Acting on Your Values
“Our efforts to change ourselves and to change the environment are both necessary, but one can’t happen without the other.” – Thich Nhat Hanh Behaviours, beliefs, and values are the tools for making good choices, especially when you’re trying to change the world. Participants in the fifth Nelson Interfaith Climate Action ...
COLUMN: 'Collective cowardice' on climate change
Scientists worldwide accept that Earth is warming at an unusually rapid rate, that humans are primarily responsible, mainly by burning fossil fuels, and that the consequences for humanity will be disastrous if we don’t take immediate, widespread action. The U.S. Defense Department calls climate change a security risk “because...
Want to influence our federal government? Here's one way to make an attempt.
The Candian Environmental Protection Act is under review by a committee of the House of Commons. Citizens are invited to comment -- in the form of written "briefs." There are guidelines for these briefs, accessible via a link in the material pasted in below. Are you worried about foxes guarding hen-houses in terms of our...
COLUMN: From the Hill -- better funding for rural municipal infrastructure?
In my last column, I discussed some of the issues we heard about at House Finance Committee hearings. I’d like to mention a few more of the thought-provoking ideas discussed on the second day of hearings in Edmonton. Both the National Cattle Feeders Association and the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association focussed on...
Food security = important for humans and other animals too
As leaves change colour and drop from trees, and a chill in the air signals the approach of winter, many of us are thinking of the fall harvest and hearty soups and dishes that will soon warm our bellies. Not everyone is lucky enough to enjoy such thoughts. About four million Canadians — including more than a million children...
Opinion: Putting patient food in the hands of corporations reveals the trouble with normal
It's amazing what we gradually accept as normal -- even admirable -- in how we treat each other in Canada. Practices that were once seen as a repugnant surrender to government indifference, like food banks, are now virtually celebrated as a high point of citizen engagement and promoted as such by our public broadcaster once...
OP/ED: CUPE BC condemns Province's firing of Vancouver school board
Today's news that Premier Christy Clark has fired the democratically elected Vancouver School Board shows that her education agenda is more about closing schools than providing quality public education, CUPE BC President Paul Faoro said today. "The Vancouver School Board trustees who stood up to this government's efforts to...
COLUMN: We can't dig ourselves out of the fossil fuel pit
I’ve often thought politicians inhabit a parallel universe. Maybe it’s just widespread cognitive dissonance, coupled with a lack of imagination, that compels them to engage in so much contradictory behaviour. Trying to appease so many varying interests isn’t easy. Rather than focusing on short-term economic and corporate...
Opinion: How to be Happier and Healthier; a Few Reminders.
Last weekend, we were reminded to be thankful. Now, as winter looms and days grow shorter, darker, and colder, perhaps we could use a few reminders of the things we already know, really, about being happier and healthier -- mentally healthier, too. Thanksgiving day -- Monday, October 10 -- was also World Mental Health day. ...
Opinion: Hw to be Happier and Healthier; a Few Reminders.
Last weekend, we were reminded to be thankful. Now, as winter looms and days grow shorter, darker, and colder, perhaps we could use a few reminders of the things we already know, really, about being happier and healthier -- mentally healthier, too. Thanksgiving day -- Monday, October 10 -- was also World Mental Health day. ...
