FEBRUARY 2011

The Sustainable Environment Network Society (SENS) Newsletter

Environmentally active for over 40 years!

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: SENS, c/o the Boys and Girls Club, 3300-37th Ave., Vernon, V1T 2Y5. Website: www.sensociety.org

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

SENS STUFF

“End of Suburbia” - February 24, 7 pm, Schubert Centre: This video leads to a short presentation on Transition Towns, its vision, and how it will support and engage our community long into the future. See www.transitiontowns.org for details.

Annual FREE Seed Swap and Seed/Plant Sale - March 24, 6:30 pm, Schubert Centre: Share or sell seeds/plants. At 7:00 pm there is a short SENS Annual General Meeting followed by a speaker.

LOCAL STUFF

1. Winter Markets: From 3 – 6 pm on Feb. 9th and 23rd, March 9th and 23rd, and April 6th at Army, Navy & Air Force Hall (2500 - 46th Avenue) with a large variety of vendors to serve your needs.

2. Pedestrian Symposium: March 23, 8:30am – 4 pm, Schubert Centre. Mark your calendars!

3. FREE Heritage Seeds: Shuswap Seed Savers has over 150 varieties of vegetables and herbs available to local gardeners. Just fill out the forms and return the seed for the next crop year! The seed bank and seed list is in Enderby at 509 Mill Ave (Gypsy Bazaar).

4. Transition Town Workshop: To be held on March 26-27, at Okanagan College, KLO Campus in Kelowna, refreshments, course materials and name tags will be provided to all attendees. Out of town attendees are also welcome (billeting is an option). Contact: koruha@gmail.com

5. Vernon Permaculture Course: Live a more sustainable life, reduce food, energy and water bills, transform your back yard into an oasis…and more! Feb 19 and 20, 8am-5pm, $200 per person, which Includes lunch both days and Introduction to Permaculture textbook. Contact and registration information: 250-938-5148 or gord@elementecodesign.com

6. Water Week: Join with us from March 14 to 22 as we celebrate healthy rivers and clean lakes during the inaugural Canada Water Week.Organize an art exhibit/concert or a public rally to advocate for clean water; screen a documentary; host a water stewardship event; or simply enjoy your favourite river or lake with family, neighbours, and friends. www.canadawaterweek.com.

7. Virus Threatens BC Salmon: Large numbers of sockeye salmon are dying in the Fraser River, before spawning, because of a mysterious virus, new research suggests. Apparently, most of the fish (more than 70%) that die before spawning have a common "genomic signature" which, when activated by viral infection, kills them. The compromised salmon, aptly called "dead fish swimming", were 13.5 times more likely to die before spawning than healthy fish. Work is already under way to try to determine where in their life stage the fish (early evidence suggests it came from the sea) get the infection. Despite last year's record return, the Fraser runs are still widely considered to be in a precarious state due to problems that have been linked to overfishing, mismanagement, the spread of sea lice from fish farms, and even a recent migration into B.C. waters of hungry Humboldt squid. The possible viral infection is a new and worrying twist. Read the entire article at www.vancouversun.com/health/4107074/story.html.

8. Park Management Plans: BC Parks has a few Management Plans available for comment with interesting ideas for future plans for these local parks: Pillar Lake Prov. Pk (near Falkland), White Lake (Salmon Arm), Yard Creek Prov Pk. Other Plan aspects recommend deletion from the Park System for the following: Victor Lake - between Sicamous and Revelstoke -14.2 hectares, Monte Lake (highway access being unsafe was one reason), Seton Portage (0.7 hectares) (near Lilliooet). Comments and concerns are due by March 4, 2011 www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/planning/

SENT BY MEMBERS AND READERS

1. Copenhagen’s Green Roofs: Denmark, Copenhagen is aiming to become the world’s first carbon neutral city by 2025. Under a new policy, every new building that is suitable must cover its roof with vegetation. The goals are to absorb rainfall, provide cooling and insulation, shield these roofs from UV rays, and reduce the urban temperature by decreasing sunlight reflection.

