If you are in Toronto on Wednesday, bike over to the ROM !
Rob Stewart had defined inspiration in my life throughout the winter. It is not too farfetched to imagine he exudes inspiration, an invisible elixir distilling from his moulding. Rob also happens to be the award-winning filmmaker of Sharkwater and everyone is welcome to join my dear friend for a lively discussion as part of the Royal Ontario Museums WATER exhibition.
“Beyond Sharkwater recounts Stewarts efforts in saving sharks worldwide and how his new film project Rise Again tackles some of the most pressing issues facing our planet, including how we can take action to save the ecosystems we depend on for survival.
Meet Rob after the event to learn more about his mission and how you can help save the ecosystems we depend on. Get an autographed copy of Sharkwater or The Next Eco-Warriors, a new book by Emily Hunter featuring chapters from Rob Stewart and other inspiring change-makers. Dont miss out on this event!
Get your tickets online now:
http://www.rom.on.ca/programs/lectures/index.php?ref=showinfo&program_id=6792
BEYOND SHARKWATER
Wednesday, June 15, 7:00 - 8:00 pm
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto Ontario
For more information:
Telephone: 416.586.5797
E-mail: programs@rom.on.ca
http://www.rom.on.ca/programs/pdf/lets_rom.pdf
Visit www.sharkwater.com to learn more about Sharkwater and Rob Stewarts journey.
In response, therefore to Rob’s magic elixir and my own brighter instincts, I am helping a french elementary school in Niagara Falls to “Celebrate Sharks”. We are currently working to collect over 1000 signatures to then have Rob come come visit St. Antoine school and outline how the Shark populations are believed to have dropped by as much as 90% in the last few decades. Do your part to spread awareness and ban shark fins in Toronto and the surrounding area.
“Yesterday’s remarkable is today’s really good and tomorrow’s mediocre.” I’m reading Linchpin by Seth Godin and it continues to remind me how important our generation is to our planet.
We have the efficiency and creativity to turn our unbalanced global growth to sustained development for all species.
I continue to be optimistic because I believe in creativity, and I believe in you.
A Day of Action September 24
www.moving-planet.org
September 24 will be a day to remind the world of the need to go beyond fossil fuels. We will move together in solidarity for yet another day to celebrate unity in the fight against climate change.
I’m hoping to reach 133.3 kilometers per hour on my bike …(which happens to be the fastest speed ever recorded on a bicycle)
Elections have HUGE consequences… I’m working with individuals from all over the world and all eyes are on Canada right now!
Democracy in Canada can be incredibly frustrating for those who genuinely care about our CANADA… Canada desperately needs to update our first past the post electoral system. Particularly in this federal election I haven’t been comfortable blogging because I’m terrified of Harper winning a majority and it so stresses me out. So I believe strategic voting AGAINST Harper is worth it this time around… to protect our democratic process because in the end without democracy we really have nothing.
Many of us strongly oppose Harper - his government being the first in Canadian history to be found in contempt of Parliament. However our votes are split across 4 opposition parties. In this election, we have to vote against the conservative candidates, against Harper. Mes amis at Avaaz and Project Democracy have created a tool which tells us whether we live in a close riding and which party has the most chance of defeating Harper there.
Currently in some ridings Harper’s candidate can win with as little as 29% of the vote ! Approx 10% of us live in one of those close races. If we spread the word and vote strategically, the opposition parties could block a Harper majority.
If you need help being strategic, because our votes are divided between 4 opposition parties … Check out this site http://www.avaaz.org/en/canada_elections?vc and enter your postal code to find out
- if you live in a close riding and
- which party has the most chance of defeating Harper there.
So, if you live in a close riding your vote can strategically defeat the Harper candidate and collectively disable a majority. If the Harper candidate is too well established (financed) in your riding, try Vote Swap Canada.
most importantly …. VOTE INFORMED TOMORROW
( p.s. I love you Canada )
- And here’s the link for CBC and the G8 scandal : http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2011/04/26/cv-election-avaaz-g8.html
- Full text of Stephen Harper’s 1997 speech (CTV News) http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/SpecialEvent7/20051213/elxn_harper_speech_text_051214/
I’m obviously on an audio kick right now…. the sound of sun and the sound of old growth forest. My creative side is roaring away while the federal election is stressing me out to the max.
“I move sound. Noise from one location is manifest elsewhere, and in another dimension. I turn sound into 3 dimensional objects which appear to be flat, and then heighten this sense of flattening, and of silence, with the hush of a photograph.
Humans have long been intruiged by visualising sound waves as we are, supposedly, ‘better’ at seeing than hearing. How does one even begin to compare the senses? There are more neurons in our brains devoted to the visual than the aural, and so we might think we are more able to analysize data when it comes from a visual realm.” Tviga Vasilyeva
Tviga Vasilyeva recorded audio in the old growth forests along the Russia-Finland border. She then went back to find they were logged and so she transformed the “Soundstills” to visual ghosts of what was.
