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.
This diverse panel of speakers includes a First Nations perspective on integrating Indigenous knowledge into nature-based resource planning in British Columbia; ways to save money and help the planet; artists creating international change; how to become a car free community and overcome bylaw challenges; plus an overview of COP26 from the point of view of a veteran policy maker and a guest with hands-on experience at COP events.
Learn how committed actions taken by individuals have empowered neighbours, communities, cities and countries to become happier, healthier and more resilient.
Inspired by the work of Paul Hawken, celebrated author of Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming and the just released book, Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation, Creatively United has created the graphic below to set the course of this webinar season.
Watch Seasons 1-3 of this dynamic solutions showcase.
Be sure to sign up for occasional updates to receive free video replays and invitations to attend future webinars.
Additional Q&A
Q. Thank you for another great session! Would you mind providing us some specific case studies/ showcase of innovations/ innovative initiatives related to regeneration? (e.g., any projects, organization names?)
A. Frances Litman: Please the Creatively United’s PairUp Directory for a list of organizations, plus the Resource section.
A. Julian West: To our knowledge, our car-free “missing middle” projects are the first of their kind in North America. Readers can find out more on our projects page or follow our newsletter!
Q. How do you apply these concepts to rural communities? Centralizing population – does it include the cost of commuting to and from these cities? 75% of the Sooke population commute to work. Once in the city, multiple stores are visited requiring a car to get around efficiently?
A. Julian West: This is a complex question that could be a topic for an entire webinar but here are a couple thoughts. First, every municipality’s path to sustainability will be different based on the unique strengths and limitations of that community. In the City of Victoria, cycling is ideal because everything you need is easily within a 10-15 bike ride. Suburban communities will have a tougher journey to sustainability and will likely rely on transit more. Rural communities probably require a bit of definition first but, generally, we should protect our natural habitats from new development and make better use of the land we already have. However, existing rural communities could become havens of self-sufficiency, with lots of room to generate renewable energy and grow food.
Q. Is biking in the rain and cold practical? As a rider of a trike, I frequently have near death experiences on roads and bike lanes. How practical is riding bikes through the winter? One of the most dangerous experiences I have had is riding down bike lanes that I do not fit within and more serious when the bike lane suddenly ends.
A. Julian West: There’s a saying that goes “there’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad gear!” Some people are only “fair weather” riders but lots of families cycle year round – but you have to have a good jacket, gloves, and footwear. Part of this is also cultural. Most of us got our drivers license at 16 and have been driving ever since, so we’re very experienced and familiar. In countries where cycling is the norm (like the Netherlands), most people ride year round without a second thought. However, good quality cycling infrastructure is critical and everyone should be telling their local councilors we need more of it!
Q. How do we create unity? Does emphasizing differences and ignoring modern science works against integration? Does indigenous claims that they know better than others regarding land management, etc. than anyone else is helpful? How can we address the issue of indigenous demands for land back? How do we address the issue of the divisive declaration that nonindigenous people are uninvited settlers on indigenous territories?
A. Jon O’Riordan: The commitment of the federal and British Columbia governments to reconciliation with Indigenous peoples is founded on resolving the issues raised in this question. Indigenous people have rights to land and resources established in the Constitution. But these rights can only be defined through fair and informed discussion involving non Indigenous communities and Indigenous peoples. Where such negotiations have built trust and respect, there is true partnership and progress. Reconciliation takes patience, education and understanding. This takes time, but when successful is well worth the effort.
Q. Would not dismantling the juggernaut of the Provincial government address issues together on a local and regional basis?
A. Jon O’Riordan: Tackling climate change and the biodiversity crisis will require the coordinated efforts of all levels of government. Costs will be unprecedented due both to repairing infrastructure damaged by fires and flooding as we are now witnessing in southern British Columbia but also due to adapting to the climate emergency by strengthening both engineered and natural infrastructure to accommodate even more extreme weather events as we exceed the 2C target.
Q. 1.1 degrees is an average figure. What is the rise in temperature in the far north and far south?
A. Jon O’Riordan: The temperature rise in the Arctic is already between 2C and 3C mainly due to melting ice sheets and exposure of a dark ocean which absorbs more solar radiation. This is called Arctic Amplification and is causing loss of permafrost and potential release of the potent greenhouse gas-methane. The temperature rise in the Antarctic is actually very low due to the permanent ice sheets over land that reflect almost all solar radiation.
Q. Where does morality and religion fit in all of these challenges? The greater the decline of religion, the more grievous the waywardness of the ungodly. This cannot but lead in the end to chaos and confusion. (Tablets of Baha’u’llah)
A. Eleanor Boyle: Not all religious people would agree. I read the Dalai Lama’s wonderful book Beyond Religion, in which this devoted Tibetan Buddhist makes a strong case that we don’t need religion to live ethically, and that the world needs to develop a ’secular ethics’ to appeal to everyone no matter what (or whether) their religious beliefs.
