i s s u e sB E T W E E N T H EB E T W E E N T H E COV E R S :

Strategically Sound, Fundamentally Flawed

Organic Milk in Nova Scotia

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table of contentsAction is Our Middle NameEco Briefs By Mike RuxtonStrategically Sound, Fundamentally Flawed By Tim RobertsOrganic Milk in Nova Scotia By Jen GreenbergWednesdays Against Warships By Tamara LorinczGetting to Know You By Susan Johnstone, Julia McRae, Ryan O’Quinn, Maggy Burns and Emma BoardmanThe Mighty Mouse By Heather HunterIn Whose Backyard? By Sam FraserVive la Radio By Emma Boardman Being Green By Jonathan RotsztainSeasonal Gourmet By Julia Kemp Ask EcoHeadLa Vie en Vert

B E T W E E N T H Ei s s u e sa n e c o l o g y a c t i o n c e n t r e p u b l i c a t i o n VOL. 31 NO. 2

CONTRIBUTORS: EAC staff, Emma Boardman, Maggy Burns, Sam Fraser, Jen Greenberg, Louise Hanavan, Heather Hunter, Susan Johnstone, Julia Kemp, Tamara Lorincz, Julia McRae, Ryan O’Quinn, Tim Roberts, Jonathan Rotsztain, Mike Ruxton, Lois Brison-Brown

CONTENT EDITORS: Janet Barlow, Mark Butler, Louise Hanavan, Tiffany MacDonald, Mike Ruxton

COPY EDITORS: Mike Ruxton, Tiffany MacDonald ADVERTISING: Kate Chisholm

ILLUSTRATIONS: Sylvia Dove, Colleen MacIsaac PHOTOGRAPHERS: David Greenberg,Koozma J. Tarasoff

DESIGN AND PRODUCTION: Aaron Harpell, Hammerhead Design

DISTRIBUTION: EAC staff, members and volunteers

COVER: Aaron Harpell

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Organic Milk in Nova Scotia / 10

Features

letter to the centreRegarding the ‘Good Cat Bad Cat’ article in Between the Issues vol. 31:1, I am skeptical of the claim that “cats on average live 7 times longer if they are kept inside.” This suggests an average life span of only three years for outdoor cats, which is short even for feral cats living without veterinary care. While I agree that outdoor cats pose a problem for local wildlife, my opinion is that recommending owners keep their pets exclusively indoors is at best a partial solution. Many cats experience poor physical and mental health if confined indoors, especially if adopted from a shelter as adults. Ultimately, we need to reduce our impact on the environment by reducing the number of cats (and the number of people!). For existing cats who “have a hunting problem,” the Cat Bib (http://catgoods.com/) may be an effective solution. However I have not tested it myself; my own outdoor domestic cat (8 years old and going strong) luckily is a poor hunter!

- Daniel Morrison

Correction

First, we would like to thank Daniel Morrison for his letter. We always appreciate receiving a response to articles in BTI.

Second, we would like to apologize to Dr. Helene Van Doninck for a mis-quote in the article. The statement, “The irony in this is that cats on average live 7 times longer if they are kept inside” should have read three to four times longer, as was stated in the accompanying Take Action box. Most of the figures cited are in this range, eg. four versus 14 years (visit this site for an example: http://www.tufts.edu/vet/behavior/feline.shtml). There are peer-

Political misdeeds have been a running theme in spring 2013. Sinful senatorial spending and morbid mayoral malfea-sance have been in the national spotlight and Nova Scotia’s MLAs haven’t been immune to controversy themselves.

Such shenanigans are rendered news-worthy due to the wrongdoers’ lofty public posts. Whether we helped vote them in, tried in vain to prevent their election, or watched helplessly as they were simply appointed, our trust is be-trayed in each instance.

We’re disappointed because they’ve act-ed out of self-interest and placed the in-terests of their constituents on the back burner. Their actions are high-profile examples of misplaced priorities.

Priorities, hopefully none of them truly misplaced, form the focus of this Be-tween the Issues.

Articles by Tamara Lorincz (“War-ships Protest”, p 11) and Tim Roberts (“Strategically Sound, Fundamentally Flawed”, p 8) question federal and pro-vincial funding priorities. Tamara looks into federal spending for the construc-tion of ships and wonders where such funding would better serve Canadians. Tim asks how effective the province’s progressive sustainable transportation strategy will be at current funding levels.

Sam Fraser (“In Whose Backyard?”, p 16) examines provincial priorities in terms of where our solid waste is disposed. Our track record thus far in Nova Scotia seems to yield disappoint-ing results.

“Adventures in Local Food” (p10) is reprinted from dairy farmer Jen Green-berg’s blog and offers examples of how Nova Scotians can prioritize local and organic food products.

letter from the centrePrinciples in Priorities

reviewed studies that have concluded that feral cats live short lives, but few compare the lifespan of indoor cats and outdoor (owned) cats, although there is plenty of anecdotal evidence from vet-erinarians. Many organizations such as Bird Studies Canada, the American Vet-erinary Medicine Association, and the Canadian Wildlife Federation advocate keeping cats indoors for the sake of cats, birds, and other wildlife. For an exam-ple, go to the following address: https://www.avma.org/News/JAVMANews/Pages/050115i.aspx.

Contrary to Mr. Morrison’s sugges-tion, these organizations and many other animal welfare organizations state that a properly cared for indoor cat is a happy, healthy cat. Dr. Van Doninck, who regularly treats cats that have been injured outdoors, strongly agrees. The following factsheet prepared by the NS SPCA should be of interest to cat own-ers: http://www.spcans.ca/documents/IndoorCats.pdf

Mr. Morrison states that his cat is a poor hunter. This may be the case, but the Kitty Cams Project by the University of Georgia revealed that less than a quarter of animals killed by cats were brought home. Most prey were eaten or left at the site of the kill. To view the cats’ eye view video, go tohttp://www.kittycams.uga.edu/photovideo.html.

The EAC has a small team of birders and cat lovers working on protecting both cats and birds. We welcome new recruits.

-Mark Butler on behalf of the Bird Sub-Committee

Heather Hunter’s “Slacktivism” (p15) examines the impact of social media in activist causes. Her article might alter how we prioritize our activist activity.

The EAC’s priorities include reach-ing out to the entire province. Emma Boardman’s “Vive la Radio!” (p 18) il-lustrates how staffers Jen Graham and Jocelyne Rankin help extend the EAC’s reach into Nova Scotia’s francophone community.

BTI’s own priorities include highlight-ing extraordinary environmental efforts. Jonathan Rotsztain’s “Being Green” (p19) discusses environmental manage-ment in challenging circumstances with Allan Robertson.

This particular BTI also prioritizes all you amazing EAC members. Check out “Getting to Know You” (p 13) for mem-bership demographics (in truly graphic detail).

As always, there’s space saved for regular BTI standouts such as Eco-Briefs, Ask Ecohead, Seasonal Gourmet, Action is Our Middle Name, Action In Verse… and more!

With the summer issue pressed, printed and out the door, hopefully you can join us in prioritizing summer enjoyment in the months ahead.

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action is our middle namesalty and fresh (Coastal and Water Issues Committee) We’re a watery hub of tools, resources, and best practices for keep-ing Nova Scotia’s coasts and watersheds healthy and productive. Salty coastal coordinator, Jen Graham, has been pounding the pave-ment (and beaches and bays) talking about why and how land-use planning in the coastal zone can keep people and property safe and keep municipalities on solid financial ground. Restoration Co-ordinator Ashley “Green Thumb” Sprague is helping coastal property owners manage erosion and coastal change. Heading into the fresh-water zone, our sparkling Water Coordinator, Jocelyne Rankin, and multi-faceted Geoscience Coordinator, Jennifer West, are working with a new development in Porters Lake and other partners to show how innovative stormwater management techniques can improve groundwater availability and control stormwater runoff and pollu-tion. Keep an eye out for upcoming workshops, public presenta-tions, and educational materials on innovative stormwater manage-ment for your home or business.

springing into food action (Food Action Committee) The Food Action team members were quick to get their hands dirty building healthy food environments. Our Community Food Programmers have already worked closely with several community organizations and schools to help animate their garden spaces. So far, Will has hosted workshops and plantings at Phoenix Youth, ReachAbility, and YouthNet, assisting them in strengthening their food security program-ming. Georgia has worked closely with several school gardens, attending and supporting planting parties and community cel-ebrations. On May 9 to 11, the Food Action Committee helped to host the Nova Scotia Food Gathering. This event brought together over 150 foodies including farmers, gardeners, fisher-folk, chefs, social justice activists, students, and researchers to discuss how to push the movement forward. We are looking forward to a busy growing season.

slow fish (Marine Issues Committee) After the triumphant, delicious, and “sold-out before

it existed” launch of Slow Fish Nova Scotia at FID Resto (see Facebook for pictures), we re-alized we were on to something big. What started as a local supply chain intervention turned into a national campaign called Slow Fish Canada that will promote artisanal fish-

ing and the need to provide good, clean, and fair fish to consumers, and fair prices and

market access to small-scale producers. We fea-tured eleven courses of local sustainable seafood

at the Slow Fish Nova Scotia lunch. When not digging into plates of oysters, hand-dug clams, and farmed scallops,

we’ve been crunching numbers through our Social Financing for Community Fisheries work, including the first conference of its kind in the region that brought together owner-operator fisher-ies, social finance experts, and people from other natural resource sectors to figure out how to finance new generations of fishermen in Atlantic Canada.

