McMaster Innovation Park (MIP) Tour

Nov 28th-Thanks to the staff at the MIP for a wonderful tour.CEO, Zach Douglas gave a presentation of the history of Innovation Park then show the group around the Atrium and the CANMET-MTL building. There was a focus on the renewable energies being employed as well as what makes the building a model of sustainability.

Hamilton Climate Change Charter

Environment Hamilton participated in the development of the Hamilton Climate Action Charter. This is an exciting development as Hamilton will be the first community in Ontario to create such a Charter.  A copy of this Charter can be downloaded from the Hamilton Climate Change Champions web site. Many Hamilton organizations are signing up,  and you can too as an individual, family, organization or business through the Hamilton Climate Change Champions website.

​The Charter was signed by Mayor Bob Bratina on behalf of the City of Hamilton on Wednesday October 26th 2011.

The Council of Canadians has developed resources at systemchange.ca to discuss the changes needed for the community to reduce the impact our current way of life has on the earth's climate. Localization of the economy, reduction of fossil fuel use and a change from a "growth economy" are all discussed.

Building Community Power Co-operatively

If you are interested in decentralizing power generation in our community, and if you are interested in investing in community power generation (solar and wind) then get involved with the HHEAT project (Hamilton Halton Energy Awareness Team). Check out the Environment Hamilton website and the HHEAT blog for details and updates.

Living the Environment Conference 7

Our Katimavik volunteer is fantastic!

Meditation Workshop

This workshop took place on October 26th at first Unitarian Church Hamilton on Dundurn St. South.

We learned the basics of meditation with instructor Kelly Hilton.

About the Instructor:
Kelly Hilton’s experience in meditation began through yoga training in the Hindu community. Realizing
the many benefits of meditation, Kelly expanded her knowledge by attending numerous workshops and
retreats on topics including meditation philosophy, meditation as life-style, raw foodism, and pranayama
(breath control). Over the last 16 years, Kelly has maintained an intensive Ashtanga yoga practice.

Do you have your tickets for the 10th Anniversary Celebration

For tickets visit:
http://www.environmenthamilton.org/

Volunteers at the Westdale Culture Day Festival, October 1st

Thanks to our volunteers, Nadia, Emma, Reem, Joy and Maria!

Hamilton Naturalist Club

Sept-24th- Jen Baker came out from the Hamilton Naturalist Club and shared a talk with the youth group on how our youth group could work with the Naturalist club. She talked about habitat restoration, removing invasive species, documenting healthy trees and on the club's properties as possible volunteer and learning opportunities.
She talked about the North end project (restoring Nature in Hamilton's north end) that we could as a group help expand on- into a more naturalized area that would benefit the urban environment.

She also mentioned Falcon Watch and other programs they have. We are invited to go out on a hike to the sanctuaries and they can organize a bus ride.

Volunteers Rock at Open Streets

Volunteers at SuperCrawl 2011

Volunteer Appreciation/Open House September 9th

Thanks for coming out! We appreciate you, dear volunteers.

Poster Making Workshop

Aug 16th-Another poster making workshop. Thanks to Davey Hamada and his pal Justin for teaching us how to create our own posters using Publisher. We also gained two new members!

DIY Natural Body Care Products

August 6-
A big thank you goes out to Amina Suhrwardy, natural body care products maverick,extraordinaire for the fantastic workshop she lead on making sun screen and a lovely facial scrub too. We learned so much and EH gained two new members!

Sewage Sludge – A Messy Problem

The city of Hamilton continues to grapple with what to do over the long term with the 40,000 tonnes of wet sewage sludge produced each year at the Woodward Ave Sewage Treatment Plant (STP).
Sludge is generated as a result of contributions from you and me and every other Hamiltonian who flushes a local toilet. Add to the toilet flushing the fact that many local industries also discharge their wastewater into our sewer system, and you end up with a big, messy problem with no easy solutions. The sludge generated at our centralized sewage treatment plant is laced with everything from pharmaceutical drugs and pathogens to heavy metals and other toxic contaminants discharged from local industry.
This creates problems for final disposal of the sludge; whether you spread it on farm fields or burn it in an incinerator, contaminants found in the sludge can get out into the environment.


In the case of land application, the more contaminated the sludge is, the more limited your options are for final disposal. The Ontario Ministry of the Environment regulates the land application of sludge through requirements in the provincial Environmental Protection Act and the Nutrient Management
Act. Levels of heavy metals in the sludge, such as mercury, lead and cadmium, drive regulatory decisions regarding how much and how frequently a given municipality’s sludge can be spread on farm fields.
Visit www.ene.gov.on.ca/environment/en/subject/biosolids/ for detailed information on the province’s regulatory framework.

