By Laura Schober
A climate justice group at the University of Western Ontario is circulating a petition that demands the university end its financial ties with the Royal Bank of Canada. The bank is the leading financier of the tar sands projects in Alberta, and Mobilization for Climate Justice organizer, Toban Black, says RBC’s funding is unethical because it contributes to the harmful environmental effects generated by tar sands.
“In terms of the tar sands alone, it’s the dirtiest oil in the world, because of all the pollution that’s generated as you produce it,” he said.
Black says the petition will be passed along for review to the university’s [...]
Climate Justice group petitions UWO
Reduce…Reuse… Recycle…Rebuild
By Marika Motiwalla
Household hand-me-downs are going far in London.
Habitat for Humanity in London, Ontario is finding new ways to be affordable and green. And the idea of green building may be catching on.
“The more you can reuse the more money you save,” said Robert Middleton, director of the North American Trade Schools branch in London.
The local Habitat for Humanity branch agrees with this. Habitat is a non-profit organization, it is self described on its website as an organization that seeks to build simple, decent, affordable homes for low-income families.
This branch of the established organization just finished building a home in Ingersoll, Ont., and renovating a London [...]
Little Humbugs educates kids about the environment
By Maria Ionova
Marghanita Hughes can still clearly remember the day that started it all.
She was resting in the backyard of her suburban home in British Columbia, observing her three children weaving around a group of tall-standing pine trees. She couldn’t help but notice the vibrant butterflies and enormous dragonflies circling the heads of her little ones.
Hughes wondered to herself, ‘what would happen if her children were to magically merge with the surrounding insects?’ She imagined they would take on the form of butterfly girls and dragonfly boys. She picked up her pencil and sketched an image of a girl with butterfly wings. These were to become the main characters of [...]
Activist galvanized by festival waste
By Jim Saunders
(Full pdf)
It was summer 2007 and bags of garbage were piling up alongside the bins of Victoria Park as the year’s festivals progressed.
For Maryanne MacDonald this was too much. The sight galvanized her and her London based environmental group, Waste Free World, into action.
“Something needs to be done,” she remembers saying.
MacDonald would spearhead the Victoria Park EcoStation initiative, which saw the placement of volunteer-manned composting bins at strategic locations around the park to absorb waste, including food scraps, plastic plates, knives and forks from the festivals.
Raising Campus Awareness
By Angelique Veerman
The environment was on the minds of UWO students at Clubs Week this fall and EnviroWestern has come up with many projects and events to keep environmental issues at the forefront this year.
EnviroWestern is a campus club that started in 2003 with the goal of making the University of Western Ontario “the most sustainable campus in Canada,” said the club coordinator Holly Stover.
This year EnviroWestern attracted close to 700 new members at Clubs Week. Students are attracted to the group because of a mutual interest in the environment, said Stover.
With two new projects beginning this year and many others carrying on from previous years, EnviroWestern has created many [...]
London’s Birds and Birdwatchers Unite
By Angelique Veerman
With brightly coloured dried leaves crunching underfoot, thirteen Londoners went for an autumn walk through the Fanshawe conservation area on Sunday.
The walk was organized by The McIlwraith Field Naturalists of London and was led by bird expert Cathy McCrae, the club’s field trip coordinator.
For Janet Stevenson, it was her first time out with MFN, a club devoted to the preservation and enjoyment of nature, but it won’t be her last, she said.
She joined the group out of a desire to learn about birds and as an excuse to spend time outdoors. Living half the year at her cottage on Georgian Bay, she said she spends all of her [...]
Enjoying London’s outdoors
By Marika Motiwalla
On a cold Autumn afternoon a group of nature enthusiasts, including members of Nature London and McIlwraith Field Naturalists of London were led through one of London’s parks to enjoy the outdoors.
Each person had their own reasons for being there ranging from loving the outdoors to wanting to learn about birds but all wanted to support London’s environment.
Marika Motiwalla reports.
(Audio link)
Climate Action Day in London ON
By Laura Schober
The Sisters of St. Joseph’s are passionate about living sustainably. That’s why they organized this year’s International Day of Climate Action, inviting Londoners to take part in a panel discussion with Jay Stanford, chief of environmental and engineering services for the City of London, Maryanne MacDonald, organizer for the non-governmental organization, Waste Free World, and Sara Sek, a professor from the University of Western Ontario’s faculty of law.
The discussion took place at Central Library on October 24, as a part of 350.org, a day where people in 181 countries come together to raise awareness about climate change. An international grassroots movement, 350.org is named after the [...]
Compressed, Condensed, and Canadian — Michael Snow gets in touch with nature
By Daniela DiStefano
It’s a warm summer day amidst lush green trees and tall wild grass. You marvel at the interplay of sun and shadow, fog and mist. The sea rushes in, crashing against the jagged rocks of the cliff and gently caresses the sands of the cove over and over again.
After 10 minutes or so you get up from the bench, grab your coat and bag, and venture back outside into another London, Ontario day. But in those mere minutes you’ve witness the vivid sights recorded by one of Canada’s foremost contemporary artists – Michael Snow.
“As far as I know, there isn’t another landscape film like this in existence,” Snow [...]
One Tree at a Time
By Maria Ionova
Londoners and university students from Western Serves threw on their rubber boots, grabbed their shovels and prepared to be covered in dirt from head-to-toe in the spirit of ReForest London’s fifth annual Plant a Tree event. Even the final and gloomy September weekend was no match for these volunteers. They were determined to plant 400 trees – come hell or high water.
“In an urban setting I think it very important that people are involved in physically planting trees, because what we hope happens here then will be taken home. Attribute after 1st sentence We want this experience to be empowering so that it raises people’s awareness about their [...]