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A fellow peak oil activist has created a petition that we intend take to the Vancouver City council to urge them to create a task force to begin looking at the multitude of issues that permanently declining oil supplies creates. Politicians and business folk accustomed to the growth paradigm need to wake up and realize that it’s time to plan and implement solutions that account for shrinking liquid fuel supplies every subsequent year from now. No one yet knows the rate of decline that we will collectively experience but it is this rate that should determine the scope and time line of solutions to effectively mitigate the numerous and far reaching risks. The City of Vancouver needs to perform a thorough risk assessment, facilitate scenario planning, draft a plan, circulate the plan to all stakeholders and begin implementation. Help us create a loud enough collective voice that will demand the attention of city council.

Sign the petition HERE.

I’ve always been a fan of non-motorized adrenalin sports. This evolution of skydiving certainly wins hands down: http://www.biertijd.com/mediaplayer/?itemid=4262

Peak oil and climate change represent profound and unprecedented global challenges whose economic, environmental, and political impacts are intertwined and often divisive. On one hand, many climate activists argue that peak oil is a ‘distraction’ for local decision makers or, in some cases, an industry agenda aimed at removing barriers to oil extraction. On the converse side, many peak oil activists argue that energy-driven economic crises, and not climate targets, will be the real driving force behind the global energy transition. This presentation and panel discussion will seek to bridge these gaps by bringing together local advocates for action on peak oil and climate change to find common ground, define differences, and set priorities for action on the ground.

Bryn Davidson is a specialist in sustainable urban development whose current work in architecture and planning was preceded by several years as a mechanical engineer and environmental activist in Alaska. After graduating with a masters of Architecture in 2004 he started the design and planning practice Rao/D Cityworks , and co-founded the non-profit Dynamic Cities Project - a think tank working to help cities adapt to peak oil and climate change. Bryn’s presentations on peak oil planning have been well received globally, and have been translated into multiple languages. Locally, his current projects include a farm-integrated residential development in Ontario, a high performance home in Alaska, and sustainability consulting for local green-minded businesses.

Free admission. Co-sponsored by Necessary Voices Society.

Date: Tuesday Dec 11, 2007
Time: 7:30 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Vancouver Public Library, Central Branch 350 W. Georgia St., Alice MacKay room

Contact: Necessary Voices Society
Phone: (604) 331-4044

I’m a member of Voters Taking Action on Climate Change (VTACC), a local citizens group lobbying the BC government to take action on climate change. The organization has successfully lobbied to stop the coal plants and is now campaigning for a carbon tax. In a recent budget consultation process, the government received an unexpected call for action to create a carbon tax. Here are the details:

The province’s Finance Minister, Carol Taylor, has asked her staff to report to her on the topic of a carbon tax by the end of this month, and she will likely decide before Christmas whether or not to proceed with a tax in the 2008 provincial budget. She has already indicated in front of the media that the option of a carbon tax is on the table. It is clear that Ms. Taylor has floated the idea to gauge public response, and she needs to know that there is broad public support if she is to move forward. There is no doubt that those opposed are urging her to avoid introducing a tax, or to bring forward a measure with no real substance as a nod to public concern. Please take the time today to send a message to Minister Taylor telling her that you want our province to take a leadership role on this issue. If you are on Facebook, you can join our BC Needs a Carbon Tax! group.

In both links above you’ll find all you need to know to quickly send off your message — contact information, key points to make in your letter, a sample letter for inspiration, and background information if you want to learn more.

Together, our actions are moving the carbon tax initiative forward — during its recent public consultations the finance committee received an unprecedented 500 submissions in support of a carbon tax, many of them from you. You can read the committee’s response to this input here. In a short time, citizen input in this province has shifted a tax on carbon emissions from a political non-starter to a clear possibility, and everyone who took the time to write to the committee should be congratulated. However, we’re not done yet.

Our time is short, and we are at a pivotal point in this process — please take a moment now to help deliver an important Christmas present for BC, the planet and our children’s future.

Andrea, David, Kevin, and Tom for the VTACC collective.

P.S. — We hope to see many of you at the Wired Monk next Friday night. While enjoying the music, company and holiday cheer we aim to gather 100 letters in support of the carbon tax to send in to Minister Taylor.

Resources

• Carbon Tax article in The Globe and Mail

I’m part way through a lecture called Navigate the Falling Dollar and I had to stop to post the link to it. It’s an incredibly well articulated lecture by Catherine Austin Fitts, an investment banker who seems to have a substantial grasp about what is happening economically right now.

The provincial government recently elicited feedback from the citizens of British Columbia as part of a budgetary consultation process, specifically regarding taxes and climate change. My feedback was published in their report on at the bottom of page 27. The government is listening!

Governments generally view introducing a carbon tax as political suicide. I ask any politicians reading this, what do you value more, your own narrow self-interest or a sustainable, abundant and healthy future for generations to come? The choice is clear in my mind. I don’t know of an alternative fiscal instrument with the ability to touch every person, organization and industry in a way that will motivate change on the scale that is necessary to mitigate climate change. The majority of society will not go out of their way or adjust their lifestyle unless there is a financial stick on their behind or a carrot in front of them. It’s the where the majority of society is at in our collective evolution so let us accept that and get on with legislating a carbon tax.

A carbon tax could be designed to be relatively revenue neutral. It could be designed to reduce our collective income tax while making it increasingly expensive for those who continue to engage in carbon intensive activities. Cap and trade is our government’s other option which is a little easier sell in the political arena, thanks in part to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s pushing it up the West Coast. A Cap and Trade System is also a must have but is more geared to the big player’s like coal plants and the tar sands. It won’t be visible to the masses and it won’t put power in the people’s hands to make choices that are good for the environment and good for their bottom line.

Please take the time to learn the pros and cons of these powerful legislative tools and urge your local governments to take implement them before their term ends.

Factory farming is an abhorrent practice that creates enormous suffering and pollution on this planet. Our treatment of animals is not unlike that of the Africans through the dark era that accepted slavery as a status quo and Hitler’s treatment of the Jews. Millions of animals are kept in concentration camp-like conditions around the planet, making them and us vulnerable to e. coli, Avian Flu and other major health threats.

In my late teens and early twenties, I held the belief that animals were born for food and it didn’t really matter how we kept them. But after visiting a factory farm, researching the practice and meditating on the ethics of consuming flesh from such operations, the notion of supporting the practice through my continued purchase of meat, regardless of it’s source began to feel incongruent with my internal beliefs. The argument that “animals were born for it” began to feel like saying blacks were born to be slaves or the Jews deserved what the Nazis did. Such statements seem absolutely absurd to most people alive now but were not uncommon just 50 - 100 years ago.

It is my hope that we can evolve our collective awareness and reject this practice as we have come to reject racial and religious intolerance. John Robbin’s book, Diet For a New America was highly influential in my thinking on this issue.

To get an idea of the scale of factory farming in the US check out this site: http://www.factoryfarmmap.org/

Exxon raped Alaska and now Shell is on its way to British Columbia.

Video here: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=V2RUhJGbjDM

Details here: http://www.dogwoodinitiative.org/