fossil free by 2030 (Energy Issues Committee) Nova Scotia is ready to commit to phasing fossil fuels out of its electricity produc-tion. It might seem ambitious to imagine we’ll be generating all of the electricity we need us-ing a healthy mix of wind, water, sunlight, and other renewable fuels within the next two de-cades. However, we’ve made great progress over the past five years alone, and we’re already on the right track. The Energy Issues Committee thinks it’s time to go big or go home. FossilFreePower2030.com will launch in June and showcase our vision for this province’s energy future.

the big picture and the tiny (Transpor-tation Issues Committee) The long-awaited provincial Sustainable Transportation Strategy was launched on April 22. We were pleased to see strong active transporta-tion policy and support for public and community transit in the Strategy, but we believe the Strategy is drastically underfunded. (See “Strategically Sound, Fundamentally Flawed” on page xx for more on the Strategy) This spring, we began working with child care centres to plan safe, active transportation to and from their facilities through our “Tiny Travel Planning” program. The summary of bar-riers and opportunities will be available later this month. We’ve also been busy collaborating with regional and provincial government and community partners on a wide range of issues, including a pilot Share the Road campaign with the Dalhousie Transportation Collabora-tory (DalTRAC), The Department of Health and Wellness on its Thrive strategy and the links with active transporta-tion, and HRM on the Transportation chapter of the Re-gional Plan and on the Cogswell Interchange Lands Plan.

smarter planning (Built Environment Committee) In April 2013, Stantec Consulting released a report which affirmed the mes-sage of the Our HRM Alliance: a more compact form of development will save the municipality money and will help the environment. If the municipality reaches its target of 25 percent urban, 50 percent subur-ban, and 25 percent rural residential development, HRM would save $670 million. To read the report visit the following link: http://www.halifax.ca/boardscom/documents/HRMGrowthScenariosFinalRepor-tApril292013.pdf. The foundation has been laid for the Morris House, which was moved from its original downtown home to Creighton Street earlier this year. The house will be moved from the back of the lot to its new moorings shortly. Fundraising to cover the costs of both the move and the renovations are well underway. The Built Environ-ment Committee is exploring where to concentrate its efforts. What kind of a community does it want to see in 40 or 100 years? The list of ideas is long; the challenge will be to ensure it is manageable.

creating community forests (Wilderness Issues Committee) Over 40 enthusiastic people recently attended the second Community Forestry Forum on June 20th at the Old Orchard Inn in Wolfville. The Forum builds on the work of the forestry campaign’s participation on the Community Forestry Advisory Group, which is helping the province steer through the on-going pro-cess of establishing working community forests on Crown land in Nova Scotia. Watch for more as the current Request-for-Proposals process to establish and operate working community forests wraps up later in the fall. Exciting developments continue to unfold at Otter Ponds Demonstration Forest in Mooseland, along Nova Scotia’s beautiful Eastern shore. The summer work plan calls for the construction of a picnic/group shelter, fire pit and prototype wilderness outhouse system, as well as more ecosystem-based forest management activities. Stay tuned for more updates this fall!

Adopt a Monarch

The monarch butterfly that visits Nova Scotia each summer is iconic. Their southern migration begins in August, and it typically requires three generations to reach the winter sanc-tuary of pine-oak forests in the moun-tains of Mexico. Unfortunately, the monarch population is in steep decline due to many factors, including logging, drought, and pesticide usage. Popula-tion estimates by area covered within the sanctuary began in 1994 and 1995, with a peak of 20.97 hectares in 1996 and 1997. Yearly population swings can be quite large, sometimes by as much as a factor of five, but the population trend is definitely downward. The December 2012 survey, at 1.19 hectares, showed the smallest population in twenty years of surveys.

Biologists in the American Midwest corn belt have observed a strong cor-relation between decline in milkweed, the principal host plant of the mon-arch butterfly, and the use of glysophate

(commercially known as Roundup) on genetically modified crops of corn and soybean. Where glysophate is applied, milkweed growth has essentially been eliminated. Orley Taylor, an ecologist and the founder and director of Mon-arch Watch, advocates that people plant milkweed in their gardens as a haven for the monarch. Taylor, along with many other experts, is also concerned about the impact of global warming on the forests where the monarch overwinters. Taylor teaches a course about the world in 2040 and says, “I don’t even put the monarch in that world.” Conniff, R: Yale Environment 360, 1 April

2013. Interview - Tracking the Causes of Sharp Decline of the Monarch Butterfly

Pleasants, J. M. and Oberhauser, K. S. (2013), Milkweed loss in agricultural fields because of herbicide use: effect on the monarch butterfly

population. Insect Conservation and Diversity, 6: 135–144

Monarch Watch blog: Monarch Population Status, March 14, 2013 by Chip Taylor

Cantankerous Contrarians Confound Consensus

Al Gore recently told John Stack-house of the Globe & Mail that “We, humankind, are using the atmosphere of the planet as an open sewer .... I think oil can be divided into dirty oil and even dirtier oil.” Joe Oliver, Canada’s Min-ister of Natural Resources, Rex Mur-phy in the National Post, and Michael Hlinka on CBC Radio took umbrage on behalf of Canada (or rather, the Alberta tar sands), asserting that Mr. Gore is a fossil fool, the Alberta tar sands are an exemplary source of the world’s energy drug of choice, and the science on CO2 emissions isn’t yet sufficiently convinc-ing to convince them that global warm-ing trends are problematic. Almost a decade ago, in the journal Science, historian Naomi Oreskes ana-lyzed the scientific literature on global warming and concluded that there was not just scientific consensus, but una-nimity: no scientific work worthy of the characterisation disagreed with the con-sensus. Similar surveys have consistently found high rates of consensus. Recently,

Oreskes’ analysis was repeated as a citi-zen science project by a team of people at the Skeptical Science website, and published in Environmental Research Letters; John Cook of the University of Queensland, Australia, was lead author. Admittedly, the team is skeptical of the contrarian position on global warming, but their research methodology is what’s relevant. The Skeptical Science team searched the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) Web of Science index of refereed scientific journals, using topic searches for “global warming” or “global climate change,” with the constraint of journal articles, for the period from 1991 to May of 2012. This resulted in 11,944 papers, written by 29,083 authors, and published in 1,980 journals. They then took two very different approaches to assessing the papers. In the first analysis, the articles were dis-tributed among a dozen Skeptical Sci-ence team members, and each paper was categorized by two separate reviewers, according to the paper’s abstract posi-tion on anthropogenic global warming (AGW); the positions chosen by the reviewers were endorsement (3,896), no position (7,930), uncertain (40), or rejection (78). Differences of opinion between reviewers were resolved judi-ciously. The high number of no position articles is attributed to a consensus be-lief in AGW. (If an area of research has reached consensus, then the consensus position is assumed as given, and very often not articulated. Why state the obvious?) In relative terms, the analysis concludes 98 percent endorsement of AGW and 2 percent rejection. For the second, author self-catego-rization analysis, the Skeptical Science team attempted to harvest email ad-dresses for all article co-authors. They emailed 8,547 people as a result, and they asked the authors to self-categorize their papers. They received 1,200 re-sponses. After some minor adjustments for peer review and relevance, they had 2,142 papers with self-ratings by 1,189 authors. Categorized by papers, 97.2 percent endorsed AGW, whereas 2.8 percent rejected it. Categorized by re-

eco briefs

By Mike Ruxton

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spondents, 96.4 percent endorsed AGW, but 3.6 percent rejected AGW. This is not quite unanimity, but it is most defi-nitely overwhelming consensus. Why is this analysis relevant? People, as well as governments, usually defer to the judgment of experts, so we need to know what the experts really think. Rex Murphy and Michael Hlinka have opinions, but they aren’t experts in cli-matology, chemistry, physics, ocean-ography , meteorology, or geophysics, so why should you be impressed with their opinions on the subject of climate change? Perhaps you shouldn’t blindly trust Al Gore either, but at least he’s lis-tening to the experts. Try the following experiment. Go to YouTube, choose a favourite musical performer, a favourite song, and a favou-rite performance. Find one with at least a hundred thousand views and a thou-sand likes; compare likes versus dislikes. I’ll wager at least one percent disagree with you, maybe even two percent. The two percent opinions mean nothing be-yond their desire to disagree with you. It’s very likely just noise.Alison Krauss - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbgfQ48hWuYStevie Wonder - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28DfvvfZLi0

Rex Murphy: Remember Al Gore? At the Globe & Mail, he’s still a big star;

The National Post, 11 May 2013The Globe and Mail:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShtdGxrxONgCook J et al. (2013) Quantifying the consen-

sus on anthropogenic global warming in the scientific literature. Environmental Research

Letters 8 (2013) 024024 (7pp)Oreskes, N. 2004. Beyond the ivory tower: The scientific consensus on climate change.

Science 306(5702): 1686.

