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NEWS
Media Release/Communiqué
For Immediate Release: February 13, 2008
Media Contact: Chris Hilliar (250)338-6165
Planetary Emergency – Talk on Climate Change
- Feb.16
COURTENAY-“If the planet’s health were being cared for in the emergency
ward of a hospital, at this point the priest would be on standby. In short,
global warming is not being treated as an emergency, though it is the greatest
threat in human history.” This is a quote from the just-released report
from Australia – “Climate Code Red – the case for a sustainability
emergency”. They note that the language around climate change is just now,
starting to change – shifting from talk of “crisis” to talk of
“emergency” as we start to see whole eco-systems collapse.
But the writers are not without hope. They look to the historical experience
of World War II when the US economy was transformed over a few years to address
a common threat. In the five years before the end of the war in 1945 unemployment
in the US fell from 14.6% to 1.9%, and the gross national product grew by 55%.
It seems that a similar transformational effort is now being demanded of our
generation, only this time the stakes are even higher – the entire life-support
system of our spaceship Earth is threatened.
James Hansen from NASA, one of the world’s foremost climate scientists,
is also not without hope – provided we act quickly. He believes that cooling
could be induced by dramatically cutting the release of global warming agents.
This issue demands our attention if we want to leave our children a liveable
world.
Will the citizens of Canada have the wisdom and fortitude to demand that our
government recognize climate change as an emergency and start to act? Come out
to the Florence Filberg Centre in Courtenay on Saturday February 16, at 7 pm
to hear Brian Gordon speak about solutions to climate change. Brian was one
of a handful of Canadians selected to attend training in Nashville, Tennessee
with Al Gore. In addition there will be tables and brief presentations from
organizations working on local solutions including - Canadian Earth Institute,
SPUD, Building Green in a Changing Climate, and the hosts of the event - BC
Sustainable Energy Association. Call 338-6165 for more information.
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For more information, contact:
Chris Hilliar, Chair, BCSEA Comox Valley Chapter
(250) 338-6165
Our inaugural meeting was held June 27, 2006, just one month after Guy Dauncey
came to town to give one of his energizing presentations for the Comox Valley
Sustainability Network.
In October 2006, we hosted a public evening with two esteemed scientists -
Dr. Kees Groot and Dr. Gordon Hartman to speak on climate change and the challenges
of ecological crises. Dr. Hartman's paper on this topic can be found at this
site: www.countercurrents.org/cc-hartman070806.htm
In November, we teamed up with World Community Society to co-host a public
screening of, "The Power of Community - How Cuba Survived Peak Oil".
Dr. Colin Park, one of our Chapter members gave a power point presentation to
the Chapter and subsequently had two articles on climate change published in
the local papers.
In February 2007 we attended the 16th Annual Film Festival hosted by World
Community in Courtenay. You can see the program at: www.worldcommunity.ca.
We had lots of interest at our booth which was shared with Terra-Tek
Environmental Solutions. We finished gathering petitions to send to parliament
to support the Kyoto Accord bringing our total to 170 signatures. These petitions
were given to Catherine Bell, our NDP MLA who was in attendance at the festival.
Our display included information on the plans that Compliance Energy Corporation
has for coal in the Comox Valley. We showed our own rolling power-point showing
climate change causes, effects, and solutions. On a second lap top we encouraged
people to spend three minutes to calculate their ecological footprint. We used
“My Footprint”.
Forty-four people took the test with footprints ranging from 1.2 planets to
9.1 planets. The average footprint was 7.25 hectares or 3.97 planets.
Clearly, we have some changes to make in our lifestyles. Fortunately the cooks
at the festival showed us one way to do that – they made a dinner for the
whole crowd using ONLY local ingredients. They used no oil in the cooking and
no exotic spices. The cooks received the highest praise possible – empty
plates. Learning to feed ourselves without wasteful dependence upon fossil fuels
and reducing long distance transportation of packaged foods will greatly help
to reduce our green house gas emissions and we will build community at the same
time.
In April 2007 we participated in the the Comox Valley Earth Day 2007 events:
a huge success! Thanks and congratulations to BCSEA volunteers who helped. The
Cumberlander
has a page devoted to Earth Day in the Valley
At the risk of forgetting someone – specific thanks to:
- Landon Aldridge and Scott Fleenor of TerraTek for sharing their display
tent and all round help
- Barb Wallace for the one page handout on Ideas to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
- Gordon Ross for compiling a booklet of art work on global consumption and
for Earth Day set up
- Judy Goldschmidt for BC Hydro info sheets, for donations of compact fluorescent
lights, and for Earth Day set up
- George Tammaccio for help with Earth Day set up
- Milt Wallace for diligent work in creating an excel spread sheet calculator
for carbon footprints and for making connections with Natural
- Resources Canada to acquire a downloadable version of their on-line calculator.
- Michael Bloomfield for helping at the BCSEA booth and with Earth Day set
up
- Wayne Bradley for help in Earth Day organizing
- Kathleen Hennig and Wendy Prothero for starting work on a plastic bag project
and getting re-useable cloth shopping bags as a fund-raiser for our chapter.
- Brian Novak for helping at the BCSEA booth
- Don and Pam Munroe for volunteering at the Earth Day Admin tent
- (apologies if I forgot someone!)
And thanks to all BCSEA Members who just came by and enjoyed the day. We have
a good team going here!
Cheers,
Chris Hilliar (Chapter Chair).
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