Q. Was the GHG emission graph per lb or total consumption?
A. Eleanor Boyle: The GHG graph quantified emissions from particular food sources, per 100 grams of protein.
Q. Given the inevitability of the current climate change impacts, that will not be resolved immediately by electric cars, how does one align this short-term public and political attention with the attention needed for the long-term solution?
A. Jon O’Riordan: The climate and biodiversity emergency will require a different policy response than traditional approaches. First, there will have to be a national, non-partisan approach to reducing carbon emissions, adapting to climate change and living within nature’s means. Second, the public will have to become accustomed to thinking about both short and long term solutions at the same time instead of sequentially. Short term fixes include electric vehicles; heat pumps and energy efficiency in buildings. Long term solutions require re-thinking the design of cities to reduce the level of transportation and changing consumption habits towards reuse, the circular economy and zero waste. Both short and long term thinking now have to go hand-in-hand.
Q. Link or name for ethical space please.
A. Ethical Space: Land-based Reconciliation
Q. That food emissions/diet is based on industrial agriculture. Does not apply to local farmers.
A. Eleanor Boyle: Very useful point. Since most of the meat produced and purchased in industrialized countries, like ours, is made in intensive operations, I concentrated on that in my presentation. But yes, mostly-outdoor, natural livestock operations that do not use large amounts of imported feeds, or excessive chemicals and hormones, can be beneficial to environments as well as providing nutritious food to people.
Q. Almonds/avocados/fruits use huge amount of water.
A. Eleanor Boyle: So true that some plant-based foods use a lot of water, and have large “water footprints”. As an issue, that’s distinct from climate but also very much intertwined, especially considering climate-induced droughts. You’ve reminded me that in future presentations I should emphasize that plant-based foods are not ALL healthy or good for environments, depending on how they’re made (and also the degree to which they’re processed.) Thank you for that comment.
Q. It would be even better if the Canada Food Guide promoted organically grown foods.
A. Eleanor Boyle: Such a good idea. That could potentially form the basis of an activist campaign with Health Canada. One of the challenges for national governments overseeing “food guides” is deciding to what degree they can broaden their mandate beyond narrow definitions of personal health, to additionally encompass public health and environments (therefore long-term human well-being as well as short-term.) But your point about pesticides may be ripe for acceptance, because it can be argued both on personal-health grounds (since there’s so much science on ill effects of chemicals) and on public-health and environmental ones.
Q. We must get government to severely reduce spraying our plant and grain foods with glyphosate and other herbicides which are killing off our pollinators! Effects on our guts and brains is becoming dangerous.
A. Eleanor Boyle: See answer just above. As well, it’s unbelievable that glyphosate is still legal, and probably attests to the excessive power and influence of those agrifood and pharmaceutical companies. But it’s another good topic for a campaign. By the way, the activist group CBAN, the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, does excellent work against genetically engineered foods and also against chemicals like Roundup.
Q. I agree about the local vs industrial. I know a small scale farmer that ethically raises cattle and talks about how grasslands need grazing animals.
A. Eleanor Boyle: Thank you for reminding me, and others, that while industrial livestock are bad for environments, small-scale animal agriculture can be done in harmony with local ecosystems. Especially on land that really is unsuitable for cropping.
Q. Unless nuts are grown organically, they are loaded with pesticides. Let’s go all away. Let’s take a stand for natural health free from pesticides and chemicals. Also the way tofu is processed today is not as healthy as we thought. Unless soybeans are grown organically they are loaded with chemicals and sprays. We need to expose the global control of Big Food.. orchestrated by people like Bill Gates.. under the guise of philanthropy. We need to wake up.
A. Eleanor Boyle: You’ve identified two major issues here! Pesticides need to be absolutely minimized and governments need to rein in the power of Big Food. For starters, we could enforce anti-trust laws and require that big companies be broken up and that huge mergers not be allowed to happen. Thank you.
Links & Resources
Eleanor Boyle’s food-sustainability blog
Oaklands Rise Woonerf
Oaklands Rise Infographics
Oaklands Rise Facebook
Oaklands Rise Video
oaklandsrise@gmail.com
Ethical Space: Land-based reconciliation
UNDRIP: UN Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. BC has legislated the Declaration in law.
DRIPA: Declaration of Indigenous Rights Act. It requires full, prior and informed consent prior to enacting natural resource policies and decisions.
Speaker Bios
Eleanor Boyle is a Vancouver, BC-based activist for food that is healthy, sustainable, and fair. A former journalist and college instructor, she holds degrees in psychology, neuroscience, and food policy. She authored High Steaks: Why and How to Eat Less Meat, and the upcoming Mobilize Food: Wartime Inspiration for Environmental Victory Today. As one solution to the climate crisis, Eleanor promotes mandatory limits on emissions-intensive consumption, and blogs on her website. Focused on to healthy living as well as eating, Eleanor is a recreational triathlete and grows potatoes on her apartment balcony.