In the case of incineration and other thermal destruction technologies, Ontario’s Green Energy Act includes sewage sludge in the definition of ‘biomass’, which is categorized as renewable, green fuel.
This has led to a fast-tracking of the approvals for facilities that are proposed to generate energy-from-waste using sewage sludge as a fuel. The problem, however, is that sewage sludge is simply not a good source of energy as it exhibits a very low BTU value (BTU or ‘British Thermal Unit’ is the measurement of heat created by burning any material). Even with the best pollution control technologies, thermal destruction of sewage sludge results in the emission of contaminants including heavy metals and cancer-causing dioxins into our air.

City Council is currently divided over how to manage Hamilton’s sludge over the long term. The majority of councillors support incineration as the preferred long-term management solution. Yet to be determined is whether the city should build its own incinerator or whether a partnership should be
struck with Liberty Energy, the US-based company that has already secured approval to build a large (500,000 tonnes per year) gasification plant on Strathearne Avenue in our industrial core. Other councillors believe that Hamilton’s current practice of land-applying our sludge should continue as this is the most cost-effective option. Further, they argue, the quality of our sludge continues to improve through municipal efforts to eliminate contaminants, making Hamilton eligible to spread more sludge
more frequently on the fields of willing farmers.

Environment Hamilton continues to weigh in on the debate over the management of Hamilton’s sludge.
Right from the start, we have opposed the plans for Liberty Energy’s sludge gasification plant . We are concerned about the size of the Liberty facility and the fact that it is to be built down on Strathearne Avenue in an already compromised airshed. Hamilton’s industrial core can’t tolerate another source of air contaminants, even if that facility demonstrates that it will be in compliance with provincial air regulations. Ontario regulates air emissions on a facility-by-facility basis, without taking into consideration the cumulative effects of exposure to air contaminants. While this might work well in a
one-industry town, it’s not an adequate approach in an industrialized city like Hamilton. The air quality monitoring done as part of the approvals for the Liberty plant confirm that the facility will contribute substantially higher levels of pollutants than the smaller sludge incinerator being proposed by the city (see bar graphs). Further, the company plans to import sludge from municipalities as far as 70 km away, generating increased truck traffic in order to bring sludge to a facility that will discharge more contaminants into our compromised airshed. It’s worth noting that, at this point, the company has not yet succeeded in securing even one contract with another municipality.

But EH is also concerned about the implications of spreading sewage sludge on farm fields. While the province has rules in place to regulate this practice, the reality is that land application of sludge does result in contaminants getting into the environment and, some argue, into the crops grown on
those fields. We continue to push for the municipality to take measures to improve the quality of the industrial discharges making their way to the Woodward Avenue STP. On a positive note, our Public Works Department has reported that the quality of Woodward sludge has improved over the past 3
years, with testing confirming that levels of heavy metals in the sludge are decreasing. This is the result of a ramped up effort by the city to enforce its sewer use by-law. We applaud the city’s progress to date and encourage Public Works to continue with this effort.

We also believe the city could be doing other things with sewage sludge after proper conditioning.
Other municipalities are exploring a broader range of beneficial uses for their biosolids. This can include using biosolids to condition soil used to landscape brownfield sites, as a fertilizer in the forestry industry, or in other land reclamation activities. Utilizing the nutrients available in sewage sludge would seem to be a far more prudent practice than attempting to extract limited energy through thermal destruction of sludge via incineration or gasification. The soundness of this approach will become more obvious
as we approach ‘peak phosphorus’. The planet’s phosphorus reserves are running out, with estimates
that the planet will reach peak phosphorus in the next 30 to 40 years. When we reach this point, we will be actively searching for sources of phosphorus to fertilize our agricultural fields. It would seem prudent to invest some energy now into determining how to clean up our sewage sludge to the point
that the nutrients can be used safely. Some day we will be calling our cleaned up, conditioned sewage sludge ‘black gold’.

What can you do to help?
-Don’t ever flush expired pharmaceutical drugs down the toilet.
-Return expired pills to your local pharmacy or to one of the city’s municipal recycling centres where they will be accepted at no cost for proper disposal.
-Ensure that your household cleaners and personal care products are eco-friendly.
-Anything you flush down the toilet or drain out of a sink or bathtub ends up at the sewage treatment
plant.
-Using eco-friendly household cleaners, shampoos and soaps ensures that you are not contributing to the sludge contamination problem.
-Never dump old paint, varsol or other household chemicals down the drain. Use these items carefully – choose the most eco-friendly options out there. -And be sure to carefully collect up any liquid waste resulting from the use of these products and take to a municipal hazardous waste depot for proper disposal.

