This is an invitation to help build a movement–to take one day day and use it to stop the climate crisis.

On October 24, we will stand together as one planet and call for a fair global climate treaty. United by a common call to action, we’ll make it clear: the world needs an international plan that meets the latest science and gets us back to safety.

This movement has just begun, and it needs your help.

Here’s the plan: we’re asking you, and people in every country on earth, to organize an action in your community on October 24.

http://www.350.org/oct24

There are no limits here–imagine bike rides, rallies, concerts, hikes, festivals, tree-plantings, protests, and more. Imagine your action linking up with thousands of others around the globe. Imagine the world waking up.

If we can pull it off, we’ll send a powerful message on October 24: the world needs the climate solutions that science and justice demand.

It’s often said that the only thing preventing us from tackling the climate crisis quickly and equitably is a lack of political will. Well, the only thing that can create that political will is a unified global movement–and no one is going to build that movement for us. It’s up to regular people all over the world.  That’s you.

So register an event in your community for October 24, and then enlist the help of your friends. Get together with your co-workers or your local environmental group or human rights campaign, your church or synagogue or mosque or temple; enlist bike riders and local farmers and young people. All over the planet we’ll start to organize ourselves.

With your help, there will be an event at every iconic place on the planet on October 24-from America’s Great Lakes to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef–and also in all the places that matter to you in your daily lives: a beach or park or village green or town hall.

If there was ever a time for you to get involved, it’s right now.

There are two reasons this year is so crucial.

The first reason is that the science of climate change is getting darker by the day. The Arctic is melting away with astonishing speed, decades ahead of schedule. Everything on the planet seems to be melting or burning, rising or parched.

And we now now have a number to express our peril: 350. Read the complete Post.

BLUE NORTH FESTIVAL OF ART AND SUSTAINABLE CULTURE presents - How to save Civilization with a Movie - an eco-workshop with:

Teri Woods McArter - Co-Producer, How To Boil A Frog (documentary film by Jon Cooksey)
Rick Balfour- Architect, Urban Planner; Balfour and Assoc., Metro Vancouver Planning Coalition
Vandy Savage - Animation Supervisor, How to Boil a Frog; Communications Vancouver Peak Oil Executive

Join us for a FREE Illustrated lecture and discussion.

Get a sneak preview of the new film, How to Boil a Frog, created and produced on the North Shore. Get informed about strategies to transition into New Normal by building resilient communities from author, architect, urban planner, Rick Balfour. And find out how we won the People’s Choice Award for our 1 minute animated film teaser.

Date: Saturday, April 4th, 2009
Time: 10:00 am - 11:30 am (registration onsite at 9:30am)
Location: John Braithwaite Community Centre - Anchor Room ground level
145 West 1st Street, North Vancouver

Cost: FREE

www.howtoboilafrog.com
www.plancanada.com

For more information visit: www.bluenorthfestival.ca

It is our distinct pleasure to announce that we are hosting the first North American delivered two-day session on the Transition community economic development model, as pioneered in the UK. The session will take place at our Abbotsford office on March 20 and 21.

Join us for a two-day workshop delivered by two North American instructors who have been trained directly by the founders of Transition in the UK. The session will provide you with the knowledge, tools, and skills to move your community to Transition thinking. And doing!

The cost is $240 per person for the two-day session, including lunch, refreshments, and course materials. There are only 24 seats, with the session now half full.

And outline of the course can be viewed here.

Email Stacey Corriveau for registration information.
stacey@centreforsocialenterprise.com

To register or for more information contact Stacey Corriveau - stacey@centreforsocialenterprise.com
B.C. Centre for Social Enterprise.

What are the challenges facing planners and policy makers at our regional and provincial level in addressing transportation issues related to peak oil and climate change? How can we contribute to effective actions that address these challenges? Join us at the upcoming PlanTalk to discuss topics including the proposed provincial Gateway Program, the BC Carbon Tax, and other transportation investments as we debate and challenge one another to think critically about the future of transportation in our region.

Speakers:
Anthony Perl, Director SFU Urban Studies Program and Jordan Bateman, Media Spokesperson for Get Moving BC and Langley Township Councillor will lead this discussion by providing their insight into the unique transportation challenges that face our region in the immediate and long term within the context of peak oil and climate change.

Moderated by Bryn Davidson, Executive Director of non-profit Dynamic Cities Project

When:
Tuesday January 27th, 2009
6:30 PM refreshments * 7:00-9:00 PM speakers & discussion

Where:
SFU Harbour Centre
Segal Centre, Room 1400
515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver
www.translink.bc.ca (for transit schedules and routes)
Cost:
$20 PIBC Members
$25 Non-PIBC Members
$5 Students
Payable by cash or cheque at the door. Receipts will be issued.

PIBC Members can earn up to 2.0 LUs of Organized CPD activity for attending this event.

Please RSVP by Monday January 26th to Brian Patterson MCIP, at bpatterson@urban-systems.com or 604-273-8700.