CO2 400

As a geochemistry researcher at the California Institute of Technology in the early 1950s, Charles David Keeling became interested in the equilibria be-tween carbonate in surface waters, lime-stone, and atmospheric CO2. His early research showed that atmospheric CO2 levels have a strong diurnal component; the air contains more CO2 at night than during the day. He developed precise gas

manometers to measure CO2 from air and water samples, and his observations established average atmospheric concen-trations of 310 parts per million (ppm) in diverse places. The diurnal variation was explained by meteorology; daytime measurements were of the mixed atmo-sphere, and night time stratification al-lowed the ground level layer to be influ-enced by respiration of plants and soils. Keeling’s work came to the attention of Roger Revelle at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Revelle was involved with the oceanographic program of the 1957–1958 International Geophysical

Year (IGY), and he hired Keeling to es-tablish a baseline set of global observa-tions of CO2 concentrations in the at-mosphere and the ocean. Three stations were established: one at Scripps, one at the new weather station at Mauna Loa in Hawaii, and one in Antarctica. The Scripps observations were found to be strongly influenced by local conditions; Hawaii and Antarctica were much more consistent. After the IGY, Keeling man-aged to maintain observations at Mauna Loa, and he soon established seasonal cycles in the observations and found hints of increasing levels of CO2. During the IGY of 1957–1958, CO2 observations at Mauna Loa were 313 ppm, the 2012 average was 393.82, and in May of this year, observations ex-ceeded 400 ppm over several days. The annual cycle peaks in May and reaches a minimum in October. At the current rate of increase, the global annual aver-age will reach the 400 ppm threshold by 2016. Ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica extend atmospheric CO2 observations back over 800 thousand

years. Those cores show atmospheric CO2 levels in pre-industrial times vary-ing between 170 and 280 ppm. The first humans walked the earth about 200 thousand years ago.

50 years on: The Keeling Curve legacy; by Helen Briggs, BBC News, 2 December 2007

A Scientist, His Work and a Climate Reckoning; by Justin Gillis,

The New York Times, 21 December 2010Heat-Trapping Gas Passes Milestone, R

aising Fears; by Justin Gillis, The New York Times, 10 May 2013

http://keelingcurve.ucsd.edu/

Red Listing the Ecosystems of the World

The world is a complex, constantly evolving place. We know that however lightly we tread on the planet, we have an impact, and sometimes the cumula-tive impact of seven billion individu-als is staggering. We have developed strategies to deal with that impact, but mostly we trundle along in our own little bubbles, and the world evolves and adapts to our idiosyncrasies. Our strategies haven’t proven very effective at slowing our desire for more than the essentials of food, shelter, and com-munity, so every now and then we are confronted with the unfortunate conse-quences of our inertia. Some organisations such as the In-ternational Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) are dedicated to find-ing “pragmatic solutions to our most pressing environment and development challenges.” The IUCN is known for its Red List of Threatened Species, its in-volvement with the Convention on In-

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ternational Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), and perhaps its World Commission on Pro-tected Areas (WCPA). In 2008, the IUCN began a new initiative, the Red List of Ecosystems, a complement to its Red List of Threat-ened Species, and it has recently pub-lished a model of ecosystem risk as-sessment. David A. Keith, professor of botany with the Australian University of New South Wales, is lead author, with over thirty co-authors. Their work is clearly modelled on cur-rent environmental assessment practices but emphasizes a temporal component that should help identify threatened ecosystems. The model assesses ecosys-tems against five criteria: reduction in geographic distribution over time, past, present, or future; restricted geographic distribution; environmental degrada-tion over time, past, present or future; disruption of ecosystem processes or interactions over time, past, present or future; and analysis of the probability of ecosystem collapse over time. If the appropriate data is available, the model will produce an assessment of riskus-ing the categories critically endangered (CR), endangered (EN), vulnerable (VU), or least concerned (LC). To test their model, they applied it against twenty ecosystems currently un-der stress, including the Aral Sea (col-lapsed), the Coorong lagoon of Austra-lia (CR), the Cape Sand Flats Fynbos of South Africa (CR), the raised bogs of Germany (CR), and the Tapia Forest of Madagascar (EN). Their assessments agree exceptionally well with prior eval-uations by local jurisdictions. Jon Paul Rodriguez, the leader of the Red List of Ecosystems project, has the bold goal of assessing all the ecosystems of the world by 2025.

Keith DA, Rodrıguez JP, Rodrıguez-Clark KM, Nicholson E, Aapala K, et al. (2013) Scientific Foundations for an IUCN

Red List of Ecosystems. PLoS ONE 8(5):e62111

Identifying ecosystems at risk – the new IUCN Red List;

by David Keith, The Conversation, 9 May 2013

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Too Hot for the Dudes

Researchers at Iowa State University predict that the painted turtle will face extinction over the next century, at least in the US Midwest. Painted turtles are not currently listed as endangered; they are the most common species of turtle in North America. But their reproductive biology contains an evolutionary flaw.

The gender of painted turtle hatchlings is determined by the ambient air tem-perature while the young develop inside their eggs. Fredric Janzen of ISU has been study-ing the nesting habits of painted turtles in Carroll County, Illinois, for over 25 years, and he has observed that warmer temperatures result in the birth of more females, while colder temperatures lead to more males. The ISU team has mod-eled the behaviour, and their model predicts that an average increase in tem-perature of 1.1°C is enough to cause the production of all female clutches. Cli-mate models currently predict that aver-age temperatures in the US Midwest will increase by approximately 4°C over the next century.

Painted turtles do adjust the timing of their egg laying somewhat, by as much as 10 days, depending on the weather. If it is warm, they lay their eggs early; if it is cold, they wait in anticipation of warmer weather ahead. The goal is an even mix of males and females. Several other species, such as crocodiles, some turtles and lizards, and some fish, also have the sex of their offspring affected by

the ambient air temperature during the egg incubation period. Painted turtles are the most common turtle in Nova Scotia; females nest and lay eggs from early June to early July. Watch for them, especially in the af-ternoon. Hatchlings emerge from their nest between late September and the end of October.

Rory S. Telemeco, Karen C. Abbott, and Fredric J. Janzen (2013) Modeling the Effects of

Climate Change–Induced Shifts in Reproductive Phenology on Temperature-Dependent Traits.

The American Naturalist, Vol. 181, No. 5, (pp. 637-648) Researchers predict painted turtles face extinction due to global warming; by Bob Yirka,

Phys.org, 6 May 2013

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Strategically Sound, Fundamentally FlawedBy Tim Roberts

province’s proposed sustainable trans-portation funding the day the provincial strategy was released. They pointed to the Green Mobility Strategy’s suggested figure of $20 million as a reasonable an-nual figure for the development of sus-tainable transportation. The Green Mobility Strategy didn’t simply pluck that $20 million figure from thin air. It represents roughly 2 percent of the provincial Transportation Department’s annual budget, a percent-age dwarfed by the 30 percent of Nova Scotians who do not drive a car as their primary mode of transportation. The authors of the Green Mobil-ity Strategy were careful in comparing sustainable transportation funding in various jurisdictions. They had already learned European examples were rarely taken seriously by the province, so in-stead, they concentrated on Manitoba and Saskatchewan, the Canadian prov-inces with the most comparable demo-graphics to Nova Scotia. If examples from Ontario, Quebec, or the Eastern US were used, they related to smaller communities and not urban areas. The authors, while researching and drafting the Green Mobility Strategy, discovered a large gap between Nova Scotia’s per capita spending on sustain-able transportation and that found else-where in Canada. The provincial funding announced in the release of Choose How You Move does little to reduce that funding disparity. Two million per year is less than the $3.79 per capita reported for Nova Scotia in 2008 in the Green Mobility Strategy. Sodero writes,”This funding level keeps Nova Scotia at the low-end of per capita investment relative to other provinces.” Putting the provincial funding level in terms anyone can understand, Sodero notes $2 million is the rough equivalent of creating two kilometres of highway. A more absurd comparison involves the Washmill Lake Drive underpass, which cost HRM $16 million. While the underpass was a municipal project, not provincial, that $16 million figure

Laena Garrison flips through a report she hasn’t seen before as she sits in a Hal-ifax pub, ignoring the veggie burger in her non-flipping hand. She’s pleasantly surprised as she digests the 42-page doc-ument. She’s looking at a copy of Choose How You Move, the Sustainable Trans-portation Strategy released by the pro-vincial government on April 22, 2013. Garrison played a key role in devel-oping the Green Mobility Strategy when she worked at the EAC, but it’s been a couple of years since she’s really turned her mind to sustainable transportation issues in Nova Scotia. “I really applaud them for seeing this through,” she says when she finally fin-ishes her initial review, “… but Jesus, it’s taken a long time!” Her sentiments aren’t unfounded. The EAC released the Green Mobility Strategy in 2008, the result of substan-tial effort from a small crew of EAC staff and hundreds of Nova Scotians attend-ing public consultation sessions across the province. The provincial government subse-quently committed to releasing its own sustainable transportation strategy by 2010. So the Earth Day 2013 release undeniably marks a significant delay.

Not quite a mirror image

Janet Barlow, the EAC’s Active Trans-portation Co-ordinator, reviewed the

province’s initial draft, released in 2012 during a two-day workshop in which interested parties could participate. She recalls four or five of the Green Mobility Strategy’s key recommendations being reflected in that initial draft, which gave cause for hope. Stephanie Sodero, also an EAC Trans-portation Co-ordinator while the Green Mobility Strategy was being drafted, feels the provincial strategy largely matches the tone of its EAC predecessor. “I definitely see echoes of the Green Mobility Strategy in the provincial strat-egy,” Sodero writes from St John’s, NL. “The spirit and direction of the two doc-uments are similar.” She notes, however, the lack of speci-ficity offered by the provincial strategy in terms of financial figures compared to the EAC’s 2008 document. The Green Mobility Strategy featured eight key recommendations, the first of which involved the creation of an an-nual, predictable source of sustainable transportation funding. Choose How You Move features five main elements. Funding isn’t one of them.

