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Published by the Kingston Greens
GREEN LIGHT KINGSTON #223 |
Issue #223
Monday, January 04, 2010 |
Printed in cyberspace on recycled electrons
Compiled and edited using 100% clean, renewable power (wind and low-impact hydro) from Bullfrog Power.
To publicise future events, corrections and/or if you have comments, please email Green Light Kingston:
We welcome new submissions!
Quote of the Week:
There are no boundaries in the real Planet Earth. No United States, no Soviet Union, no China, no Taiwan, East Germany or West. Rivers flow unimpeded across the swaths of continents. The persistent tides - the pulse of the sea - do not discriminate; they push against all the varied shores on Earth.
- Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau Oceanographer and Explorer
In This Issue:
| 1. Website of the Week | |
| 2. Cartoon | |
| 3. Current Events | |
| 4. Coming Events | |
| 5. Elsewhere Events | |
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| 6. Community Action | |
| 7. Worth Reading | |
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| 8. Community Notices | |
| 9. Wanted! | |
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| 10. Local Organic Produce | |
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1. Website of the Week
| New! Gyalwang Karmapa Launches Website for Environmental Protection |
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http://www.khoryug.com A bilingual website in Tibetan and English, offers educational resources on importance of forest protection, water conservation, wildlife preservation, climate change adaptation and waste management, and a forum for people interested in the environment. Dharamshala: His Eminence the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje launched the new website dedicated to environmental protection in the Himalayan region initiated by a network of thirty-six Buddhist monasteries across India, Nepal and Bhutan. Launching the website at Tergar Monastery in Bodhgaya on Tuesday (22 December), Gyalwang Karmapa underlined the need to work for the environment as a logical extension of our Dharma practice, connecting it to our Mahayana commitment to benefit others, and to live in a way that is consistent with the basic fact of interdependence. Gyalwang Karmapa urged the audience to ask themselves whether the beautiful aspirations and prayers they make in the morning are carried out in their actions throughout the day. Often when opportunities arise to work to benefit others, we do not seize them, and if we ask ourselves why this is so, it is usually because we are simply working for our own egocentric concerns. Too often we behave as if others existed for us, and as if the Earth was ours alone to use as we wish," he added. "Our actions based on such attitudes have had cumulative effects that are devastating for the Earth itself, he said. We, nevertheless, dominate the planet as if it were ours alone, and we are responsible for virtually all the damage done to it. This attitude is inappropriate as well as damaging given our total dependence on others, and especially on the earth itself, for our well-being and for our very survival. Without the plants that yield oxygen, we would not even be able to draw a single breath, Gyalwang Karmapa said. Using a powerpoint presentation to underscore his points with images, Gyalwang Karmapa took the audience on a dazzling tour of the galaxy, pointing out along the way that we humans have nowhere else to go if we destroy the earth’s natural environment. "Yet unlike humans, the earth is endlessly forgiving," he noted. "When someone commits heinous crimes, such as murder, he is shunned and expelled from human society. Yet however much harm we do to her, the Earth never banishes us. Despite all the damage we have done thus far, she has never given up on us, but continues to yield her resources to us with great generosity. We, therefore, all have a responsibility to consider what practical steps we can do to respond in kind to this great kindness that we receive from the Earth," Gyalwang Karmapa said. Dekila Chungyalpa, Director of the Greater Mekong area for the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) and Khenpo Kelsang Nyima from Rumtek spoke on the significance of environmental protection. The event concluded with a moving rendition of the song 'Aspiration for the World', composed by Gyalwang Karmapa himself and sung by a chorus of students from the Tibetan Children’s Village School. In addition to a large number of Tibetan monks and nuns, translators were on hand to deliver the message to the international audience in nine different languages. Many devotees, including foreign students who are in Bodhgaya to attend the upcoming Kagyu Monlam and the annual winter teachings, attended the event. |
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2. Cartoon
| New! Twisted logic in Copenhagen |
 Cartoon by Joel Pett from Newsweek http://www.newsweek.com/ “So-called global warming is just a secret ploy by wacko tree-huggers to make America energy-independent, clean our air and water, improve fuel-efficiency of our vehicles, kickstart 21st century industries, and make our cities safer and more livable. Don’t let them get away with it!” – Chip Giller, founder of Grist.org |
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3. Current Events
| New! Sunday Hunting - Public Meeting |
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Wednesday, January 14, 2009 5:30 PM