Gwen Bridge, M.Sc Bio, works on natural resources issues with Indigenous peoples to ensure mutual benefits and equality in decision making with all levels of government. Adept in establishing new conceptual frameworks to support equity in negotiating government-to-government agreements, Gwen’s mission is to improve relationships between Indigenous nations and their partners so peoples and natural resource conditions are improved.
Gwen is a member of the Saddle Lake Cree Nation in Alberta, Canada. She received a Master of Science degree in Renewable Resources studying forest hydrology from the University of Alberta in 2000.
Gwen has worked in the US and Canada as a hydrologist, water quality standards and source water protection expert, riparian habitat specialist, watershed planner, indigenous rights specialist, cultural research manager, and now consultant. Gwen started consulting in 2010, advising First Nations, First Nations organizations, other governments and the private sector on relationships, natural resource and economic development projects, including working on a water law project with the Lower Similkameen Indian Band.
Gwen will discuss how Indigenous knowledge can help elevate and regenerate legislative frameworks around natural resource management.
In another life, John James O’Brien would have been an architect. In this one, he has drawn upon that natural inclination to create organisational systems that build the capacity of people in matters of governance and in community to achieve outcomes not thought possible. Balancing internal leadership, external consulting and educational roles has meant that each informs the other, offering a broad, interdisciplinary perspective.
John has a background in knowledge resource management, serving as Director and Principal Archivist, the Government Records Service, Hong Kong and as a consultant in privacy and evidence-based practice. He has served on a number of professional and community boards internationally. John has returned to Victoria where he and his partner are housing providers and bureaucratically sensitive community champions.
Jon O’Riordan is the founder of the Gail O’Riordan Climate and the Arts Legacy Series. He plays viola with the Victoria Chamber Orchestra and is a chorister with the Victoria Philharmonic Choir. He completed his public service career as Deputy Minister for the Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management with a commitment to ensure that we lived within nature’s limits. In that role he led a joint Indigenous -provincial government reconciliation agreement on preserving the Great Bear Rain Forest.
After leaving government, he taught a graduate course in Resource Planning and Public Policy at UBC to inspire students to pursue careers to tackle the climate and biodiversity crises. He advises the Polis Project on Ecological Governance at University of Victoria on watershed resiliency and on climate change adaptation.
Emily Pickett has been involved in various animal advocacy campaigns since joining the Vancouver Humane Society (VHS) in 2014. Currently, as VHS’s Campaign Director, she manages the organization’s campaign strategy around issues including farmed animals; animals in captivity; animals in entertainment; and co-existence with wildlife. Emily graduated from the University of Saskatchewan with a degree in Political Studies and has been involved in the animal protection and non-profit sector since 2009. Emily will share how the Vancouver Humane Society has encouraged the City of Vancouver to increase plant-based purchasing at the municipal level.
Razcel Jan Salvarita is a multi-disciplinary artist, creative activist and founder of the Baryo Balangaw Creative Initiatives who directs the vision and mission of the CommUNITY Centre for Peace, Arts and Sustainability in the Philippines.
In 2018, Razcel presented a TEDx Talk on Artivism: Effecting Environmental Consciousness through Art.
His impact in local and international eco-artivism has brought him to a deeper sense of commitment to becoming a Teaching Artist and integrating creative awakening to supplement practices that support behavioral and perspective change among grassroot communities.
Razcel has represented the Philippines in two United Nations Climate Change Conferences (COP11/Montreal-Canada and COP13/Bali-Indonesia) where he was one of the climate artist campaigners and environmental journalists. For more than two decades, he has continued to work as an environmental educator, community-based facilitator and consciousness activator with various local and international non-profit organizations.
Most recently, Razcel, led and co-facilitated an on-going series of Creative Recovery workshops focusing on women farm workers through a support grant.
Simon Sharkey was one of the founding directors of The National Theatre of Scotland, where he pioneered a “Theatre Without Walls” approach across Scotland and the rest of the world creating genre defying participatory programs and professional arts projects and festivals that reached globally and impacted locally.
In 2018, he formed The Necessary Space which he calls a Theatre of Opportunity. Simon is currently engaged in several projects worldwide as a director, writer, speaker and documentary filmmaker for social change.
Julian West is the owner of Urban Thrive, a Victoria-based social enterprise development company that specializes in car-free missing middle housing. Julian takes a human-centered approach to housing development and views Urban Thrive as a catalyst for creating more vibrant, sustainable and inclusive neighbourhoods. He actively advocates for transportation and land use reform at the local level, collaborating with a wide range of stakeholders to build support for change.
Julian has a degree in economics and a background in project management, communications, engagement, and entrepreneurship. He lives car-free in Vic West with his wife and three children.