Sunday, December 03, 2006
Calm in the chaos
WEB Reference, Jan-Feb 2006 (Utne Magazine) - These are times of great change. Work, families, community life, the social and political landscape, even our physical environment and climate are in flux. Technological changes are affecting almost every aspect of our lives. In the face of all this change, we understandably feel anxious and overwhelmed. But change is inevitable. It’s the way of things. Those who want to help create a positive future for coming generations have no choice but to embrace uncertainty, to ride the turbulent waters of change. We must indeed learn how to stay calm in the chaos. To really become part of the solution rather than part of the problem, we must, even in the midst of chaos and struggle, go beyond railing against what we don’t like. We must learn to keep our hearts open, and to dream the positive future we want to create.
http://www.hollyhockleadership.org/resources/perecology/Spiritual%20Activism.pdf
Expanding Horizons
Fairy Tales
Global Village Overview / Sustainable Neighbourhoods
Breathing Places
BRITIAN, Nov 29, 2006 (Martha Hammond, Positive News) - A Breathing Place is somewhere you can escape the hassles of everyday life and get your hands dirty; where you can listen to birdsong, admire the bluebells in Spring and appreciate the stunning colours in Autumn. Quite simply, it’s a place where you, your family and friends can rediscover the wonders of nature. Over the next three years, the BBC is joining forces with the wildlife charities of the
Environment / Creative Action for Change
Send the Premier your Christmas Wish for Foothills Protection!
Communicating Climate Change
WEB Reference, November 9, 2006 (AASHE Bulletin) - The Campus Consortium for Environmental Excellence (C2E2), MIT and CERES have made available a streaming media presentation on "Communicating Climate Change" by Solitaire Townsend, a co-found of Futerra, a sustainability communications firm in the United Kingdom. Townsend spoke at MIT on September 7, 2006. Townsend discusses her market research based insights concerning how best to communicate the issues and promote behavior change. The presentation also includes a review of her 20 practical "tips" for effective climate change communication.
http://www.c2e2.org/climatechange.htm
Our Shifting Focus
Inner Light in a Time of Darkness
WEB Reference, November 17, 2006 (Democracy Now) - A renowned author, poet and activist, Alice Walker is perhaps best known for her book "The Color Purple" for which she won the Pulitzer Prize in 1983. She was the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer for fiction. Alice Walker joins us in our firehouse studio to talk about her latest work, "We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For." http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/17/1454228
Mainstream Wake-Up...
Calgary's solar suburbs
OKOTOKS, AB, November 17, 2006 (Robert Sheppard, CBC News) - It is the subdivision of the future: Detached two-storey family homes with manicured lawns, pools and large garages, like any other in the area except that here 90 per cent of the hot water and the home heating comes directly from the sun — year round.
International Event
Candle Night Winter Solstice 2006
JAPAN, November 2006 (Candle Night) - Turn out your lights for two hours on the Winter solstice, December 22nd, eight to ten p.m. Do something special: Read a book with your child by candlelight. Enjoy a quiet dinner with a special person. This night can mean many things for many people. A time to save energy, to think about peace, to think about people in distant lands who share your planet. It is a process, finding a larger possibility of the human civilization. By turning off lights for only two hours, we will be all loosely connected. Let's make a "wave of darkness" spread over the globe together. http://www.candle-night.org/english/
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Lessons from
VANCOUVER, BC, October 2006 (Jessica Woolliams, Cascadia Region Green Building Council) - This free talk (hosted at Light House's centre on Granville Island on Nov.8) is a series of photos depicting sustainable commercial, community and domestic buildings and renewable energy systems incorporating innovative water and energy solutions. Stephen Ingrouille has been working in the sustainability industry since 1976. He is the proprietor of Going Solar, a leading Australian renewable firm, and has founded a number of environment-focused community organizations. The presentation includes a series of images depicting various sustainable buildings and renewable energy systems in
Involvement of EVERY Citizen: Youth Readers Respond to Proposed Clean Air Act
Global Village Overview / Peace Projects
Natural Disasters & Peacemaking
WEB Reference, October 18, 2006 (Worldwatch Institute) - With the number of disasters (and their devastating impacts) increasing worldwide, Worldwatch has initiated a major research and policy project on "un-natural" disasters. Many of the earthquakes, hurricanes, and floods that batter the globe are "un-natural disasters" because preventable human actions, including wetlands destruction, global warming, and population growth, turn natural hazards into humanitarian disasters. The project looks specifically at disasters in conflict areas, proposing innovative ways to work towards peace during the relief and rebuilding processes. "While grim in its origin, post-disaster humanitarian action can be a powerful catalyst for overcoming deep human divides," says Michael Renner, Worldwatch Senior Researcher and Director of the Institute's Global Security Project. "But humanitarian impulses must be translated into tangible political change, or else lasting peace may not be achieved." http://www.worldwatch.org/taxonomy/term/435