The funding conundrum

The province is committing $6 mil-lion to sustainable transportation plan-ning. It’s not an annual figure–it reflect a total investment over the three upcoming years. “I don’t see funding as a pillar,” Gar-rison immediately notes upon reviewing the provincial document. “They don’t even talk about using the three-year term to identify funding sources and a funding plan.” Garrison acknowledges the $2 mil-lion annual sum is more than the prov-ince allotted to sustainable transporta-tion when she worked with the EAC, but others are less forgiving. “We wanted to see dedicated fund-ing,” Barlow says. “And there is some. But it’s embarrassingly small.” Barlow, along with EAC Transit Co-ordinator Wayne Groszko, criticized the

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The provincial strategy suggests Nova Scotians should have multiple commuting options.

way to creating a sustainable transporta-tion culture in Nova Scotia.” Laena Garrison, recalling the extensive province-wide participation as the Green Mobility Strategy, is pleased to see “Sup-porting Local Engagement” as one of the provincial strategy’s central elements. Barlow agrees, seeing immediate op-portunity for continued participation by Nova Scotians interested in sustainable transportation. “Of the 28 actions in the Strategy, one of the first steps involves the ‘NS Moves’ funding program.” Barlow says. “Maybe the first step for the province is to get the proposed advisory committee together to help in this regard.” Choose How You Move is far from a perfect strategy, but it’s a sign of ongoing progress in terms of Nova Scotia’s sus-tainable transportation future. The fact the provincial strategy re-flects many suggestions found in the EACs Green Mobility Strategy is also a pat on the back for everyone involved in the 2008 strategy. “It is fulfilling, it feels great to have been part of it,” Garrison says. “I’d love to communicate to all the people who took part in the process: ‘Hey, your ideas from five years ago are finally on paper! It’s finally ready!’” Tim’s initial volunteer efforts with the EAC were with the Transportation Issues Committee. He “chooses to move” to and from work via bus, ferry, and the occasional sprint.

is worth keeping in mind while review-ing the provincial strategy. The cost overrun on this project was $6 million – the equivalent to the funding for the Sustainable Transportation Strategy over three years.

Questions of leadership

The province has announced a goal of giving people more transportation options, but Barlow says the figures as they presently stand won’t make much difference, using mass transit as a prime example. “We aren’t just talking Halifax,” Bar-low says. “Sydney’s transit system could really, really use some help. In HRM, CBRM and Kings Transit alike, there could be so much more impact with in-creased funding of mass transit systems.” Funding questions arise in part from which provincial department has taken the lead on sustainable transportation. The Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal may seem

like the logical home, but the Depart-ment of Energy has, in fact, been thrust into the leadership role. That’s no com-plaint–the Department of Energy leads the provincial climate change strategy; as such, it may have the appropriate depart-mental culture to take the lead in another admittedly cross-departmental area. Sodero feels that while Choose How You Move includes some important measures for funding, the provincial strategy falls short in terms of identify-ing specific funding sources. “The Green Mobility Strategy pro-vides a variety of suggestions,” Sodero writes, “including carbon taxation, fed-eral gas tax, licensing fees, road tolls, and user fees.” She specifically identifies the intro-duction of a revenue-generating, esca-lating carbon tax (with rebates for rural Nova Scotians and low-income earners) as the ideal complement to the provin-cial strategy in terms of funding.

Capitalizing on the momentum

Funding questions aside, Choose How You Move ultimately represents a step forward for the province. The province’s strategy identifies five central elements, out of which a total of 28 actions arise. There are a lot of posi-tives among the proposed actions. “It has good bones,” Barlow says, noting the province’s commitment to es-tablishing baseline data and tracking its progress as a particular strength of the strategy. Susanna Fuller, the EAC’s Marine Conservation Co-ordinator and a direc-tor of Bicycle Nova Scotia, commends the provincial strategy’s support for the “Blue Route,” a proposed network of bikeways crossing the province. Stephanie Sodero appreciates the comprehensive nature of the provincial strategy. “It covers everything from leader-ship,” Sodero says, “to networks to eval-uation. If progress were made on all 28 action items, I think it would go a long

Take action:

• Look over the provincial strategy and its companion document: novascotia.ca/sustainable transportation/

• Compare the province’s strategy to the EAC’s: www.ecologyaction.ca/files/ images/file/Transportation/ GMG.pdf

• Raise “increased, ongoing funding for sustainable transportation” as an important issue during the upcoming provincial election.

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HRM’s transit system is a luxury beyond the budget of other provincial municipalities.

pagenine

Organic Milk in Nova ScotiaReprinted from the Food Action Committee’s Adventures in Local Food blog

By Jen Greenberg

is–no, the fantastic news is–we now have several certified-organic dairy farms in Nova Scotia. Although many modern dairy farms have confinement systems (meaning the cows stay in the barn), organic dairy farms must allow their cows to graze outside when conditions permit. The milk from these organic dairy producers is available everywhere in Nova Scotia under the label East Coast Organic. This business is run by a co-operative of dairy producers, and it is processed in this province by the locally-owned Cook’s Dairy. Jen Greenberg and her husband David farm one hour from Halifax in the Avon River Valley. They run a CSA from their farm, Abundant Acres.

I have a personal story to tell about milk, cows, and dairy farming. When I was 21, I got an opportunity to work on a dairy farm in Cumberland County. For a couple of summers, I helped in the barn and in the fields, and I learned about the kind of life this particular dairy farm offered. We fed and milked about 40 Jersey cows, and when spring came along, we got to see the cows go out into the pasture for the first time after a long, messy, cold winter. Seeing cows flowing through that pasture, kick-ing up their heels, tails in the air, was an experience of what I thought was pure joy. I was making an assumption, of course, but they looked pretty darned happy. We noticed the milk changed once they got out on pasture. I, along with the farm family, got to drink milk straight out of the milk tank, before it had been picked up by the milk truck to be processed. The cream got thicker and a little darker compared with the winter. It was so sweet and good! In the Magdalene Islands, where many people have a milk cow in their back yards, they have a celebration of “the first cream of spring”. With great revelry, they dig into the most delicious, simple desserts featuring fresh-from-the-cow cream and play music late into the night. This over-laps with the celebration of the lobster where men in fishing boats sing as they pull up their lobster traps into the boat.

We could hear them from the shore. What a wonderful place to be, and what a fabulous way to be. I learned that dairy farming on a 40-cow scale is a lot of work. Two people were needed twice every day, at 4:45 a.m. and at 4:45 p.m., to feed and milk the cows. On top of that, there are calv-ings to attend to, which could happen at any time of the day or night. Every single nice day in the summer was spent cutting and gathering hay or silage to feed the cows. Growing and harvesting grain, farm maintenance, and attending to herd health issues takes up most of the rest of the family’s time. My favou-rite time was always getting up at day-break to go out to the pasture and bring the cows into the barn for milking. Fast forward 23 years and now I have my own farm. I caught the farm bug BAD at that dairy farm. Last summer, a friend and mentor, Phil Nunn from Parkside Farm, asked if we could take some of his dry milk cows and pasture them. My husband and I jumped at the chance! We knew we were in for a lot of work, especially on top of our vegetable operation, but we both love to see cows grazing on lush green pasture. There is a little magic to getting up at sunrise every morning to let the cows into the next fresh paddock of grass. Silently we open up the gate to let them in. They are pret-ty excited, but they move in their slow cow kind of way to the fresh grass and start sniffing and grazing. Even though we are busy, we stand back and watch them grazing, filled with satisfaction. This is our moment of joy before the busy day descends upon us. Dairy farming can be a beautifully ecological process. Cows graze pastures and eat other forage grown on the farm and fertilized by their composted ma-nure. They are also fed grain and miner-als to complete their diet. In this system, the soil is enriched and built up by the dairy manure and grass roots, and it is mostly kept covered by the grasses and legumes dairy cows eat. The good news

Cows grazing at Knoydart Farm, near Antigonish

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Take action:

• Visit the Food Action Committee’s Adventures in Local Food blog: adventuresinlocalfood. wordpress.com.

• Try a sample of East Coast Organic milk at the Seaport Farmer’s Market.

• Talk to a cow and get their perspective.

• Sign up for Abundant Acres CSA at abundantacres.com.