Eco Art with the Youth Group

July 24th-We had a good time making art out of materials that would otherwise have been discarded. Here are some of our creations:

And here we all are:

Volunteer and Climate Change Action

It's been a while since we blogged. We plan to blog more regularly from now on.
Just want to let you know that there are many opportunities for volunteering. Check out our website here:
http://environmenthamilton.org/view/page/Volunteer

Also, Hamilton 350 is looking for volunteers to help distribute flyers:

Hamilton is feeling gas pains at the pump.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ 

Please help us deliver fast acting relief.

The Hamilton 350 Committee for Effective Climate Change Action 

is distributing gas flyers

in Dundas on Wed., Jul. 20 and Sat., Jul. 23

from 2:00 - 4:00 p.m.

Our flyer offers tips on how to save $$$, and, more importantly,

make the connection between fossil fuel use and climate change. 

It is our experience they are well received.

You are warmly invited to join our distribution team on one or both days.

If you can spare us some time.

phone (905-560-9556) or e-mail (therebels_rands@mountaincable.net)

and Richard Reble will give you to directions to the place 

where the team will meet. 

Eat Local, Buy Local, Support Local

 

By Joy Liu-Youth group

At one of our first meetings, the members of the Environment Hamilton Youth group were all looking forward in the prospect of making a difference in the city.  

Our purpose was to reach out to our schoolmates and peers to encourage them to make greener choices.  We were all enthusiastic about the idea of creating videos.  Thus, our first project was born; a series of four short ‘commercials’ with the catchphrase, “Everything’s changing, what about you?”  We want to get across the idea of the ever growing green trend, focusing on the environmental movement in Hamilton. 

We were able to complete our first video with much hard work, dedication, and fun.  The co-op students at Bizclip also volunteered to help edit the video. We premiered at the Sir John A. Macdonald Environmental Film Night, which was focused on “Eating Local”.  Our video illustrated the nutritious value of local carrots versus the ‘exhausted’, nutrition depleted California carrots by making use of EH’s Climate Carrot costumes.  Two students adorned the costumes and competed against each other in jumping rope, pull-ups, push ups and a final race; all of which the California carrot was comically unsuccessful at.  We then showed clips of teenagers buying food from the Hamilton’s Farmer’s Market and working with urban farmer Russ Orht;digging a garden on the front lawn of city house.

Making the video was as entertaining as the finished product.  Next on our agenda is to create three more videos focused on clean transportation, “Refuse, Reuse, Remake”, and energy conservation and alternative energy.

From plastic bread bag to small money purse-May 19th 2011

 By Bronwyn Kay-youth

Diane Paquette is a highly skilled artisan and textile artist. She comes from a line of weavers originating in Quebec.

At a recent Environment Hamilton event people of all ages gathered together to learn the skill of weaving with plastic bags.

Diane talked about how she got started weaving plastics and gave us an overview about the different types of plastic bags.

Diane provided the participants with cardboard looms she had made and we learned how to make a change purse out of a wonder bread plastic bags.

They are very simple to make! As well as that it's a wonderful way of keeping plastic out of our seas and animals. We talked and laughed and had a wonderful time!

Wholesome Living at Whole Village

By Richard Reble, Volunteer and Member

    On Sat., Apr. 23, a group of seven hikers, including me, set out from the Credit River crossing on what was formerly called Hwy. 24 to hike a 7-km mix of country roads and woodland and wetland trails to a place called Whole Village.


Located on Shaw's Creek Rd. near Orangeville, Whole Village is an intentional community and eco-farm committed to sustainability, land stewardship, and harmonious communal relations.

    Unfortunately, our hiking group was an hour and a half late for our pre-scheduled visit, fatigued and famished, and my comrades had turned ugly because the leader, yours truly, had goofed in his calculation of the distance. A distance of five or six kilometres isn't a lot, but it is when it's unexpectedly added to what was supposed to be a total of eight or nine. Luckily, it was my first mistake in 2011 so I was able to readily forgive me, even if my fellow hikers couldn't.

    I was also lucky that it was Brenda Dolling who was our host and tour guide. This woman is a bundle of warmth, charm, energy, enthusiasm, knowledge, and experience. And she makes darn good brownies. As we ate our bagged lunches in the common area of Greenhaven, which is the name of Whole Village's eco-friendly, residential/meeting building, Brenda began our orientation session, during which the mood of the group gradually elevated, interest grew, and questions began to flow.

    What we learned is that Whole Village seeks to:
-be a welcoming, diverse community that celebrates what members share in common, always mindful of each other's individuality.
-balance mutual interdependence with the need for privacy and private ownership.
-foster shared leadership within the framework of a consensus model of governance.
-create a safe, supportive, and healthy place in which to raise children.
-be sustainable in all ways.
-integrate biodynamic, organic, permaculture and other ecologically sound farming principles in an economical manner.
-commit to the development of ties within the Village and with the local community and the world at large.

