Saturday, 2012 March 31, 8:30pm
Support the world’s largest environmental event in 2012! Join the more than 52,00 cities and towns in 135 countries around the world that turn off their lights for one night. To find out more, visit earthhour.org.
I’ve been following the COP17 climate change conference in Durban, South Africa from right here in Riverdale. This will be a long, rambling omnibus post on my thoughts and concerns. Read more »
Saturday, 2011 December 3, 10am
Oakham Lounge, 2nd Floor, Oakham House
Ryerson University, 63 Gould St.
This event takes place half way through COP17, the 17th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, currently taking place in Durban, South Africa, until December 9.
Speakers in Toronto include: Read more »
Wednesday, 2011 December 7, 7pm
Metro Hall, 55 John St.
This Meetup will focus on the future of transit in Toronto with featured speaker, Steve Munro.
Steve will cover Read more »
Friday, 2011 November 18, 4:45 pm
Design Exchange, 2nd Floor, 234 Bay St
This free event features: Read more »
Thursday, 2011 November 17, 7 pm
Room 1016, Wilson Hall, New College
University of Toronto
The Canadian Boreal Initiative and the University of Toronto Forestry Faculty invite you to attend this free event and “be inspired by Aboriginal leaders sharing their personal stories of their relationship with their land and their vision for their people.” Read more »
Friday, 2011 October 28
South Riverdale Community Health Centre
955 Queen St East (near Carlaw)
Make a growing difference in our community! Come out and join the South Riverdale Community Health Centre to help plant about 60 Serviceberry, Elderberry, and Hazelnut trees in various assisted living and lower income housing locations around the Health Centre.
People (preferably with shovels and or wagons) interested in volunteering can come to the centre in the morning to help pick-up and then plant the trees (they will be in eight inch containers and will be about 12 inches tall). Read more »
Wednesday, 2011 October 19, 7 pm to 9:30 pm
City Hall, Committee Room #2
Adriana Mugnatto-Hamu will be speaking at Post Carbon Toronto’s 83rd monthly meetup, which will focus on the current state of climate change. Adriana will present the political and science sides of the equation as they currently stand and the possible solutions she sees for the future. The second featured presenter, Dr. Danny Harvey, will be speaking about the latest discoveries in climate science and about Canada’s tar sands.
For more information, visit the Post Carbon Toronto Meetup site.
Saturday, 2011 Oct 22, 11 am – 4 pm
401 Richmond Street West
The Centre for City Ecology presents the 5th annual YIMBY (Yes in My Back Yard) Festival — YIMBY AT FIVE.
From the website:
This festival provides a social space for people and groups involved in grassroots, locally-driven community development to gather, exchange ideas and strategies to effect change, and imagine their future city. It’s a chance to celebrate achievements and identify new challenges and opportunities, in an atmosphere focused on listening, learning and engaging.
To find out more or to participate in this year’s YIMBY event, visit yimbytoronto.org.
Wednesday, 2011 October 12 to October 16
The 12th annual Toronto Environmental Film Festival comes to the city this October. Featured films include Revenge of the Electric Car, narrated by Tim Robbins, The Whale, narrated by Ryan Reynolds, and Werner Herzog’s Happy People: A Year In The Taiga.
For the festival schedule or to buy tickets, visit planetinfocus.org.
The Toronto-based group For Our Grandchildren has produced this wonderful video:
For Our Grandchildren – Something Must Be Done from Stephen Best on Vimeo.
If the video stutters, click on the HD in the lower-right-hand corner. Even in “low-def”, it’s quite high-definition.
Saturday, 2011 September 24, noon-6pm
Queen’s Park, Toronto
Part of 350.org’s global day of action, Toronto hosts this event to celebrate the progress that Ontario has made on clean energy and to urge the government to go even further. The event will feature engaging speakers, including Adriana Mugnatto-Hamu at 3pm.
There will also be solar-powered live music, information booths and a Kid’s Zone with lots of fun activities. For more information visit the Moving Planet: Green Energy Field Day web site.
Update: Pictures and video from the event:
Adriana and Tim Whalley…
Also Penelope for Ontario, former Mayor David Miller, Sean-Patrick Stensil, Jose Etcheverry… Read more »
I previously wrote about Patricia Warwick, one of the “Fabulous 45″ – so named because although they came to Washington expecting to face a $100 “post and forfeit” for defying the rules of the park in front of the White House, they discovered that those arrested the previous day were to be held for 3 days. The 45 risked arrest anyway.