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pageeleven

Wednesdays against WarshipsBy Tamara Lorincz

“Happy Wednesday against War-ships,” I say to the Irving employees and naval personnel who walk by me while I’m protesting. Every Wednesday at noon, I stand for an hour with my signs “No Warships: Green Jobs: Demilitarize” and “Action on Poverty and Climate Change: No War-ships” at the Niobe Gate entrance to the shipyard and the dockyard in Halifax. I started my weekly protest alone on December 19, 2012, because of my deep concern for the state of the planet. For the past six months, I have stood in the wind, rain, hail, and snow to show my opposition to the federal government’s plan to spend billions to build new armed combat vessels for the Canadian navy. The combat vessels are part of the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy (NSPS) that was launched by the Canadian government in 2010 with little parliamentary debate and no pub-lic consultations. The NSPS is the largest federal government program and defence procurement in our country’s history. Under this strategy, the federal gov-ernment plans to spend $35 billion of our tax dollars over the next 20 years to manufacture over 100 vessels. This

total comprises $25 billion to build 21 combat vessels at the Irving Shipyard in Halifax, $8 billion to build non-combat vessels at the Seaspan Shipyard in Van-couver, and $2 billion for small craft and repair work. There will be an ad-ditional $14 billion spent for in-service support over the life cycle of the new combat vessels. For two years, I wrote letters to the ed-itor, passed out leaflets, organized events, and met with politicians to raise my con-cerns about tax dollars going to build new warships instead of tackling our greatest human security challenges: global warm-ing and social inequality. Unfortunately, my efforts were not enough. All the federal political parties sup-ported the Conservative government’s shipbuilding strategy including the NDP, the Liberal Party, and the Green Party. In the Nova Scotia House of Assembly, there was a unanimous vote to support the strategy in April 2011. The Nova Scotia government also launched the $620,000 untendered advertising campaign “Ships Start Here,” and the city became awash in stickers and signs. Next, the provincial government gave Irving Shipbuilding Ltd., part of the wealthy, private Irving

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family conglomerate, a $304 million loan, $260 million of which is forgivable, to upgrade the shipyard. This loan to Ir-ving is the largest corporate handout in our province’s history. I realized that I needed to do some-thing more vocal and visible, so I launched my weekly protest, my blog “Wednesdays against Warships”, and my new website: demilitarize.ca. I want people to stop and ask critical questions about the shipbuilding strategy and the direction in which we are going in this country and this province. Why does Canada needs combat vessels? What is the security threat as-sessment that justifies them? Who are our naval enemies? The NSPS does not adequately answer these fundamental questions. It also ignores the fact that protecting our sovereignty and settling maritime disputes can be done more re-sponsibly through international law and diplomacy rather than combat. In 2003, Canada ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas, which is a comprehensive legal framework with a binding dispute set-tlement system to ensure “the peaceful uses of the seas and oceans.” Currently, Canada is chairing the Arctic Council, a high level intergovernmental forum that promotes co-operation among the Arctic States: Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, the Russian Federation, Sweden, and the US. Pa-trolling our coastline can be done more economically by the Coast Guard and with new unarmed, unmanned surveil-lance technology. What about the environmental im-pacts of warships? In May, there was an oil spill from a Canadian frigate in Hali-fax Harbour. There are many other cases of the Canadian navy spilling oil. As well, Ecojustice Canada and the Natural Resources Defense Council have docu-mented how the sonar and explosives used by the navy have injured and killed marine life. Last spring, the death of a young killer whale was attributed to the

war games conducted by the HMCS Ot-tawa off the coast of British Columbia. Why are warships a national priority? Why do we have a national shipbuilding strategy but not a national renewable energy strategy? Politicians and industry supporters often cite the job potential of the shipbuilding program. According to the Conference Board of Canada and the Greater Halifax Partnership, the $25 billion combat vessel contract will create a high of 11,500 jobs in Nova Scotia. However, a 2011 economic study en-titled “The U.S. Employment Effects on Military and Domestic Spending Priori-ties” by the University of Massachusetts found that more jobs could be created with $1 billion in government expen-ditures in health care, education, and clean energy than in the military. Moreover, last November, the Blue Green Alliance Canada released its re-port, “More Bang for Our Buck: How Canada Can Create More Energy Jobs and Less Pollution,” which showed that a federal government expenditure of only $1.3 billion could create 18,000 green jobs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Blue Green Alliance is a network of environmental and labour groups that is promoting a green econo-my for the country. In February, Karl Risser, the president of the union of shipyard workers, came out to meet me while I was protesting.

He told me that he agreed with all my signs and also supported a green econ-omy. He said that the shipyard workers wanted to build fast ferries and light rail. He thinks that the warships are part of the Canadian government’s militaristic agenda and that the only way things will change is if more Canadians push the government in a different direction. Along with my weekly protest, I have been doing other creative acts of resis-tance. This past January, I went to Ot-tawa to hold up my signs outside the House of Commons and deliver open letters to the leaders of all the federal political parties. In February, I visited the offices of Defence Minister Peter MacKay and Conservative MP Scott Armstrong. In April, on Earth Day, I stood outside of the office of Megan Leslie, the MP for Halifax and the NDP Environment Critic, to call on her to reverse her support for the shipbuilding strategy. In May, I launched a province-wide high school essay contest asking students to write how they would spend $25 billion to create a greener, more peaceful and socially just country in-stead of investing in warships. I also ran the Bluenose Marathon in my T-shirt “No Warships: Green Jobs: Demilita-rize” and flashed peace signs along the 42-kilometre course. When I started my weekly protest six months ago, I expected hostility, but

I have found overwhelming support. “I agree with you,” said one Irving employ-ee, smiling as he walked by me last week. Strangers have even started to protest with me. Let’s change course from building warships to building a green economy that nurtures the planet and people. With the urgency of climate change and poverty, there’s no more time and mon-ey to lose. Tamara Lorincz is a member and a for-mer board director of the Ecology Action Centre. She is the founder of the campaign Demilitarize.ca and a member of the Hal-ifax Peace Coalition and the Nova Scotia Voice of Women. Her views are her own.

Websites:

· Blue Green Alliance Canada: www.bluegreencanada.ca

· Demilitarize: www.demilitarize.ca

· National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy: www.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca/ app-acq/sam-mps/ snacn-nsps-eng.html

· Public Accounts of Canada: www.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca/ recgen/txt/72-eng.html

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pagethirteen

Getting to Know YouBy Susan Johnstone, Julia McRae, Ryan O’Quinn, Maggy Burns and Emma Boardman

We received a total of 331 responses–more than a tenth of our members–to our membership survey this spring. We’re thrilled so many people took the time to fill out the survey and give us great feedback that we’ll use to improve our communications and engagement with members.

Our experts are still crunching the full data set and analyzing trends (stay tuned to our website for a full report this sum-mer) but we know you’re curious, so we wanted to share a sneak peak at the re-sults with BTI readers.

A “Wordle” created from all answers to the question, “When you think of the Ecology Action Centre, what comes to mind?” Wordle sizes words according to the number of times they appear in the answers. We removed the words “environmental,” “environment” and “organization” (each appeared so many times that they made the other words tiny!) and the Wordle application automatically removes common words like “of” and “the”.

How long have you been an EAC member?

Less than a year

1 to 3 years

4 to 5 years

6 to 10 years

11 to 20 years

21 to 30 years

More than 30 years

Answered question: 308 Skipped question: 23

Age of our membership Answered question: 291 Skipped question: 40

Under 18

19-25

26-35

36-45

46-60

Over 60

67% of respondents were female, 32% were male, and 1% indicated other.

Congratulations to Nova Scotia’s environmentalists for yourprogress over the past 4 years:

• the only province to see an increase in farms since 2009.

• one of the strongest pesticide bans in Canada. • moving Nova Scotia off coal after decades of government inaction.

• a hard cap on greenhouse gas emissions to fight climate change.

• exceeding the United Nations goal of 12% protected land in NS. Keep Nova Scotia moving forward.

www.hammerheaddesign.ca

Have you done any of the following in the past year? (Please check all that apply.)

Donated to another charitable organization or cause

Volunteered for another charitable organization or cause

Participated in a public meeting on a community issue

Written a letter to the editor of a newspaper

Participated in a fundraising event

Boycotted a product or company

Attended a protest

Organized an event or formed a group around an issue

Worked to elect someone because of their environmental views

Voted for someone because of their environmental views

88.6%

58.6%

53.1%

15.9%

58.6%

65.5%

32.4%

16.6%

14.1%

54.1%

No more reminder calls

Make Action Your Middle Name – Become a Monthly

Contributing Member!

Maximize Your Impact

Give any amount

add your voice

pagefifteen

The Mighty MouseBy Heather Hunter

Many social justice and environmen-tal groups are recognizing the potential of social media to spread their message and invite the participation of broad audiences. Some organizations, nota-bly Avaaz and Change.org, (internet-based global activism groups) have had success in turning online activism into real world changes. Avaaz has run hun-dreds of campaigns where people from around the globe come together to sign petitions, send emails, or make calls to political or influential figures to demand action on issues as diverse as opposing media monopolies, sex trafficking, and banning bee-killing pesticide use in Europe. Avaaz members also have the option to donate funds to support ini-tiatives like providing communication equipment such as satellite phones and cameras to activists in Syria so that vid-eos could be posted online of the gov-ernment crackdown. The Ecology Ac-tion Centre recently used Change.org to lead a campaign to protect porbeagle sharks, collecting over 21,000. Although the porbeagle shark petition did not achieve its stated goal, many organiza-tions and front-line activists consider the support of this online community crucial in moving actions forward. Slacktivism and its convenience are probably not going anywhere any time soon, and looking down upon “slacktiv-ist” techniques is likely not the answer for addressing the social and environ-mental challenges we face. The planet needs more people to become involved in activism, not to discourage people who care because their attempts at get-ting involved are not “good enough.” Instead, slacktivism should become the gateway into more direct, informative, and effective forms of activism. Ideally organizers of events and more experi-enced activists should take advantage of the slacktivist trend and create op-portunities for slacktivists to bridge into longer-term commitments to personal change and public action. Heather is a regular BTI contributor and a researcher at the Food Action Re-search Centre at Mount Saint Vincent University.