    What's not to like, I asked myself as we toured the property after Brenda's talk. Aren't these the principles preached by Environment Hamilton, the Dundas Transition Movement, and any number of other green organizations in our area? So why do I have reservations about joining their community? Partly because it would mean moving away from our children, grandchildren, and friends, but mostly, and frankly, because I'm not sure I could handle the communal, in-your-face part of the deal.

    Fortunately, it's not a decision that has to be made all at once, but only at the end of a process. Whole Village itself establishes the process by inviting interested parties to camp on site, stay at their b&b, or even rent a private suite for a longer term in order to get a feel for the lifestyle and participate in shared duties and events. The first step in the process is to go to Whole Village for the orientation session, as we did. If you and some others decide to take that first step, it could be arranged. In fact, don't be surprised if you soon see an invitation to join a bus tour.

    As we ended our tour of the property at the front door of Greenhaven, I thought that the only thing that would make the day perfect, apart from having made more precise measurements of the length our our hike, would be for Brenda to offer us a ride back to our cars. This was not a green wish, I know, but the road from "sinner" to "saint" has its ups and downs, so surely we can forgive ourselves the occasional one-foot slip downwards if it's followed by two-foot step upwards. And you know what? Brenda did just that. Perfect!  

Cheers, 
Richard Reble

P.S.  My wife and I are leaders of a local hiking club (no fees) callled Rebel Hikers. If you are interested in more information, write to us at therebels_rands@mountaincable.net
or call us at 905-560-9556 anytime before 9:00 p.m.

Green Bin Audit For Faith Group

 By Volunteer Enid Maria

My project investigated which places of worship in Hamilton were actively greening. I created a variety of lists based on contact information available from Environment Hamilton, as well as those within the Municipal database. I surveyed these institutions by asking them three questions. These included:

1.      Do you use the Green Cart?

a.       If no, would you be interested in using green carts?

2.      How many green carts do you use on a weekly basis?

3.      How many years have you been conducting this program within your institution.

I then presented the information which I collected into two accurately labeled excel files. One labeled as institutions that were already taking part in the program and the second labeled as places of worship that were interested in beginning the program and what resources they required. I processed these requests by inputting them into our municipal asset tracking database, which would ensure the delivery of these resources within three to five weeks.

By conducting this survey and creating these files, I was able to provide an asset tracking database for Environment Hamilton. This project conclusively demonstrated how productive these institutions were in actively greening. The result varied between those that were actively greening, those which were interested, and unfortunately those that were not interested at all.

The final results demonstrated that 58 % of faith groups and churches surveyed were actively greening, 40% were enthusiastic to start the program, and unfortunately 2% of faith groups and churches were not interested at all. Furthermore, results revealed that an average of one green cart per week for two years or more was used within institutions that were actively greening.

Twisted Cistern: Rain Barrel Making Workshop

Volunteer Sean Burak is hosting a hands-on barrel workshop on Sunday April 24 at 1pm. It will run till about 2pm and will go forward rain or shine.

The location is in downtown Hamilton - within walking distance to the Hunter Street GO Station.

Sean writes:

We will start by briefly discussing water conservation and rainwater collection and then we’ll get down to business.

I will have all of the parts and tools on hand, and together we will build a batch of rain barrels.

The workshop is free to watch. If you want to participate in building, the cost is $50 and you get to take your barrel home with you.

Due to the limited number of barrels and the limited space in my yard, RSVPs are required!

Please reserve your place by emailing me through the contact form and be sure to indicate whether you want to build a barrel to take home or whether you just want to watch. I will reply with confirmation of your spot as well as directions to my yard.

If you plan to take a barrel home, be sure you have a vehicle with enough space – the barrels are about 2 feet in diameter and 3 – 3.5 feet tall.

Thanks for your interest in rainwater collection!

Tree Lichen Monitoring - The Quick How-To Video

Thanks to Environment Hamilton staffer Katie Stiel for making this video on how to track air quality in your neighbourhood simply by tracking lichen quantity on the trees.

Fair Trade Hamilton

Free Fair Trade Coffee!

As part of our efforts to raise awareness about Fair Trade in Hamilton, we’ll be in the lobby of the Central Library from April 18 – April 20th, from 12 noon to 2pm, handing out information on Fair Trade along with free samples of fairly traded coffee.