From city councillor Leonore Foster A group of about 30 hunters have petitioned City Council (and have made a presentation at a Council meeting) to allow Sunday hunting in Kingston. The argument is that many people work six days a week and some may not be able to get out and "enjoy their sport" unless Sunday hunting is introduced. Below is information on a public meeting to hear opinion on allowing hunting on Sundays. Of interest, it is my understanding that Loyalist Township and the County of Frontenac do not allow Sunday hunting and some think that hunters from those municipalities may come to Kingston to hunt if it is the only municipality in the area where hunting is allowed on Sunday. For your information, Kingston's Discharge of Firearms By-Law has recently been "harmonized"; that means that the by-laws of all the three municipalities that make up the new City of Kingston have been brought together in one by-law. The former Pittsburgh Township by-law has been used as the basis for the new City by-law and now applies throughout Kingston. It has also been used as a model by-law by other municipalities in Ontario. A draft of the new harmonized by-law may be found at: http://www.cityofkingston.ca/pdf/cityhall/committees/administrative/agenda/2009/AP_A0809-SchedB.pdf ................................................................................ Public Meeting on Sunday Hunting The Administrative Policies Standing Committee will be hosting a Public Meeting regarding Sunday Hunting on: Thursday, January 14, 2010 at the Glenburnie Fire Hall (Unity Road at Division St.,) at 5:30pm. If you have an opinion that you want heard, please make sure you attend this meeting. Or you may contact the Committee Clerk, James Thompson, and express your opinion by email or regular mail. Email: Mail: JCThompson City Hall 216 Ontario Street Kingston ON K7L 2Z3 |
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4. Coming Events
| New! Ban Righ Centre Fundraiser |
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Ban Righ Centre Fundraiser
Presents The Play Marion Bridge by Daniel MacIvor | directed by Michael Catlin The Baby Grand Theatre January 27, 2010 Tickets $20.00 8:00 p.m. Contact Karen Knight 613-533-2976 or kk9@queensu.ca for details |
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5. Elsewhere Events
6. Community Action
| New! Say no to the Gas-Fired Power Plant in Holland Marsh |
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Mike Schreiner, Leader of the Green Party of Ontario, has joined with concerned citizens and local farmers from the Holland Marsh, to launch a province-wide campaign against the construction of a natural gas plant on some of Ontario’s most bountiful farm land. Together, they are calling on the McGuinty government to stop imposing these plants on local communities and ensure Ontarians’ voices are heard.
Sign the petition today: http://www.gpo.ca/node/2202 |
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7. Worth Reading
| New! Short-term mindset problem for climate |
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By Tim Giannuzzi
From The Calgary Herald Outrage and indifference in equal measures greeted the latest international accord on climate change reached in Denmark -- a paradoxical mix which perfectly captures humanity's inability to come to grips with such a slippery issue. Considering the scale of the problem, the diverse interests at stake and the human mindset, the unsightly kludge which emerged from Copenhagen was probably about the best that could be expected from a gathering at which many participants seemed like guests at a party where the cakes and drinks had gone stale. Everyone ate, but no one was happy. The Danish deal recognizes the existence of a problem, but declines to do much about it, putting off action until some golden future day when, presumably, mankind will live in peace and brotherhood and a binding accord will be reachable. It recognizes that developing countries need sustained financial help to reduce their emissions, but does not say from where the money will come. There were some vague bits about reducing deforestation and monitoring efforts at emission reduction, but little in the way of concrete settlements. Most of the world agreed to take note of the deal without making it binding, similar to someone who notices a lump, decides it might be serious and dimly considers visiting a doctor at some point in the future. Maybe it will go away on its own. The problem is human nature; we just aren't wired to think long term. Everyone agrees it's well and good to be stewards of the Earth and leave behind natural wonders (and a functioning ecosystem) for our descendants, but if it means going short now, our enthusiasm diminishes precipitously. We'd settle for getting on with our lives instead of changing the world. The gratitude of our descendants means about as much as their hatred. Whether people five generations from now praise us as saints or spit on our memory is immaterial. The here and now blots out everything else. This is especially true in Canada, the second largest country in the world, and one which routinely deals with the sort of bone-chilling cold which causes those nagging Europeans to shrivel up like neglected houseplants. Many Canadians wouldn't mind a bit of global warming if it put an end to those Arctic fronts, consequences be damned. No amount of doomsaying or dire prophecies will change this, because the costs of inaction are not readily apparent and the rewards are too distant to be valued. Global warming is ultimately a secular version of Pascal's wager. Blaise Pascal, a 17th century French mathematician, proposed that people ought to believe in God because, if He exists, then the rewards to be enjoyed in the afterlife far exceed the punishments for disbelief, whereas if