SEPTEMBER 2009

The Sustainable Environment Network Society (SENS) Newsletter

 

Support Us! You can become a member (Family - $20.00, Individual - $15.00, Basic - $5.00), attend our monthly meetings (the 4th Thursday usually), donate and/or volunteer.  Mailing address: c/o the Boys and Girls Club, 3300-37th Avenue, Vernon, V1T 2Y5.  Website:  www.sensociety.org 

*** SENS provides tax-deductible receipts for donations ***

 

SENS STUFF

1.Wanted: energetic individual to coordinate volunteers for SENS. Call Julia at 250-542-0892.

 

2. Saturday, September 19, 7 pm, Okanagan College, Kal Campus: Presented by the Food Action Society of the North Okanagan with SENS, this lecture features Percy Schmeiser, the grain farmer sued by Monsanto when they contaminated his crops with GM modified food. $5 at the door. 

 

3. Thursday, September 24, 7 pm, Schubert Centre: Zoann Morton, founder and head of Pacific Streamkeepers Federation, will speak on the objectives and actions of this group. Donations at the door to cover room rent.

 

4.October 22, 7 pm, Schubert Centre: Local Air Quality – panel of local officials and experts –how serious is AQ? What actions are needed to improve health?  Questions and discussion welcome.

 

5. November 26, 7pm, Schubert Centre: Climate Change – a symptom of our culture, implications, repriorizing lifestyle choices and more.

 

6. SENS Climate Change pledges: In October and December world leaders meet to seek climate change solutions. SENS will be organizing and asking for your support to ask our leaders what they are doing for us and our environment. Wish to help? Call Mary 250-503-2506 or Julia 250-542-0892.

 

LOCAL STUFF

1. 100 Mile Diet Challenge: Start September 7 (or start any time!). Sign up for the gold 100% local food diet, the silver 75% , or bronze 50% food diet, and for 100 days plan to eat locally produced & processed foods as you work through the challenge. Dare your friends, neighbours and co-workers to take the pledge and eat locally! Take the pledge at www.foodaction.ca or via  the IPE.

 

2. BC Hydro Power Smart Challenge: Everyone is invited to join the City of Vernon challenge to double our community’s participation through BC Hydro and reduce personal energy consumption by at least 10%.   Sign on at:wwwa1.bchydro.com/profiler/ProfileStartExternal.do

 

3. Sustainable Transportation Workshop: Sept 15, Best Western, 9:30 – 4:30. Learn how to expand walking, cycling, transit, carpooling, and other options to help facilitate climate change solutions. Advance registration due to limited space at: www.createsurvey.com/c/76003-sHV4h5/

 

4. September 22. Car Free Day in Vernon.  Our new Transportation Demand Management staff person, Wendy Majewski, is just hired and is starting plans for this day.  Stay tuned!

 

5. September 27, Kin Beach, 11 – 3 pm: Rivers Day Events. Watch the papers for detaills!

 

6. Monday, October 5: Tom Stearns tells his story of turning his little town into a healthy, vibrant community through food-related partnerships. More details to follow.

 

7. Call for Volunteers: Okanagan Food Portal (OFA) is looking for some people in the community to help them contact farmers, retail outlets and other local food establishments. The OFA is also looking for help in making (crafting/editing/filming) a series of YouTube videos documenting food moments around the Okanagan. For more information about these projects or to volunteer, phone Pamela at 250-938-2310 or email okanaganfood@gmail.ca

 

8. Natural Step Sustainability Course for Leaders: Dec 2 - 3 in Vancouver. Register at: http://thenaturalstep.org/en/canada/learning-programs/level-one-course

 