Wednesday, April 20th - 7pm - Fireplace area - Central Branch - Hamilton Public Library

NiCHE (Network in Canadian History & Environment) presents:

Dr. Ken Cruikshank from McMaster University will be giving a presentation entitled,
"Clear Hamilton Of Pollution (CHOP): Environmentalism in the Era of the First Earth Day"

and Dr. Jim Clifford from York University will be presenting,
"From a Pastoral Wetland to an Industrial Wasteland, and Back Again? An Environmental History of the Lower Lea River
Valley, the Site of the 2012 London Olympics"

EH Executive Director Dr. Lynda Lukasik will also be there to say a few words about Fair Trade Hamilton, a new
initiative focused on getting Hamilton officially certified as a 'Fair Trade Town'. Free fairly traded coffee will be served, compliments of 10,000 Villages

Dundas Walkability Committee

Photo by Randy Kay

Our Intern Adam Pallett reports:

            

 In connection with the Dundas Eco-Motion Project, the Dundas Walkability Committee had their first meeting on Monday April 11^th, 2011 at the Dundas Town Hall. The meeting was attended by a very committed and enthusiastic group of Dundasians who engaged in some very helpful discussions regarding the current walkability issues in Dundas, and how they will proceed with the prioritized concerns. The group concluded that upon meeting with Russ Powers/City Staff, they would like to utilize the ‘Complete Streets’ framework and terminology when presenting discussing walkability concerns and potential solutions for them – for those who are not familiar with ‘Complete Streets’ please visit: http://www.completestreets.org/. 

All of the walkability concerns that the committee will work with will stem from the need for a more liveable/walkable Dundas that has ‘Complete Streets’.  The committee would very much like to advocate and work towards a ‘Complete Streets’ policy in Hamilton.

Thoughts of a Co founder by Marilyn Ronald-Volunteer

Brian McHattie, one of the founders of Environment Hamilton a decade ago, ranks the adoption of an environmental justice approach as its major achievement.

Environmental groups working in the city 10 years ago, “tended to be fairly low key. They weren’t as in your face as might be required.

A justice approach, “made the link that a lot of bad air quality, bad water, existed in areas of the city where there were also poverty and low income issues, areas where people didn’t have the same tools to fight Stelco and Dofasco. “It was giving these people the tools to record what they wee seeing and then gauge the legal process through the ministry of the environment to seek charge,” the Ward One councillor said.

 “To be frank, we needed an organization that would call a spade a spade and say that the air and water pollution that was occurring was unacceptable . . . Environment Hamilton took a bit more of a combative role. To me, that was the departure point from other environmental groups in town.”

He also recalls the Red Hill Expressway as a pivotal turning point. The work of environmental groups meant the highway was, “the most environmentally friendly road you could have got,” citing ecological monitoring, tree planting and natural stream channel design. “They spent many more millions of dollars on it than they otherwise would have.”

As Environment Hamilton enters its second decade, longstanding problems remain with some having the potential to become more acute. ‘A lot of the pollution issues are still there, the kind of stuff that’s been worked on for many decades. Lynda and EH are still having challenges with Dofasco, for example. There are various emissions they’re still not dealing with.

“On the land use side, there’s the urban boundary extension and potential loss of farmland.

“The other issue I think is important is biodiversity, the loss of species in the Hamilton area due to the loss of habitat, largely, or the quality of habitat. It’s an incremental loss, but nobody’s really doing a cumulative assessment on that . . . There is loss related to habitat, climate change, and air and water quality.

“I think we need to develop a big picture strategy on that. From a strategic perspective, we need to decide who plays what role on the activist side, the NGO side, and how do you get the city to raise its game and the Conservation Authority to do something a bit more activist than they are.

“For example, we’re going to build a housing development and there is a 15-metre buffer to the forest. Is that adequate? I would suggest definitely not, but that tends to be the standard comment of conservation authorities. How do you get them to take a more scientific examination on what that buffer should be?

McHattie believes the future will see continued expansion of grassroots citizen environmental involvement. “There’s increased awareness amongst the population. The children going through school are much ore aware of these issues, but it’s not a given that governments will be more responsive.

“Here, we will do stuff that’s easy to do, like energy conservation because there’s a financial benefit. But questions like the housing buffer issue, for example, are the real tests. Are we really serious about this stuff? I think we have a long way to go.

“I’m clearly in the minority on council. For whatever reason, progressive people or environmentalists, whatever you want to call them, aren’t running for council and if they are, they aren’t being effective. That’s my frustration as one of 16 members of council.”

"Heritage Trees: Preserving Our Natural Roots" talk

UN has declared 2011 as International Year of Forests.

Join the Dundas Valley Tree Keepers (DVTK) for a heritage tree talk with guest speaker Edith George, adviser to the Ontario Urban Forest Council.

Tuesday April 12, 2011
7:30pm
201 Governors Road, Dundas (Dundas Baptist Church)
For more information: www.dundastrees.ca

Environment Hamilton is a proud partner of DVTK.

