by Silver Donald Cameron
SUNDAY HERALD COLUMN March 21, 2010
If you want to change the world, empower the women. Especially the
grandmothers.
I’m in a classroom at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario,
where Professor Ron Harpelle is showing a TV series that he and he
and his colleague, Bruce Muirhead of the University of Waterloo, have
made about the history of the International Development Research
Centre, part of Canada’s foreign-aid apparatus.
Since this is International Women’s Day, Harpelle has been showing an
episode featuring the women of a Senegalese village who are
combatting both poverty and the encroachment of the desert by
protecting the local baobab trees and making products from their
fruit. The scene shifts, and now we’re in Morocco, where a group of
women are pursuing exactly the same objectives with a different tree,
the argan.
A Morrocan woman says that the project has transformed her life.
Before, she had no money of her own and she was invisible. Now that
she has some money, she’s become a person. She deserves and gets
respect. She can buy things for her home, for her children. Her whole
family benefits indeed, her whole community does.
I’ve heard this before not once, but many times. Improve the
condition of women, and you achieve real development. Men will
squander their money on toys, drink and general peacockery. Women
will improve the lives of their families and their communities. Women
will behave like adults. Read the complete Post.
Fri - Sat December 4 - 5
9 am – 5 pm
Langara College, 100 West 49 Avenue, Vancouver
Co-sponsored by:
Langara College Continuing Studies, Village Vancouver and the Canadian Centre for Community Renewal
Join leaders of the transition movement in Vancouver for a 2-day workshop and dialogue introducing the principles, steps and lessons of the successful Transition Town model of local response to global challenges.
· What are the lessons for activists and concerned citizens?
· How can we increase resilience in every neighbourhood?
· What are the ways we might collaborate to get the impacts that are needed? Read the complete Post.
Check out this cool video starring our own VPOE Justin Tilson.
http://100mile.foodtv.ca/webisode/guerrilla-gardening
When some imaginative neighbours get together to transform the space around some abandoned railway tracks into an improvised community garden, they are taking part in a global phenomenon called guerrilla gardening. Author David Tracey explains how to look at the whole city as a potential garden… a garden that needs tending.
Credits
Director/Editor: Hart Snider
Camera: Hart Snider, Galit Mastai
Coordinator: Galit Mastai
Special thanks to David Tracey and Lisa and Justin Tilson
Feb 15, 2009 04:30 AM
The Toronto Star
by Cathal Kelly
For millennia, doomsayers have been predicting the end of the world as we know it. These days, theory dovetails with fact: oil is disappearing. Should we be listening?
After the planes hit the towers, Paul added a to-do to his long survival list.
At the time, he was working on the eighth floor of a west-end office tower. So he convinced a guy at the local outdoors supplier to teach him to rappel. Then he bought 60 metres of rope and packed it, along with some climbing gear, into a briefcase. Then he tucked the briefcase under his desk.
“It seemed like the intelligent thing to do,” he shrugs.
Three years ago, Paul heard about Peak Oil. This is the millenarianism of our recessionary time, a doomsday scenario with a wrinkle – scientific backing. In essence, Peak Oil states that the world’s supply of crude will soon go into permanent, inexorable decline. This is widely accepted amongst experts. The main points of debate are exactly when this will happen, how quickly oil will deplete and what happens next. Read the complete Post.
Dear Local Food Leaders Across Canada,
We at St. Lawrence College in Kingston are pleased to announce a new distance education certificate program in Sustainable Local Food for All Canadians which will be launched with a first course in January 2009: Read the complete Post.
JonBC
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Alternative Energy, Economics, Energy supply, Environment, Global Warming, Housing, Mitigation, Overpopulation, Resources, Skill Building, Transportation, Urban Planning, Vancouver Media Coverage, Video, Water
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Jan 04 2009
Terrific library of free short videos courtesy of the show brought to you by Metro Vancouver - check out their site!
JonBC
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Activism, Economics, Energy supply, Environment, Events, Food, Global Warming, Health & Disease, Housing, Political Activism, Politics, Resources, Skill Building, Social effects, Transportation, Urban Agriculture, Urban Planning
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Jan 03 2009
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.
JonBC
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Activism, Agriculture, Alternative Energy, Economics, Energy supply, Events, Food, Global Warming, Mitigation, News, Political Activism, Skill Building, Transportation, Urban Agriculture, Urban Planning
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Aug 23 2008
Visit the conference website now.
Hold these dates for the Fifth U.S. Conference
on Peak Oil and Community Solutions:
October 31- November 2, 2008
Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan
Why Attend This Conference?
Skyrocketing oil prices, mounting geopolitical tensions, grave economic realities, and dangerous climate changes are threatening our lives and communities like never before.
The age of cheap, abundant fossil fuels is coming to an end, and urgent action is required to transform our over-consumptive society into one that uses far less energy.
By acting now to reduce household energy use and re-localize economic production, we can create resilient, sustainable communities that will be able to weather the coming economic and ecological storms. Read the complete Post.
From: Institute for Planetary Renewal
The Problem:
Civilization is disintegrating, (which is obvious). This is because our civilization was not built on sustainable principles.
A brief summary of conditions–
Physical Structure: The infrastructure is nearing its life cycle and is collapsing. It is not possible to replace it with equivalent systems because the resources to do so are too expensive or no longer exist.
Social Structure: Families have little time to devote to the critical task of nurturing children. Hence, crime, violence, drugs, greed, and other social ills. The evening news tells the story.
Education: The educational system has failed to educate a majority of children beyond a rudimentary level.
Food Supply: On average, we only have 6 inches of soil left. Essential nutrients were mined from it long ago. Now the bulk of our food is empty calories with consequent loss of health and vitality.
Health Care: The current system has failed to maintain the health of the population. Drug resistant strains of many diseases are on the rise.
Energy: We have squandered our non-renewable energy supplies. We can look forward to increasing costs for diminishing supplies of energy.
Environment: We have poisoned the planet we live on.
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The Solution: Read the complete Post.
For low power fun, is anyone up for living Sundays without electricity, except for keeping the fridge and freezer going? Although we are particularly blessed with hydro power in this province and probably won’t see grid failures like other parts of the world, I think it would be a fun exercise to collectively make us more mindful about our dependence on the grid and more prepared if there are any problems. Plus it will force us out of our normal routines and create opportunities to connect in new ways.
Leave some comments if you want to build on this.