He doesn't, then you will be no worse off after death than unbelievers. Similarly, if humanity believes in global warming and takes action to stop it, the rewards (a stable planet) will hugely outweigh the costs (lots of death, a planet in wild flux) of doing nothing. If global warming doesn't exist, the institution of green measures will still lead to a healthier planet and population. Both bets are sure things, but, just as Pascal's wager has failed to make believers out of humanity, so has global warming advocacy failed to sway everyone. This near-termism often makes the human race seem like an elementary school student who neglects to start his science fair project until 8:30 on the night before it's due and then rushes in to remind the parental units that he needs poster board and materials for an experiment. Oh, and an experiment and a hypothesis. And a write-up. You'd think that after several tens of millenniums of existence as a sentient species, we would have collectively mastered the capacity for advance planning most successful undergraduates figure out individually by their second year. Logic dictates a preemptive response to the incredibly dire hazards potentially posed by global warming, but this, along with foresight, has never been among our species' greatest strengths. Ingenuity is, so there is always hope for solutions, but it will be easier and a great deal more pleasant if we don't have to pull out all the stops at the last minute because our suffering has grown too great to endure. Making the cost of inaction manifest by putting a price on carbon would be useful, but this has largely been a non-starter, except in the European Union. Most politicians, with their focus on the short term and love of photo ops, would prefer to hash out accords and bestride the podium, conqueror-like, for domestic audiences rather than take money out of voters' wallets because the immediate rewards of being seen to do something are tangible. How very human of them. Timothy Giannuzzi is a Calgary writer specializing in foreign affairs |
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| New! Our behaviour borders on insanity |
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From Vaclav Havel's address to the U.S. Congress
If a divine or extraterrestrial committee of experts in planetary management visited the Earth, they would not believe their eyes. "You are insane!" they would exclaim. "This is no way to administer a planet! We give you the lowest mark in planetary management in the entire universe. " We would look at them with surprise, astonished by the vehemence of their attack. "Look at what you are doing!" they would add with gentleness and pity. "You were given one of the most beautiful planets in the cosmos - one of the rare celestial homes, at the right distance from a sun, endowed with marvelous forms of life. It is a living planet with an atmosphere, fertile soils, waters, and oceans. It is vibrant and interdependent, with elements that are all interlinked in the most marvelous ways. A true jewel in the universe. And look what you have done with it: 1. You have divided this planet into 185 separate territorial fragments without rhyme or reason - without geographic, ecological, human, or any other logic. All these fragments are sovereign; i.e., each of them considers itself more important than the planet and the rest of humanity. 2. You have armed these fragments to their teeth in order to defend their so-called "integrity." They often steal a piece of land from their neighbors. 3. You let two of the biggest parts of this international jigsaw puzzle stuff the surface and the inside of the earth, the waters, the seas, the airs, and tomorrow the heavens and the stars with nuclear devices capable of destroying most of life on this planet. 4. You permit ego-driven tyrants to snuff out lives with poison gas. 5. You put some of your best minds to work designing more efficient ways to kill - instead of better ways to nurture one's body, mind, heart and soul. 6. You spend huge sums of money for each of these sovereign territories, and almost nothing to safeguard and provide for the needs of the planet as a whole. You do not even have a planetary budget! What an aberration! 7. You let many of your scientists, industrialists, developers, builders, promoters, merchants, and military progressively destroy the fundamental resources of your planet, so that within a few decades it will become unlivable - and you will die like flies. 8. You educate your children as if each of these territories were an autonomous island floating on an ocean - instead of teaching them about their planet, which is their home, and about humanity, which is their family. We are still a long way from what Abraham Lincoln called the 'family of man.' In fact, we seem to be receding from the ideal rather than growing closer to it. Interests of all kinds - personal, selfish, state, nation, group, and, if you like, company interests - still considerably outweigh genuinely common and global interests. We are still under the sway of the destructive and vain belief that man is the pinnacle of creation and not just a part of it and that therefore everything is permitted. Vaclav Havel President of Czechoslovakia Address to US. Congress |
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| New! Washington state prisons pursue sustainable practices, green-collar job training |
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As the Canadian federal government is looking to reduce prison sustainability and close prison farms like the one at Collins Bay Institution in Kingston, other jurisdictions are moving toward more sustainability.
