Thursday, January 24, 2008

Jim Harding Book tour

The absurdity consists in how all this is news again. I remember watching young German kids, a bit older than myself, just more daring, I guess, getting their chains torched off the train tracks by police who were trying to give way to a train transport of radioactive waste that a then conservative provincial government headed by a Premier without much insight in what this material was really about, decided to transport it to an inappropriate temporary storage facility in a salt stock - Gorleben, Germany. After left-wing terror had marked the 70ies, the whole opposition movement renewed with the civil disobedience of the anti nuclear demos in the 80ies. Entire families split up over the dispute, there were street fighting scenes repeatedly in the news - did nobody watch this here in Canada? Just one thing comes to mind: from the 80ties to 2000 is twenty years. That's how long it took in Germany to write that motion into legislature, approximately the same time it took the Green Party to get into power and initiate Germany's phase out.

Germany was also known for it's massively bureaucratic and time consuming government and administration, but things have changed a lot. Renewable energies employ as many people as the automotive sector, I'm guessing, more by now. It's a way to make "good" (in the true sense of the meaning) money for investors, empower communities to improve the general electricity supply and energy suppliers to save enormous amounts of money because they don't need to build costly, unreliable reactors, with all the savings from efficiency and co generation.

North America is known for it's great flexibility - where is it now, and, when did it disappear? With manufacturing in a crisis, strict building standards could boost local economy and be a real way to buffer up the US economy implications - besides, I could take my tuque of inside, and my hands would not get so cold while typing, either.

Our lyrics are in your face because we are OUTRAGED and not tolerating the rape of culture and communities driven by short sighted profit operations, of which - to extend the elephant in the room to its mind boggling dimensions - Uranium mining in low grade Sharbot Lake (60 lakes are water connected through the Rideau) is just another example.

It's time to change tracks...

more info is here:

http://know-uranium.org/Jim_Harding_Event/

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

PUBLIC PANEL TO DEBATE CARBON TRADING & OTHER FREE-MARKET BASED MECHANISMS FOR ADDRESSING CLIMATE CHANGE

Leading carbon trading critics, proponents to debate in Ottawa on January 25, 2008

Who:
Donna Dillman, Community Coalition Against Uranium Mining

Helena Olivas, Delphi Group

Stephen Hazell, Executive Director of the Sierra Club of Canada

Larry Lohmann, Author of Carbon Trading: A Critical Conversation on Climate Change, Privatization and Power, Durban Group for Climate Justice

Jutta Kill, Forests and the European Union Resource Network, Durban Group for Climate Justice

What:
A free public panel to debate the strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities of carbon trading and other free-market based mechanisms for addressing climate change.

When:
19:30, January 25, 2008.

Where:
University of Ottawa, Art Building Room 026

Why:
As politicians and corporations are increasingly responding to the public’s demand for action on sustainability and climate change, certain voices and solutions are being left out of the debate. This debate will bring together critics of carbon trading with those who advocate carbon trading as a viable tool for addressing climate change in what is sure to be a thought-provoking and challenging panel.

Sponsored by the Sierra Youth Coalition, the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa, Indigenous Environmental Network and the Environmental Justice Organizing Institute.

Contact:
Monique Woolnough
Phone: 647-637-7063
Email: ontario@syc-cjs.org
Web: www.syc-cjs.org/sustainable/ontario
**Interviews Available**

COUNCIL OF CANADIANS’ DAY OF ACTION

Day of Action: Demand a Canadian Energy Strategy on February 2, 2008

Send Stephen Harper a Mitten.

Canadians experience long, cold winter months. As the snow starts to fly, our thoughts turn to staying warm. To do that, we need energy to heat our homes. But right now, Canada does not have a national energy strategy that addresses where our energy comes from, where it is going, or the high price of environmental devastation that can come with producing it.

That is why the Council of Canadians is organizing Take Charge! A National Day of Action to Demand a Canadian Energy Strategy on Saturday, February 2, 2008.

For more information go to http://www.canadians.org/energy/action/index.html