Sustainable Future Views
Skills Necessary for a Post-Carbon World
WEB Reference, October 19, 2006 (E. F. Schumacher Society) - The possibility exists that our society already holds the skills necessary for averting the predicted disasters of decreased energy supply. Communities held together by a social and economic network are in position to absorb a significant loss of energy inputs. They have the resources, a short supply chain, small scale and cottage industry, and human scaled farms, necessary for decreasing dependence on imported energy. These strategies, intuitive to a self-sustaining community, present answers to our current carbon dependence. A "post-carbon world" does not have to be a dreary place. http://www.schumachersociety.org/newsletters/06oct18.html
Conference Listing / Water
Parksville Qualicum Water Conference Nov. 3-5
Climate Change
Schwarzenegger signs landmark greenhouse gas law
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Kids' discoveries at Vancouver Museum and Telus Science World workshops parallel, or even exceed, real-world Sustainability science
EMAIL Reference, September 7, 2006 (Solar Power Road Show) - Picture this: Wacky-looking scraps of bright metallic cardboard held together by sticky tape that brought a stone to nearly 200F in two minutes, using only the sun. It doesn't look like a conventional solar oven, more like a science-fiction movie prop. Created, not by a film-studio artist, but by an 11-year old attending Vancouver Museum's workshops. Solar ovens have commercial potential, and, might even reduce forest fires, if we can convince campers to use them. Read more.
Sustainable Industry
Corporate social responsibility: an introduction from the environmental perspective
GERMANY, August 2006 (Eldis) – Outlining the case for a more ambitious interpretation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) among German businesses, this report looks at the issues companies must address, from operational environmental protection to the consideration of employee interests and responsibility for the supply chain, in order to integrate CSR. The brochure contains practical guidance based on the strategies already used by companies today to show how this broad spectrum of challenges can be managed efficiently. The study maps out the components of environmental management and of social responsibility.
http://www.bmu.de/files/english/documents/application/pdf/brochuere_csr_en.pdf
Conference Listing: Unregistered and Cooperatives, Alliances, Consortiums
Canadian Worker Co-op Federation: "Taking Global to Local"
Sun and ladybug are latest evidence of Arctic climate change
RESOLUTE BAY, NWT, September 18, 2006, (Emma Silverthorn) - When Tess Burrows and Pete Hammond went trekking to the North Pole, local Inuits and their own eyes told them the climate is changing. On 17 September, Wayne Davidson, meteorologist at Resolute Bay in northern Canada, 550 miles into the Arctic Circle, sent this report: “On September 8 a ladybug (Harmonia axyridis), flew into a trap. There are no known ladybugs that can live in the
http://www.zerofootprint.net/green_stories/green_stories_item.asp?type_=50&ID=13459
2nd National Canadian Conference on Social
The Lens of Hope: We can save the world!
WEB Reference, August 2006, (Ervin Laszlo, Ode) - Humanity faces a choice between collapsing into chaos and evolving into a sustainable, ethical global community. There’s never been a more powerful moment in all history to make a difference in the world. A wave of new thinking and the action it inspires offer us hope for a global breakthrough that would create a better world for ourselves and our children. At this point in our history, human beings have accumulated unprecedented power—hence responsibility—to decide our destiny. Although the prospect of global breakdown stares us in the face, it is by no means inevitable. We also have the unprecedented option of choosing a brighter tomorrow... http://www.odemagazine.com/article.php?aID=4351
GMO foods to be banned in
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6538
Environment
Green Chemical Alternatives Purchasing Wizard
WEB Resource - The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has launched a Green Chemical Alternatives Purchasing Wizard. The Wizard is a tool to reduce the generation of hazardous wastes and potential workplace exposures in research and academic laboratories. The Wizard allows the user to search from a select list of solvents commonly used in the laboratory, and the associated process. The Wizard identifies less hazardous and more environmentally benign chemicals or processes that may be substituted, and provides journal references as well as URLs to information that is available online
http://web.mit.edu/environment/academic/purchasing.html.
