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Many
thanks to everyone who has been so generous: Ann Redwood, Virginia Neale,
Gail Schulz, Taania Dancer, Howard Adcock, Philip Marchant, Margaret Jervis,
Stephanie Slater, Anke Van Leeuwen, Hugo Sutmoller, Heather Freeman, Susan
Scott, Krista Kaptein, George Wood, Philip Lake, Judith Fetter, Denise Cammiade,
Cecilie Davidson, David Greer, Dale Hitchcox, Daniel Harper, Paul Gareau,
Ria Bos, Jean Mackenzie, G. Bell, Felix Lion, Jim Bohlen, Corre Alice, Bert
Newton, Gerhadt Lepp, Donna McLaren, Pru Moore, Kathryn Insley, Karen Collinson,
Judith Walker, John & Diana McMahen, LL Mitchell, Grace Draper, Kim
Feltham, Craig Harrold, Murray Sutherland, Emile Lacroix, Marya Nyland &
Phil Symons, John Boquist, Peter Schofield, Penelope Polden, Sarah Garcelon,
Margaret Schubart, John Azar, Patricia Kahr, Margaret Fear, Dorothy Bishop,
Harvey Maser, Ray Grigg & Joyce Baker, Dave Secco, Ruth Masters, Roger
& Joan Edwards, Thelma MacMurchie, Heather Springbett, Art & Marg
Simons, Vince Cumings, Bill Turner, UVic Students Society, Alison Acker,
Don Vipond, Philippa White, Kathleen Gibson, Leah Norgrove, Lauren Dake,
Andrea Gleichauf, Colin Graham, John Sprague, Mel McDonald, Joyce Stewart,
New Society Publishers, Jo Philips, Dave Evans, Marlene Cokshaw, Rosalie
Beach, Elizabeth Garrett, Elisabeth Bosher, Mickael Balderston, Ian Brown,
Jim Hackler, Dorothy Eastwood, Joanne Manley, Frances Hill, Ian Moul, Jan
Zwicky, Brian Pinch, Kate Stevens, Richard Atwood, Bruce Torrie, Daphne
Taylor, Jim Stilburn, Geoffrey Bate, Marie Deloumo, Louise Irwin, Lani Royce,
Naomi Petersen, Evelyn Hamilton & Gillian Elcock.
Donations
can be sent to EcoNews, 395 Conway Rd, Victoria V9E 2B9. For a receipt,
send stamped addressed envelope.
THE
ECO-CORNER
$5
a line (free to non-profits & low-income). 1" box ad $30, $2"
$55.
* Wanted:
Home support worker, few hours per month, by environmentally ill
Fairfield woman. Housework, errands, helping me get through life. Successful
candidate leads an unscented life, never uses fabric softener or shares
laundry with others, or uses clothing of unknown laundry origin (2nd
hand clothes). Call 920-0036, afternoons.
* Wanted:
Medical scooter from an environment free of smoke, pesticide and fabric
softener. For long-legged rider. Call 920-0036, afternoons.
* For
sale: Quality hard-plastic laundry tub, metal legs, CSA approved, never
used. $140. Call 920-0036, afternoons.
* Would
you like to learn to grow your own food organically? If you live
in the Western Communities or Sooke, and are a low income person or family,
2 gardening sites in Sooke, Colwood offer free space, seeds, supplies, workshops
and training, starting in mid-May. People on income assistance are eligible
for transportation and daycare subsidies. Seeds of Progress - David Stott,
Jackie Robson, 478-1122.
ZERO
WASTE
Ricoh
Electronics Inc, with facilities in California, Georgia and Mexico, is part
of the Ricoh Group, an $11 billion diversified automated office, electronics
and photographic equipment company, one of the world's largest manufacturers
of multi-function digital office automation equipment. In April, Ricoh announced
that it had eliminated 100% of its waste that used to go to the landfill,
by refusing, reducing, re-using and recycling, including food, paper, plastic,
glass, office supplies and production by-products. The company announced
its intention to achieve Zero Waste in 1998, and reached its target a year
ahead of schedule. Ricoh also has a green procurement program, practices
environmental accounting, has rainforest and waterfall environments in its
buildings, and has developed re-writable compact discs that can be re-recorded
up to 1,000 times. If they can do it, why not every company? Which will
be BC’s first Zero-Waste company? (Earth Vision). For the big picture, see
www.zerowaste.org and www.targetzerocanada.org.
