Community, & Inclusivity, Nature & Conservation
The interview process for this part-time position will take place over 2 phases during December 2022: Phase 1: an invitation for application based on high-level aesthetic qualities required for an ED position: leadership; team player; innovative; creative; ability to... Read More
Article, Arts, Community, & Inclusivity, Energy, Housing, & Buildings, Nature & Conservation, Zero Waste & Circular Economy
What is COP27? COP27 is the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference aka the Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC, the 27th COP conference since 1994 The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is a treaty through which signing nations agreed to... Read More
Article, Energy, Housing, & Buildings, Nature & Conservation
One of the five great turnarounds proposed in the recent Earth For All report to the Club of Rome is the energy turnaround. So with COP27 — the annual UN conference on climate change — opening in Egypt, this is a good time to look at this issue.
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Article, Nature & Conservation
Dear Elders,At this time of the year, some of us may identify with the Latin American tradition of Día de los Muertos or with the Celtic tradition of Samhain. Día de los Muertos honours and remembers the Dead. Samhain marks the end of the harvest season and beginning... Read More
Article, Community Trees, Nature & Conservation
This should not be a battle between supportive housing and the urban forest canopy. Everyone should have access to the mental and physical health benefits provided by mature trees. Every neighbourhood should gain from the carbon sequestration and enhanced biodiversity... Read More
Article, Nature & Conservation
Symbolic Gift was written in an attempt for me, to brake away from our hectic world and to slow down take a breath and just see, taste, smell, feel the wonderful gift that is around us, and to, LIVE LIFE FOR EVERYTHING IN THAT GIFT AND IT’S FUTURE!
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