Our Shifting Focus
The happy planet index: an index of human well-being and environmental impact
WEB Reference, August 2006 (New Economics Foundation) - The success of economic and social policies is commonly measured by reference to countries' economic performance, using measures such as gross domestic product. In putting forward the Happy Planet Index (HPI) as an alternative measure of success, this report argues for greater attention to environmental and quality of life consequences of government policies. The HPI seeks to measure the ecological efficiency with which human well-being is delivered. It compares countries based on three different indicators: life expectancy; ecological footprint; and people's subjective well-being or "life satisfaction". Overall, the report concludes that all countries can do much better in the way that they use natural resources to achieve the ultimate ends of human happiness and long life.
http://www.neweconomics.org/gen/uploads/dl44k145g5scuy453044gqbu11072006194758.pdf
Real Freedom
WEB Reference, (Martin Hawes and Steve Ruben) - “You are free to explore a completely different way of living and seeing. You are free to meet the wholeness of life and put aside your fear. You don’t need to think as others think, or live as others want you to live. Be free, and life will unfold in ways you could never have imagined. Don’t be afraid that you might not succeed. Failure and success exist only in imagination. Act from love, and your actions will be their own fulfilment, their own reward. Allow yourself the freedom to draw breath and simply be. Don’t limit your thinking with beliefs. You believe because you want to be certain, but letting go of certainty gives you freedom to discover the new. Look beyond the boundaries of knowledge, for it is only a trace of what has been and gone. The nets of knowledge and belief cannot catch the ocean of life.” Read the entire declaration at www.declarationoffreedom.com.
http://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/Press/releases/CA%20Solutions%20Press%20Release%20Final.pdf
Sovereignty / Governance / Democracy
Urgent Attention Needed: Moving Toward a North American
CANADA, September 19 2006 (Vive le Canada) - Canadian, U.S., and Mexican elites, including CEOS and politicians, have a plan to create common North American policies and further integrate our economies. This plan goes by various names and euphemisms, such as "deep integration", "NAFTA-plus", "harmonization", the "Big Idea", the "Grand Bargain", and the "North American Security and Prosperity Initiative". Regardless of which name your prefer, the end goal of all of these plans is to create a new political and economic entity that would supercede the existing countries. Vive le Canada.ca opposes the creation of the North American Union (NAU) because we believe it will mean the loss of Canadian sovereignty and democracy and hand over more power to giant, unelected corporations. http://www.vivelecanada.ca/staticpages/index.php/20060830133702539
Friday, August 04, 2006
Teaching Assistants, Presenters and Student Teachers Wanted
VANCOUVER ISLAND, BC, Canada, July 22, 2006 (Local Living Communities News) - "Earth Masters" (a sustainability trades school / workshops program of the Community Assets Project on Vancouver Island) opens its Fall/Winter class schedule "doors" with a special Teachers Camp Program. Presenter Auditions will begin in September and run year-round, with regular classes for students beginning in October. We are currently seeking keen sustainability educators, who live in and around southern Vancouver Island or are planning a visit, to act as Teacher's Assistants, Presenters, Student Teachers, and Sustainability Learners. All interested in participating in these educator roles in the Earth Masters program are invited to register for the Teachers Camp Audition process. The Auditions will be held through two different methods: Audition Camps, (three scheduled, for Sept., Oct., and Jan.) OR by the 2006/7 'regular class schedule' Teachers InClass-Design Audition Format. Some new Lead Instructors will also qualify to join the program! For more information on the Teachers' Camp Audition process(es) or to join as a special Dress Rehearsal Audience member or Designing Student, please contact:
communityassets@telus.net. Please note that to participate in this phase, you must be willing to keep course information confidential until the Camps are complete and the new program is released.
