Guest Bloggers' Posts
Spot Prawn Fever
To be fair, the BC Spot Prawn isn’t just any old shrimp. Touted by local chefs and internationally renowned for its sweet taste and buttery-tenderness, the Spot Prawn is quickly gaining notoriety as a scrumptious – and highly sustainable – seafood option.
A Train, Some Water, and A Little Blue Jug
We are travelling by train so we can stop along the way and talk to people about this pipeline and supertanker project and build support for our battle. First Nations and Canadian, including the Communications, Energy, and Paperworkers Union, have supported and joined our fight.
The Tale of Rocky the Raven
One day, as he was flying around Fanny Bay watching people doing the usual things, Rocky read a sign that said, The Future Home of Raven Coal Mine. Rocky was a bit upset, someone using his last name like that, so he decided to investigate...
Toxic Chemicals in Household Products - You Have the Right to Know
On October 26, 2011, my husband and I made a mundane household purchase - or so we thought. We went to a well-known mattress gallery in Vancouver and purchased a mattress and some solid wood bedroom furniture. We have not been able to set foot in the bedroom since.
Speaking for Earth Part Two: From Stewardship to Relationship
As I suggested in the first part of this blog, we need to move beyond stewardship—seeing Earth as our home, to relationship—seeing Earth as part of us and ourselves as part of Earth. We must constantly make the point that when we damage Earth we damage ourselves. I saw this connection illustrated brilliantly in a poster developed by Sierra Club U.S. for their very successful battle against coal burning plants.
Speaking for Earth in a Resource Extraction Culture
Recently there has been a great deal of controversy about pipelines, coal mines and gas wells. In the age of global warming this issue has profound ethical and moral implications and must be examined within three contexts: a scientific context, a political context and the context of relationship. Addresses Keystone Pipeline, Enbridge's proposed Northern Gateway, Raven Coal Mine and the creation of a resource extraction culture.
Herbicide spraying of BC forests shows no sign of ending
With the continuation of unsustainable levels of harvesting across the Central Interior and the proliferation of more and more clear-cuts, an increasing number of people are coming face to face with a practice one would hope was in its sunset phase. It's not, and that practice is herbicide spraying. In some places the spraying campaign continues to be of a Vietnam-scale intensity
Northern Gateway: Pipeline to Problems
Enbridge's proposal to build a 1,172 km Northern Gateway pipeline from Alberta to Kitimat through some of the most challenging and remote territory on the planet exposes wild rivers, landscapes and a pristine BC coast to inevitable oil spills. This is the most obvious argument against building this project. But a closer and deeper scrutiny reveals more fundamental flaws that are not immediately obvious.
A Letter to Our Government
Super tankers would not only have a disastrous affect on coastal aboriginal peoples' ability to harvest traditional foods, but would aid in the demise of flourishing tourism in their traditional lands.
If the Great Bear Rainforest is already protected, why this campaign?
Six years ago, our environmental organizations and logging companies worked with the B.C. government and First Nations to create a groundbreaking agreement to save the Great Bear Rainforest. Reached after years of protests and market campaigns aimed at protecting this region from industrial logging, the agreement made headlines around the world for being remarkable in many ways.
Six years later, it’s time to end unsustainable logging in the Great Bear Rainforest
At a time when the Great Bear Rainforest is under increasing threat from pipelines, tankers and grizzly bear trophy hunting, the provincial government has a clear opportunity to do something right now to make good on its promise to save this global gem from unsustainable logging.
Have a say on the Enbridge pipeline!
There’s still plenty of time to submit letters of comment to the Enbridge Northern Gateway joint review panel. I just submitted mine – easy as pie. Will it make a difference?
Why Ban Cosmetic Pesticides?
Provincial legislation to phase out the sale and use of non-essential chemical pesticides would mean healthier communities, healthier families and a healthier environment for all British Columbians.
ISAv: Threat, Fear, Mystery and Warning
Should protective measures fail, an unleashed exotic virus in the North Pacific would be a serious international incident.
A Reason to Write to One's MP
I didn't really know about this until I happened to chat with some people working in federal departments Parks Canada and Environment Canada in the last year, and they told me in hushed and worried tones about the significant cuts which was hampering their ability to do the kind of work they felt this country needs...
It's Only Natural: Why Giving Back Feels So Good
When I spend time in natural places, the perspective and fulfillment I gain is invaluable. I give to environmental causes is because it feels good to make a small gesture of gratitude in return for the enormous benefits I receive from my natural world. Of course, the truth is, the environment gives me so much more than I could possibly repay.
Juan de Fuca: Are We Done?
I wonder, can we muster the energy and initiative to work together as citizens of the Capital Region to create a vision for keeping safe what we evidently cherish so much as a community - the Trail and its associated wild lands? After what I experienced last week, I believe we could!
A $50 Million Message to Coal
Bloomberg's $50 million gift is more than a gesture of support for the Sierra Club and its ambitious objective of revoking "the social licence for burning coal". It is a powerful indictment against coal itself, the censuring of a fossil fuel from the Industrial Revolution era that has become the single largest scourge of our planet's environmental health.
Asking Leaders to Cut Nukes, Not Clean Energy
The cost of maintaining just one nuclear weapon (there are an estimated 8,500 nukes in the US and 23,000 around the world) for one year could mean 99,000 square feet of new solar panels. Or we could trade maintaining a nuke for a year for 70 new wind turbines.
Pipelines and Tankers: the Building Pressure
Anyone who is concerned about the arrival of pipelines and tankers to BC's West Coast should be worried. The forces are mounting to make this province a bridge to an energy-hungry Asia. And the inevitable result will be ‹ sooner or later ‹ a ruptured pipeline despoiling pristine rivers and a broken tanker spilling millions of barrels of oil into one of the few undefiled ecologies remaining on our planet.
