Archive for Videos

While canvassing today, I met a nice man who recommended this site and this movie to me.  I just watched it.  It sort of languishes lovingly over primarily aerial images of tremendous beauty, both natural and man-made, while soaring music plays in the background and frightening assessments are made about our climate, our energy sources, and our ability to feed and water humanity.  It ends with a worried but uplifting message of hope.  It’s well worth the hour and a half.

I know that ardent environmentalists and climate change deniers alike accuse Al Gore of not living up to his own standards, but he does compile some very graphically compelling images of the problem we are facing.  Here is his latest.

Video no longer available. https://www.youtube.com/v/wsTYH0AXfPY

Young Megan Miller of Saskatoon is not only my son Aidan’s cousin, but also won the Save The Planet Contest with this video. This is the kind of thing that gives me a lot of hope! The 11-year old wrote the script herself, but I think she had help from her dad in drinking the beer!

Toronto Hydro is exploring the possibility of putting windmills in Lake Ontario, about 2 km off the shores of the east end of our city.  The first step is to install a wind measuring device in the Lake. Moving forward on this proposal marks the first real step in turning around our energy future. But Hydro will need permission to proceed, and a small but vocal group is fighting even the current effort to measure the wind speeds.

Come to the community meeting to learn more about the proposal and voice your opinions:

Monday, 2008 November 24, 6:30pm
Sir Wilfred Laurier Collegiate Institute
145 Guildwood Parkway, Scarborough (Bus 116 from Kennedy station)
More information about the proposal

If you can’t come to the meeting, write a letter to the Ministry of Natural Resources, more information and a sample letter can be viewed on the website above.

This is the first step towards generating clean, renewable and local energy, so take the time to educate yourself about the proposal and help make sure that the measuring does not get blocked. This is the kind of action we need in order to cut our dependancy on oil and deal with the threat of climate change.

Franz Hartmann of the Toronto Environmental Alliance

An empty chair represents Jack Layton, who didn’t show up at his own all-candidates debate last night.  Citytv reports on the feelings of local residents.