Slacktivism. We see examples of this every day: sharing an inspirational You-Tube video, changing a profile picture, or “liking” a status to support a social or environmental cause are all examples. Such acts require minimal personal ef-fort from the slacktivist, and it is argued they are more of a personal “feel good” measure that does little to support the actual issue or cause. The term also sug-gests an apprehension that easy, online mechanisms for supporting a cause will come to replace more substantive activ-ist actions, rather than contributing to or supplementing them. The jury is still out on whether this term is a fair ap-praisal of the online activism trend. Opponents argue that slacktivism can reduce real-life activist efforts. In an editorial recently published in the New Scientist, the author suggests that online slacktivism can have surprising real-life implications. Some studies have shown, for example, that if an individual signs an online petition in support of a cause, they may be less likely to contribute to the cause financially or attend a real-life protest. Slactivism can be worrisome for organizations that rely on charitable do-nations, and Unicef for one has respond-ed with an advertising campaign that tells viewers that Facebook “likes” don’t save lives. Unicef Sweden’s Director of Communications, Petra Hallebrant, is quoted as saying, “We like likes, and social media could be a good first step to get involved, but it cannot stop there. Likes don’t save children’s lives. We need money to buy vaccines, for instance.” Even when online gestures such as changing one’s profile picture are accom-panied by actions such as turning off the lights during Earth Hour, this is still con-sidered slacktivism. Both of these actions

can be relegated to the arena of symbolic gestures that make one feel better for having participated, but do little to solve the underlying problems. As described at Urbandictionary.com, slacktivism is “The search for the ultimate feel-good that de-rives from having come to society’s res-cue without having had to actually gets one’s hands dirty or open one’s wallet. It’s slacktivism that prompts us to eschew buying gasoline on a particular day rather than reduce our personal consumption of fossil fuels by driving less.” Traditional activists may be especially annoyed with slacktivists and perceive them as “do-gooders” who try to elevate themselves morally, while in reality achieving noth-ing more than the non-slacktivist. While slacktivism may help people to feel like they have “done their part” without having actually done much, the reverse could also be true. Research also shows that slacktivists engage in twice as many activities as non-slacktivist social media users, and that their actions have a higher potential to influence others. And while social media gestures and small ac-tions are not the solutions to problems, they do show that people care. At the very least, caring is better than the alternative of apathy or silence in the face of the multitude of important social and envi-ronmental challenges we are facing. Slacktivism can have other benefits as well. For example, it can create oppor-tunities for those who may be physically unable to leave their homes to connect with others and participate in action and dialogue. In authoritarian or repressive countries, the act of liking, RSVPing, or adopting a symbol or slogan as part of one’s profile picture can be defiant acts. Journalist Courtney C. Radsch argues that even such low level engagement was an important form of activism for Arab youth before and during the Arab Spring because it was a form of free speech and could successfully spark mainstream media coverage. Additionally, social and environmental champions in any locale can use social media to be immediately responsive to emerging concerns and engage in dialogue that can be elevated into action.

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In Whose Backyard?By Sam Fraser

will show the locations of indigenous Black and Mi’kmaq communities, the locations of toxic industries and landfills, and the data that was gath-ered after the workshops. Community members will be able to participate in a forum and upload their own quan-titative and qualitative research to the map. Both the map and the report will be presented to government with the intent to establish future best practices and new environmental regulations. Waldron and her team will start a social and traditional media campaign to keep the conversation going. Once created, the ownership of the map and the report will be given back to the communities who need it. “Ev-erything we produce should be owned by the community,” says Waldron. These tools will be in the hands of the community members who began the discussion, rather than with politicians or academics. Waldron has embraced the princi-ples of Community Based Participatory Research and Participatory Action Re-search. The report she creates will em-body the experiences and the priorities of the affected community members. The community members she and her team meet with are not simply research subjects but active participants–they choose and direct the project, not the research team. The output of the project will be given back to the community to be used again and again to build mo-mentum around the issue of environ-mental racism. It will not be turned into the government only to sit on a shelf gathering dust, ignored. Sam Fraser is a board member at the Ecology Action Centre and owner of ta-bletop game design company Grow Giant Games.

Dr. Ingrid Waldron has a hypoth-esis. She thinks that when indigenous Black and Mi’kmaq communities of Nova Scotia voice their opposition to toxic industries that are operating in their neighbourhoods, they are not be-ing heard. As a result, members of those communities are suffering higher than normal rates of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and cancer mortality when compared to the rest of the prov-ince. She doesn’t believe Nova Scotian political leaders are deliberately ignor-ing these communities;rather, they choose to support other communities first. “When you do nothing, that’s a deci-sion,” says Waldron, an assistant profes-sor in Dalhousie’s School of Nursing. She has put together a team to explore and draw attention to the underlying issue of environmental racism. Her re-search project begins with five half-day workshops held in indigenous Black and Mi’kmaq communities around the province, culminating in a single full-day workshop in Halifax. The results of the workshop series will be used to direct the next phase of the research. The data collected will be added to an interactive map developed by her re-search coordinator and presented to the provincial government. Her goal is to influence environmental policy and regulations, to start a province-wide discussion, and to put environmental racism at the top of the province’s pri-ority list. “Who are you choosing to support? What do they look like?” Waldron asks. She says Black communities are “largely excluded” from the decision making processes that will affect their future. The Mi’kmaq community’s knowledge of and dependence on the land and sea are being ignored when decisions are made. She writes in an earlier article for Between the Issues that “higher rates of cancer in Aboriginal and Indigenous Black communities can be attributed to these communities proximity to

toxic industries and, consequently, their greater exposure to toxins, contami-nants, and pollutants.” Waldron will use the workshops, planned for September, to rally these communities and build momentum around the issue. Called “In Whose Backyard?”, they will create an oppor-tunity for community members to dis-cuss health concerns, both now and in the past, and share strategies. Speakers from within the community will lead the discussion. Community partners, including the Ecology Action Centre, will contribute to the workshops and the research project that follows. Wal-dron hopes that new relationships will form, and new methods of dealing with environmental injustices will arise. The researchers will record the re-sults of the discussion and gather data on the community makeup and loca-tion, including the proximity to toxic industries like mining and forestry op-erations and landfills. The experiences of community members will be docu-mented by on-site video booths and by harvesting information from the discus-sions using methods such as World Cafe and Dotmocracy. After the workshops are completed, the next phase of the research proj-ect will begin. The research team will decide what to act on based directly on what was brought up during the workshops. Potentially, they could be measuring cancer rates near Boat Har-bour in Pictou County, or Lincolnville in Guysborough County, but it is the members of the affected communities who will ultimately set the priorities. The data will be compiled into a report under the project title Environmen-tal Noxiousness, Racial Inequities and Community Health, or ENRICH. The results of this phase of the re-search will be added to a map being developed by Dave Ron, ENRICH Re-search Co-ordinator and member of the Nova Scotia Public Interest Research Group (NSPIRG). This interactive map

Leonard Preyra, MLA Halifax Citadel- Sable Islandpreyra.ca 444-3238

Maureen MacDonald, MLA Halifax Needhammaureenmacdonald.ca 455-2926

Howard Epstein, MLA Halifax Chebuctohowardepstein.ca 425-8521

A strong voice for sustainability and the environment.

Are you interested in your province doing its part to fight climate change? Nova Scotia has increased its renewable energy goal for electricity to 40% by 2020 and put hard caps on greenhouse gas emissions.

Action on renewable energy, climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, pesticides, wilderness protection, bike safety, energy efficiency and buying local.

This move was recognized by The David Suzuki Foundation as one of the top five best moves on climate change in Canada.

For information on steps you can take in HRM or across the province to help, visit www.gov.ns.ca/nse

pageseventeen

Vive la RadioBy Emma Boardman

very short notice,” says Jennifer. Many people have made the show possible, from the Radio staff, to special guests, to the volunteer co-hosts. “We have been fortunate to work with awesome volunteers. Our current co-host is Au-rélie Boyer, who responded to a call on the EAC volunteer list. In between her work as a green building consultant, she finds time to help with every aspect of the show, from looking for guests, to fill-ing out the time sheet, to interviewing people,” says Jocelyne. Though the show is currently wrap-ping up for the summer, the co-hosts are already making plans for new speakers and topics in the fall. It looks like we can look forward to a new season of La Vie Verte starting in September, with fresh perspectives and energy. And any one of us may end up becoming a part of it. “We’d love more people from the envi-ronmental community to come out and suggest new topics and speakers for the show,” says Jennifer. “The French com-munity is alive and vibrant in this prov-ince, and many people have expertise or experiences to share,” agrees Jocelyne, making it clear that La Vie Verte is, and will always be, a grassroots, community-run show.

