One of my favorite writers, Howard Kunsler, today redefined the word “Hope” and takes it back from the U.S. President:

Perhaps it’s time to redefine “hope” in the greater social sense of the word. To me, hope is not synonymous with “wishes fulfilled.” In fact, hope should not be about wishing at all. Hope should be based on confidence that the individual or group is reliably competent enough to meet the challenges that circumstances present. Hope is justified when people demonstrate to themselves that they can behave ably and bravely. Hope is not really possible in the face of patent untruthfulness. It is derived from a clear-eyed and courageous view of what is really going on. I don’t think that defines any of the behavior in the United States these days. We’ve become a self-jiving nation intent on playing shell games, running Ponzi schemes, and working Polish blanket tricks on ourselves.

This is what sustainability is to me: seeing and then meeting the challenges that we face now and shortly in the future.

Whether that be ensuring clean water to drink, finding less expensive and less polluting  fuels for transportation or the greater challenges of feeding ourselves healthy, nutritious food in an era of climate change, the challenge is the same: to provide for ourselves while not destroying the planet’s assets that our children and grandchildren will also need to survive and grow as human beings.

This may be an idea whose time will shortly come if food prices ever rocket higher due to transportation costs. Any city in the world could grow fresh, local, organic fruits and veggies using this system:

VertiCrop – The Solution

In a rapidly urbanizing world where the majority of people now live in cities, localization requires that food and fuel be produced in an urban context. At present, there are no examples of a locally sustained urban community anywhere in the world. Urban sustainability is yet to be realized primarily because urban agriculture presents a number of technological challenges. The main challenge is a lack of growing space.

Vertical Warehouse Gardening

Vertical growing is a new idea currently emerging in the sustainability discourse which offers great promise for increasing urban production. Vertical growing systems have been proposed as possible solutions for increasing urban food supplies while decreasing the ecological impact of farming. The primary advantage of vertical growing is the high density production it allows using a much reduced physical footprint and fewer resources relative to conventional agriculture. Vertical growing, hydroponics and greenhouse production have now been combined into an integrated commercial production system, a system that has major potential for the realization of environmentally sustainable urban food and fuel production.

Valcent Products, Inc.

(English will follow).

La coalition de la Jeunesse du Canada pour le Climat est sur le point d’organiser la première étape d’un événement historique : Powershift Canada. Après le succès de ce même événement aux Etats-Unis, avec la présence de plus de 12 000 personnes sur les plaines du Capitole, et les événements Powershift à venir en Australie et en Grande Bretagne, nous pensons qu’il est temps pour les Jeunes du Canada de rejoindre le mouvement global.

Du 21 au 23 Octobre 2009, plus d’une milliers de jeunes provenant de tous le pays se rassemblera Durant 2 jours pour participer à des ateliers fascinants et des sessions stratégiques dans la ville d’Ottawa (sur les plaines du Parlement) pour construire une journée pour faire pression en faveur de la cause environnementale.

C’est une énorme opportunité pour tous les Canadiens de se rassembler pour créer une transition dynamique et claire vers une Economie plus écologique. Le temps est venu d’organiser cet événement Powershift car la situation environnementale est critique. Notre rassemblement précèdera directement les négociations des Nations Unies sur le Climat qui aura lieu à Copenhague au mois de Décembre. La communauté internationale a le devoir de pousser les pays à réduire leur émission de gaz à effet de serre. Le Canada est bien connu pour être un acteur peu enthousiaste sur le front international et notre action a donc une double importance : Nous avons besoin d’une position clair sur la scène international dont nous pouvons être fier.

Nous vous invitons dès maintenant, que vous soyez une organisation ou des membres appartenant à des communautés à Montréal de venir rejoindre le mouvement Powershift! C’est en même très excitant et très important pour nous de commencer à nous rassembler afin de construire le meilleur mouvement possible, le plus vaste et le plus fort que ça soit dans le Canada et à Montréal.

Rejoignez nous à 18h30, Jeudi le 23 juillet à 3480 Rue McTavish (salle Lev Bukhman, 2e étage) pour une session d’information et de discussion, nous avons besoin de vous. RSVP à Amara (a.possian@gmail.com). À bientôt!

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The Canadian Youth Climate Coalition is in the early stages of organizing a historic event called Power Shift Canada. After the success of Power Shift U.S., where over 12,000 youth united on Capitol Hill, and the soon to be Power Shift Australia and U.K., we think it is time for Canada’s own youth to join the global movement.

From October 21-23rd, 2009 over one thousand youth from across the country will come together for two days of awesome workshops and strategy sessions in Ottawa that will build to a revolutionary lobby day on Parliament Hill.

This is a great opportunity for Canadians of all backgrounds to come together to create a clear, dynamic transition to a Green Economy. The timing of Power Shift is critical. It directly precedes the UN climate negotiations taking place in December in Copenhagen where the international community must pull together a post-Kyoto deal on emission reductions. Canada has been a well-known laggard on the international front, which makes this action doubly important – we need an international stance we can be proud of.

