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URGENT ACTION – the Government has paralyzed parliament’s environmental committee and is preventing a crucial piece of climate change legislation from being approved

Why?  The Conservative government is “paralyzing” parliament’s Environmental Commitee by blocking the Climate Change Accountability Act, Bill C-377.  This bill would enable Canada to take on science based targets to reduce its emissions 25% below 1990 levels by 2020.

Conservative Members of Parliament are paralyzing the work of the
Environment Committee by blocking the Climate Change Accountability
Act, Bill C-377.  If the Conservative MPs don’t stop their tactics this
all important bill could be killed.  Opposition parties are united in
their support for this bill that would see Canada take on science based
targets to reduce its emissions 25% below 1990 levels by 2020.
 Conservative members have stalled the committee agenda for 5 meetings
by not letting other members of the committee talk. If they continue,
they could kill this important bill, and block all other work relating
to the environment.

The Conservative MPs and the media need to know Canadians disagree with their tactics.

The committee is meeting again on Wednesday and needs to hear from you this week.

Continue reading “URGENT ACTION – the Government has paralyzed parliament’s environmental committee and is preventing a crucial piece of climate change legislation from being approved”

Sustainable Communities

Green Communities: 576: 31 March 2008

REAL MOVES.
Rideau Environmental
Action League – REAL (formerly LL Green) has moved into a former
municipal works warehouse in Smith Falls, across the Railway Museum.
The building sits on the Rideau River “with canoe access”, says
Susan Brandum, and houses REAL’s office and reuse store. The
new location will allow shoreline restoration, community gardens and
native plants gardening. Renovations are expected to be completed in
May.

WELL DONE!
Police had to be brought in to manage the traffic at a
record-breaking Well Wise forum
last week in Orono, which attracted 350 well owners. Well Wise
staffers Lindsay Conboy and Brenda Ibey said the event was so
crowded “people were sitting on the floor.” Another Well Wise well
forum held last week in Greenbank drew 95 participants. Well Wise,
which delivers Well Aware in
Durham Region, is holding a series of community forums in
partnership with the Region of Durham and local conservation
authorities.

PRAISE. “Green
pioneers deserve thanks, support,” opined an editorial
in the Waterloo Record, heaping high praise on REEP Waterloo for
developing a demonstration house to help lead the way to a greener
future.

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR.
Green Communities
Canada seeks an Associate Director as a senior member of the
management team. Requires project management and program development
skills. See Good Work
listing. Due: 18 April.

ELORA ED. With the
impending retirement of Don Eaton as Executive Director of the Elora Centre for Environmental
Excellence, the search for a new ED is under way. See posting. Due: 17
April.

LOW-INCOME. Clean Nova Scotia and ACAP Cape Breton are among the
organizations delivering a new $1.6 million low-income
energy efficiency program in Nova Scotia. The program, being
delivered as a bundled service, includes training and hiring of
crews to carry out retrofits of 200 homes. Based on an earlier
pilot, the Government of Nova Scotia decided on a system of local
delivery agents with exclusivity in each region.

PESTICIDE FREE? OUI!
A new report by Équiterre and
The David Suzuki Foundation
recommends measures to strengthen Quebec’s Pesticides Management
Code and encourages other provinces (e.g., Ontario, planning its own
legislation) to follow Quebec’s lead in banning certain cosmetic
lawn and garden pesticides. See the media release (English
and French
) and the report (English
and French).

Continue reading “Green Communities: 576: 31 March 2008”

Around the Web

Flintstone-mobile

Montreal artist Michel de Broin made the “Shared Propulsion Car” by hollowing-out the insides. Link to artist web site project.

It has:

  • no engine
  • no transmission
  • no floor
  • no signal lights
  • in place of headlights? The car features tea light-candle headlights
  • the whole thing is entirely propelled by pedal power

Pedal powered ‘Flintstone car’ driver gets his traffic ticket dismissed

Video of the pedal-powered 1986 Buick Regal’s maiden voyage

Continue reading “Flintstone-mobile”

Air and Climate

the KYOTOplus Campaign

The KYOTOplus campaign is a project of Canadian public interest groups designed to mobilize public support for an urgent solution to the global warming crisis.

There are two main components to the campaign. First, Canadian politicians have been asked to take the KYOTOplus Pledge, calling on them to support strong action against global warming in Canada and around the world.

Second, we are asking individual Canadians to sign the KYOTOplus Petition. The petition calls for Canada to reduce greenhouse gas emission at least 25 per cent (from the 1990 level) by 2020.

We are targeting a minimum of one million signatures for this petition. Our aim is to deliver these signatures to the United Nations climate conference that will take place in December 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark. This conference will make the crucial decision about a second phase of the Kyoto Protocol. Canada must be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

Continue reading “the KYOTOplus Campaign”

Uncategorized

Small actions can make a world of difference

Here’s your weekly Science Matters column by David Suzuki with Faisal Moola.

Small actions can make a world of difference

As you no doubt know, last week’s Earth Hour took place in several cities around the world, including many in Canada.

The project was spearheaded by the World Wildlife Fund, which
successfully tested the idea in Sydney, Australia, last year. The idea
is simple: ask everyone to flick off lights and non-essential
appliances for an hour.

Earth Hour was a fascinating experiment. It’s a bold idea. As
Marshall McLuhan famously observed, we live in a global village. And
Earth Hour is an expression of cooperation and support between the
other villagers on our little blue planet.

It’s easy to downplay this idea.

Many people did. Last week, it seemed as if all of Canada’s
contrarians got space in newspapers and radio to complain: “Turn off
the lights?! Says who? I paid for them, and I’ll leave them on as long
as I darn well please!”

Fine.

We live in a free society and we are free to do as we please. But
these naysayers have a myopic view of the world, and the important
social networks of which we are all a part.

When individuals do something beneficial for the
environment–turning off the lights for an hour to show support for a
good idea, or using energy-efficient appliances, or purchasing
fuel-efficient cars–they aren’t just taking a simple action. They are
expressing a bold statement about their values.

Continue reading “Small actions can make a world of difference”