Join the Pole-to-Pole Expedition!
VANCOUVER, BC, July, 2006 (Left Coast) – The Pole to Pole Leadership Institute is undertaking a global project centered around the First-Ever Expedition from the South Pole to the North Pole under human power, and you can be a part of it! Expedition Teams will travel the planet; Advance Teams will work on important 6-month environmental and humanitarian projects in Africa; and Education Teams will work with young people around the world to inspire them and inform them about the critical issues of our time. Deadline for application is August 5, 2006. You must be between the ages of 18 and 28 as of August 1, 2006 to apply. Information, application forms and video clips on Pole to Pole can be found on the institute's homepage www.poletopoleleadership.com.
Left-Leaning Babes
UNITED KINGDOM, July 2006 (Ode Magazine) – Of all of the factors that lead people to vote for left-wing parties, one is of particular importance: having daughters. The likelihood that you will vote for a member of a left-wing party increases by two percent for each daughter, while the number of sons you have increases the likelihood of right-wing voting. These conclusions were drawn from the results of a study by two faculty at the London Institute of Education. The authors bring Darwin into their explanation: Parents want their children to be prosperous and happy, to increase their chances of having offspring. Parents with more daughters than sons tend to be threatened by the fact that women are still paid less than men and are largely responsible for raising children. http://www.odemagazine.com/news.php?nID=86.
The fully study, published in Social Science Research Network (April 2006), can be downloaded at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=900380.
Starting with Women's Lives: Changing Today's Economy. November 8-10
VANCOUVER, BC, July 31, 2006, (BC Women's Economic Institute) – The BC Women's Economic Institute Conference (WEI) is a 2.5 day intensive skills-building and training event designed to advance women's economic development and economic justice. We are looking for collaborative presentations, new study findings with practical application and a focus on hands-on tools and skills building that participants can use in their daily work with women. Session topics expected include Asset Development, Social Enterprise, Training and Employment Policy, Cooperative Development, and Building Organizational Capacity. The deadline for Session Proposals is August 18, 2006. Session presenters that are approved will be notified by September 11, 2006. Overview of the Conference and Session Proposal Forms available at www.atira.bc.ca/wei.
Amnesty International launches global campaign against internet repression
WEB Reference, July 20, 2006 (Amnesty International) - Following the success of the launch of its internet freedom campaign in the UK, Amnesty International is today going global with irrepressible.info. The campaign aims to claim back the web as a force for change in the face of an increasing willingness on the part of technology companies to aid censorship and repression. "The internet's potential for change is being undermined -- by governments unwilling to tolerate this free media outlet, and by companies willing to help them repress free speech," said Amnesty International. Sun Microsystems, Nortel Networks, Cisco Systems, Yahoo! and Google are among those companies implicated in helping governments censor the internet or track down individual users. http://www.amnesty.ca/resource_centre/news/view.php?load=arcview&article=3613&c=Resource+Centre+News
NWT Takes Leading Role in Air Quality Monitoring
YELLOWKNIFE, June 7, 2006 (GNWT) – In commemoration of National Clean Air Day, Department of Environment and Natural Resources (ENR) Minister Michael Miltenberger unveiled a new website and annual report that make the Northwest Territories a leader in providing up-to-the-minute information about the quality of our air. The new air quality website http://lisin.rwed-hq.gov.nt.ca/NWTAQ/NetworkSummary.aspx provides residents with access to virtually live, real-time air quality information from monitoring stations. In addition, the site provides descriptions of the types of air pollutants measured and will help people to understand what these measurements mean. http://www.enr.gov.nt.ca/newsreleases/newsrelease.htm#role_airquality
Beijing Orders a Day without Cars, Elevators, Air Conditioning for Civil Servants
BEIJING, June 13, 2006 (Associated Press) – The Chinese government has ordered civil servants to do without cars, elevators and air conditioning on Tuesday as part of an energy-saving awareness campaign, state media said. The official China Daily newspaper said China's 7 million public servants consume about 5 percent of the country's total electricity a year, equal to the electricity consumed annually by 780 million farmers. The central government leadership earlier this year pledged to do more to encourage sustainable, or more environmentally-friendly, growth and explore energy alternatives to coal and oil. http://www.planetsave.com/ps_mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7339&Itemid=49
Thursday, July 13, 2006
UNEP Debunks the Jobs VS Environment Myth
OSLO, Norway, June 16, 2006 (Reuters, Alister Doyle) - The world must lay to rest a "myth" that protecting the environment harms economic growth, the new head of the U.N. Environment Programme said on Thursday.
