Last night I watched a great documentary; “Surviving Progress“. It was inspired by a best-selling book by Ronald Wright and includes Martic Scorsese as one of the executive directors.
The message is amazing and very true to my own beliefs. It really tries to address the current issue with our global over consumption. Continue reading
Life is an extremely complex subject, like a river delta there are many tributaries that feed and lead off into many different directions. Some are calm, some are violent rapids, some pass through beautiful views and others contain dangers lurking beneath. There are also many tools that people use to filter or make sense of the pictures, sounds, images, feelings and experiences they encounter whilst travelling these many paths through life.
I am in no way planning to explore the many facets of these intriguing routes Continue reading
Ok folks, my apologies for not keeping you more upto date on the goings on of my compost, but here it is.
Firstly I was completely amazed that after 4 weeks of composting my garbage accumulation had dwindled so drastically. From putting a garbage bin out for collection once a week, I had reduced this to just once every four weeks. Yes, one bag between 2 people every 4 weeks. This is great for so many reasons, but most notably the reduction of plastic bags needed for garbage. Continue reading
It’s been a little while since I wrote in my Take to Change blog. I have ben very busy with al my other stuff (I run 2 other blogs too – TraktorTips and Ethical Social Media), but my day today was such that I feel the need to tell you all about it.
I currently work two days a week to earn the necessary funds to pay for rent and food, the rest of the time is spent enjoying life and working on my own projects (as mentioned above with the other blogs). Between crafting posts and working out on hoot suite Continue reading
Dear Coffee Shop,
Whilst I understand that refusing to serve coffee to a customer that hasn’t brought in their own mug is not best business practice for a coffee sop, I also recognize that most coffee shops are doing very little to encourage the use of reusable mugs. Aside from offering a discounted rate, very little is being done! It is something that deeply upsets me and should be regarded of higher importance than it currently seems to. I will offer a suggestion to all coffee shop owners below as a way to encourage an increase in re-usable cups and a decrease in unnecessary waste!
I know the onus should not necessarily be on the coffee shop owner Continue reading
Wild salmon are the life blood of Clayoquot Sound’s ecology, culture, and economy. But wild salmon in the region are in serious trouble. Despite the abundance of pristine salmon habitat, Clayoquot’s salmon runs (especially the Chinook) are in dramatic decline, with some runs now being counted in the tens, rather than in the tens of thousands. No wild salmon population anywhere in the world has thrived in close proximity to open net-cage salmon farms.
In May, Mainstream reported an outbreak of Infectious Haematopoietic Necrosis virus (IHN) on one of their open net-cage salmon farms in Clayoquot Sound. The farm was subsequently culled of 560,000 diseased fish.
I urge you to read the full details on the change.org website and do what you can to help stop the introduction of yet another fish farm.
This guy appears to be trying to document a previous spill of Enbridge and is proving that Enbridge is harassing him. What do you think?
Today, my spirits have been lifted. I was fortunate enough to locate ‘Earth Blog 21‘ directing me to the video below of Prince Charles addressing those in attendance at the Rio PLus 20 summit. He has quite undeniably stated that the global population needs to take our climate and sustainability more seriously and not ignore scientific evidence that our planet is heading to catastrophe if we do not change out ways.
It is amazing that a public figure such as this, has stepped up to the plate and laid it out how it is. For the first time in my life I have developed a true love of this man. In previous weeks, I have been nonchalant in regards to Britain’s monarchy, but this piece from Prince Charles has garnered some support from me.
I encourage you to watch the Speech in its entirety, but to capture a few quotes that really struck me:
“We continue to ignore the painful lessons of the so called green revolution in India, by intensifying our food production methods in such blinkered, chemically and technologically based ways, that the land and the oceans are both beginning to fail.”
I admire that he too believes that the use of chemicals in food production is causing our natural environment to fail.
”Tragically we can not even plead ignorance of the consequences of our actions as the scientific evidence is overwhelming, the impacts are well understood. There is wide spread consensus within each discipline, which when put together with all the rest, forms a powerful aggregated picture, that we can il afford to ignore!”
Prince Charles is clearly saying, that we should not be ignoring the science on these matters and that it is time to do something.
“It is perhaps a trait of human nature; to act only when the worst happens, but that is not a trait we can afford to rely on here. Once the worst does happen, Im afraid, this time around, it will be too late to act at all.”
Very dramatically at the end of the video Prince Charles enforces his message, that now is the time!
This piece has opened my eyes to how the Monarchy is detached from politics and therefore has nothing to fear regards any repercussions of what is said. This allows Prince Charles to state what he truly believes which takes some courage in todays society.
I know we are no longer in the days where Kings & Queens rule by fear, death and beheading people, which is a good thing, but I can only hope that the new peaceful process of encouragement from Prince Charles can spark recognition of these huge chalenges the world faces and spurs some influential people into action.
We don’t need to wait until governments change the rules, you can change today by choosing where you spend your money and how you live your life.
During the speech Prince Charles makes mention of the Hake fisheries of South Africa. I decided to look this up as I was concerned about fish farming and whether or not he supported this in anyway. The declaration for the Marine Program does not mention any support of fish farming, it does mention that the program wishes to reverse the decline of wild fisheries and:
Sustainable fisheries are profitable fisheries in which good management is rewarded by good livelihoods, dignified employment and strong communities. That is why sound economics must underpin sustainable fishing. Sound economics must create positive incentives for robust management so as to achieve long-term sustainability while at the same time making short-term unsustainable practices less attractive.
Thank you for reading – I hope you too found some encouragement in this and want to make relevant changes to enhance our future and the future of other generations to come.
Had to share this awesome video. The People of Haida Gwaii do not want to the northern gateway pipeline. It appears that Harper has been smoking something! Check it out and like the video to spread it far and wide!