Category: Environment

Environmental preservation, sustainable earth.

Tools for Change Movie Night: Home

Through visually stunning footage from over fifty countries, all shot from an aerial perspective, Yann Arthus–Bertrand shows us a view most of us have never seen. He shares with us his sense of awe about our planet and his concern for its health. With this film, Arthus-Bertrand hopes to provide a stepping-stone to further the call to action to take care of our HOME.

Who: TransitionKW
What: Home (2009)
When: Wednesday, 22 May 2013 from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM (EDT) (iCal)
Where: REEP House for Sustainable Living, 20 Mill Street, Kitchener, Ontario (map)
Registration: Eventbrite

Sustainability forum focuses on collaboration

City of Kitchener logoThis is a media release from the City of Kitchener

KITCHENER – Collaboration and commitment are on the agenda for the Sustainability Networking Forum on Saturday, April 20 at Kitchener City Hall in the rotunda from 9 a.m. until noon.

Hosted by the City of Kitchener councillor, Yvonne Fernandes, and the environmental advisory committee, the forum highlights the need to work together and also identifies the values and principles that underscore collaboration. During the morning there will be a guided presentation for attendees to work together on a variety of activities.

Grassroots environmental groups have a wide variety of reasons for organizing; this forum will be an opportunity for them to connect with each other, find common threads and perhaps pool resources in a wider effort to get their message out to the public. The hope is that a bigger annual event can be planned so that the public will be able to attend in the future.

Participation in the forum is open to community environmental organizations by registration. Contact Brian Scott, City of Kitchener, at brian.scott@kitchener.ca.

What: Environmental sustainability networking forum
Who: Councillor Fernandes and the environmental advisory committee
When: Saturday, April 20, 9 a.m. to noon.
Where: City hall rotunda

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The Kitchener City Hall Rotunda is at 200 King St. W., Kitchener, Ontario (map)

Support the Region of Waterloo’s Official Plan for Smart Growth

Citizens are organizing to support the Region of Waterloo’s Official Plan for Smart Growth, in face of the OMB ruling against it in January, which favoured developers and urban sprawl.

See Smart Growth Waterloo Region’s What Can I Do.

A great deal is at stake here:

  • Waterloo’s precious remaining farmland, that can never be replaced.
  • Democracy – the right to make local decisions, and not have them struck down by an unelected commission.
  • The precedent it sets for all of Ontario.

Your are urged to visit Smart Growth Waterloo Region, where there’s more info as well as actions you can take.

Another Secret Trade Deal – with China

Please visit this link on Leadnow’s site, and tell PM Harper not to sign on to yet another secret trade deal: this time the “Foreign Investment Protection Agreement” with China.

http://www.leadnow.ca/canada-not-for-sale

Here’s the scoop:

In days, Prime Minister Harper could approve the Chinese National Offshore Oil Company’s $15 billion takeover of Nexen, a Canadian oil company,

and pass a sweeping Canada-China trade deal allowing Chinese companies to overturn Canadian laws in secret courts. 

These deals would pave the way for a massive natural resource buyout,

and restrict Canadians’ democratic control over our economy, environment and energy – even when Canadian lives are at stake.
 
Tell PM Harper and your MP that Canada is not for sale.

We are all treaty people: An Indigenous Solidarity Town Hall Meeting for KW

Monday May 28

6-8pm

WLU Faculty of Social Work, Auditorium

120 Duke St. West, Kitchener, ON

(across from the back of City Hall)

 

Read details below, about why we need this conversation.

Indigenous Solidarity Town Hall

Did you know that Canada exists on traditional Indigenous territory?

Like the rest of this country, Kitchener-Waterloo residents have settled on land that was stewarded long before by the Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island (North America). Later granted by law of the British government to the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory, an ongoing colonial legacy of Canadian law and policy has resulted in their wrongful displacement from this land, and the construction of cities like our own – without any acknowledgement of that history. In this context, Grand River Indigenous Solidarity invites you to participate in a community discussion, from a settler perspective, about what it means for us to live and work in this region. Come out and learn from local organizers about current Indigenous sovereignty struggles and solidarity work, as well as how you can get involved!

Topics of our conversation will include:

-A brief history of whose land we live on, and how this came to be

-Report-back and updates from the April 28th Walk for Peace, Respect, & Friendship in Caledonia

-Allied resistance against tar sands development and environmental impacts across Ontario, report-back about the issues surrounding the Line 9 pipeline that crosses the Halidmand Tract in Ontario & the London hearings

-The Oshkimaadziig encampment and cultural education project in Awenda Provincial Park

-Resistance to the construction of a new waste processing plant in Dundalk, with two key representatives of the struggle speaking

-Grassy Narrows and River Run 2012 in Toronto from June 5-8!

Generously supported by WPIRG

TAPPED – Another GREEN Movie Night

by CREW (Community Renewable Energy of Waterloo).

Is access to clean drinking water a basic human right, or a commodity that should be bought and sold like any other article of commerce? Stephanie Soechtig’s 2009 award winning and broadly recognized documentary is an unflinching examination of the big business of bottled water.

When: Thursday, May 24, 7pm with displays & info starting at 6:30 pm
Where: Original Princess Cinema, Princess St., Waterloo