Click here for a 3:34 slideshow about Eileen Ailert’s campaign to kick-start urban agriculture.
Also: click here to order a used copy of Heather Flores’ book “Food Not Lawns”, a practical guide to home food growing. And click here to check out VPO resources on how to start growing your own food.
It’s a way to get back in touch with this Nature we keep hearing so much about, a way to start eating healthy organic food for practically nothing, and a political act - all rolled into one. Join in!
Innovative development will house 45 families, a farm, businesses
Brian Lewis, The Province
Published: Sunday, August 17, 2008 Original article
One of the Fraser Valley’s better kept secrets is the picturesque village of Yarrow, where even today it feels more appropriate to drive down its main street in nothing newer than a ‘56 Chevy.
However, just across from “Hank the Barber” on Yarrow Central Road, you’ll find a unique development project that’s capturing attention from as far away as Kansas and California. Read the complete Post.
Fraser River works as transport route
Environmental impact less when containers put on barges
Brian Lewis, The Province
Published: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 Original article
VPO note - the NDP under Glen Clark ended up wasting millions of BC taxpayer dollars in the 1990’s on the FastCat ferries, and took heat for it from the Liberals. But now those same Liberals are about to waste BILLIONS of BC taxpayer dollars on the Gateway project just when people are finally starting to drive less, and cheaper alternatives like barges & rail - that are better for our future - are available. See our FAQ on VPO’s Gateway 2.0 proposal.
VPO considers this a scandal, if there’s any meaning to the word.
A report commissioned by local port authorities but virtually ignored by the B.C. government for more than three years now raises serious doubts about the economic viability of building the $1-billion South Fraser Perimeter Road.
In fact, the holes it opens in the so-called rationale for this 40-kilometre, four-lane truck freeway through Delta farmland and Burns Bog are large enough to drive an 18-wheel container truck through. Read the complete Post.
A nuanced response to the PickensPlan website, by Chris Tidman.
The Pickens Plan
Plan A Big sales – Big profits
The Pickens team sells Big oil, Big gas, Big windmills in army-sized packages. They sell to Big buyers like Government, so their pitch is to Government. They are not offering oil, gas or windmills in little boxes to individuals or small groups because they do not want individuals to buy anything. - They just need individuals to help them sell the Big plan to Government. Will 1 million players in a population of 300 million be enough?
They will have to move quickly before Government learns that they can generate more energy at less cost with either solar/thermal or bio-gas, and there are better wind generators coming on stream that are cheaper, quieter and don’t kill birds - The high cost and the small amount of energy produced from solar PV has never threatened Government nor any of the organizations like Boone’s, but the push is on for Big boys and Governments to get off oil and keep their power positions.
Plan B
Join the Pickensplan as an individual- create a personal “my page” - become a “group organizer” - and get a free custom “my page”- post your pitch on the free “blog” provided,- participate in forums which advertises your name and encourages people to look you up and read your bio – and make lots of friends.
An organization, (within an organization,) attempting to get energy owned/managed by communities instead of nations — i.e. Big boys - would sure change the way things get done.
BTW when you join and they ask where you learned of the PP – don’t put my name down - anyone else will do - no need for them to know we’re on the same team.
I watched scores of footage of town hall meetings, speeches, press conferences and political ads by the two candidates. And there was a strange echo, something I’ve heard before from someone I don’t quite like. So I rewound back to Bush’s 2007 State of the Union and here’s what I found.
Erika Beauchesne
The Edmonton Journal
Saturday, July 26, 2008 original article
EDMONTON - Jordan Schroder lives in a province with one of the richest supplies of oil in the world, but the Edmontonian is the driving force behind a Facebook group to raise awareness about the resource’s scarcity.
Schroder had been following the peak oil theory — that production of oil will peak, then decline — for several years before starting the common-interests Facebook group this January.
Students in the SFU Dialogue and Public Issues class hosted a discussion on the “oil crisis” (their term) yesterday, called “Beyond the TurmOIL”, involving students, activists, members of the general public, and 4 speakers. It was an interesting and fast-paced session anchored by Sara Robinson, futurist and blogger for Blog For our Future and other sites; Sara provided both hard facts and her personal story about the impacts of oil on her life.
Other speakers included Shannon Daub, who gave some results of her interviews with Canadian energy workers (including many in the tar sands) who support the switch to alternative energy, and Jennifer Fisher-Bradley, who’s working with her partner Stephen to make Port Alberni into Canada’s first Transition Town.
The fourth speaker was Ray Lord, PR man for Chevron. Lord too told his personally story, becoming choked up at a couple of points about how personally he takes his job (and the attacks that are sometimes aimed at his employer), then went on to talk about how Chevron is “positioning” itself to be helpful to Premier Campbell in successfully executing his climate change plan for the province.
Whether or not Ray, as the only person in the room who was paid to be there — and thus the only person with a sales agenda aimed at increasing profits — was appropriate as a speaker is open to debate; it’s certainly true that as a person he had a right to stand and tell his own story.
What was not appropriate, in my opinion, was the 2 minute Chevron commercial that the SFU students dutifully showed at Lord’s behest. The commercial, part of a series of commercials (conveniently available on youtube) under the general rubric “Human Energy”, is a montage of lovely images under carefully calibrated piano music intended to sell the idea that the folks at Chevron (actually ChevronTexacoUnocal since the mergers) are just moms and dads and football coaches like you and me, looking for ever-cleaner ways to power our world. An animation at the end emphasizes that they’re not just an oil company anymore, giving equal weight to their comparatively miniscule investments in clean energies. Read the complete Post.
Help us be a winner of The Tyee’s Green Your Campbell Cash contest. Voting only takes a few seconds. Winner’s receive $500 to further their causes. Help us get the word out!
In January of 2006, Stu Ramsey was instrumental in submitting a report to J.S. Belhouse, Director
PLANNING AND BUILDING for city of Burnaby who then submitted the report (file no. 94000-00) to the Chair and Members of the Transportation Committee
Stuart Ramsey is a transportation engineer and planner for the City of Burnaby in the Vancouver, British Columbia metropolitan region. Stuart’s 20 years of experience are primarily in long-range transportation planning and modeling, but also encompass transportation demand management, cycling, and transit. He authored the first peak oil report to be received by a municipal government in Canada.
Back in February Stu Ramsey gave a presentation to the National Research Council Institute for Fuel Cell Innovation, his talk was kindly recorded by Franklin Lopez and can be found here and the transcript is also available.