By Sarah van Schagen from Grist.org http://www.grist.org/article/2009-08-19-washington-state-prisons-pursue-sustainable-practices-green-jobs Rows and rows of small yellow cylinders fill the greenhouse where Daniel works steadily, beads of sweat forming on his round, bald head as he places tiny seeds in each container. He is planting showy fleabane, an endangered variety of prairie groundcover that will eventually produce purple-petaled blooms worthy of their moniker. His work is part of a federally funded prairie restoration project, an effort to repair the native grasslands of the Pacific Northwest in areas like Fort Lewis, Wash. But Daniel, who asked that his last name not be used, is not your average horticulturalist. For one thing, his greenhouse is on the grounds of a maximum security prison. Daniel, as well as many of the men tending seedlings around him, is part of the Sustainable Prisons Project at the Stafford Creek Corrections Center in western Washington. The program is a partnership between Evergreen State University and several state correctional facilities that allows offenders to opt in to sustainability-related work projects. The liberal-arts university/state penitentiary partnership may sound like an odd pairing—the Evergreen alumni magazine likened it to Maya Angelou dating Dick Cheney—but so far, both parties consider the relationship a success. The scientists get cheap (and eager) labor, while the offenders get the opportunity to participate in meaningful work. One inmate participating in the pilot program at the Cedar Creek Corrections Center was the senior author of a peer-reviewed paper about the project in an international sustainability journal, and upon his release began pursuing a Ph.D. in biochemistry. “What I care about is that [the offenders] are exposed to what we can offer in the way of science, the wonder of nature, of thinking critically,” says Nalini Nadkarni, the Evergreen ecologist who helped establish the Sustainable Prisons Project. “Those are all things that when they get back out into society, they will carry with them ... increas[ing] the scientific literacy of our country, and perhaps even more important ... the civic engagement that they have with society.” The tasks vary across the four prisons that are now part of the sustainability project (administrators hope eventually to expand it statewide), and include tending to organic gardens that provide fresh produce for the kitchen, separating recyclables from the waste stream, beekeeping, and minding composting worms. The offenders can also participate in a variety of conservation efforts like the prairie restoration, a project being led by The Nature Conservancy. They are also helping breed endangered spotted Oregon frogs and “farm” mosses for the horticultural trade (which aids in preventing unsustainable harvesting from old-growth forests). All of the offenders involved in the program get specialized training and guidance from scientists and other educators working with the corrections centers. That green-collar job training is key, says Doug Raines, the man behind Stafford Creek’s new beekeeping operation. He knows there are lots of valid reasons to keep bees—honey production, pollination, protection from colony collapse—but he does it to provide job opportunities. “If I can get one guy a job and he doesn’t come back, then I have paid for everything that we have done, and that’s my reason for having the bees,” Raines says. “It’s one more avenue for employment when they get out of here.” The offenders aren’t the only ones at the correctional facilities who are benefitting from the project, though. The sustainability efforts are also saving money—a valuable incentive in an economy that has seen significant cuts to the state’s Department of Corrections budget. When the Cedar Creek facility began to tap out its water supplies, efficiency upgrades like low-flow toilets and showers and a rainwater catchment system helped save 250,000 gallons of water in the summer alone. And the gardening, composting, and recycling efforts are saving the facilities thousands of dollars every year. “[Correctional facilities] are essentially small cities running 24/7,” says Sustainable Prisons Project Manager Jeff Muse. “If we can make them more sustainable, not only will it save money, save natural resources, and save lives, but it would be an example for all kinds of other institutions, such as military bases, summer camps, hospitals, and schools.” |
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| New! Six Reasons Why Earth Won't Cope for Long |
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December 17, 2009 by The Irish Times
by John Gibbons As world leaders arrive in Copenhagen for the crunch phase of the climate conference, the focus turns to what kind of deal is likely to emerge. Pre-eminent climate scientist Prof James Hansen of the Nasa Goddard Institute has already given the entire process the kiss of death. Any political deal cobbled together is, he believes, likely to be so profoundly flawed as to lock humanity on to “a disaster track.” Hansen voiced publicly what environmental scientists and campaigners have murmured all year. A political fudge that ducks science is the likeliest outcome at Copenhagen. Earlier this week, for instance, EU fisheries ministers agreed a deal that pleased our Government and our fishermen. However, it does little to arrest the progressive annihilation of a common resource that, like our atmosphere, is owned by no one – and so exploited by all. The world faces a dangerous convergence of environmental and resource crises, not all directly climate related. All, however, are increasingly difficult to resolve in a rapidly warming world. Taken together, they are not amenable to a business-as-usual political response. Here, in no particular order, are six: 1. Biodiversity: “The world is currently undergoing a very rapid loss of biodiversity comparable with the great mass extinction events that have previously occurred only five or six times in the Earth’s history,” says the World Wildlife Fund. It has tracked an astonishing 30 per cent decline in the Earth’s biodiversity between 1970-2003. Hunting, habitat destruction, deforestation, pollution and the spread of agriculture are leading to as many as 1,000 entire species going extinct every week – that’s a species every 10 minutes. The economic cost of destroying biodiversity is also immense. A 2008 EU study estimated the cost of forest loss alone is running at $2-$5 trillion (€1.3-€3.4 trillion) annually. 