The actions against the Keystone XL pipeline (which would enable a vast expansion in the capacity for oil production from the tar sands) at the White House continued for another 12 days after Patricia’s arrest, with over 1200 arrests in total, including east Toronto residents Sharon Howarth, the Green Party of Canada candidate in Toronto-Danforth in the 2008 federal election and David Wilson, an oil industry retiree. Tar Sands Action, which organized this demonstration, vows to continue working to oppose the pipeline
The action against the Keystone XL Pipeline is now moving to Canada, where activists are planning a sit-in on September 26. You can find out more and join here.
Update: Read Patricia’s first-hand report.
Toronto-Danforth resident and climate activist Patricia Warwick was just arrested in Washington D.C. while opposing the Keystone XL pipeline, which is to allow for the expansion of tar sands operations in Canada. President Obama is to reject or approve the plan later this year.
The “mug shot” photo was taken by the group Tar Sands Action. And here she is at the protest, in the red behind the sign, in a big sun hat:
Patricia’s arrest was covered in the Globe and Mail and Ottawa Citizen, where she was quoted as saying, Read more »
Saturday, 2011 August 13
2:00 to 5:00 pm
Eastminster United Church, 310 Danforth Ave., Lower Level
From the announcement:
This is an eco fair on everything related to growing food in small, difficult, vertical, or rooftop spaces.
- Displays & info on growing foods in containers, raised beds, and on rooftops
- Vendor tables with supplies & resources for containers and food growing advice
- Guided tours of the new Carrot Green Roof garden at 3pm and 4pm
FREE admission. Light refreshments, live music, and raffle prizes. Give-aways while supplies last!
Organised by: Community Animators – South (contact: martina@ecospark.ca or 647-208-1810)
In Partnership with: Carrot Green Roof
Glen Murray, Minister of Research and Innovation for Toronto Centre was on the panel with Adriana at the recent townhall.
Adriana was a panelist at a recent townhall hosted by JustEarth.
Elizabeth May confronts the government on its twisting of reality in her first press conference as an MP, pointing out that the world demands a continuation of Kyoto.
Today, Ontario’s Environmental Commissioner Gord Miller slammed the Liberals for cutting hydro bills by ten percent, identifying the measure as a perverse subsidy. He stated:
The problem with the 10 per cent (cut) is it means the people who use the most energy get the most money back and that is a disincentive, a perverse incentive. It rewards and encourages increased consumption.
He then went on to criticize both the NDP and Conservatives for pledging to remove the HST from hydro bills. Read more »
If you watch through to the end of this short video, it covers why I entered politics. What is now at stake is food security, water security, and the ability to deliver the fundamentals of decent civil society. All of these are already stressed and becoming more so. Concerns about things like gas prices, while important in our current state of addiction, nonetheless need to be contextualized in a world of threats that are far, far greater.
The news from Japan keeps getting worse. Now it is reported that not only did the reactor core melt down, not only did it breach the pressure vessel, but it now appears that the material has penetrated the reactor building itself and seeped into the ground. That is close to the worst case scenario. Clean-up costs are now estimated at $250 billion, and that will not bring things back to normal. It will still mean living with elevated cancer rates, particularly in Japan, but spreading all over the world. And Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan has asked to close Hamaoka, another nuclear power plant that has been deemed not to be earthquake safe.
All of the costs for this disaster are being borne by the public. The Japanese government will absorb all the costs of clean-up, relocation and health impacts. Governments throughout the world will also be paying for the elevated health care costs arising from the increased rates of cancer in their countries. These will continue for many decades. Every other form of power generation is self-insuring. The nuclear industry clearly does not deserve this free ticket as nuclear power is inherently dangerous.
Even Canada’s traditional allies like Australia tore into our report to the UN, pointing out that our reporting, our goals and the measures taken to attain these goals were all hopelessly inadequate. They also charged that Canada is ignoring the elephant in the room, the tar sands, which are a large and growing proportion of our emissions.
Emma Richardson
Ann Peel
Adriana Mugnatto-Hamu