Jan. 8, 2011
Vandy Savage – My 2 cents.

In order to add a green voice to plans for the future, I went to multiple Regional Growth Strategy (RGS) meetings where this long range Vancouver Regional Growth Strategy plan was presented, amended, and presented again. Nearly all of these were the dreaded “breakfast” meetings with tepid coffee and tea and coercive facilitators. No matter how we tried to steer the discussion, the underlying assumption to the plan in all of it iterations was one of GROWTH. When one of us suggested no growth, no new roads, more green spaces, and more rail/public transit, these ideas were passed by. I got so frustrated that I stopped going to the meetings.

In order to be heard, I think we would need many more than 10 green thinking people at these meetings. The ones I attended had lots of activists and concerned citizens that we know personally in attendance, trying to make a positive impact. We would need about 30 people per meeting to have a significant presence. But even with 30 people, as you know, my impression was that the facilitators were really there to get us to come to their conclusions, not to actually gather information. It was a total bullshit snow job by smarmy corporate consultants. Read the complete Post.

Watch TV and save Civilization!

VPOE member and co-founder, Jon Cooksey, has worked for 4 long years making a film called, How To Boil A Frog. Sept. 8 at 8:30 pm you can see this opus on Movie Central. http://tiny.cc/o8wts

Here’s the blurb: An eco-comedy (documentary feature film) that mixes rapid-fire humor with hard-hitting facts to show the consequences of overshoot: too many people using up too little planet, much too fast. Gives us an overview of our situation and 5 surprising ways that regular people like you and me can save civilization, while making our own lives better now.

Do yourself a favor and check it out.