By Terri Smith – Stacey Hanrahan is a psychic medium. You don’t have to believe me. You don’t have to believe her, either. One of the biggest reasons that I do believe her is that she doesn’t care either way whether I do or not. It even took a long time for her to believe it herself. Stacey is a member of the Mikisew Cree Nation on her mother’s side, and Irish-Icelandic on her father’s. Her grandmother on her mother’s side was put into residential school at the age of three and lived there until she was 18. Consequently, her…
Author: thegreengazette
By Guy Dauncey – There are massive forest fires in Siberia. Greenland’s melting is accelerating. Record heat waves are roasting Europe. The world’s insects are dying off. The scary news keeps accumulating. We are living on the edge of an emergency that is just getting started, and climate is only the half of it. There’s also an ecological emergency. How are we to respond? It’s easy to slip into complacency or a sense of impotence. You know the crises are real, but the children are coming to visit, there’s a holiday to plan, and don’t get me started on the…
By Amber Gregg – As many of you may know, our previous co-ordinator Vanessa Moberg recently boarded a 34-foot sail boat and set off for sea in an effort to create awareness around conservation. Vanessa’s adventurous decision meant that the Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Society would need to find a replacement for her—a tall order. After a successful interview, I was offered the position and happily accepted. It is my responsibility to ensure that the team has the resources they need to deliver our amazing programs. When I am not sitting in front of a budget, spread sheet, or funding report…
By David Suzuki – Young people have been speaking out for their rights. Many are wise beyond their years. Without the blinkers of ideology, workaday priorities, and ingrained values, they can see clearly what’s happening. They’ve had to step up for their own futures because too few of their elders are willing to accept that rampant consumerism has been an illusory quest for happiness at the expense of the planet’s life-support systems. “We have learned that if we don’t start acting for our future, nobody else will make the first move,” said a Guardian article signed by 46 young people,…
Dr. Chris R. Shepherd and Lalita Gomez – The illegal trade of wildlife is ravaging our planet of life and diversity. Myriad species are drawing ever closer to extinction as we exploit them for food, medicine, pets, ornaments, leather, fashion, and even good luck charms. Poaching wildlife for trade now rivals habitat destruction as a key threat to the survival of species. Bears are no exception. Our planet is home to eight species of bears that are found across Asia, Europe, North America, and South America. Six of these species are found in Asia, with four species, Asiatic black bear…
Young adults aged 15-30 are invited to volunteer with the Invasive Species Council of BC’s (ISCBC) Healthy Habitats project to help prevent the spread of invasive species in British Columbia. Volunteers will benefit from training and leadership opportunities while developing and enhancing their skills. ISCBC co-ordinates efforts to tackle invasive species across the province and is pleased to also develop BC youth through this project. Early this summer, ISCBC initiated the exciting new volunteer project for young adults in Cariboo, Kamloops, and Vancouver. The project aims to provide hands-on opportunities for young people who are passionate about enhancing their local…
By Tom Hackney, Policy Advisor for the BC Sustainable Energy Association – The BC government recently began Phase 2 of its Comprehensive Review of BC Hydro. A key component is determining how BC Hydro will support the low-carbon electrification – getting off fossil fuels and onto clean, renewable electricity – that is required by the ambitious GHG reduction targets in the CleanBC plan (see BCSEA’s February 2019 analysis). The CleanBC plan says that by 2030, BC will need an additional 4,000 GWh per year of clean, renewable electricity on top of currently projected load growth to support the 2030 target…
4G/5G Antenna Densification is Escalating Health Risks – A Global Crisis – The Advisors to the International EMF Scientist Appeal, representing 248 scientists from 42 nations, have resubmitted The Appeal to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director, Inger Andersen, requesting the UNEP reassess the potential biological impacts of next generation 4G and 5G telecommunication technologies on plants, animals, and humans. There is urgency, particularly at this time, as new antennas are densely located throughout residential neighbourhoods using much higher frequencies, with greater biologically disruptive pulsations, more dangerous signalling characteristics, and with transmitting equipment on and inside homes and…
By Jim Cooperman – Despite the election of what we thought would be a more environmentally friendly government, British Columbia’s public forests continue to disappear at an alarming rate, with inadequate protection for all values including fish and wildlife habitat, community water supply protection, and recreation. Although these forests belong to the people of BC and to future generations, they are being managed primarily to benefit a few large corporations. Urgent reforms are needed to meet the needs of present and future generations, and yet to date little has been done. The BC Liberals created the problems. The Council of…