Bus The Change (from our vounteers)

Kusuma Tiffany, a fellow Hamiltonian, has left Canada on a mission to join a project called 'Bus the Change' where she will assist in the creation of an Environmentally Sustainable, Socially Just and Spiritually Fulfilling existence on earth. Find out more about this exceptional project and see how you can help to make a difference by visiting her website at www.naturallynudenutrition.com. See more about the Bus the Change project at www.busthechange.org. Learn about the pachamama alliance, an organization geared towards empowering Indigenous people of the Amazon rainforest to preserve their land and culture at http://www.pachamama.org/

Victory Gardens to Fight Poverty in Hamilton

Our volunteer Bill Wilcox is out to fight poverty in Hamilton. How is he doing it? By planting victory gardens of course!
Here's what he writes (in edited form):

We know of some individuals and/or families of Hamilton's marginalized community, wherein one (1) in four (4) children live at or below the poverty line, compared to the national average of one (1) in nine (9) children. 

I am sure you have heard of the upcoming explosion in food prices have affected others globally and that is expected here in Canada over the next few months. Those who will be affected the most by these price hikes are the folks who are having difficulty making ends meet at the present time. Christ called us “to be his witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  (Acts 1:8)....

 I am proposing a new opportunity for us to be witnesses to the marginalized community in our area---our own "Jerusalem”--in a way which will help to provide fresh produce at a time when the need for food is increasing daily.

After receiving the Lord’s vision of a mission in Hamilton (our Jerusalem), I spent time, over the past four summers, helping to organize and manage the West Highland Baptist Church’s “Victory Garden” – a ministry wherein fresh produce is grown and harvested by a group of volunteers, and then donated to the numerous food banks and soup kitchens in the Hamilton area.

I believe that now is the time to “grow” (pun intended!) this concept – via what I call “Hamilton Victory Gardens”. This is envisioned to be a number of Victory Gardens throughout Hamilton and area which will be developed over the next few years in order to expand the availability of fresh produce to the numerous food banks and soup kitchens in operation.  These gardens would be operated by groups of volunteers from the churches, the general community and, hopefully and most importantly, by folks from the marginalized community (the ultimate produce consumers).

I am proposing an initial organizing meeting to take place on Thursday, April 7, 2011 at 7:00 p.m. at James Street Baptist Church at 96 James Street South here in Hamilton. 

Bill Wilcox

for Hamilton Victory Gardens

Youth Group Launch

Feb 20th- We had a great turn out with a good 20 youth coming out to the Environment Hamilton Launch and screening of the Story of Stuff.
We are in the process of deciding who kind of work we want to do, what our goals are etc. We are pretty excited because we are planning to create a 4 minute video that is geared to positively peer pressure our peers!
If you are between the ages of 12 and 19, or if you would like to share your skills with us (EDITING!!!!) give me a shout.

Making Connections

Here at Environment Hamilton, we are always looking for new ways to collaborate with community players and members. For example, we connected with the Aboriginal Health Centre through our Greening Sacred Spaces project and held a wonderfully inspiring event with the Wisdom Keepers (Aboriginal Elders share their teachings on taking care of mother earth).

Earlier in the month, we connected with Hamilton Print Studio to give a presentation about environmental concerns/issues in our neighbourhoods and communities.

The project, called Sitelines is an introduction to print making techniques in the schools-for grades 5 and 6. The kids learn exciting printmaking skills in the context of ecologically concerns in the built environment and in relationship to 'community' (extending back into the past as in, how was it like when their grand parents, great grand parents were growing up?). They get to make fantastic art.

We visited Prince of Wales school and will be going to Queens Rangers on the 5th of April.

We are also connecting with Hamilton Youth and have started a youth group at Environment Hamilton.
Please see the next post for more details.

Books

An Annotated Bibliography

of

Environmental Literature

By Richard Reble-Volunteer

             

To broaden your awareness about the need for a new environmental ethic, about the social and environmental pressures impacting us globally, and about the appropriate responses they demand from us, here is an annotated bibliography of environmental literature. Please use it to help guide your reading. The works included are suitable for beginners but will likely have appeal to academics as well. The list will be frequently updated. If you have read works you think should be added to the list, please add to comments.

            The following books are listed alphabetically by author or, in the case of multiple books by the same author, by date of publication from oldest to most recent. Each title is accompanied by an author quote that best reflects the central theme of the book:

Diamond, Jared, Collapse, 2005, Penguin Books.