We are inviting you, as well as other organizations and members of the community across Montreal to come out to join the Power Shift movement! This is an exciting and important time for us to start coming together, to build a bigger, better, stronger climate movement in Canada as well as here in Montreal.

Please join us at 6:30pm on Thursday, July 23 in the Lev Bukhman Conference Room (2nd floor) at 3480 McTavish St. for an information and discussion session. RSVP to Amara (a.possian@gmail.com). See you soon!

Much attention has been paid in recent years to what seems to be a growing environmental conscience in the United States. Going green used to be considered expensive and a luxury for those who could afford the trend. Now it appears that we are learning that not only is adopting more environmentally conscious attitudes good for our economic situation, but also our….health? Yes, if we dig a bit deeper we can see that dirty industries and backwards policy is actually harming the health of the earth for our children and the health of her inhabitants today.

How Does Environmental Policy Affect Public Health?

There are two levels of health consequences associated with dirty industry, both direct and indirect. The direct consequences are examples like increased asthma rates in areas with high smog indices. Chlorofluorocarbon release into the atmosphere has shown to decrease the filter of direct sunlight on the planet, resulting in more concentrated ultraviolet light reaching the surface of the earth. Perhaps it is no surprise then that in countries with depleted atmospheric gas, skin cancer rates are among the highest in the world.

The indirect health consequences are harder to see immediately, but closer examination reveals that these are, in fact, perhaps the most hazardous. Bi-products of dirty and backwards industries, such as coal and oil processing, include cancer causing substances like asbestos and benzene. A U.K. study conducted in 2002 indicated that coal and oil industry workers are at a much higher risk of developing mesothelioma (associated with asbestos exposure) and leukemia (traced to benzene and heavy-metal exposure). Dr. David Sugarbaker among many other doctors who specialize in this area understand that these are substances that can be directly traced to antiquated pre-regulation equipment in industries whose environmental hazards are even more inherent.

Can we really afford to continue on the path we were on before? Investment in clean industry means not a healthier planet for our children and grandchildren, but also a healthier place for us to live today.

Via: Globe and Mail

From sleek, Brazilian-designed ottomans made out of old flip-flops to gorgeous bags and totes crafted from sailcloth, woven paper, tent fabric and seatbelts, the wares at Galerie CO in Montreal’s Mile End neighbourhood may be among the most carefully selected in North America.

Among other criteria, they must benefit the environment, support the people who create them and – no small added task – reflect the latest design trends.

“I want to promote good design and create economic opportunities for the people who do it,” says founder Sarah Richardson, an Ottawa-born lawyer who spent 15 years as a policy expert advising governments and international organizations on sustainable trade. She opened Galerie CO less than a year ago, having come up with the idea after discovering dozens of talented designers, artists and craftspeople while travelling the world for her work.

“It’s a natural extension of my professional life. I’ve been working in trade policy for years and have seen some incredible stuff,” she says. “They inspired me. I wanted to do something practical and help these people market their products.”

CO takes its name from the three pillars of sustainable development: ecology, community and economy, three values that Richardson takes very seriously. She picks her wares with criteria she developed helping clients create sustainable economic projects. “I know where each item comes from and the story behind it,” she says.

Although many of her products come from style capitals such as London and Milan, a good number of their designers hail from Southern Africa, where Richardson spent much of 2007 crafting trade agreements to promote sustainable trade. more…

When I was growing up, my mother bought a “beaker-brush” Christmas tree. It was all white and made of plastic and wire. Basically a bunch of beaker brushes from a high school chemistry class attached to an aluminum frame. Every year we didn’t have to buy (and kill) a baby spruce tree. It seemed like a sensible idea: buy a renewable tree that could be re-used year after year.

But a new study from a Montreal firm, ellipsos inc., says that buying natural trees for xmas is actually more sustainable in the long run. Here are their conclusions from the report:

The natural Christmas tree has lower impacts on the environment than the artificial tree, according to an independent Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) conducted by ellipsos inc., a firm of experts in sustainable development…“The results are astonishing”, says Jean-Sébastien Trudel, president of ellipsos and co-author of the study. “Considering that the artificial tree is reusable for many years, one would think that this choice is best since the natural tree requires annual trips to purchase it.”

While natural trees also have environmental impacts, the LCA shows that an artificial tree would need to be kept for at least 20 years to be equivalent! Currently, people keep it for six years, on average.

Interestingly, to compensate for the impacts of a Christmas tree, be it natural or artificial, one can offset the carbon emissions by carpooling or biking to work only one to three days per year, according to ellipsos. “Knowing this, the most ecological choice between the natural and the artificial Christmas tree becomes anecdotal. Regardless of the chosen type of tree, the impacts on the environment are negligible if compared to other activities, such as driving solo to work on a daily basis”, concludes Jean-Sébastien Trudel.

Still, getting no tree is the most sustainable solution of all.

Download the full report from ellipos: Christmas Tree Life Cycle Analysis