Achim Steiner, a 45-year-old German, said he would seek to involve consumers, governments, businesses and activists in developing new economic mechanisms to protect the planet from threats ranging from climate change to pollution. "Care for the environment is often portrayed as detrimental to economic growth. We hope to lay that myth to rest in the 21st century." Most conventional economic theory places no value on natural phenomena such as the coastline protection given by coral reefs or forests' role in absorbing heat-trapping carbon dioxide. Steiner said a shift was needed to recognise the "enormous wealth of nature's services" underpinning all life on earth. In turn, that would show that environmental protection is a condition for economies to survive and thrive in the long term.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L15916665.htm
Maine Students Go on First Live Internet Hemispheric Field Trip
HALLOWELL, Maine, May 26, 2006 (ENS) - A classroom from Portland’s Breakwater School was one of the student groups selected to participate in an environmental education project on Thursday that took North American students out into the field to observe birds via the Internet. Called Americas Bird Trek, the event brought together children from across the U.S. and Canada to visit nature centers in Ecuador, Mexico, the U.S., and Canada during the same one-hour period through streaming audio and video technologies. The live online field trip began in Ecuador’s Yanayacu Research Station in the tropical cloudforest at the headwaters of Ecuador's largest Amazon tributary - the Napo River. Here a naturalist showed the 1,000 students assembled on the Internet the tropical forest and the field station where biologists study its inhabitants. http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/may2006/2006-05-26-09.asp#anchor7
AASHE 2006: The Role of Higher Education in Creating a Sustainable World
TEMPE, AZ, May 22, 2006 (www.aashe.org) - The theme of this North American conference is “The Role of Higher Education in Creating a Sustainable World.” AASHE 2006 aims to significantly advance sustainability efforts in higher education, with an emphasis on “next steps” and “beyond the low-hanging fruit.” There will be a special focus on incorporating all dimensions of sustainability - not just the environment – in decision-making. The conference is open to participants from every sector of higher education as well as interested businesses and NGO’s. Anticipated attendees include administrators, faculty, students, sustainability practitioners, facilities officers, operations staff, consultants, vendors, higher education leaders, government representatives, and many others. The program format will promote the active exchange of ideas and knowledge through highly interactive forums, informal networking, and open, facilitated discussion. October 4-6, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ. Come join this unique and exciting gathering of the higher education sustainability community. For more information visit www.aashe.org/conference.
China to Build First Eco-city
WEB Reference, May 10, 2006 (Guardian Weekly, Jean-Pierre Langellier and Brice Pedroletti) - Imagine it is 2010. The place is Dongtan, the world's first purpose-built eco-city. It stands in the middle of the marshes at the eastern tip of Chongming, China's third-largest island, at the mouth of the Yangtse River. None of the buildings is more than eight stories high. Turf and vegetation cover the roofs, a natural form of insulation that also recycles wastewater. The town has six times more space for pedestrians than Copenhagen, one of Europe's airiest capitals. Pollution-free buses, powered by fuel cells, run between neighbourhoods. An Intranet service forecasts travel times and connects people who want to share a car. Traditional motorbikes are forbidden, replaced by electric scooters or bicycles. The roads are laid out so that walking or cycling to work is quicker than driving. http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianweekly/outlook/story/0,,1767547,00.html
Green Flight Program Launched in Canada
VANCOUVER, BC, May 4, 2006 (EN Info) – UNIGLOBE Travel (Western Canada) Inc. launched its Green Flight program today: a simple and effective offer for flying travellers to counter the effects of their flight’s carbon dioxide emissions.The Green Flight Program is Ecologo certified under the Environmental Choice Program from Environment Canada. Now, travellers who care about the environment can balance the negative effects of their air travel by opting to invest in Green Flight credits when booking through UNIGLOBE Travel. Full text of the article available at: http://www.canadatourism.com/ctx/app/en/ca/newsItem.do?articleId=63732&language=english.
