Climate adventure

I’ve been taking a nine-week … course? workshop? gathering? … called Living into the Earth Emergency. You can get an idea of what it’s about from the website, but basically about 20 people get together weekly to explore the planetary polycrisis, in a structured format.

For week #5 (Change and Change-Points), our homework was to think about “how change happens.” I’ve got some “external” ideas that I’ll lay out in another post, but it occurred to me that change also happens internally. So here’s my little report on that.

The Quinsam’s climate cost

How we get here

As a new Gabriola resident, i’m noticing things about my new home — like the marked weather difference between here and Tofino, my previous digs.

Another striking first impression for the visitor or new arrival is the Quinsam, and its central place in island life, and how dealing with the ferry — the oddball departure times; the godsend Ferry Cam; the line-up, with its stringent etiquette and elaborate positioning strategies; the pastimes whiling away the long waits — are all part of island life and lore.

Pretty much everything and everyone on the island come across on that ferry — every coffee cup and bean, every bag of chips, every litre of propane, band-aid and e-bike, along with every customer in every shop. The Quinsam is absolutely intrinsic to island life and economy. Continue reading “The Quinsam’s climate cost”

Innovation: a response

Why our little town seems stuck

8 min read

Tofino council (of which i am a member) received a heartfelt email a while ago, one i thought deserved a thoughtful response. It turned into more of an essay than i expected. First, here’s the email (abridged):

Dear Council,

I am writing to you today in hopes of receiving some answers to a few questions that have been keeping me awake at night. I am … unsettled by some of the changes happening within our beautiful, albeit endangered town. Continue reading “Innovation: a response”

Chilled!

Bill C-51 has been getting a lot of press lately for the (many say, including me) draconian policing and surveillance measures the ruling Conservative party seeks to introduce, in the name of saving us all from terrorism. This is one of those many “boiled-frog” moments we’ve had in recent years … the changing of the rules in small ways that are incremental steps to a huge, irreversible change in Canadian culture.

I’m not saying C-51 is a small change, but its direct effect on our daily lives would probably be small. Until it wasn’t, until the police and the watching were everywhere, and then it’d be too late. Continue reading “Chilled!”

Bill C-51 not up to snuff!

The following just sent off to my Conservative Member of Parliament, James Lunney <ottawa@jameslunneymp.ca>. Today is LeadNow.ca‘s National Day of Action to Stand Against the Secret Police Bill C-51. (That’s a mouthful, but C-51 by comparison will really stick in your craw if you learn about it.)

Dear Dr. Lunney,

As your constituent, it’s important that you know i (and nearly everybody i know) am opposed to Bill C-51, as currently worded. It is vaguely worded, it definitely needs a robust oversight component, it is arguably unconstitutional, and it looks suspiciously like it is intended to sweep up legitimate protesters in the same net as terrorists. Continue reading “Bill C-51 not up to snuff!”