By Lisa Bland, Publisher/Editor-in-Chief, The Green Gazette – Dear Readers, Now that fall is here, the desire to hold onto summer has slowly transformed into an appreciation for what the season brings. The wet Cariboo summer and fleeting hot, sunny days, although unusual, brought lush growth to the Earth and were a blessing in contrast to the uncertainty and worry of living through another catastrophic fire season. At this time of year, gardens are harvested, flowers have gone to seed, and the beautiful golden aspen and cottonwoods of the countryside light our way for a little while. In fall, when…
By Erin Hitchcock – In late summer I can still smell the wildflowers from my open window, while bees franticly scoop up as much nectar and pollen as they can before the days get colder and winter sings them all to sleep. The life around me is beautiful. I feel so much love for this place. Yet the ecological threads unravel in the distance, and so I can’t help but feel so much pain and despair. We are running out of time to keep global temperatures below 1.5 degrees C to avert the most destructive impacts of climate change. I…
Highballer: True Tales from a Treeplanting Life By Greg Nolan Published by Harbour Publishing In 1983 when he was 19, Greg Nolan was hired by a tree-planting contractor in Northern British Columbia. His crewmates didn’t know what to think of the wide-eyed kid whose mom drove him the 750 kilometres to hook upwith his first job. But within a week, Nolan was hitting the thousand-trees-a-day mark. By the end of his first rookie season, he gained the status of top producer among a crew of extraordinary young men and women. But surviving in some of the more remote, isolated, and…
By Barbara Schellenberg – Condiments should be used to elevate a meal and can be a great way to incorporate more nutrients into your diet, but I find they are more often served up to mask the flavour or lack of flavour in food. As with everything, it is important to have a strong foundation; start with the best available ingredients for a meal to make sure you have a nutritious and flavourful base. Then use a creative, homemade condiment to take a simple meal to the next level. Commercial condiments are full of synthetic colours, processed sugars, thickeners, flavourings,…
The Bells Lake Observatory is about 600 ft from our home. Behind the observatory and to the sides are forested or hay meadows. Bells Lake is 200 ft to the east. It is usually very quiet here, except for birds rustling along the shore. When you add the night sky and the vastness of space to that… well, I warned you. There are two parts to the observatory: the observing deck and the warm room. The roof over the observing deck is a light welded framework with green tinted polycarbonate panels like you find in greenhouses. It is fairly easy…
By Ron Young – “Off the grid” seems like such harsh terminology almost implying an accidental condition. It’s a First World reference that means living without connection to the electricity grid of the industrialized world but in many ways also independent of a lot of other constraints that most of us have become conditioned to in modern society. The reality for most off-grid dwellers is that they have chosen to live a life somewhere that hasn’t been trampled on by the development of properties and regulatory structure. Off grid living has always been a non-conformist choice. In over two decades…
By Jessica Kirby – There certainly are things harder to do with children–grocery shopping, eating in a fancy restaurant, sleeping through the night–but backpacking doesn’t have to be one of them. With adequate planning and a few creative tricks it can be a marvelous way to get out into the wilderness with the family, burn off some energy, and learn an important lesson about doing a lot with very little. Last summer my husband and I took our children on their first ever self-sustained backpacking trip, to Keeha Bay on the West Coast of Vancouver Island near Bamfield. The hiking…
By Sage Birchwater – Tŝilhqot’in Community Radio 104.5 FM will celebrate its official launch on Aboriginal Day, June 21. The event will occur simultaneously in the six Tŝilhqot’in communities of Tl’eŝqox, Yuneŝit’in, Tl’etinqox, ʔEŝdilagh, Tŝi Deldel, and Xeni Gwet’in, as well as in Williams Lake at 79 Third Avenue North. For nearly two years now Tŝilhqot’in Community Radio has been gaining momentum and putting the pieces together to become an important voice for the nation and broader indigenous community. “We were inspired by the success of Nuxalk Radio 91.1 FM in Bella Coola as a tool to keep their language…
Chief Joe Alphonse of Tl’etinqox, Chief Francis Laceese of Tl’esqox, Chief Jimmy Lulua of XeniGwet’in, and Chief Otis Guichon of TsiDeldel attended the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) in New York City to represent the Tŝilhqot’in Nation while Chief Russell Myers Ross of Yunesit’in and Chief Roy Stump of ?Esdilagh remained back home to look after the interests of their communities and the Nation. On May 2, 2019, at the Permanent Forum, the chiefs and cultural ambassador of the Tŝilhqot’in Nation were invited to take the floor of the United Nations. Chief Joe Alphonse, tribal chair of…
By Leonardo DeGorter – Vancouver students walked out of their schools on May 3 for the fourth time since December. The school strike for climate action has a clear goal: address world leaders to take action against climate change in order to avoid its worst consequences. By fighting for a better future at an early age, students are helping to spread an obvious message: climate change is a time sensitive crisis that demands immediate action from policy makers. On May 3, thousands of students joined the movement across Canada. This unlikely movement of students trying to wake up our so-called…