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
The Commons Conference
ELIST, Mar. 16, 2006 (SCARP) – Conference announcement - "The Forum on Privatization and the Public Domain, in conjunction with the Polis Project and VIPIRG at the University of Victoria, invite you to a conference on privatization and the public good. The Commons Conference - an academic community event on privitization and the public domain, April 28th - 30th, 2006. University of Victoria, BC. http://www.forumonpublicdomain.ca/Commons/index.htm.
Monday, April 24, 2006
New! Online Catalog of Innovative Housing
ELIST Reference, Mar. 11, 2006 (found on SCARP) - This is an announcement regarding The Housing Partnership's new on-line catalog of innovative housing. The Housing Partnership is looking for examples from across the state to add to this catalog. The best way to get to the catalog is through www.rightsizehome.org. There is also a link on The Housing Partnership's website www.thehousingpartnership.org.
How to Steward, Protect & Restore the Land you Love
WEB Reference, Mar. 14, 2006 (GoodWork) - Do you care about the land? Is there a special place, public or private, that you want to help protect? Do you want it to be green, healthy and sustainable? This page is a gateway to ideas, information and resources that can help you protect and preserve the land you love – today, and for future generations. Whether you own private land or public land – as all citizens do – you will find useful information here. http://www.planetfriendly.net/property/stewardship.html.
What is the world coming to, politicians calling for an end to economic growth?
VANCOUVER, BC, Mar. 30, 2006 (SCARP listserve) - In The Independent today, …Colin Challen, the chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Climate Change Group, sets out the case for abandoning the "business as usual" pursuit of economic growth, which has been the basis of Western economic policy for two hundred years. Instead, he says, we must concentrate our efforts on putting a limit on the emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) from power stations and motor vehicles that are causing the atmosphere to warm. http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article354055.ece.
ENVIRONMENTALISM.org
WEB Reference, March, 2006 (New Environmentalism) - A project of Reason Foundation that identifies and promotes innovative approaches to addressing serious environmental challenges and creating a society of self-motivated environmental stewards. www.newenvironmentalism.org.
Fair Trade: People, the Planet, and Profits
WEB Reference, Mar. 26, 2006 (CFTN) - For June 2-4, 2006, CFTN is organizing a symposium on Fair Trade, Fair Trade: People, the Planet, and Profits. The symposium will be a multifaceted event. The events being planned include: a keynote address, interdisciplinary roundtables, presentations on aspects of the business side of Fair Trade, presentations on women’s issues and Fair Trade, academic paper presentations, film screenings followed by panel discussions, activist school sessions concentrating on student advocacy, and open discussion times where other issues of importance can be explored. CFTN's mission is to increase the market share of Fair Trade products in Canada; in this way we hope to further social justice and environmental sustainability internationally. The following CFHSS member associations are participating in the symposium: Canadian Association for Food Studies (CAFS), Canadian Association for Studies in Co-operation (CASC), Canadian Association for the Study of International Development (CASID), Canadian Association of Hispanists (CAH), Canadian Women’s Studies Association (CWSA), Environmental Studies Association of Canada (ESAC), and Society for Socialist Studies (SSS). http://www.fairtradenetwork.ca.
CALL FOR ENTRIES: Sustainable Design Competition
ELIST, Apr. 15, 2006 (Greenbuilding Listserve) - The CaGBC Cascadia Chapter is pleased to announce a national Sustainable Design Competition: Closing The Loop, redefining the built environment based on the principles of closed loop design. Deadline for submissions is May 31, 2006. For more information please visit www.FwSustainableDesign.ca.
Sustainable Development SHOWCASE
WEB Reference, Apr. 25, 2006 (http://www.gaininggroundsummit.com) - Loreto Bay is a showcase project and sponsor of the Gaining Ground: Urban Development Leadership Summit. Loreto Bay is one of the largest sustainable development projects under construction in North America today... More example links and a preliminary schedule of events: http://www.gaininggroundsummit.com/program.html.
