Does Change from the Margins Trump Revisiting Constitution?
I was struck in the e-dialogue on Governance that engaging the question of aligning our 3+ levels of government might require revisiting the constitution discussion. I detected extreme skepticism and/or fear of that happening.
While I'd certainly like to see that alignment happen in as many ways as possible as fast as possible, I wonder if it is more likely to happen through local community engagement? Something like a viral process that flows across the country and catches people in the wave?? (Ok so I'm being a bit poetic).
But I see this happening in some of the community engagement processes, like Imagine [Calgary, BC, Abbotsford,Canada etc.] I also see it starting to happen outside the direct agency of government like through Community Foundations. And several people in the e-audience observed that INAC has a strategy that is leading the First Nations to look at whole community wellbeing. Thinking back to the e-dialogue on Energy, there also seemed to be interest in the various hydro organizations to institute change through several pricing devices.
Municipal Government Caught in Middle
In the e-dialogue Dec. 6 Chris Ling concluded "... It seems that responsibility for waste is largely divided between good producers and good consumers, yet the unit that bares the brunt of the costs of waste management is the municipality - which is largely not responsible for the waste generation and has the least power to change the amount of waste generated, they are able to tinker round the edges diverting here, generating energy there but ultimately can have a limited maximum effect."
It seems to me this observation demands that we go up to 20,000 feet to get a view of these responsibility issues. Ultimately it is the only way we can share enough information about "cradle to cradle" solutions (like Interface Carpet) where the manufacturer take responsibility for the total life of the product and by so doing implicates (wraps in) the responsibility of the consumer too. Municipalities have a role in creating this dialogue -- how about sponsoring private/public dialogue around this?? (say sponsored by those who are leading the field like Interface or Dell?? plus a few tax payer orgs. who ought to be very interested in whether they pay to the government or private sector for these costs??)
Dec. 6 e-dialogue on sustainable waste infrastructure
This week's e-dialogue (Wed. Dec 6, 4-6pm EST) features Dwight Mercer, Waste Minimization Engineering and Works for the city of Regina; Darren Gardham, Custodial and Housekeeping Supervisor for Royal Roads University; Jo-Anne St. Godard, Executive Director of the Recycling Council of Ontario; Jerry Leonard, professor of Bioresource Engineering in the University of Alberta Faculty of Agriculture, Forestry and Home Economics; Alfred Von Mirbach, waste diversion consultant for ecoPerth; and Chris Ling, post-doctoral fellow in Ann Dale's research group.
29 - Nov. Transportation E-dialogue
This was a lively discussion today with many excellent questions. Here is one I especially liked:
The e-audience asked"/answered: Will commuters be willing to drive longer if they have to do it less often, yet further expanding the suburbs? It certainly is true for me. I commute to work once a month and it is a 300km drive one way. Once at work though I do not move an inch for 3 weeks. These are unusual circumstances, but I'd confirm your thought about driving longer less often. As a note, this arrangement has significantly reduced the number of KM's I travel each year"."
I feel the same way about commuting and even vacationing (to recover from jet lag and time zones).
Carbon emissions show sharp rise
Any progress we have made towards sustainable infrastructure clearly has not helped curb carbon emissions - this report by the Global Carbon Project shows that the rate of carbon emissions has been sharply accelerating since 2000, much more rapidly than in the 1990s. Much of the acceleration has been caused by "a rise in charcoal consumption and a lack of new energy efficiency gains." The rise in charcoal consumption is blamed on increased oil prices, as charcoal burning releases even more carbon. So it would seem that rising oil prices have actually worsened the situation, which would not seem to bode well for those who hope that expensive oil will solve our climate change problem.
22-Nov Energy E-Dialog
I watched/read yesterday's e-dialog, and would like to offer my neophyte observations:
Do you enjoy commuting?
This study, reported in the Toronto Star, reports peoples level of enjoyment or frustration with their commute. Some of the results? More people might enjoy being stuck in traffic than you might have guessed. Across all modes, 38% of people said they enjoy commuting, including 3% who said it's their favourite activity. 19% of bicycle commuters said it was their favourite part of the day. The level of satisfaction of car drivers was higher than that of transit riders, although that difference disappeared when they corrected for the longer time transit users spent commuting. An interview at the bottom also highlights the problems caused by transit systems which don't coordinate their schedules at transfers, which ties in somewhat to the Mobility HUB case study on this site.
SUV Sales increase as gas prices fall
I read this article from Fortune magazine on-line: Lower gas prices in the US have cause a rush of SUV buying!
This is a bit frustrating- what would it take to get people to realize that a) the price will go up again, and b) oversize vehicles are bad for the environment!
This is a bit frustrating- what would it take to get people to realize that a) the price will go up again, and b) oversize vehicles are bad for the environment!
The Golden Rule / The Green Rule
The NGO, Faith & the Common Good, has created the idea of the "Green Rule" based on the well known "Golden Rule" which can be found in many traditions.
The Green Rule says: "Do unto the Earth as you would have it do unto you." It is meant to reflect the "that each religion and spiritual philosophy has a long-standing tradition of ecological stewardship" and the fact that the natural world connects us with the spiritual no matter what our faith.
See http://www.faith-commongood.net/rule/index.asp for a poster with the environmental beliefs of 14 different faiths (which I've also attached).
The Role of Faith Based Organizations
A couple of years ago when my church was doing a capital campaign because they wanted to make a larger facility on the same site, they held a meeting for the congregation. When I asked the pastor what environmental considerations were being taken into account, he jokingly replied they would do whatever was least expensive and never really did address the question.
I remember listening to a cultural anthropologist years ago talking about how the church steeple used to be high point and the centre of the community, something that everyone looked up to - now, in many communities, the centre and high point are office towers.