2. Ocean acidification: The evidence of the effects of increased CO2 levels on the world’s oceans is unequivocal. Surface ocean acidity has increased by 30 per cent since 1800, with half this increase occurring in just the last three decades. The rate of change in oceanic pH levels is around 100 times faster than any observed natural rate. Increasing acidity is impeding the ability of plankton called foraminifera to produce shells. These creatures form the base of the entire marine food system. The world’s vital reef systems are also in peril from acidification. 3. Population pressure: Broadcaster Sir David Attenborough has witnessed how the natural world is being crushed by humanity. “I’ve never seen a problem that wouldn’t be easier to solve with fewer people, or harder – and ultimately impossible – with more,” he says. The Earth must provide for around 80 million more people than this time last year. It took us almost 10,000 years to reach a billion people. We now add that many every 12 years. 4. Peak oil: This month, the International Energy Agency formally predicted global peak oil by 2020. Today, the world burns the equivalent of 82 million barrels of oil every day. Projected growth in energy demand will see this rise to almost 100 million barrels within a decade, but by then, output from the oilfields currently in production will have plummeted to barely a third of that. A massive energy gap is looming, and with discoveries having peaked in the mid-1960s, we are approaching the bottom of the cheap oil barrel. Non-conventional oil, renewables and nuclear will be nowhere near capable of bridging this energy gap in time. The oil shocks of the coming decade will be intense. 5. Peak food: the global food system is predicated on lashings of cheap oil, fresh water, soil and natural gas. All four are in decline. The food riots of 2008 were an early warning of a global system in crisis. In the US, it is estimated every calorie of food energy requires 10 calories of fossil fuel energy. More food production is now being channelled into fattening animals. Meat is a tasty but entirely inefficient way to use finite food resources. Meanwhile, the UN predicts the collapse of all global commercial marine fisheries by 2048, depriving up to two billion people of food. 6. Peak water: During the 20th century, human water usage increased nine-fold, with irrigation (for agriculture) alone using two-thirds of this total. With almost all major glaciers retreating, many river systems are at risk. Groundwater in aquifers is another key fresh water source. Over-extraction, mostly for agriculture, has caused their levels worldwide to plummet. Pollution, especially from fertiliser overuse, adds to the loss of fresh water. The Environmental Protection Agency yesterday reported only 17 per cent of Ireland’s rivers are of “high ecological status”. The 19th century naturalist John Muir famously wrote that “when one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world”. As the Copenhagen conference draws to a close, the words of a contemporary of Muir, politician and orator Robert Ingersoll, have never seemed more apt: “In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments; there are only consequences.” |
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| New! Worth Watching - Elizabeth May's Hope - Climate Leadership |
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http://greenparty.ca/elizabeth-mays-hope |
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| New! Peak Oil? Urban Farms? Cuba's Been There, Done It |
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By David Tracey, TheTyee.ca
http://thetyee.ca/News/2009/08/27/CubasDoneIt/?utm_source=mondayheadlines&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=010909 Last year all of us were afforded a frightening glimpse of how expensive fuel can trigger a global food crisis. And then, when zooming oil prices tumbled again (for now), causing food commodity prices to drop (for now), our news media moved on. But I didn't. I became interested in Cuba as an example of how to adapt when the next, similar crisis comes -- and stays. Peak oil hit the island with a crash when the Soviet Union imploded in 1989. A food system built on false economic pretenses -- subsidized oil and fertilizers from Russia which also paid inflated prices for Cuban sugar -- suddenly disappeared. So the country with the most industrialized agricultural system in Latin America, and a farming strategy built on monocrop exports, was left to fend for itself. It didn't help when the U.S. government tightened its trade embargo in 1992. With their export crops out of favour and Soviet tractors rusting in the fields for lack of fuel and spare parts, the big state farms couldn't pick up the slack. The immediate results were said to be striking. Cubans got thinner. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimated the average person's intake went from 2,600 calories a day in the late 1980s to between 1,000 and 1,500 in the 1990s. And yet, ten years after the Soviet collapse, food had become more plentiful. In 1999, the Cuban Association for Organic Agriculture won the International Right Livelihood Award (the alternative Nobel Prize). In 2006, Cuba was named by the World Wildlife Fund to be the only country in the world with sustainable development. How did it happen? Nurtured by government policies Faced with hunger, many city people, including doctors, lawyers and engineers, developed an interest in growing food. Stories of vegetables in containers on roofs and pigs in bathtubs became common. The Cuban government promoted and nurtured the public enthusiasm for urban agriculture. It ruled that any unused city lot, even state-owned, could be taken over by citizens to grow food. Growers were permitted to sell their surpluses on the open market. Government programs were launched to help city folks learn to farm. Experts explained organic growing, composting, natural pest control and water conservation. Shops were opened to sell seeds and supplies. An estimated 1,000 kiosks for fresh local produce were set up at farm gates and busy street corners throughout Havana. By the time I got to Cuba in late December 2009, the urban agriculture movement had grown beyond its early desperate phase. The farmers I met in neighbourhoods throughout Havana had turned professional. Most had not come from farming families, but said they preferred the work to their former jobs as policemen, office clerks, janitors, etc. The most frequently mentioned advantage was the pay -- they said they could earn twice as much growing food as someone on a typical state salary. 