Craig Colorusso has personally promoted the sun to orchestrate the sound track of his life.
This Massachussetts artist and musician gave birth to the Sun Box.
Twenty solar-power speakers collectively strike a B-flat chord = each set to play one guitar note on loop.
Senior Paxton called me up and turned me into a pod cast… it’s a great way to get an update if you care to find out what I have been up to
http://www.paxtonallewell.com/blog/
In the feature documentary category……my Oscar picks are ….
1. Gasland; highlighting the dangers of drilling for fracking for shale gas. Shale gas is natural gas hidden within shale formations and is extracted by hydraulic fracturing (’fracking’), meaning a tremendous amount of chemically laced water & sand is forced into the newly created cracks to force the natural gas out to an accessible surface. This process is becoming increasingly widespread, as easily accessible sources of oil and natural gas are being rapidly depleted, leaving only more costly and dangerous alternatives like fracking, deep water drilling in the Gulf of México and the tar sands in Alberta. In the US, where Pennsylvania sits atop one of the largest reservoirs of natural gas in the world and several other states have significant supplies, there have been several cases where fracking has led to drinking water supplies have been irreversibly poisoned, and that is not an easy thing to swallow.
2. Waste land; bringing light to the challenges of a rubbish picker surviving on a Brazilian landfill
In the pro-active green lifestyle category….
1. Inception Leonardo DiCaprio swayed Warner Bros. to install and use solar panels on set during the production.
2. Black Swan It is said that Director Darren Arronofsky made the set eco-friendly by banning plastic bottles and styrofoam plates, and of course Natalie Portman is the hottest vegan this side of pregnancy town.
Finally, we can’t forget the tremendous influence films have on our social psychology. Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” planted climate change in the center of public consciousness in 2006, and Torontonian Rob Stewart’s ”SharkWater” created an uproar of shark-finning legislation world wide. Josh Fox began filming his “Gasland” documentary when he was offered $100,000 for permission to drill on his land and now it’ up for an Oscar!
Also a couple environmentally intelligent decisions…
-The Oscars’ Red Carpet is made from recycled water bottles
-The Oscars’ are powered by 100% renewable energy
-Food served in reusable china and glassware is local and organic
-All organic waste will be composted, Glass, plastic and aluminum will be recycled
Lastly, to relate to my desperate attempt at finding a local eco-dress to wear to the Grammys’ .. I’m not the only one. Livia Firth (wife to Colin Firth) is said to be wearing 11 recovered dresses - to make one Oscar dress for this evening.
The piece is titled: Crash Test - of Jennifer Chrysler’s Eco Haute Couture Collection.
Jennifer Chrysler is from St. Catharines, Ontario (right next-door to my hometown of Niagara Falls)
The black gown is actually made from recycled seatbelts which Jennifer took two days to collect from the Beaverdams Wrecking Yard. The back does up corset style with the actual seatbelt snap closures and the belt buckle is a Lexus symbol.
She is so good eh !
Jennifer Chrysler
Founder & Fashion Designer Hemp Couture 905.329.2928 www.hempcouture.ca www.hempcouture.etsy.com
We should all be keeping a close eye on Brazil !
Brazil’s first female president Rousseff fights to recognize massive Hydro Dams as clean energy, contrary to preferred and fair small-scale dams. Last week she licensed the Belo Monte Dam that will flood almost 60, 000 hectares of Amazon forest, irretrievably destroy riverine peoples, biodiversity and their stewardship. I recognize that Brazil is graciously expected to continue to grow and Hyrdo has it’s benefits over coal and nuclear. Developing this power source would of course support their economic growth and prosperity but there is always room for smart growth and decentralized power creation. I hope Marina Silva will be given the chance to share her knowledge and advise accordingly.
At Midnight on the last day of the negotiations in Cancun, Dr. Keeling’s carbon dioxide analyzer at the top of Mauna Loa, a volcano looming over the island of Hawaii, hit 390 ppm. In the 50’s Dr. Keeling developed techniques that enabled great precision in measuring CO2 in the atmosphere, his work persisted to develop the Keeling Curve revealing the constant dramatic rise in CO2.
A Projection of our current measurement alludes to the obvious imagery given by the volcano. The ancient air trapped in glacier and ice show that over the past 800,000 years the amount of CO2 oscillated between roughly 200-300ppm. This unbending math implies that human made climate change due to our CO2 emissions could spiral out of control by century’s end.
This is not something new and it’s not even sexy. Not only are we Canadians well aware but we also care about our collapsing ocean, failing global ecosystems, the floods, hurricanes and draughts, threatened food security and scarce water supply… so what is up? How have we allowed the Harper senate to murder Bill C-311? How have we supported our government and the way we acted on the international stage?
We have one year before the next climate change conference in South Africa and then one more year before Dec 21st 2012 (the end of the Mayan Calendar).
The Mayan Calendar an extremely accurate observation of the sky and time… get’s you thinking eh
