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January 2007 E-news
Organic Jeans
Here’s a couple facts about jeans from The
Tyee.ca (a truly excellent online magazine
that you must check out):
- Cotton accounts for only three per cent of the global
crop acreage but uses between 15 and 25 per cent of the
insecticides and pesticides.
- Cotton is grown on 76 million acres worldwide, which
represents approximately 2.4 per cent of global arable (got
another word for arable?) land and 40 to 47 per cent of
the world's textiles.
- Cotton is grown in over 100 countries by approximately
50 million farmers. And the chemicals in this whole process
are the worst ones for human and animal health.
Plus, add in the health issues and sustainability issues
for the farmers in many of the world’s poorest countries,
and you’ve got a serious issue.
But move over toxics, there’s a solution.
Organic jeans.
A true thing of beauty, every day these become available through
more retailers, online, and often, they’re even made
in North America through sustainable production methods with
high respect for worker health and working conditions. Even
the big guys, like Levi’s, are getting on the bandwagon
and starting organic clothing lines. One day, just maybe,
everyone will be able to wear clothing that’s good for
them. That’s not asking too much, is it?
Some recommended resources
Check out The
Tyee.ca, they’ve got a ton of new
stuff online everyday about sustainable and socially just
lifestyles, entertainment, books and all sorts of other good
stuff.
Loomstate Jeans:
Organic clothing, 100% free of pesticides, insecticides and
made using processes inspired by 19th century manufacturing
methods. www.loomstate.org.
Treehugger.com
has tons of great new sustainability fashion products.
www.treehugger.com/fashion_beauty.
The Ethical Fashion Show:
Featured
in Paris this year.
Del Forte Denim:
Partnering with the Sustainable
Cotton Project their jeans are 100% organic,
from sustainable farms. And when you’re tired of your
jeans, send them back for Project Rejeaneration to be made
into new beautiful clothing. delforte.com
Waste Weigh-In
In honour of Waste
Reduction Week 2006 (October 16-22), the
students at Esquimalt High School in Victoria, B.C. worked
with the good folks in the cafeteria to do Esquimalt High
School’s first ever Waste Weigh-In. Students from ESCAPE,
their environmental club, (Esquimalt Students Caring About
Peace and the Environment) sorted 35kg of waste into
recyclables, compostables, and returnables (according to the
cafeteria’s amazing new waste management program).
The results: 34.7kg,
or over 99%, did not need to go to the landfill! Students
can recycle, return, or compost most of their waste in the
eight special bins…
1. Raw food
2. Cooked food and paper towel
3. Soft plastics
4. Hard plastics
5. Aluminum
6. Styrofoam
7. Cardboard and paper, and…
8. returnables
Batteries can now also be dropped off for recycling in the
library. And the head of the cafeteria, Mr. Fraser, is hoping
to make the school a no-waste school by 2009.
What can you do in your school?
Want to start up a waste reduction program in your school?
Check out these resources:
The
Waste Reduction Week Canada School kit
with activity ideas, waste facts and connections
to other schools across Canada.
The
Youth Action Centre’s Action resources,
including climate change action guides, fundraising for your
projects and starting up an environmental group in your school.
Kicking
sustainability into gear…
Here are some thoughts about the wonderful things happening
across Canada. Each of our YSC members brought up some ideas
to inspire you…
Ula
Ula attended the Canadian Network for Environmental Education
(EECOM) conference, an event that brought together many people
of different backgrounds, including small children, seniors
and youth, to share new ideas and plans for the future. Learn
more about EECOM by clicking
here.
Kelsi
Her community in Port Hope Ontario is putting on “Youth
Activism Day”, and she’s working with a group,
Horizons
of Friendship, that partners with Central
and South American countries on development and community
projects.
Caitlin
Check out the Canadian Youth Climate Change Coalition forum
at www.ourclimate.ca,
and help with non-partisan pressure on government around climate
change issues, where some feel that the current government
response is “like dialing 911 and being put on hold.”
Ouch!