2. Lufa Farms Greenhouses: Herbicide and pesticide-free produce will soon be for sale to Toronto locals from these roof-top garden greenhouses. The idea is advocated in the book “The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 21st Century.

3. Traffic and Tolls: With the price on excess congestion (lost time, fuel, etc.) for using roads on the rise (about $15 billion in Canada), the use of tolls within city limits is starting to look attractive. They reduce congestion, travel time, accidents, pollution, and so on. For instance, the private Los Angeles 407 has competitive fares such that the traffic moves 4 to 8 times faster than congested freeways. Such fares help to uncover the true cost of driving and will lower our driving in the future.

4. Interesting Websites:

5. Airborne Mad-Cow: Researchers in Zurich have learned that prions that can induce mad cow disease or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disorder can be transmitted by air. For the full story, go to http://newsguide.us/education/science/BSE-pathogens-can-be-transmitted-by-air/.

6. Shasta And Goliath: The residents of Mt. Shasta, a small northern California town, are taking on corporate power by prohibiting corporations such as Nestle and Coca-Cola from extracting water from the local aquifer. They also voted to ban energy corporations from carrying out regional cloud seeding. More over, they refuse to recognize corporate personhood. And Mt. Shasta is not alone. Rather, it is part of a growing municipal movement in the United States where communities are directly defying corporate rule and putting their citizens' rights first. So what about your community? For the entire article, go to www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread652097/pg1.

7. Food Sovereignty: Industrialized foods aren’t always healthy and accessible for everyone.  As such, participants in the food movement have actively taken to creating substitutes to the industrialized food system including community-supported agriculture (CSA), farmers markets, local food, family and neighbourhood gardens, etc. They have also been successfully changing food policy all over the world. Some good examples of groups include: the Family Farm Defenders (FFD), an organization fighting for small dairy and vegetable farmers, ROPPA, an African peasant organization, the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, which focuses on urban agriculture, policy development, and cooperative buying, and the Vancouver-based Working Group on Indigenous Food Sovereignty. Citizen participation is the key to establishing and keeping a democracy. As we watch our representative government crumble through corporate influence, political corruption and hate speech, we can look to the food sovereignty movement to remind us how democracy really works. Then, let's hope that spirit will spread. For the whole article, go to http://olgabonfiglio.blogspot.com/2011/01/food-gutsy-food-sovereignty-movement.html.

LIVING OCEANS SOCIETY

1. Action on Closed Containment: Scientific research clearly shows that net cage salmon farming threatens the health of nearby wild fish populations and ocean ecosystems. As such, email Minister Stockwell Day, leader of the BC Conservative caucus, and ask him to support coastal communities and the environment by making closed containment (prevents escape and disease spread) a priority in his government’s 2011 budget.

2. The Risky Northern Gateway Project: If approved, Enbridge’s proposed pipelines, running to a marine terminal in Kitimat, BC would be serviced by 225 oil tankers per year. A catastrophic oil tanker spill would inevitably happen. Even worse, Canadian taxpayers would be footing the majority of the bill for any cleanup! According to Canada’s oil spill regulations, the tanker owner (not Enbridge) would get charged only up to a maximum of $140 million. Some international oil spill funds would be used but the rest would be on us. The Exxon Valdez catastrophe cost over $7 billion in cleanup, lost tourism, and lost fishing. Why not place a ban on oil tankers which would allow our coastal economies and communities to thrive and reduce the financial risk to Canadian pockets.

RECYCLING COUNCIL OF BC (RCBC)

1. Saving BC's Biggest Natural Lake: Residents of Atlin are opposed to a proposed hydro scheme by Yukon Energy Corp. which would invariably harm Atlin Lake. The proposal would partially dam up Atlin River and reduce flow to the lake. They are urging the provincial government to make the Atlin River a formal protected area and officially sink the Yukon plan.