SENT BY MEMBERS AND READERS

1.Globe And Mail Snippits: Reduce Computer use!  Data centres/servers now consume over 1 % of total world electricity. This is the equivalent of that used by 10 million Canadian homes or output from 17 large coal fired generating stations. Such ‘wants’ as twitter and second life demand even more electricity.  E-Bikes in China use lead-acid batteries and each battery contains 7 kg of lead pollution so E-bikes produce more lead emissions that cars and, with 5 batteries used in a bike’s lifetime, they use more batteries per km than any other vehicle. The Chinese are slowly moving to lithium ion and nickel batteries, which are in use in Canada. Plastics in the northern Pacific Ocean cover an area twice the size of Texas and greatly harm wildlife. Project Kaisei conservationists are planning clean-up using a ship that will be a floating recycling plant to process the plastic for fuel. Canada’s groundwater contamination is increasing so another Walkerton tragedy is highly likely. Underground water moves so slowly that contamination will show up decades after land use and exploitation choices have done the damage. There is 100 times more water underground that in rivers and lakes, and 10 million Canadians use this underground water.

 

2. Cat Licensing: Canada’s 5.5 million outdoor cats kill more than 165 million birds per year. Birdlife International documents a 50 % decline in bird populations since 1970 and cats, agriculture and logging are the major culprits. Calgary is one of numerous Canadian cities that has a successful Responsible Pet Ownership Bylaw. Shouldn’t we have one here?

 

3. Fish Food: 1/3 of all commercially harvested fish are fed to farmed fish, poultry and pigs. Climate change will negatively affect 33 countries around the world that produce 20% of the world’s fish exports and are dependent on fish for daily survival – and don’t have the funds to actively combat climate change. We in Canada have 13% of our dietary protein from fish but in these at-risk countries, fish accounts for over 27% of dietary protein. Some landlocked countries (eg Uganda) will also be affected via lakes and rivers with low flow as glaciers and rains disappear. As OUR glaciers/rivers/lakes dwindle, how will WE cope?.

 

4. Avoid Genetically Modified (GM) Food: GM corn and cotton are engineered to produce their own built-in pesticide in every cell. Exposure can cause allergy or flu-like symptoms and has led to hospitalization. For instance, soon after GM soy was introduced to the UK, soy allergies skyrocketed by 50%. As well, GM foods use DNA that can be transferred to intestinal bacteria so…eating a corn chip produced from GM corn might transform our gut bacteria into living pesticide factories. Given this, plus the potential for new diseases, the lack of human experimental data, the rising prevalence of low weight babies and infant mortality, and several animal studies indicating serious health risks associated with it, including infertility, accelerated aging, diabetes, obesity, cancer, organ defects and death, American physicians are calling for a moratorium on such food.

In BC, GM food is a concern since Vancouver Island dairy cows will soon be fed GM corn. Entire article and list of foods to avoid at: www.ResponsibleTechnology.org. Hopefully a ban, such as the one in Europe, is on the horizon.

 

5.. “Right-Sizing” the Planet: Despite cost cutting measures (both environmental and social), there is increased waste, emissions and exploitation of natural resources, global poverty remains, the planet is nearing its sustainable limit, and the divide between rich nations and poorer nations is increasing. Without action there will be unpredictable economic upheavals with potentially serious impacts. Fixing these problems involves de-growth of wealthy parts of the world and growth in impoverished areas to ensure basic human needs and a high quality of life.  The ecological impact of the global economy would be reduced to a sustainable level and the rich/poor divide between nations would disappear. Awareness and policy changes are crucial.    More at: http://events.it-sudparis.eu/degrowthconference/en/

 

6. Endocrine Disruptors: These chemicals are widely used in agriculture, industry, and consumer products, and enter the water supply via our sewage systems.  Some of the first signs of a potential health catastrophe are appearing as bizarre deformities in water animals, often in their sexual organs. There is also growing evidence that the same thing is happening in humans, particularly newborn boys and girls. Some studies show correlations between these abnormalities and mothers who have greater exposure to these chemicals during pregnancy, through everything from hair spray to the water they drink.  Researchers also suspect that the disruptors can cause early puberty and gynecological disorders in girls. They also tied these disruptors to obesity, cancer and diabetes. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is moving very slowly toward screening these chemicals. What is our government doing?  www.nytimes.com/2009/06/28/opinion/28kristof.html

