Earth
Angels Gardening
Thank you to all
Earth Angels for coming out on Thursday night May
6th to work wonders and beautify the Fairlawn gardens. What
a delightful improvement -- It couldn't have happened
without you! We really appreciate your efforts: Judy
McAdam, Tom Clarke, Margaret Harper, Rob and Sue Metcalf,
Ileff and Jane Peck, Carolyn Clark, Gina Atkinson, Rosalie
Cowan, Shirley Chykaliuk, Anne Rawson, Robin & Daphne,
several neighbours on Fairlawn Avenue.
Thanks to Debbie Harling-Molnar
and the Girl Guides of Fairlawn who gardened for us on
Monday May 10th, weeding and planting herbs in the oval
garden. Thanks to Ruth for the FNC garden. Thanks to those
who worked behind the scenes to make it a big success,
including Carolyn Clark and Network for funding the
refreshments, Peter Heinz for compost and his gardening
advice, Tom Clarke for advice from Property, Eleanor Heinz
and Rosalie Cowan for plant selection advice, Tom Gifford
for soil, the Green Team for support, and all you casual
weeders, dandelion pickers and people who pull garbage and
debris from the gardens as you walk by. And a huge thank you
to Judy McAdam for arranging delivery of the woodchips
from Davey and organizing the gardeners on Thursday night.
Most
sincere thanks from all of us at Fairlawn
The Story of 'Cap
and Trade'
Watch this intriguing video
The Story of Cap and Trade from Annie Leonard, the
author of The Story of Stuff
Some interesting
reading from KAIROS ...
Climate action after
Copenhagen
The disappointing results of the December conference underline
the need for continued action here at home. Read the
People’s Submission on Climate Change. Still more
disappointing, Canada has submitted its targets for carbon
emissions reductions under the Copenhagen Accord. The target is
17% below 2005 levels by 2020. This is even less than earlier
statements from the government that it was planning a 20%
reduction below 2006 levels. The weakness of this commitment is
seen when translated into the international standard base year
of 1990:
Canada’s Kyoto Protocol
commitment 6% below 1990 by
2012
Suggested government goal (20% below 2006) 3%
below 1990 by 2020
Copenhagen Accord commitment (17% below 2005) 2.5% below
1990 by 2020
Science-based target
recommended 25-40% below
1990 by 2020
See the detailed response to the government’s inaction here:
http://www.climateactionnetwork.ca/e/news/2010/release/index.php?WEBYEP_DI=4
Consider making your own response to Hon. Jim Prentice, Minister
of the Environment with copies to your Member of Parliament.
Facebook subscribers can also join Canadians Against Canada’s
Climate Plan
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=311309183625&ref=nf
Knock Out Coal by 2010: Lack of action at the federal
level makes provincial, local and personal action all the more
important. Current provincial policy is to phase out coal-fired
electric plants by 2017. But do we need to keep them running
that long? Not according to the Ontario Clean Air Alliance.
See the infomation at
http://www.cleanairalliance.org/knockout_coal and
consider ordering free, colorful pamphlets for distribution
Perpetual
growth cannot be accommodated on a finite planet
“We will lurch from crisis to existential crisis unless we
address the underlying cause: perpetual growth cannot be
accommodated on a finite planet.” So writes George Monbiot in a
recent piece in The Guardian. As intuitively obvious as this
reality is to any thinking person, the article points out that
this realization must cause us to fundamentally redefine
ourselves and how we interact with each other. Sounds a lot like
Christianity... Check out the full article
at
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2009/12/14/this-is-about-us/
Weather vs. Climate
Climate change
is not weather change. The weather oscillates daily ~ all the
time; climate changes very slowly over thousands of years.
Within that slow change are innumerable variations, but what
counts is the underlying pattern. Read the Copenhagen
Diagnosis to get a clear message.
http://www.ccrc.unsw.edu.au/Copenhagen/Copenhagen_Diagnosis_LOW.pdf
(3 MB)
CBC Radio Podcast
with David Suzuki and Al Gore
http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/qpodcast_20091125_23573.mp3
- Make sure to slide the timeline ahead to the "26 minute"
mark for the interview with David Suzuki and Al Gore.
Oceans of Trouble
Alanna
Mitchell, author of Sea Sick,
and Bob McDonald, host of Quirks and Quarks, discuss the
state of the global oceans on this CBC podcast
http://www.cbc.ca/quirks/archives/09-10/qq-2009-09-12.html
God's Green Earth:
Religion and Ecology
Listen on your computer to an exploration of the emerging field
of religion and ecology, which has been largely inspired by
Thomas Berry, the Catholic monk who has spent his life exploring
the human relationship with the natural world and its
implications for religion.
Go to
http://www.cbc.ca/tapestry/archives/2009/060709.html