You’re invited to a lively debate and discussion open to the public on
the theme of climate change and sustainability with Prof. John
Robinson - UBC, Alexis Morgan - World Wife Fund for Nature (WWF) -
Canada, and Fiona Koza - Amnesty International. Wednesday, February 4
at 7pm (UBC Robson Square). Read the complete Post.

ACCELERATING CHANGE TOWARDS SUSTAINABILITY

Strategic Planning for Sustainability Workshop
Introduction to The Natural Step Framework

• What is sustainability?
• How do you know that you are moving in the right direction?
• What is the opportunity of strategic sustainability?
• What is the Natural Step Framework?
• How have businesses and communities applied it?

Throughout the workshop, you will have the opportunity to engage in dialogue, learn from case studies, and apply tools that are useful in bringing this unique framework to life.

When: Friday, Feb. 6th 8am – 12pm (PST)
Where: UBC at Robson Square, Vancouver
Cost: $89 before January 16th, after $100 (last day to register February 2nd)

Please fill out the Registration Form at the bottom and send to Magdalena Szpala at mszpala@naturalstep.ca and pay using PayPal through this link:

For more information:
Tel.604-374-8445 email: mszpala@naturalstep.ca
The Natural Step is an international not-for-profit organization dedicated to education, advisory work and research in sustainable development. Since 1989, we have worked with thousands of corporations, municipalities, academic institutions and not-for-profit organizations that have proven that moving strategically toward sustainability leads to new opportunities, reduced costs, and dramatically reduced ecological and social impacts.

www.thenaturalstep.org/canada

Check out the Natural Step workshop

Join us for our monthly Vancouver Peak Oil Meetup.
All are welcome.

When: January 23, 2009 7:00 PM

Where: KAYA Knowledgeable Aboriginal Youth Association
#200 - 2019 Dundas Steet
Vancouver , BC V5L 2B6
(604) 254 - 5513

The Knowledgeable Aboriginal Youth Association (KAYA) presents “Vital Knowledge 2″ the second instalment in a series of film screenings and forums dedicated to educating youth on important world issues. In collaboration with the Vancouver Peak Oil Group, Vital Knowledge 2 will screen a selection from “A Crude Awakening” followed by an open discussion.

A Crude Awakening , produced and directed by award-winning European journalists and filmmakers Basil Gelpke and Ray McCormack, tells the story of how our civilization’s addiction to oil puts it on a collision course with geology. Compelling, intelligent, and highly entertaining, the film visits with the world’s top experts and comes to a startling, but logical conclusion – our industrial society, built on cheap and readily available oil, must be completely re-imagined and overhauled.

If the changes affect your plans to attend, please take a moment to update your RSVP. (You can RSVP “No” or “Maybe” as well as “Yes”.)

You can always get in touch with Brennan Wauters through the “Contact Organizer” link on Meetup.

IMPORTANT - Monday SFPR action w/Gordo & Falcon
<www.gatewaysucks.org >>

Tomorrow — Monday Jan. 12, 2pm — Gordon Campbell, Kevin Falcon, and Federal reps will be making an “announcement about the South Fraser Perimeter Road” at the Surrey Fraser Docks.This announcement may concern new Federal funding for the SFPR.

MAJOR MEDIA WILL BE THERE. Let’s greet them with a large outside presence, and let them know that the people of the Lower Mainland demand TRANSIT NOT FREEWAYS — GREEN WAYS, NOT GATEWAY!

The announcement will be behind the fence on Port property, so public access will be controlled (interesting, that they need to control access for a public announcement…what are they afraid of?).

Please join us there between 1 and 2 pm, with signs, drums and banners if you got em! (we will have some extra to share).

The announcement site is at the Surrey Fraser Docks on Elevator Road. Google map
To get to the site: you can take the #640 bus from Scott Road Station. Ask the driver to let you off at River Rd & Elevator Rd. OR take the #312 from Scott Road Station to Townline Divers

Thanks all! We look forward to seeing you tomorrow, as we continue to demand better solutions than Gateway and, in the leadup to the Provincial election, let our leaders know what the public wants.

Screening of two short movies outlining different approaches to coping with energy needs in a peak-oil society. Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Langley campus 20901 Langley Bypass. Free.
For information contact gary.jones [at] kwantlen.ca

Film screening calendar.

A Talk By Peter Newman, Professor of Sustainability, Curtin University, Australia.

Friday, January 9, 2009
5:30 – 7:00 p.m.
Room 1400
SFU Vancouver - 515 West Hastings St.

Peter Newman and Tim Beatley have written two new books, one on Resilient Cities, the other on Green Urbanism Down Under. They are on a North American tour in January beginning in Vancouver as it was here that the gestation of the Resilient Cities book began. Peter will speak about how cities are under threat from the financial crash and especially need to avoid pushing solutions such as road building and urban sprawl that were only responsible for the sub-prime meltdown. A new approach to urban development needs to be forged out of the down-turn that can at the same time enable cities to respond to the deep challenge of peak oil and climate change. Some hopeful directions will be outlined based on cities from around the world, including cities down-under.