What topics does La Vie Verte cover? “What don’t we talk about?” jokes Joc-elyne Rankin, co-host of the French lan-guage radio show which airs Thursdays on Radio Halifax Métro. “We interview people who are doing innovative and in-teresting things,” says Jocelyne. The show was born out of an inter-est in connecting Nova Scotia’s Fran-cophone community to environmen-tal and social justice issues. In January 2011, Vicky van Aelst, head of CKRH Radio Halifax Métro, approached Jenni-fer Graham of the Ecology Action Cen-tre (EAC) and Isabelle LeVert-Chiasson of the Heartwood Institute with an idea for a French language radio show about environmental and social justice issues. They were intrigued by the opportunity. “It was at the time when the EAC was starting to work on diversity. I wanted to help bring good French programming and information on environmental top-ics to the francophone community. And I liked the idea of being able to work in French,” says Jennifer. Isabelle has since moved on from the show, and Jocelyne has taken her place as co-host. “I like the range of guests we inter-view on the show. For example, for our show on food in the North End, we in-terviewed someone from the Charcuterie Ratinaud on Gottingen Street as well as someone from the Community Carrot Co-op,” says Jennifer. La Vie Verte has featured musical guests, from the French

Nova Scotian singer Mary Beth Carty or the group Bette et Ouellette to the Can-ada World Youth delegation from In-donesia, who performed an Indonesian folk song on the air. Other guests have included filmmakers and authors, peace activists, and a biologist who trains dogs to identify species at risk. Another key factor in guest choice, of course, is fluency in French. Jennifer and Jocelyne pull guests from their ex-isting pool of contacts, as well as invit-ing people they meet through work and events to come on the show. “It’s a great way to meet new people and spark con-versations,” says Jennifer. “If we detect a hint of a French accent, or suspect some-one might speak some French, we jump on it!” says Jocelyne. The hosts have also enjoyed watching their second-language French guests refresh their confidence in speaking French. They mention one guest who was apprehensive about con-ducting her first interview in French. “She was really nervous about coming on the show and almost backed out. We managed to convince her that she could do it and she did great once the inter-view started,” says Jocelyne. “We’ve had some amazing people agree to be on the show, sometimes with

La vie verte co-host Jocelyne Rankin (right) with the show’s guest, Suzanne Gauthier (left), francophone artist and aspiring botanist and mycologist. Missing from photo Jen Graham and Aurélie Boyer

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Take Action:

• Listen to La Vie Verte on Thursdays at 12 noon on Radio Halifax Métro (CKRH-FM 98.5 www.ckrhfm.ca)

• The hosts are always open to new ideas for topics and speakers for the show. Send suggestions to lavievertehalifax @gmail.com

Allan Robertson has been all around the world. He’s lived in Canada in Fred-ericton and Toronto; abroad in the UK, the Caribbean and Central America, and points as far away as Africa, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. Born and raised in Halifax, he still calls the city home. While the challenges of establishing sustainable ecological practices here in Nova Scotia are obvious, Robertson’s experience is with sharing that ethic in the developing world. Robertson spent 30 years as a man-agement consultant and his last four years of employment as manager of the Bangladesh Environmental Management Project (BEMP). The nine-year, $13 mil-lion project was funded by the Canadian International Development Agency and included a large team of about 20 Ca-nadian and about 30 Bangladeshi experts in the environmental management field. He managed the project from 2001 until his retirement in 2004. The project office was in Dhaka, Ban-gladesh, within the offices of the Min-istry of Environment. “All Canadian consultants worked closely with Ban-gladeshi Department of Environment (DOE) staff in planning and executing the various elements of the project,” Robertson says. Working in a foreign state with cul-tural differences and structural challeng-

es brought many difficulties, beginning with the initial attitude by senior DOE staff, according to Robertson character-ized by two questions, “’Who are these Canadians?’ and ‘What do they know of Bangladeshi environmental problems?’” Senior DOE officers faced heavy work-loads trying to enact and enforce envi-ronmental standards in a large, popu-lous country grappling with poverty, endemic corruption, and political insta-bility. Robertson had problems, namely “getting their time and support, initially. Once there was significant buy-in, how-ever, the challenges became overcoming expectations that BEMP [would] do more than it can, and managing antici-pations that the project would solve all DOE problems.” BEMP was tasked with a lofty agenda. A strategic plan gave DOE management a strong sense of mission and great cred-ibility with senior government agencies when budget time came around. “DOE was the only government department in Bangladesh with such a plan, so they generally got what they asked for,” Rob-ertson remembers. The policy and legal reform com-ponent had two major thrusts: writing environmental laws and regulations, as well as ensuring that industries com-plied with the regulations. The environ-mental law portion included working directly with legal experts in Bangladesh and bringing over a number of Canadi-an environmental lawyers and a judge to work with DOE staff in strengthening Bangladeshi environmental laws. The compliance portion involved training DOE staff in inspections, investigations, evidence, and court procedures. There were a number of demonstra-tion projects to show how best to design and implement environmental strategies. Two of the most successful dealt with air pollution and water pollution. The air pollution project involved the feasibility of converting two-stroke auto-rickshaws to much cleaner compressed natural gas. It was exceedingly successful, and it re-sulted in virtually all of the thousands

being greenAllan Robertson: Challenges and Results in Bangladesh

By Jonathan Rotsztain of auto-rickshaws in the city being con-verted, with a significant decrease in air pollution throughout Dhaka. The other major demonstration project identified natural ways of dealing with the signifi-cant pollution from Bangladesh’s many textile mills. The dyeing process (us-ing inexpensive chemical dyes banned in most countries) created huge pollu-tion problems throughout much of the country. Two facilities were constructed: a model textile-dyeing facility and a model water-analysis laboratory. The model textile mill was operated by local textile business people, with a focus on minimization of both inputs and wastes, as well as reed-bed technologies for ex-traction of metallic pollutants from the dye wastewater. The model laboratory included training of local DOE person-nel on how to operate it. The Environmental Initiatives Fund financed local groups in solving lo-cal environmental problems. Projects included initiatives in vermiculture, production of bio-gas, traditional com-posting, local gardening, solid waste management, clinical waste manage-ment, salt water intrusion, and erosion of coastal ecosystems. Resource information systems in-cluding an email system, a website with an extensive resource library, and other initiatives meant DOE was equipped with the data it needed to do its job.Human resource development helped DOE ensure the availability of quali-fied staff with the attitudes, knowledge, competencies, and skills required to fulfill the mandate. “Once a few key senior DOE managers realized that the Canadians weren’t ‘Great White Fathers’ like some other consultants from other countries, things became much easier,” Robertson says. “They realized that we weren’t there to garner accolades, but to work side-by-side with our Bangladeshi counterparts to get the job done.” “There were always constant smaller problems, like ensuring that core DOE officers (rather than just high-ranking officers) benefited from our actions, en-

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A Lebanese take on some of the finest ingredients our Maritime summer has to of-fer, fattoush salad highlights all that is fresh and cooling in the perfect summer salad. Thanks to the tomatoes, peppers, and parsley, you can feel good about getting your fair share of Vitamin A and C. Parsley also happens to pack a pretty large punch when it comes to iron; roughly four times more than Popeye’s famous spinach. I love that this salad isn’t afraid to bring on the fresh herbs and replace the more often used ice-berg lettuce. The dressing stores wonderfully in the fridge, so while you’re at it, make extra to use throughout the week. It’s great on almost any salad or as a quick way to add zing to your seasonal veggies and grain dishes. Enjoy!

SaladIngredients: 2 medium cucumbers, with skin 3 cups chopped tomatoes (I like using cherry or grape and slicing them in half ) 2 red bell peppers, chopped 6 green onions, chopped 1 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley ¾ cup chopped mint Toasted whole-wheat pita, brown rice tortilla, or crunchy cracker of choice

SaladDressingIngredients: ¼ cup extra virgin cold-pressed olive oil ¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice zest of 1 lemon (organic, unwaxed if possible) 1 tsp. raw liquid honey or maple syrup 2 – 4 cloves garlic, minced a couple pinches of sea salt a pinch or two of black pepper

Directions:

• Wash all veggies and chop into bite-sized pieces. Wash and spin-dry herbs, then chop. Place in a large bowl. • Put all the salad dressing ingredients in a jar with a light-fitting lid and shake. • Pour dressing over salad and toss. This salad is at its best if left to sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes, allowing the flavours to meld. • Right before serving, crumble toasted pita overtop and fold into salad. Dig in!

Recipe adapted from mynewroots.org

Julia Kemp is a Registered Holistic Nutritional Consultant working with clients to boost their health, increase their food knowledge, and expand their cooking skills.

seasonal gourmetFattoushSaladBy Julia Kemp, RHN

suring that activities were attuned to the skill and knowledge levels of DOE staff, achieving an appropriate gender balance among Bangladeshi consultants, ensur-ing that long-term capacity development in DOE was not compromised because most of the work was concentrated on a few core participants, and generally ad-justing to the pace of Bangladeshi pro-cesses and procedures,” Robertson says. “Overall, the project fitted my ex-pectations of what a green project is all about. Its focus was on using simple, appropriate-technology applications to solve very real environmental pollution problems,” Robertson concludes. “The buy-in by Bangladeshi partners (techni-cal, political, and bureaucratic) was very satisfying. And the results we accom-plished together were great.” Jonathan is a freelance writer and graphic designer in West Dublin, NS.

nicemoves

9028176007juleschamberlain.ca

agentimmobilier/realtor®

plant it comes from, it is best to either avoid it or ask the company directly what exactly it contains.

As if all that isn’t bad enough news, here’s some more. Even “sustainably certified” palm oil is controversial. It is certified by the Roundtable on Sustain-able Palm Oil (RSPO). Greenpeace and other conservation groups believe there are significant loopholes in the certifica-tion rules which prevent the certifica-tion from having any real clout against unsustainable practices. Greenpeace’s re-cent publication, A Dirty Business (avail-able for download at http://www.green-peace.org/international/dirty-business/) documents how one palm oil producer, and member of the RSPO, has been clearing land that is supposedly protect-ed under the Indonesian government’s moratorium on deforestation.

Thankfully, there is some good news. As ubiquitous as palm oil seems, there are plenty of products without it. Check ingredients lists for palm oil and its de-rivatives. Processed foods are more likely to have it than simple, unprocessed foods. Don’t buy products containing palm oil, but more importantly, if you find out a product you used to like con-tains palm oil, write to the company and express your concerns. That way, they know why they’re losing your busi-ness, and if enough people do it, maybe they’ll be inspired to change.