ISBN  0-670-03337-5

ISBN  0 14 30.3655 6

Author quote: “Are the parallels between the past and present sufficiently close that the collapse of the Easter Islanders, Anasazi, Maya, and Greenland Norse could offer any lessons for the modern world?....It is not a question for open debate whether the collapses of past societies have modern parallels and offer any lesson to us. That question is settled, because such collapses have actually been happening recently, and others appear to be imminent. Instead, the real question is how many more countries will undergo them….Today’s larger population and more potent destructive technology, and today’s interconnectedness (pose) the risk of a global rather than a local collapse….If we don’t make a determined effort to solve (the problems) facing us, the world as a whole within the next few decades will face a declining standard of living, or perhaps something worse.”

Flannery, Tim, The Weather Makers, 2005, Harper Collins Publishers Ltd.

ISBN  13: 978-0-00-200751-1

ISBN  10: 0-00-200751-7

Author quote: “(This) is my best effort, based on the work of thousands of colleagues, to outline the history of climate change, how it will unfold over the next century, and what we can do about it….The best evidence indicates that we need to reduce our CO2 emissions by 70% by 2050….The transition to a carbon-free economy is eminently achievable because we have all the technology we need to do so. It is only a lack of understanding and the pessimism and confusion generated by special interest groups that is stopping us from going forward.”

Gore, Al, An Inconvenient Truth, 2006, Rodale Books, Emmaus, Pennsylvania.

ISBN  13: 978-1-59486-567-1

ISBN  10: 1-59486-567-1

Author quote: “ I have learned that, beyond death and taxes, there is at least one absolutely indisputable fact: Not only does human-caused global warming exist, but it is also growing more and more dangerous, and at a pace that has now made it a planetary emergency….The climate crisis …offers us the chance to experience what very few generations in history have had the privilege of knowing: a generational mission; the exhilaration of a compelling moral purpose; a shared and unifying cause; the thrill of being forced by circumstances to put aside the pettiness and conflict that so often stifle the restless human need for transcendence; the opportunity to rise.”

Heinberg, Richard, Power Down, 2004, New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, B.C.

ISBN  0-86571-510-6

Author quote: “….the purpose of this book is not to provide yet another cheerful manual on how to save the world. But neither is it my goal to helplessly bemoan our inevitable collective fate. Rather, it is my goal to explore realistically our options for the next century. When I say ‘realistically’, I mean that I take as my starting point the belief, arrived at reluctantly after years of reflection and study, that we have already advanced so far in certain directions as to have foreclosed possibilities that we would all prefer were available….I take it as a given that we have already overshot Earth’s long-term carrying capacity for humans and that some form of societal collapse is now inevitable.” 

Homer-Dixon, Thomas, The Ingenuity Gap, 2001, Vintage Canada (division of Random House of Canada Ltd.

ISBN  0-676-97296-9 Gore, Al, An Inconvenient Truth, 2006, Rodale Books, Emmaus, Pennsylvania.

Author quote: “In this book I’ll argue that the complexity, unpredictability, and pace of events in our world, and the severity of global environmental stress, are soaring. If our societies are to manage their affairs and improve their well-being they will need more ingenuity – that is, more ideas for solving their technical and social problems. But societies, whether rich or poor, can’t always supply the ingenuity they need at the right times and places. As a result, some face an ingenuity gap: a shortfall between their rapidly rising need for ingenuity and their inadequate supply….There is still time, I believe, to muster the ingenuity and the will, but the hour is late.”

Homer-Dixon, Thomas, The Upside of Down, 2006, Alfred A. Knoph, Canada.

ISBN  13: 978-0-676-97722-6

ISBN  10: 0-676-97722-7

Author quote:  “These days, lots of people have the intuition that the world is going haywire and an extraordinary crisis is coming….I think that the non-experts’ intuition is actually largely right. Some kind of real trouble does lie ahead. That trouble doesn’t have to be calamitous in its ultimate results, though. If we’re smart and a bit lucky, we have a good chance of avoiding a terrible outcome….Catastrophe could create a space for creativity that helps us build a better world for our children, our grandchildren, and ourselves.”

Jacobs, Jane, Eark Age Ahead, 2005, Vintage Canada (a division of Random House of Canada).

ISBN  0-679-31310-9

Author Quote: “A culture is unsalvageable if stabilizing forces themselves become ruined and irrelevant. This is what I fear for our own culture, and why I have written this cautionary book in hopeful expectation the time remains for corrective actions….I single out five pillars of our culture that we depend on to stand firm, and discuss what seem to me ominous signs of their decay….These five jeopardized pillars are: community and family, higher education, the effective practice of science and science-based technology, taxes and governmental powers directly in touch with needs and possibilities, and self-policing by the learned professions.”

Kingsolver, Barbara, Small Wonder, Harper-Collins Publishers Inc., New York, N.Y.