 

 7. Climate Change Activism: It hasn’t worked because we choose not to curtail never-ending growth and a culture of consumption. Great read at:

http://www.grist.org/article/2009-08-23-the-fallacy-of-climate-activism/

 

FROM CANADIAN ENVIRONMENTAL NETWORK

1. Save Waterton-Glacier Park: This International Peace Park is in danger because of a proposed energy and mining development in BC's Flathead River Valley, right next to the park. Hopefully the UN will list it as an endangered World Heritage Site. Please sign the petition at

http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5139/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=1683.

 

2. Banning Monsanto’s ‘SmartStax’: This new Monsanto/Dow GM corn is being released for use due to a technicality, despite never having been assessed for safety by Health Canada. Isn’t it time our government reforms the entire system of regulation for GE foods and crops? To learn more on how you can help, go to: www.cban.ca/content/view/full/540.

 

3. Save our Prison Farms: The idea of a prison farm is an elegant one. Inmates work to produce the food they eat, easing the burden on the public purse and, in the process, gaining experience that they can use when they get out. But now the wheels are in motion to dismantle them! Support this special program by signing-on to keep Canada’s prison farms open at: http://nfuontario.ca/316/prison-farm-campaign.  

 

4. Electric Cars in London are exempt from congestion fees (we need such a fee in Vernon!). All new buildings will provide charging points and 1/5th of all new parking spaces will be equipped with plug-ins as London aims towards being the car capital of Europe.

 

5. Pesticide-Free Ontario: They are following the Precautionary Principle (When an activity raises threats of harm to human health or the environment, precautionary measures should be taken even if cause and effect relationships are not fully established scientifically). There is a growing body of evidence indicating a link between pesticides and cancer so even though  Health Canada says such chemicals as 2,4-D meet health and safety standards, Ontario embraced the Precautionary Principle and banned sale and use of over 250 cosmetic (non-essential) pesticides.

 

6.Mycorrhizae:  They form large fungal networks under the soil and , when inoculated into disturbed soils, improve acceptance of other re-introduced plantings and help organic content build up which causes more CO2 pick-up.  In boreal forests, introduction of the Mycorrhizae increases carbon sequestration by 26.6 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per hectare.

 

FROM DAVID SUZUKI FOUNDATION

1. Carbon Offsets Guide: Just released, Purchasing Carbon Offsets: A Guide for Canadian Consumers, Businesses and Organizations, aims to help Canadians choose carbon offsets that will most benefit the climate and reduce their carbon footprint. This user-friendly guide ranks 20 carbon offset vendors on the quality of the offsets they sell, as well as on some of their business practices and helps find the highest quality offsets. The list of vendors continues to change and grow so buyers are encouraged to research before purchasing. ”How to purchase” tips are included.  Download for free at: www.davidsuzuki.org/Publications/offset_vendors.asp. Happy offsetting!

 

2. For 18 minute idea talks by such visionaries as Jane Goodall and Al Gore see www.ted.com.

National Film Board dramas and documentaries are online, free, at www.nfb.ca

For non-toxic household cleaner recipes and more, see www.queenofgreen.ca

 

FROM SMART GROWTH BC

1. Green Roof Bees, Gardens & More: http://www.cityfarmer.info/

 

2.Taxes and Future Transportation: If the Port Mann expansion goes ahead using everyone’s tax dollars, it will go the way of Mirabel because rising energy costs and peak oil will curtail global trade (using truck transport). Electric rail would be a smarter way to go. More at: http://www.straight.com/article-245525/prof-calls-bridge-white-elephant

 

3. Bicycle Parking: In our society we enable and encourage car drivers by providing safe, free, or cheap parking for them at work (and even where they live).  Numerous cities have successfully enacted bylaws that provide cyclists with safe, free bike parking as this is a major barrier to people cycling in to work/shop.  Full article at: http://www.slate.com/id/2225511/

Co-edited with Egan Mandreck