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Many thanks
to Margaret Hutchinson, Maureen Levitt, Christina Nichol, Gary Greenstein,
Ambrose Marsh & Leah Norgrove, Alan Dolan, Natalie Wessley, Council
of Canadians Victoria Chapter and Roger Colwill.
* PS We’re getting pretty low in the bank. Donations
can be made to EcoNews, 395 Conway Rd, Victoria V8X 3X1. For receipt, include
a stamped addressed envelope.
THE
ECO-PERSONALS
*
Advert Rates : 1" ad $30. $2" ad $55. EcoPersonals by donation
(or $5 line); free to non-profits and low-income. Inserts : $150 + 2 volunteers
for mail-out party.
*
Saturna Island Getaway. Furnished room available in spacious rural house
on 5 private acres. N/S, no pets. Short term or monthly, from June 1st.
(250) 539-2255
*
BioLet Composting Toilet for sale. Electric, automatic, self-contained.
As new, $800 obo. Rebecca, 386-2550
*
Vacancies : paid employment, door to door canvassing over the summer
for the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, local areas and Gulf Islands
camping canvass. For details, call Diona, 388-9292.
*
Canadian Electric Vehicles offers D-I-Y conversion kit for Geo Metro.
Needs basic mechanical and electrical skills. 30 page manual, on-line support.
$7,950 US + freight. (250) 954-2230 www.canev.com
*
International Year to Save the Tiger invites you to join their float
in the Victoria Day Parade, May 22nd. Join the fun, spread the
word. Call Cecilie Davidson, 384-9733 before May 15th.
*
Colwood Garden Training project Learn how to grow organic veggies –
for people on income assistance. Free seeds, space. Call David or Kelly,
478-1122.
Invest
with Principle
Socially
Responsible Investment Workshop
Steve Housser,
Investment Advisor
Thursday
May 4th, 11am
RBC
Dominion Securities, 500-730 View
RSVP 356-4800
BLUE
BOX SINGS THE GREENS
Whoa
! We’ve got a BIG change coming up in the Blue Box system, opening the way
to much more recycling. Starting on May 1st, the Blue Box scheme
is being changed and expanded : (1) We’re all going to have blue BAGS for
paper of all kinds (newspaper and mixed), except paper that’s greasy, waxed,
or attached to plastic (+ no drink boxes or milk cartons). (2) The blue
boxes will now accept all plastics No 1 – 7, except styrofoam, plastic bags
and plastic lids. Just mix with the bottles and cans. (3) We can now recycle
corrugated cardboard, tied up in a bundle, alongside the blue box. (4) The
blue box system is being extended to 4,000 new households in Sooke, Metchosin,
the Highlands and other rural areas (but not the Gulf Islands). With this
big a change, it is maybe time to stop and take a look. Back in 1989, the
first year of the recycling program, we each produced 0.69 tonnes of garbage
per year, recycling just 6%. By 1998, we were producing 0.67 tonnes each,
and recycling 42% - one of the best (if not THE best) rates in North America
– for which the CRD Solid Waste Division should be congratulated. We should
be proud ! During these years, our population rose by 17%, but the tonnage
of waste entering the landfill fell by 29%. Within this, there are some
interesting differences among the municipalities in recycling per person
per year :
1.
Saanich 133 kg (.13 tonnes)
2. Oak Bay 105
3. Central Saanich 103
4. Salt Spring 97
5. Sidney 96
6. North Saanich 95
7. Langford 85
8. Victoria 79
9. Esquimalt 67
10. Outer Islands 60
11. Colwood 56
12. View Royal 47
13. Sooke 37
14. Highland 28
15. Metchosin 26
What
gives with the last two, which pride themselves on being so ‘green’ ? And
how come Saanich folks recycle almost 3 times more than View Royal folks
?
In
the big picture, however, we are still producing just as much waste – 0.67
tonnes per person per year - so on the first 2 ‘R’s (Reduce, Re-use), we
have hardly started. The truth is, we still consume so much ! Overall, taking
everything we do as a society, we get through 20 tonnes of raw materials
per person per year. Recycling is good – but pre-cycling is better. That
huge tonnage is why our ecological footprint in North America is so huge,
four times more than the planet can sustain.