'We're all owners' The small farms in city lots were mostly utilitarian -- not much in the way of adornment amid the rows of crops in slightly raised beds held in by loose tiles or cement blocks or whatever else could be salvaged. There was usually a compost pile nearby, some with separate areas for worm vermiculture boxes. Some of the bigger projects included a storefront for produce sales to the neighbours, often with painted exhortations for people to support the revolution and their personal health at the same time by eating more vegetables. I took a 2-cent city bus to the outskirts of east Havana to visit one of the most impressive sites, the UBPC Organiponico Vivero Alamar. The manager, Miguel Salcines, used to work for the agricultural ministry. Now he oversees a cooperative that employs 170 people, although he wouldn't call himself the "jefe." "We're all owners," he explained. "When someone wants to join, they enter on a 90-day trial period. At the end of 90 days we have an assembly where we discuss whether they can enter or not. We do everything democratically. I'm the president, but I'm elected for a five-year term by secret ballot. We don't put business over social aspects here. We believe in social justice." Slippery statistics Salcines was obviously proud of the output his crew provides, as well as the fact that 20 of the 170 members have advanced university degrees and 18 per cent are seniors. He had the easy charm of a neighbour, inviting me to ask anything, willing like most Cubans I met to engage in a frank discussion of ideas. Whenever I flagged, he rattled off statistics that sounded impressive. Was it really the equivalent of 4 million rations of 300-gram portions they grew each year? I had trouble wrapping my head around the numbers, having read too many versions of the percentage of fresh produce eaten in Havana that's now city-grown. Some said half, others went as high as 85 per cent. None explained that Cuba is hardly a salad-lover's dream. 'We had to do it' The best endorsement was the Alamar co-op itself. It was a spacious, green-leaf and red-clay expanse of the city that felt like home in the country. The plots were well-tended and bursting with food, there were shady spots to sit in, and none of the workers seemed too hard-pressed to stop what they were doing for a chat. One elderly farmer with a machete noticed how parched I was in the Caribbean sun and sliced me a delicious fresh coconut to drink. If this is the future of city food growing, I thought, bring it on. "The world needs urban agriculture," Salcines said to put things in perspective. "We had no alternative. For political reasons, we had to do it first. Well, maybe not first if you count China. But we did it because we needed to find a way to feed people using less energy. Organic was the answer. We've only been doing it for ten years so we still have a lot to learn. So far it's working. Already in Cuba, urban agriculture is employing 400,000 people if you count everyone involved in the stores, administration and so on." Will it last? Back in the crowded centre of the city, I began noticing more small gardens, medicinal herb sales booths and mini-markets for local food. But I also knew, as Salcines said, they had a long way to go. Some Cubans worry that with the '90s food crisis over and the economy picking up, the organic phase may become just that, a phase. They're not sure how deeply the wider concept has been absorbed by the general public. The 1 million bicycles imported from China were supposed to change the transportation system, but you hardly see them today in Havana. At a rare vegetarian restaurant I asked why the fried rice included chunks of ham. The waitress shrugged and said vegetarians were "poco." Anyway, the immediate lessons were learned. If they can do it Cuba, why not elsewhere, including here? When times get tough, and food is scarce, and the government helps, city people will grow their own. Those most fond of farming or good at it will continue. Even in the most crowded areas, the land is alive and can be nurtured through common sense and hard work into production. Cities will endure. |
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| New! Earth-Friendly Elements, Mined Destructively |
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By KEITH BRADSHER
From The New York Times Published: December 25, 2009 GUYUN VILLAGE, China — Some of the greenest technologies of the age, from electric cars to efficient light bulbs to very large wind turbines, are made possible by an unusual group of elements called rare earths. The world’s dependence on these substances is rising fast. Just one problem: These elements come almost entirely from China, from some of the most environmentally damaging mines in the country, in an industry dominated by criminal gangs. Western capitals have suddenly grown worried over China’s near monopoly, which gives it a potential stranglehold on technologies of the future. In Washington, Congress is fretting about the United States military’s dependence on Chinese rare earths, and has just ordered a study of potential alternatives. Here in Guyun Village, a small community in southeastern China fringed by lush bamboo groves and banana trees, the environmental damage can be seen in the red-brown scars of barren clay that run down narrow valleys and the dead lands below, where emerald rice fields once grew. Miners scrape off the topsoil and shovel golden-flecked clay into dirt pits, using acids to extract the rare earths. The acids ultimately wash into streams and rivers, destroying rice paddies and fish farms and tainting water supplies. On a recent rainy afternoon, Zeng Guohui, a 41-year-old laborer, walked to an abandoned mine where he used to shovel ore, and pointed out still-barren expanses of dirt and mud. The mine exhausted the local deposit of heavy rare earths in three years, but a decade after the mine closed, no one has tried to revive the downstream rice fields. Small mines producing heavy rare earths like dysprosium and terbium still operate on nearby hills. “There are constant protests because it damages the farmland — people are always demanding compensation,” Mr. Zeng said. “In many places, the mining is abused,” said Wang Caifeng, the top rare-earths industry regulator at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in China. “This has caused great harm to the ecology and environment.” There are 17 rare-earth elements — some of which, despite the name, are not particularly