Eco-Film Night #4, April 10, 2019:
Modified: A food lover's journey into GMOs
1. SEE MODIFIED's FILM WEB SITE FOR ACTION SUGGESTIONS
From the very simple - signing the latest petition - to buying organic (organics standards don't allow GMO ingredients) - to organizing a screening of the film in your school, place of worship or community - there are lots of great ideas here.
2. GO TO CBAN'S WEB SITE, AND LEARN MORE with even more action options!
The Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN) has a host of simple actions each one of us can take to help secure labelling of GMO products in Canada. Click here.
3. WRITE LETTERS! MAKE PHONE CALLS TO MPs, the PM!
"In my film, I document how in 2001, the Royal Society of Canada, our most eminent body of scientists in this country, released a scathing report showing that our regulatory system is deeply dysfunctional since GMO approvals are based entirely on industry studies that are not peer-reviewed. The Royal Society's report made 53 recommendations to the federal government for how to fix our broken regulatory system and bring it in line with peer-reviewed science and the precautionary principle. To this day, only 2 out of those 53 recommendations have been implemented. This is unacceptable." Excerpt from Modified director Aube Giroux's letter to the federal Liberal government, April 2017. Full text here.
Eco-Film Night #3, March 20, 2019:
Sharkwater Extinction
1. SUPPORT ROB STEWART'S FIGHT TO SAVE SHARKS
Go to this link to make a donation to continue Rob's work through the World Wildlife Fund. All donations of $20 or more will receive a tax receipt.
2. STOP BUYING PRODUCTS THAT CONTAIN SHARK
There is an unbelievable number of products that may contain some parts of a shark. Shark meat, for example, may be labeled flake, dogfish or rock salmon - up to 20 types of fish are mis-named to disguise their shark origins. Check out this link for these mis-named fish, and many other products such as pet food, fertilizer, cosmetics, and health food supplements (!) containing chondroitin or squalene.
3. SIGN OCEANA'S PETITION TO END THE SHARK FIN TRADE IN CANADA
4. FIND OUT MORE AT THIS OFFICIAL SHARKWATER EXTINCTION SITE
Eco-Film Night #1, March 6, 2019: Being the Change
Some suggestions for action inspired by this documentary
1. TALK ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE Well, that sounds almost silly, but let's face it: It's tough to solve any problem we don't openly and honestly discuss, especially a huge one like climate change. Can talking about it really help though? Yes! But it's how we talk about it that makes the real difference. Even if climate change is one of the most daunting subjects ever, focusing entirely on the doom & gloom sure doesn't motivate anybody to 'do something', and will quickly kill most conversations about it. But moving right along to the hundreds of climate-stabilizing solutions – now we're talking! So, SUGGESTION #1: Spend 17 minutes watching this TED Talk by Canadian climate scientist Dr. Kathryn Hayhoe – The Most Important Thing You Can Do to Fight Climate Change: Talk About It then...start your own conversations!
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2. HELP GRETA THUNBERG Greta is the 16-year-old schoolgirl who has been skipping school since last summer to protest – outside the Swedish Parliament buildings – the world's shocking lack of progress in cutting greenhouse gas emissions, the main cause of climate change. Her crusade has captured the attention of media and concerned youth around the world. And many adults, too, including a group in Orangeville under the banner, Rally For Climate Action - Orangeville. Join them Fridays at 12 noon in front of MP David Tilson's office, 229 Broadway. March 15 is the Greta-inspired Global Strike For Climate Future. Sign the petition and learn more here. Then let's get walking with our kids and grandkids! (Scroll down for more on Greta.)
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3. STOP FLYING! The biggest portion of most Canadians' annual carbon footprint* is flying off to faraway destinations – often to 'escape' to a sunny, warm spot far, far from The Great White North...
* What's a carbon footprint? Check it out here.
4. IF YOU REALLY, REALLY HAVE TO FLY (or if you drive a gas-powered car, heat your house with oil or gas, or consume fossil fuels in any other way, shape or form...) BUY THE BEST CARBON OFFSETS! Have a look at the suggestions posted on the blog Girl vs Globe, called The 4 Best Carbon Offsets. Sabina the Blogger's #1 choice is
My Climate, a website she says is "fun to use and easy to navigate. Its carbon footprint calculator can account for emissions caused by flying, but also driving a car, heating a house, cooking, working, even celebrating... You can choose to spend your offset on a whole variety of excellent projects in developing countries, such as efficient cookstoves."
• If you would like to offset your air travel and/or all your fossil fuel emissions using a gold-standard (i.e. the best!) Canadian carbon offset company, here's our favourite: the Quebec-based company, Planetair. Read all about it here. And offset your car, air travel, and energy use with Planetair here.
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4. JOIN THE CITIZEN'S CLIMATE LOBBY No matter what climate change deniers and foot-draggers say about the evils of carbon taxes, economists are virtually unanimous in saying that a revenue neutral carbon tax – also known as carbon fee and dividend – is the lowest cost, most market-friendly policy approach to putting the brakes on climate change, with none of the revenue staying in government coffers. The Citizens' Climate Lobby has more than 500 chapters around the world, and 50 in Canada, including one right here in Wellington-Halton Hills - all working to convince politicians at all levels to put this policy into action. For more information: canada.citizensclimatelobby.org. While you're at the movie, sign our card & petition to press for bold political action!
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Greta Thunberg
Listen as Greta tells the powers-that-be
to stop talking nonsense + take REAL action on climate!
• Speech #1, to the UN Climate Conference, Poland, December 15, 2018: "You say you love your children above all else, but you are stealing their future in front of their very eyes." (Greta's 3:20 minute speech is here.)
• Speech #2, World Economic Conference, Davos Switzerland, January 29, 2019 : "Adults keep saying: 'We owe it to the young people to give them hope.' But I don’t want your hope. I don’t want you to be hopeful...I want you to act as if the house is on fire, because it is." (3-minute speech is here.)
• Speech #3, TED Talk (November 2018), The Case Right Now to Act on Climate Change (10 minute talk here.)
There are two basic ways each of us can contribute to solving the world's climate crisis: PERSONAL action and POLITICAL action! If we really want to leave the world with a liveable climate for our kids & grandkids, we have to do both, and urgently.
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1. PERSONAL ACTION is crucial: We may never go quite as far as Peter Kalmus of Being The Change fame in reducing our personal carbon footprints - eliminating air travel, driving a car fuelled by used cooking oil, becoming vegan...But each of us can calculate our carbon footprint, then find lots ways to reduce fossil fuel consumption.
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2. POLITICAL ACTION is the other side of the 'safer climate' coin. Unless our governments and major institutions act with urgency, we will continue to drift toward climate catastrophe. Each of us can make a real difference by taking simple steps to prod our governments adopt the kind of policies - like revenue neutral carbon taxes – that will reduce and eventually eliminate fossil fuel consumption, the main driver of climate change. Getting off fossil fuels will create a lot more green, sustainable jobs than the oil and gas industry has ever provided.
ACTION: It's Personal AND Political