THE
GOLDMAN PRIZES
The
Goldman Environmental Foundation prizes are a moving reminder that the passion
to protect the Earth, her people and species is shared by people in every
corner of the Earth. The Year 2000 prizes, worth $125,000 each, have been
awarded to (1) Rodolfo Montiel, 44, a Mexican peasant leader who
organised local people to fight logging by U.S. based Boise Cascade in the
coastal state of Guerrero, currently in jail on a trumped-up drugs charge.
(2) Oral Ataniyazova, 43, an obstetrician from Uzbekistan who has
worked to publicise the pollution and pesticide problems stemming from the
rapid shrinking of the Aral Sea, and treat the many victims of anaemia,
kidney & liver diseases, tuberculosis and birth defects which result
from the heavy use of pesticides and defoliants in the Soviet era. (3) Vera
Mischenko, 47, a Russian lawyer credited with introducing the concept
of public interest environmental law to Russia in 1991 by founding Ecojuris,
the country's first public interest law firm. In 1999, Mischenko and Ecojuris
persuaded Russia's Supreme Court to reverse official efforts to skip the
environmental impact report requirement for a new Exxon oil drilling operation,
and successfully challenged government directives allowing clear-cutting
of protected forests. (4) Nat Quansah, 46, a Ghanaian working in
Madagascar who is using a village clinic to pioneer the use of the island's
vast store of unique plants and animals to treat coughs, diarrhoea, fever
and wounds, strengthening local efforts to preserve the island's unique
ecological heritage. (5) Alexander Peal, 55, who founded Liberia's
only national park, and led Liberia's Wildlife and National Parks department
until 1990, when the civil war drove him into exile in the US. He returned
to Liberia after the 1997 ceasefire, and has resumed his efforts for conservation.
(6) Oscar Rivas, 45, and Elias Diaz Pena, 54, of Paraguay,
who have struggled for more than a decade against the Yacyreta Dam project
and the Hidrovia plan to transform the Paraguay and Parana River systems
into an industrial shipping channel. After founding the environmental group
Sobrevivencia in 1986, while Paraguay was ruled by Gen. Alfredo Stroessner,
Rivas and Diaz sought to give a louder voice to communities directly affected
by development projects. "As long as the 'ancient tribes of the future'
- indigenous peoples and traditional communities, keepers of the great original
wisdom, owners of the key to continuation of life on the planet - maintain
their tenacity and resistance, we all find hope in our threatened future."
- Oscar Rivas
THE
GARDEN PATH
Organic
Plant Nursery
We
grow the healthiest plants in town
Many
exclusive varieties of :
Vegetables,
Tomatoes, Flowers,
Roses
& Bamboos
Open
daily 10am – 5pm
Opening
Special :
10% discount for EcoNews readers in May
395
Conway Road
881-1555
www.earthfuture.com/gardenpath
BIG
WELCOME TO ‘CARRIG’
A big
welcome to the Capital Area Regional Rail Initiative Group – CARRIG (pronounced
‘carriage’) - a new coalition that’s encouraging the development of sustainable,
cyclable and walkable communities on Southern Vancouver Island through the
development of an integrated transportation system. "Our short term
goal is gather support for an initial LRT line from Langford into Victoria,
and to get the LRT option included in the regional growth strategy this
summer, moving it onto the regional agenda where it can become a candidate
for federal and provincial funding. Overall, we see it linking to a sustainable
growth strategy for the whole Georgia Strait Ecoregion, and a greatly enhanced
railway system from Victoria to Port Hardy." CARRIG’s founding members
are the BC Railway Historical Association, the Canadian Rail Historical
Association, The Roundhouse Museum Society, Citizens Action to Save the
Environment, the Commuter Rail & Shortline Action Group and the Greater
Victoria Electric Railway Society. For a presentation, or to join the coalition,
call Gerry Howell Jones, 388-4046 ghowellj@islandnet.com
THE
ECOPLEDGE
"Time
is running out. We must take immediate, corrective actions to safeguard
the global environment. We can’t count on government regulation to solve
the problem. We must encourage companies in all sectors of the economy to
act immediately to take reasonable, cost-effective environmentally sound
actions, using available technologies." So begins the ‘EcoPledge’,
which students on 150 campuses across North America are signing, including
over 1000 students at Harvard, committing to join in choosing the companies
which EcoPledge is lobbying to change their ways, and not to work for these
companies unless they change their ways. Top of the list is BP Amoco, which
plans to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, followed
by Coca Cola, which uses virtually no recycled plastic in its bottles, despite
a 1991 commitment to use 25%. The pledge is open to consumers and investors
too, not just students. See http://ecopledge.com
CAR-FREE
LIVING
In
Vaubon, a former military base outside the German city of Freiburg, a 280-home
94-acre car-free settlement has been completed as Germany's biggest experiment
in auto-free living. "It's just like non-smokers seeking smoke-free space,"
says German lawmaker Franziska Eichstaedt-Bohlig, a Green party housing
expert. "People are looking for places where they're not constantly being
confronted with cars." There is a garage outside the auto-free area where
residents who want a parking space must pay $18,000. Car-free households
contribute $3,500 to a fund that holds a plot of land in trust in case more
parking is needed someday. If they later buy a car, the payment will be
applied toward a garage space. "Our goal was not to be so dogmatic - making
people promise till the end of their lives never to get a car," says Claudia
Nobis, who oversees traffic issues at Vauban. "But whoever doesn't have
a car gets a big financial break." About half the 280 households in Vauban's
auto-free district have so far opted to go car-free. Private cars are allowed
in for pickups and deliveries, but can't stay, and anyone who violates the
parking rules can be ticketed by the city. The biggest hazards, however,
are the jumble of bicycles outside almost every front door. (Seattle Times).