rare — but two heavy rare earths, dysprosium and terbium, are in especially short supply, mainly because they have emerged as the miracle ingredients of green energy products. Tiny quantities of dysprosium can make magnets in electric motors lighter by 90 percent, while terbium can help cut the electricity usage of lights by 80 percent. Dysprosium prices have climbed nearly sevenfold since 2003, to $53 a pound. Terbium prices quadrupled from 2003 to 2008, peaking at $407 a pound, before slumping in the global economic crisis to $205 a pound. China mines more than 99 percent of the world’s dysprosium and terbium. Most of China’s production comes from about 200 mines here in northern Guangdong and in neighboring Jiangxi Province. China is also the world’s dominant producer of lighter rare earth elements, valuable to a wide range of industries. But these are in less short supply, and the mining is more regulated. Half the heavy rare earth mines have licenses and the other half are illegal, industry executives said. But even the legal mines, like the one where Mr. Zeng worked, often pose environmental hazards. A close-knit group of mainland Chinese gangs with a capacity for murder dominates much of the mining and has ties to local officials, said Stephen G. Vickers, the former head of criminal intelligence for the Hong Kong police who is now the chief executive of International Risk, a global security company. Mr. Zeng defended the industry, saying that he had cousins who owned rare-earth mines and were legitimate businessmen who paid compensation to farmers. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a draft plan last April to halt all exports of heavy rare earths, partly on environmental grounds and partly to force other countries to buy manufactured products from China. When the plan was reported on Sept. 1, Western governments and companies strongly objected and Ms. Wang announced on Sept. 3 that China would not halt exports and would revise its overall plan. But the ministry subsequently cut the annual export quota for all rare earths by 12 percent, the fourth steep cut in as many years. Congress responded to the Chinese moves by ordering the Defense Department to conduct a comprehensive review, by April 1, of the American military’s dependence on imported rare earths for devices like night-vision gear and rangefinders. Western users of heavy rare earths say that they have no way of figuring out what proportion of the minerals they buy from China comes from responsibly operated mines. Licensed and illegal mines alike sell to itinerant traders. They buy the valuable material with sacks of cash, then sell it to processing centers in and around Guangzhou that separate the rare earths from each other. Companies that buy these rare earths, including a few in Japan and the West, turn them into refined metal powders. “I don’t know if part of that feed, internal in China, came from an illegal mine and went in a legal separator,” said David Kennedy, the president of Great Western Technologies in Troy, Mich., which imports Chinese rare earths and turns them into powders that are sold worldwide. Smuggling is another issue. Mr. Kennedy said that he bought only rare earths covered by Chinese export licenses. But up to half of China’s exports of heavy rare earths leave the country illegally, other industry executives said. Zhang Peichen, deputy director of the government-backed Baotou Rare Earth Research Institute, said that smugglers mix rare earths with steel and then export the steel composites, making the smuggling hard to detect. The process is eventually reversed, frequently in Japan, and the rare earths are recovered. Chinese customs officials have stepped up their scrutiny of steel exports to try to stop this trick, one trader said. According to the Baotou institute, heavy rare-earth deposits in the hills here will be exhausted in 15 years. Companies want to expand production outside China, but most rare-earth deposits, unlike those in southern China, are accompanied by radioactive uranium and thorium that complicate mining. Multinational corporations are starting to review their dependence on heavy rare earths. Toyota said that it bought auto parts that include rare earths, but did not participate in the purchases of materials by its suppliers. Osram, a large lighting manufacturer that is part of Siemens of Germany, said it used the lowest feasible amount of rare earths. The biggest user of heavy rare earths in the years ahead could be large wind turbines, which need much lighter magnets for the five-ton generators at the top of ever-taller towers. Vestas, a Danish company that has become the world’s biggest wind turbine manufacturer, said that prototypes for its next generation used dysprosium, and that the company was studying the sustainability of the supply. Goldwind, the biggest Chinese turbine maker, has switched from conventional magnets to rare-earth magnets. Executives in the $1.3 billion rare-earths mining industry say that less environmentally damaging mining is needed, given the importance of their product for green energy technologies. Developers hope to open mines in Canada, South Africa and Australia, but all are years from large-scale production and will produce sizable quantities of light rare earths. Their output of heavy rare earths will most likely be snapped up to meet rising demand from the wind turbine industry. “This industry wants to save the world,” said Nicholas Curtis, the executive chairman of the Lynas Corporation of Australia, in a speech to an industry gathering in Hong Kong in late November. “We can’t do it and leave a product that is glowing in the dark somewhere else, killing people.” http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/26/business/global/26rare.html?_r=2&th=&emc=th&pagewanted=all |
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8. Community Notices
| New! Kingston's Community Garden Policy - Need Your Feedback! |
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Friday, January 01, 2010 9:00 AM
The city is consulting on a draft community garden policy. Deadline for comments is January 7th. http://www.cityofkingston.ca/cityhall/press/release.asp?mode=show&id=2768 Important points to consider:
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| New! Stage Two of Kingston's Community Cultural Policy Plan |
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The City of Kingston is creating a Community Cultural Policy Plan that will shape the cultural development of the Kingston community over the next ten years.
