Our peonies, one of my favourite spring flowers, have just opened up. The peonies in our garden are a connection to one of my grandmothers, my father’s mother. She had a border of peonies at the front of her lawn that bloomed in a riot of crimson every spring. When
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350 or bust: Raised Beds And Riots
Another Monday and my hugelkultur piles aren’t done; in fact they are growing daily; I didn’t realize they were like rabbits, and would start reproducing at a crazy rate! As any of you gardeners out there know, when it’s time to get the garden ready, there’s no rest until it’s
Continue reading350 or bust: University Sustainability Initiative Saves Climate And Its Bottom Line, While Canada’s Economy Suffers From Lack of Green Practices
New Jersey’s William Paterson University adopted a climate action plan in 2009 that puts the university on a path to becoming carbon neutral by 2065 – and to reducing their baseline by 50 percent by 2025. A cornerstone of that work is their 3.5 MW solar array that snakes around
Continue reading350 or bust: “Our Answer To Enbridge Is NO”
Ta’Kaiya, 10, lives in North Vancouver and is from the Sliammon First Nation. She traveled on the Yinka Dene Alliance Freedom Train that recently crossed Canada to raise awareness of the threat posed By Enbridge’s tar sands pipeline through coastal First Nations territory. Here she is performing a song she
Continue reading350 or bust: Northern Gateway Pipeline: Not A Pretty Picture
Renowned Canadian artist Robert Bateman speaks out against the Northern Gateway Pipeline: * Sign the petition at: http://www.notankers.ca
Continue reading350 or bust: Anti-Science Heartland Institute Takes Ridiculous To New Heights
The far-right “think” tank the Heartland Institute recently launched a bizarre billboard campaign that linked global warming with serial killers. The first billboard went up with a picture of Ted “The Unabomber” Kaczynski with the words “I still believe in global warming. Do you?”. This campaign was too over-the-top even for
Continue reading350 or bust: Economist Arrested At Coal Protest: This Has To Stop, Our Window To Act On Climate Change Closing
12 protestors were arrested during a day-long protest in White Rock, B.C. that blocked coal trains from reaching port. Among the protestors was leading environmental economist and Simon Fraser University Professor Mark Jaccard, who issued this statement earlier this week: This Saturday, May 5, at dawn I’m joining other British
Continue reading350 or bust: Freedom Train to Canadians: Our Democratic Process Is Being Lost
Yinka Dene Alliance Freedom Train arrived in Winnipeg last night. The Alliance is on a cross Canada trip that will end in Toronto, on Bay Street, at the Enbridge AGM. Their goal is to spread the word to Canadians about the dangers posed by the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline
Continue reading350 or bust: Connecting the Dots: Extreme Weather, First Nations Rights, And Our Addiction To Dirty Energy
There’s so much going on in the climate change world these days, it’s hard to keep up. This Saturday is 350.org’s Connect The Dots event, where thousands of people across the globe will gather to protest, educate, document and volunteer to support the communities on the front lines of the
Continue reading350 or bust: For My Grandchildren
From the March 2012 TED Conference in Long Beach California, NASA climate scientist Dr. James Hansen speaks about why he must speak out climate change. A powerful and moving video – please watch, and share with your family and friends, and on social media. * Do you want to become
Continue reading350 or bust: Earth Day With A Twist: Giving Our Credit Cards A Holy Pause
Last weekend, I had the privilege of participating in a unique Earth Day celebration in Winnipeg, Manitoba. On the sunny Earth Day Sunday, I joined dozens of other people streaming into the procession as it made its way down the city’s main street. We were bracketed by a golden oil
Continue reading350 or bust: Grassroots Democracy Initiative Organized in Face of Federal Government’s Love Affair With Dirty Energy
The following is a re-post from Anthony Marr’s HomosapiensSaveYourEarth blog. Mr. Marr has a degree in physics and is a long-time advocate for living more sustainably and gently on our earth. In 1996, he led “the highest-profile anti-trophy-hunting campaign in Canada” (Globe and Mail), and went on to found Heal
Continue reading350 or bust: Have We Learned Anything Yet?
It was two years ago today that the sea-floor started gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico after an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, which was working on a BP oil project. Tragically, the explosion killed 11 men working on the platform and injured 17 others. It started a flow
Continue reading350 or bust: Resilience And Hope In Extraordinary Times
The Transition movement has produced a movie about growing community and hope in these difficult times: In Transition 2.0 is the new film from Transition Network, capturing inspiring stories of Transition initiatives around the world, responding to uncertain times with creativity, solutions and ‘engaged optimism’. * More links: In Transition
Continue reading350 or bust: A Sane Response to Collective Insanity
My version of the old adage nothing is certain but death and taxes is that the only thing we know for sure is that things will change. That’s true for this blog, too; I’m still undecided on what direction, if any this blog should take in the future. This reflects
Continue reading350 or bust: Saturday At The Movies
Just in time for Easter: Hallelujah Corporations:
Continue reading350 or bust: The Earth Is Full
For TED talk Tuesday, here’s Paul Gilding, author of The Great Disruption: Why Climate Change Will Bring About The End of Shopping And the Birth of A New World. At TED 2012 Gilding addressed the issue of whether or not we humans have used up all our resources. While the first
Continue reading350 or bust: Canada’s Decline: Election Fraud & PetroState Politics
Wow. Where does a progressive Canadian climate blogger get started on this Monday morning? Political developments in this wonderful country have been snowballing into a bigger and bigger mess for the ruling Conservative party, which has been ruling by decree rather than consensus ever since it gained a slight majority
Continue reading350 or bust: Going Local: A Powerful Strategy To Repair Our Fractured World, Our Ecosystems & Ourselves.
Economic globalization has led to a massive expansion in the scale and power of big business and banking. It has also worsened nearly every problem we face: fundamentalism and ethnic conflict; climate chaos and species extinction; financial instability and unemployment. There are personal costs too. For the majority of people
Continue reading350 or bust: Harper Government Does Not Have The Right To Declare Canada Open For Business
From the Union of B.C. Chiefs, Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver, Canada – February 8, 2012: Close to 100 Chiefs and representatives from Indigenous Nations in BC along with 400 Chiefs from across Canada attended the Crown-First Nations Gathering in Ottawa on January 24 2012. The Crown-First Nations Gathering was an opportunity
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