Meanwhile, in Tofino, a 46-unit, passive solar, car-free, cohousing style
ecovillage is making its way through the planning process – see www.earthfuture.com/talkingcedars.
On May 17th, Joel Crawford, Amsterdam-based author of the ‘Car-free Cities’
book and web-page, is speaking here in Victoria – see Diary, and see www.carfree.com
GM
FOOD MEETINGS
There
are two major meetings coming up on GM food. On May 2nd, there’s
a forum organized by Ida Chong, Liberal MLA, with Alex Campbell and others,
which seems to be strong on the pro-GM side (or at least takes both sides),
and on May 11th there’s a panel at UVic with the British anti-GM
author Luke Anderson, Richard Bocking and Derrick Mallard. (See Diary for
both). Locally, the Council of Canadians is working on the issue (Sheila
Haegedorn, 920-7720). Pauline Holdsworth is compiling a directory of GM-free
foods (gmfree@islandnet.com),
and the Salt Spring Ad Hoc Committee for Safe Food and Water meets every
month to write letters, contact local markets and organize petitions. (Michelle
Grant, 537-9634)
AMAZING
SALT SPRING
Elizabeth
Hill writes : Support from the Salt Spring community to protect the
Texada lands has been stupendous! Nearly 1,000 individuals and businesses
have contributed to the May Day Campaign fund which reached $480,000 at
the magnificent Salt Spring Conservancy Stump Stomp. A week until May 1st,
$20,000 to go. What started as a dream is now very close to reality. If
you have been meaning to give a donation or pledge, but have not yet done
it - this is the week! The May Day funds will be used by The Land Conservancy
of BC to begin the negotiation process with Texada on behalf of the community.
This is not the end of the fundraising - the overall Salt Spring Appeal
goal is expected to be $2-$3 million, but it sure is a good start. Call
537-2616. www.savesaltspring.com
ACTION
OF THE MONTH :
GULF
ISLANDS LOGGING
Here
on the beautiful west coast, we value the beauty and diversity of our environment,
and support ecoforestry as a way of managing the forest. It is galling,
then, to know that no legislation can stop a private logging company from
buying land in the Gulf Islands (or anywhere), and logging it for as much
money as they can get. It is really akin to piracy. A whole community may
be opposed to it, yet there is no way to stop it. The new regulations on
managed forest in the Forest Land Reserve allow harvesting within riparian
areas, and do nothing to regulate the scale of cut, or logging on sensitive
viewscapes or unstable slopes. For unmanaged forest land where the owner
is not seeking favorable tax status, not even replanting is required. In
fact, the Forest Lands Reserve Act specifically prohibits local governments
from passing laws to regulate timber harvesting in the FLR. The Islands
Trust has a specific legal mandate to "preserve and protect" the
Gulf Islands, yet it is legally incapable of regulating large-scale, industrial
logging within the FLR, to fulfil their mandate.
Action
: Write to Jim Doyle, Minister of Forests & Cathy McGregor, Minister
of Municipal Affairs, Leg Assembly, Victoria V8V 1X4. Ask them to strengthen
the regulation of private logging in the Islands Trust area to ensure sustainable
rates of harvest and restricted opening sizes, and amend the FLR legislation
to affirm that Islands Trust environmental protection regulations do apply
(eg the use of development permits).