2. Recycling Every Bit of Plastic: Researchers and engineers in the UK are finally making some progress towards true (100%) plastic recycling. They made a unit that heats up the plastic to decompose it without oxygen in a "fluidized bed” reactor. This makes it possible to recycle a wide variety of plastics and produce useful materials.

3. Plastic from Gulf Spill Being Reused: According to General Motors, more than 100,000 pounds of the plastic boom material used to soak up oil spilled in the Gulf of Mexico is being reused in the plug-in hybrid electric Chevrolet Volt. The material would otherwise be sent to landfills or burned.

4. Reaching Reach Zero Waste Classification: Through a combination of innovative recycling programs, a food donation program and a joint organic composting program with the City of Santa Barbara, two Albertsons grocery stores now divert all non-contaminated waste from landfills and incinerators. Over 95% of waste products from both stores are recycled, reused or composted.

5. The BC Small Appliances Stewardship Program: Beginning on April 1, 2011, the Product Care Association is searching for potential collection sites for the CESA BC program. Further information on the CESA BC program can be found at www.productcare.org/Small-Appliances.

FROM CANADIAN ENVIRONMENTAL NETWORK (Alternatives Journal)

1.Degrees of Change: Recently released, this report contains a unique illustration of how climate change could impact Canada over the 21st century if global warming trends continue. Understanding and planning ahead can help us all adapt and prosper for the decades of climate change to come. The report is available at www.climateprosperity.ca.

2.Action To End Tax Breaks to Oil, Coal and Gas Companies: They get 1.4 billion in tax breaks. Call, e-mail or write your MP and ask them to stop the give-away. Details at http://rcen.ca/action-alerts/climate-action-network-canada-end-tax-breaks-to-oil-coal-and-gas-companies

FROM SMART GROWTH BC

1. Not So Ethical Oil: Peter Kent, our new environment minister, is quickly being lambasted (deservedly so too) for describing the carbon-intensive tar sands as "ethical oil". Kent, who once opposed the tar sands in his 1984 documentary ‘The Greenhouse Effect’, “is being utterly hypocritical”, says Ben West (Wilderness Committee). Details at www.wildernesscommittee.org.

2. Input Needed for Study: Dr. Ray Tomalty is looking for input from individuals working in occupations related to community energy planning and management in Canada. If you are undertaking this type of work in your position or know of such a position in your community, please contact him at tomalty@smartcities.ca or visit www.smartcities.ca.

3. Top 11 for 2011: The Wilderness Committee is presenting a list of demands to all candidates for BC Liberal and NDP leadership. The 'Top 11 for 2011' outlines the organization’s environmental priorities for the province and will make all responses public. See: http://wildernesscommittee.org/press_release/wilderness_committee_mark_bc_leadership_candidates_top_11_2011.

4. "BC's Coast Region: Species and Ecosystems of Conservation Concern" website is now live at: http://www.geog.ubc.ca/biodiversity/factsheets/ Also, "Species at Risk and Local Governments - A Primer for British Columbia" at http://www.speciesatrisk.bc.ca/ will allow you to search for species at risk information by regional district and forest district.

FROM ECOJUSTICE (www.ecojustice.ca)

1. Carbon Leaks: Ecojustice is representing a Saskatchewan family living on top of a carbon capture and storage site. A year after underground injections of CO2 began near their land; they faced unnaturally high levels of carbon dioxide (deadly to animals), foaming pond water, and gaseous explosions. For a slide show and more info, go to www.ecojustice.ca/cases/cenovus-carbon-capture-and-storage-investigation.

2. Fed Appeal: Ecojustice's landmark win that would force the federal government to take tougher steps to protect BC's endangered resident killer whales is being challenged. For more, go to www.ecojustice.ca/cases/killer-whale-lawsuit.

3. Breaking the Silence: A new anti-SLAPP report just released reveals how SLAPPs. (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) are being used against citizens to silence criticisms on environmental and public issues. Ecojustice is calling on Ontario to defend democratic rights and the welfare of the people courageous enough to break the silence. To help, go to www.ecojustice.ca/publications/breaking-the-silence.


Co-edited with Egan Mandreck