CLIMATE
CARAVAN & ‘THE BET’
This
summer, from May 7th to Sept 20th, 40 young people
from all across Canada are will be engaged in a self-propelled, fossil-fuel-free
movement (ie cycling) across Canada, accompanied by a bio-fueled bus. The
project was started by a group of students at Mount Allison University in
Sackville, New Brunswick. Their aim is to get Canadians thinking about the
science and the impacts of climate change, and demonstrate practical ways
in which people can reduce their personal greenhouse gas emissions. They
are starting in Tofino, and reaching Victoria on May 10th (see
Diary), where
THE
GARDEN PATH
ORGANIC
PLANT NURSERY
The
healthiest plants at great prices
Organic
Vegetables. Herbs. Flowers. Shrubs. Heritage Roses. Bamboos. Seeds.
A
GMO-free zone.
Open
Daily 10-5pm
395
Conway Road
(250)
881-1555
www.earthfuture.com/gardenpath
Bring
in this ad for a 10% discount (Print it, don't bring your computer!!)
FARMERS’
MARKETS
The
Moss Street Market is open for the season. If you’ve not been before, check
out the corner of Moss and Fairfield on Saturday mornings this summer, and
you’ll find fresh, locally grown organic produce, crafts, food, music, market-day
chit-chat, and special events, such as Bike to Market Day. Farmers’ Markets
are making a big come-back. In Britain, Hampshire County Council organized
three pilot markets in Winchester in 1999, which were so successful that
they have scheduled 68 markets around the county for 2001. In Winchester
(pop’n 100,000), each of last year’s markets had an average 80 stallholders
and 8,500 customers, and growers took in an average of $1125 per market.
The market rules, similar to those on Moss St, are that all produce must
be grown or produced within the county by the stall-holder, and be free
of genetically modified food. A Farmers’ Market Training Program is provided
to help farmers improve their retail, marketing and presentation skills.
Local councils help finance of the markets, which are to be financially
self-sufficient from 2002. (This year’s markets have been suspended until
the Foot and Mouth disease is over).
RAIN,
RAIN……BUT NOT ENOUGH
It
may seem to be raining every day, but we are in a serious water shortage.
Our winter rainfall from September to April was 53% below average, and the
Sooke and Goldstream reservoirs are 73% full, instead of 99% as they were
this time last year. With the dry season approaching, we are heading for
trouble. Locally reduced rainfall is in the cards because of global climate
change: another low rainfall winter, and we’ll be scraping the bottom of
the reservoir. A third, and we’ll be emigrating to Lake Cowichan. In a future
issue, we’ll look at long-term solutions. Meanwhile, we must conserve!
* If
everyone flushed the toilet four times less per day we’d save 3.4 million
gallons a day. When it’s yellow, let it mellow, When it’s brown, flush
it down.
* Upgrade
your toilets to 6-litre flush models & change your shower-heads to efficient,
aerated models, helped by a $75 CRD rebate. Call 474-9600 for details.
* Place
a water-filled 2 litre milk carton in your toilet, with a rock in the bottom.
* Turn
tap off when brushing teeth!
* Catch
cold water in a bucket to water your plants when waiting for it to run hot
* Bath
and shower with a friend!
* Don’t
cut your lawn until it is 6-8cm long; only cut it to 1/3rd of
its length. If you use a mulch mower, the droppings will add compost to
your lawn.
* Don’t
stop growing local food! Hand-watering is allowed; install rainbarrels to
store the rain while it’s here.
* Call
City Green (381-9995) and ask for a home visit. For $50, they will set you
up for energy efficiency, water efficiency and other good green household
habits.
THANKYOU,
NDP
In
the last few months, the NDP government has done some excellent work. They
placed a moratorium on grizzly bear hunting; helped finance the purchase
of critical lands in the Sooke Hills and Gulf Islands; passed important
legislation that protects city councillors and citizens from being hit with
SLAPP suits; created a Sustainable Development Commissioner for BC; announced
plans for mandatory labeling for GM food (if re-elected); protected 71,000
hectares of wilderness surrounding the famous Spruce Lake in the South Chilcotin,
600,000+ hectares of the Great Bear Rainforest, and outstanding areas in
the Stikine/Spatsizi and the northern Rockies; sustained the moratorium
on coastal oil and gas exploration; and scrapped the ‘Working Forests’ plan
to give away 95% of the public forest lands to private corporations. But
why only now, after ten years in office? Would any of this have happened,
we have to wonder, without the Green Party lining up to woo new voters?
Dusting
Divas
Environmental
Cleaning Service
All-natural,
non-toxic products
Professional
service
maia
gibb 888-2022
divas@coastcompanies.com
GREENS
IN GOVERNMENT
What
do the Greens stand for? Here are some more of their policies. For the full
Platform, see www.greenparty.bc.ca.