Stage 1 of the work is just wrapping up – a big thanks to all of you who participated in the several workshops and meetings held September 23-25th, 2009. Early in the New Year we will be distributing a summary report on Stage 1 to everyone on our contact list, and also posting it on the City of Kingston’s website www.cityofkingston.ca/residents/culture/masterplan.asp. Stage 2 will also get underway in the New Year. We’re hoping you’ll be able to join us at Memorial Hall (located inside Kingston City Hall) on Thursday, January 28th and/or Friday, January 29th so we can share, discuss, and get your thoughts and perspectives on the results of Stage 1 and the strategic directions emerging for Stage 2. We will be holding three workshops over these dates, with two workshops dedicated to representatives from stakeholder organizations focusing on arts, culture, heritage and other related city-building interests, and a third workshop dedicated to the general public. You are welcome to attend any or all the workshops. PLEASE HOLD THE DATE(S)! Note that all meetings will be held at Kingston City Hall, 216 Ontario Street, in Memorial Hall (2nd floor) Thursday, January 28th Stakeholder Meeting 1 1:00 – 3:30 pm Public Meeting* 6:00 – 8:30 pm *With Keynote Address by Glen Murray, President & CEO of the Canadian Urban Institute Friday, January 29th Stakeholder Meeting 2 9:00 – 11:30 am For more information about the Community Cultural Policy Plan project contact Colin Wiginton, Manager, Cultural Services Department, City of Kingston, Tel: (613) 546-4291, ext. 1357 or email at cwiginton@cityofkingston.ca. |
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| New! Kingston's Sustainability Plan - Get informed |
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Kingston City Council's admirable goal is to become Canada's most sustainable city. We are situated in such a way to make this entirely possible. Explore the plan and make comments online at the following link:
http://www.cityofkingston.ca/cityhall/sustainability/ |
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| New! Press Release from Ontario Ministry of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry |
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A New Phase Of Consultation Begins On Mining Act
McGuinty Government Prepares To Gather Input On Regulations Public feedback on regulations for the province’s modernized Mining Act will begin to be collected in the New Year. Broad-based consultations with First Nation and Métis communities, mineral industry stakeholders and interested members of the public will be held from January to June 2010 in many Northern communities. Letters, emails and phone calls will be accepted starting in January. A workbook is now available to guide public comments and consultations. It provides a framework on the “ground rules” that will be implemented within Ontario’s new Mining Act. These include: • requirement for exploration plans and permits • Aboriginal consultation • a dispute resolution process for Aboriginal concerns • map staking • protection of sites of Aboriginal cultural significance • details of the awareness program for prospectors • provisions for the withdrawal of Crown-held mineral rights on private land. The workbook is being issued now to give everyone time to carefully consider how Ontario can successfully develop and implement the new regulations. More info: Anne-Marie Flanagan, MNDMF Minister’s Office, 416-327-0655 Christine Kaszycki, ADM, Mines and Minerals Division, 705-670-5877 |
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| Join the Kingston Greens |
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Free newsletter, articles, talks etc.
Get involved in community actions (for example: Lobbying Council for a Ban
on the Cosmetic use of Pesticides, Fighting Urban Development on
Conservation Land, Survey on Green Issues that affect Kingstonians, Election
Canvassing etc.). Green momentum is building in Kingston. Come out and help us bring a sustainable future to Kingston! Membership to Kingston Greens is free but we encourage membership to the Green Party of Ontario ($10) and the Green Party of Canada ($10). Remember: You can get up to 75% of your donation to the Kingston Greens back at tax time! The current government will help you subsidize the greening of their own non-Green policies! Give generously and you'll receive a generous dividend in return: a 75% tax credit and more progressive government. Please send your cheque made to: KINGSTON GREENS (please specify Provincial or Federal membership on your cheque. Unfortunately, separate cheques are required for each.) - P.O. Box 1691, Kingston ON, K7L 5J6 More info: 384-8504 or ( |
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9. Wanted!
10. Local Organic Produce