-Ecohead

DearEcoHead

I always try to buy organic, cruelty-free beauty products, but recently I found out that there is palm oil in some of these so-called natural products, and it is killing orangutans! Is this true? Help!

-Distraught Vegan

DearDistraught,

Sadly, this is true. It’s a plant, so palm oil is technically vegan and natural. The problem is, huge tracts of rainforests in Indonesia, Borneo, and Malaysia are be-ing cleared to make room for palm tree plantations. Orangutans are at serious risk of extinction if the current rate of deforestation continues, and they’re not the only ones affected. Tigers, elephants, sun bears, gibbons, and other species are also losing their habitat. The massive loss of rainforest also makes a significant difference in global climate change.

Palm oil is found in a whole lot of stuff because it is a good preservative. It’s in ice creams, chocolate bars, sham-poos, soaps, mascaras, crackers, peanut butters, margarine, and cereals, some of which are even labelled natural, organic, vegan, or even cruelty-free. On top of that, one of the biggest markets for palm oil now is biodiesel. How disheartening to discover you might be doing more overall harm to the world’s environment by using biodiesel than by driving a reg-ular petroleum-run car.

To make it even more confusing, sometimes there is palm oil in an in-gredient listed as something else. If it contains an ingredient derived from the word palm, such as palmitate, or the scientific species name for palm, Elaeis Guineensis, it definitely contains palm oil. Then there are products that may or may not be derived from palm oil. Veg-etable oil, sodium laureth sulphate, and stearic acid are some of the most com-mon. If a product lists one of those as an ingredient and doesn’t specify which

ask ecoheadpagetwenty-one

SweetLaytheHay

by Lois Brison-Brown

Sweet lay the hayAnd hazy the light throughThe loft windowHigh and full the yieldOf a good yearRelief for answered prayerCome in soft sighs of hallelujah

Heavy leather harnesses are hungOn sweat stained pegsOf the granary wall,Its bin so fullThe oats leak out from the chuteLike crumbs fallingFrom hungry mouths.

The mice nibble hurried feastsWhile the cat bides her timeWatching the kittens play.In the distance the cow bells clink closer,Chiming to the radio’s familiar tuneAs warm wet cloths and new straw; Scoured buckets and careful handAwait the homeward herd.

Sweet Lay the Hay is featured in Open Heart Farming: The Second Seeding, an annual journal of poems on food & farm-ing by Nova Scotians. The publication is curated by Mary Ellen Sullivan and pub-lished by Donal Power, who are both on the EAC’s Food Action Committee. Pick up your free copy at the EAC or find it on-line at www.ohForgery.com.

action in verse

La Vie en VertWelcometoour“greensocietypage”whereweprovideyouwithaninspiring(andpleasantlygreentinged)viewofrecenthappeningsintheEACcommunity.

GardenParty

Musicians from the Halifax Music Co-op play at our Annual Garden Party on June 2.

BlueNose

Hector and the Green Avengers really took the cake this year at the Bluenose Mara-thon, ranking second among 83 participating charities, and raising a record-break-ing $20,000 for the EAC (plus, they did it in costume)! Congratulations to a stellar team!

Spacerejigging

Jordan Nikoloyuk continues his day-to-day work in the midst of chaos, as the EAC office building under-goes renovations to accommodate staff while we ex-plore longer-term options for office space.

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EAC CONTACT LIST

CorEStAFF

Policy Director: Mark Butler 429-5287 action@ecologyaction.caManaging Director: Maggy Burns 429-5287 centre@ecologyaction.ca Internal Director: Louise Hanavan 429-5287 ecology@ecologyaction.caFinancial Director: Carla Vandenberg 442-0254 eac@ecologyaction.caOffice Coordinator: Julia McRae 442-0254 julia@ecologyaction.ca Events Planner and Volunteer Coordinator: Tamar Eylon 442-0198 events@ecologyaction.ca Administrative Assistant: Cormekia Clayton 429-2202 info@ecologyaction.caWeb Manager: Emma Boardman 429-2202 web@ecologyaction.caMembership Coordinator: Ryan O’Quinn 429-2202 ryan@ecologyaction.caBetween the Issues: betweentheissues@ecologyaction.ca

CommIttEES/ProjECtStAFFBuilt EnvironmEnt

Our HRM Coordinator: Jen Powley 429-0924 hrm@ecologyaction.ca

Coastal and WatEr issuEs

Coastal Coordinator: Jen Graham 442-5046 coastal@ecologyaction.caFreshwater Coordinator: Jocelyne Rankin 442-5046 water@ecologyaction.caGroundwater Coordinator: Jennifer West 442-5046 groundwater@ecologyaction.ca Restoration Coordinator: Ashley Sprague 442-5046 coastaloutreach@ecologyaction.ca

EnErgy issuEs

Regional Energy Coordinator: Catherine Abreu 422-0199 acsec@ecologyaction.caRenewable Energy Coordinator: Wayne Groszko 422-0199 solargain@ecologyaction.caEnergy Efficiency Coordinator: Emma Norton 422-0199 efficiency@ecologyaction.ca

Food aCtion Food Connections Project Coordinator: Marla MacLeod 442-1077 foodaction@ecologyaction.ca Community Food Coordinator (Cumberland): Su Morin su@ecologyaction.caCommunity Food Programmer: Will Hill 442-1077 will@ecologyaction.caYouth Food Programmer: Georgia McNeil 442-1077 georgia@ecologyaction.caCommunity Food Researcher: Miranda Cobb 442-1077 miranda@ecologyaction.caCommunity Food Coordinator: Aimee Carson 442-1077 aimee@ecologyaction.ca

marinE issuEs

SeaChoice Altantic Coordinator: Rob Johnson 446-4840 rob@ecologyaction.caMarine Communications Coordinator: Sadie Beaton 446-4840 sadie@ecologyaction.caMarine Conservation Coordinator: Shannon Arnold sharnold@ecologyaction.caMarine Conservation Coordinator: Susanna Fuller 446-4840 marine@ecologyaction.caSustainable Fisheries Coordinator: Jordan Nikoloyuk 446-4840 jordan@ecologyaction.caMarine Campaign Coordinator: Katie Schleit 442-0999 kschleit@ecologyaction.caCommunity Supported Fisheries Coordinator: David Adler 442-0999 dadler@ecologyaction.ca Marine Issues Project Staff: Heather Grant 442-0999 heatherg@ecologyaction.ca

transportation issuEs

Active Transportation Coordinator: Janet Barlow 442-5055 transportation@ecologyaction.ca Youth Active Transportation Coordinator (Mainland NS): Jennifer McGowan 442-5055 walk@ecologyaction.ca Youth Active Transportation Coordinator (Cape Breton - Eastern NS): Jennifer Morrison stp-cb@ecologyaction.caGo Maritimes Coordinator: Wayne Groszko 422-0199 solargain@ecologyaction.caOur HRM Coordinator: Jen Powley 429-0924 hrm@ecologyaction.caTransportation Projects Officer: Emma Boardman pacecar@ecologyaction.ca

WildErnEss issuEs

Wilderness Coordinator: Raymond Plourde 442-5008 wilderness@ecologyaction.ca

StaffSnippets

The EAC office has been abuzz with spring cleaning, as we clear out and reorganize to accommodate our growing team. When you stop by the office in the next couple of months, you’ll notice some of our ad-aptations, ranging from office-swapping to a smaller board room upstairs!

While we were sad to lose our enthusiastic Finan-cial Assistant, Susan Johnstone, at the end of June, things are in good hands as Office Coordinator, Julia McRae, takes on some financial responsibilities in her newly-revised role of Office Manager. The opera-tions team is also joined by Cormekia Clayton, our fabulous new Administrative Assistant.

We are happy to welcome back former Internal Di-rector Maggy Burns from a year-long leave of ab-sence, during which time she had the opportunity to pick up new skills ideas by working at Phoenix Youth. Maggy returns to a new title, Managing Di-rector, and Louise Hanavan continues her role as In-ternal Director on a part-time basis, adding capacity to the leadership team until October.

The food team has geared up for a busy summer with the addition of Jason Parisè in the Halifax office and Josh Best in the Cumberland office. In the mean-time, Forestry Coordinator Matt Miller is taking full advantage of summer by spending more time in the woods, taking a six-month leave of absence from his office job at the EAC.

EVENTS

For more information, visit www.ecologyaction.ca

International Walk to School Month: October

www.saferoutesns.ca (click IWALK)

Making Tracks train-the-trainer sessions:

ongoingLearn the Making Tracks program to teach children and youth cycling, skateboarding, inline skating and pedestrian safety skills.

Training opportunities and direct programs throughout the summer and fall.

www.saferoutesns.ca (click the Making Tracks icon)

According to our membership survey - 86 percent had read BTI

- 72 percent read every issue (16 percent read 2 of 3 per year, and 8 percent read 1 per year)- 70 percent read BTI in paper format and 30 percent read online

- when asked if the content interests them, 23 percent said “Always”, 55 percent said “Most of the time” & 20 percent said “Sometimes”

Recent EAC Successes:• Celebrated the completion of Community Compass, an Eco-Art project in the schoolyard of St. Joseph’s Alexander MacKay school

• Hosted seven days of fun-filled events for Oceans Week at the beginning of June

• Engaged Antigonish residents in discussing the future of efficient energy use and sustainable production

• Presented the new climate change film, Do the Math to over 60 people. If you missed it, you can watch the film online for free!

• Launched a toolkit on community climate change adaptation based on our work in Cheticamp.

If sending a void cheque please sign above.