Forestry:
Reduce the cut to ecologically sustainable levels; establish competitive
log markets and eliminate government subsidies by raising stumpage fees
to fair market value. Prohibit the export of raw logs; provide assistance
to companies seeking eco-certification; help market BC eco-certified wood.
Provide low-interest start-up loans for small, labour intensive ecoforestry
companies. Replace the Forest Practices Code and the AAC calculation with
watershed-by-watershed ecological management plans, and a cut-rate based
on sustained-yield forestry. Reform the tenure system over time, taking
back 50% of the cut allocated to the major licensees, and re-allocating
it to community and First Nations forest licenses, woodlot operators and
small business. Replace Forest Renewal BC with community-based First Nations
and locally elected Ecosystem Management Boards, with a mandate to manage
their forests for all values. Ban the use of chemical herbicides, pesticides
and fertilizers in forestry. Develop transition strategies and retraining
programs to assist forest workers to adjust.
Fisheries:
Replace the licensing system with first priority to small-scale local
fishers, using selective and terminal fisheries. Create First Nations and
locally-elected Ecosystem Management Boards to cooperatively manage local
marine ecosystems for all values. Phase out open ocean salmon fish farms.
Work with Fisheries & Oceans to re-allocate fisheries to small operators;
implement stream-by-stream plans to rejuvenate wild salmon; phase out less
selective seine and gillnet fishing; designate no-take marine protected
areas; close all bottom-trawl fisheries, and all herring fisheries for five
years; bring in transition plans for affected workers and First Nations
communities.
Agriculture:
Provide incentives to farmers to move to organic agriculture, financed by
a tax on chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides. Support community
garden projects; expand animal cruelty laws to cover all farming operations.
Create incentives for the local purchase of BC produce. Ban the import of
products that contain GMOs; help groups of growers and growers coops to
own and farm organically on ALR lands.
Energy:
Require 100% of all new energy in BC to come from renewable energy sources
and conservation; oppose the deregulation or privatization of BC Hydro or
BC Gas; provide rebates and incentives for energy efficiency and renewable
energy production; phase in carbon taxes and phase out subsidies on fossil
fuels; oppose the Georgia Strait gas pipeline; meet and exceed the Kyoto
Protocol commitment to a 6% reduction in greenhouse gases below 1990 by
2010.
Transport:
Implement tax-shifting, and use the revenues to support public transit,
bicycles, car-sharing, hybrid vehicles, passenger-only ferries, & mini-buses.
Direct elections for regional transit boards; least-cost planning for all
transport projects, with programs to reduce demand.
Housing:
Use 1% of the provincial budget to support new, affordable, non-profit and
coop housing units. Help tenants to own their own homes; provide tax incentives
for the provision of rental housing, and no-interest loans for energy efficient
and alternative energy retrofits.
Environment:
Ban logging and other harmful activities in drinking watersheds; ban bulk
water exports; ban the use of all persistent organic pollutants, and chlorine
in pulp bleaching; enact a BC Species at Risk Protection Act. End the use
of leg-hold traps, continue the ban on grizzly bear hunting. And much more.
GREENS
CAMPAIGNING
If
you would like to help the local Green Party candidates with their campaigns,
from door-knocking or distributing flyers to making signs, here are the
people to call. They would love your help!
Esquimalt–Metchosin:
Marilyn Sundeen 642-0760, supergreen@telus.net
Mahahat-Juan
de Fuca: Stephen Bradley c/o
382-8378 bcgreens@islandnet.com
North
Saanich & Islands: Andrew Lewis 653-477 baronfowler@yahoo.com
Oak
Bay-Gordon Head: TBA 382-8378 bcgreens@islandnet.com
South
Saanich: Gracie MacDonald, 652-4668 gab@island.net
Victoria-Beacon
Hill: Walter Meyer zu Erpen 381-8683 votegreen@islandnet.com
Victoria–Hillside:
Stuart Hertzog 381-5226 stuart_hertzog@telus.ca
ORNAMENTUM
FURNITURE
ENVIRONMENTAL
DESIGNS
1780
Vernon Drive
Vancouver,
V6A 3T8
(604)
215-7444
FSC
accredited certification means
that the forest is managed according
to strict environmental,
social and economic
standards. Chain of custody certified by Silva Forest Foundation.
SFF-COC-005
www.ornamentum.bc.ca
FSC
trademark © Forest Stewardship Council A.C.
800kb)
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