ISBN  0-06-050407-2

Author quote: “There must be limits, somewhere, to the human footprint on this earth. When the whole of the world is reduced to nothing but human product, we will have lost the map that can show us how we got here, and can offer our spirits an answer when we ask why. Surely we are capable of declaring sacred some quarters that dare not enter or possess.”

Kunstler, James Howard, The Long Emergency, 2005, Grove Press, New York, N.Y.

ISBN  10: 0-8021-4249-4

ISBN  13: 978-0-8021-4249-8

Author quote: “Above all and most immediately, we face the end of the cheap fossil fuel era….The American way of life, which is now virtually synonymous with suburbia, can run only on reliable sources of dependably cheap oil and gas. Even mild to moderate deviations in either price or supply will crush our economy and make the logistics of daily life impossible….I believe that we face a dire and unprecedented period of difficulty in the twenty-first century, but that humankind will survive and continue further into the future, though not without taking some severe losses in the meantime, in population, in life expectancies, in standards of living, in the retention of knowledge and technology, and in decent behaviour. I believe we will see a dramatic die-back, but not a die-off.”

Lovelock, James, The Revenge of Gaia, 2007, Penguin Books, London, England.

ISBN  978-0-141-02597-1

Author quote: “Humanity, wholly unprepared by its humanist traditions, faces its greatest trial. The acceleration of the climate change now under way will sweep away the comfortable environment to which we are adapted….The prospects are grim, and even if we act successfully in amelioration, there will still be hard times, as in any war, that will stretch us to the limit. We are tough and it would take more than the predicted climate catastrophe to eliminate all the breeding pairs of humans; what is at risk is civilization….There is a small chance that the skeptics are right, or we might be saved by an unexpected event such as a series of volcanic eruptions severe enough to block out sunlight and so cool the Earth. But only losers would bet their lives on such poor odds.”

Monbiot, George, Heat, 2006, Doubleday Canada (a division of Random House of Canada).

ISBN  13: 978-0-385-66221-5

ISBN  10: 0-385-66221-1

Author Quote: “This book has an overtly political purpose. It aims to encourage people not only to change the way they live but also to force their governments to make such changes easier….(A) ninety-four per cent (reduction in our use of fossil fuels) sounds like a ridiculous target, but I have sought in this book to show that, thanks to new technologies and a few cunning applications, it is compatible with the survival of an advanced industrial civilization.” 

Wilson, Edward, O., The Future of Life, 2003, Vintage Books.

ISBN  0-679-76811-4

Author quote: “Stretched to the limit of its capacity, how many people can the planet support? A rough answer is possible, but it is a sliding one contingent on three conditions: how far into the future the planetary support is expected to last, how evenly the resources are to be distributed, and the quality of life most of humanity expects to achieve….What humanity is inflicting on itself and Earth is, to use a modern metaphor, the result of a mistake in capital investment. Having appropriated the planet’s natural resources, we chose to annuitize them with a short-term maturity reached by progressively increasing payouts….Meanwhile, two collateral results of the annuitization of nature, as opposed to its stewardship, are settling in to beg our attention. The first is economic disparity: in relative terms the rich grow richer and poor poorer….The second collateral result, and the principal concern of the present work, is the accelerating extinction of natural ecosystems and species.”

Roberts, Paul, The End of Oil, 2004, a Mariner Book, Houghton Mifflin Company.

ISBN  0-618-56211-4

ISBN  0-618-56211-5 (pbk.)

Author quote: “We live today in a world completely dominated by energy….It is the bedrock of our wealth, our comfort, and our largely unquestioned faith in the inexorability of progress, implicit in every act and artifact of modern existence….Yet even a cursory look reveals that, for all its great successes, our energy economy is fatally flawed, in nearly every respect. The oil industry is among the least stable  of all business sectors….Worse, it is now clear….that our steadily increasing reliance on fossil fuels is connected in some way to….significant changes in our climate….While climatologists and environmentalists fret about the quality of energy we produce, most other experts worry far more about the quantity of energy we can make and , more specifically, whether we can produce enough of any kind or quality to satisfy the world’s present and future needs.”

Simmons, Matthew R., Twilight in the Desert, 2005, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

ISBN  13: 978-0-471-79018-1

ISBN  10: 0-471-79018-4

Author quote: “The book asserts that every oilfield, whether super-giant or ordinary, will begin to decline at some reasonably predictable time. The risk that the oil-consuming world faces is that Saudi Arabia’s oilfields will begin declining sooner rather than later….Given reasonable political stability, world oil production will not plummet, but fade gradually through a twilight. Unfortunately, the world economy is not synchronized to the principles of petroleum geology. A growing gap between energy supply and demand will cause acute, convulsive disruption greatly disproportionate to the actual size of the shortfall.”