Joey
In Vancouver, B.C., the Stanley
Park Ecology Society is creating a cob
building (made of sand, clay and straw) by hand and starting
popcorn sales out of it. It’s a new project to build
sustainable classrooms in Stanley Park and across Vancouver,
and it puts youth in charge of the fundraising, selling popcorn
and many of the other parts of the project. Super inspiring!
Enviro-programs
in the Atlantic
Sierra Club of Canada – Atlantic Chapter
is offering high school programs this year starting in February
2007 and going through to May. The program is a two part optional
visit focused on Acadian and Boreal Forest and Ecological
Footprints. It’s hands-on, interactive and super informative
on ways we can take action and make a difference in our local
environments.
The visit includes also a Noon-Hour Toolkit, an informal
session to meet with your school’s enviro-club or interested
youth who would like to start up a club.
Presenter(s) are high energy and knowledgeable on local and
global environmental issues including renewable and alternative
energy sources – there’s even an option to view
a vegetable-oil run vehicle if your class is interested.
How to register?
Register at www.green-street.ca.
For more information contact us at atlanticed@sierraclub.ca,
(902) 444-3113 or visit our website at www.sierraclub.ca/atlantic.
Humanity
Strikes Back!
Got passion? Wanna take action?
Then Humanity Strikes Back is for you!
The Canadian Red Cross presents the 5th Annual Humanity Strikes
Back conference. It’s a weekend of action-skills training,
event planning, media relations, consensus building and action
planning created for high school students. So if you have
any interest in HIV/AIDS, landmines
and explosive remnants of
war, child soldiers and small arms, raising
money for HIV homecare in Zimbabwe, campaigning for
a global arms trade treaty, fundraising to
de-mine a mine field in Bosnia, or tons of
other pressing issues, go to this weekend!!
When and Where?
January 20 and 21 at the Canadian Red Cross in Burnaby (beside
the Lake City Way skytrain station-- see
this poster).
Rally your high school club members and send in your application
forms (click
here to get the form) as soon as possible.
There are limited spots!
Want more info?
www.redcross.ca/lowermainland
humanitystrikesback@redcross.ca
Ignite Change
Now!
REACH OUT, SPEAK UP! Ignite Change Now –
Global Youth Assembly 2007, a satellite project of the Youth
Assembly at the United Nations, will bring over 500 international
youth and young professionals from 16- 28 years to
Edmonton, Alberta from July 30 – August
4, 2007.
You will experience educational keynote addresses, break-out
sessions, leadership skills training and workshops based around
UNESCO’s 8 Pillars of Peace.
This whole event will help you build an understanding of critical
local and global issues, and strengthen your capacity to stimulate
change in your home, school, community and the world. The
Assembly will also feature a vibrant arts component to emphasize
that there are many ways to ignite positive change in your
community – be it through hip-hop, film, or poetry.
Network, experience, learn…change!
For more information, registration and other thoughts, check
out their website at www.youthassembly.ca.
Make a Film
The National Film Board's (NFB) Focus
on Animation site has just launched the
cross-Canadian contest “Anime tes Clics!
/ Make the Pixels Dance!”
Youth people from 9 to 20 years of age are invited to make
an animated film using a digital camera or a cell phone -
it must be three minutes or less and in the
style of the filmmaker Norman McLaren (who’s
he?? Check out Wikipedia).
The films of the 20 finalists in both age categories (9-14
and 15-20) will be broadcast online throughout February, and
the Canadian public will be able to vote for the winners.
When and Where?
The deadline for submission is January 15, 2007.
To find out more and to discover the fascinating world of
NFB animation and its influential filmmakers, visit www.nfb.ca/animation.
Award
award award!
Action For Nature 2007 International Young
Eco-Hero Award
Action For Nature is currently accepting applications for
the 2007 International Young Eco-Hero Award. Applicants must
be at least 8 years old and no more than 16 years old as of
Feb. 28, 2007. Projects must concern environmental advocacy,
environmental health, research or protection of the natural
world, and must be current in the last year.
How to apply?
Guidelines and applications are available at here
or by emailing awards@actionfornature.org.
National
Student Forum
Jan. 31 is the application deadline for
this year's Interchange on Canadian
Studies, scheduled for May 21-27 in St. John's,
Newfoundland.
Ten Grade 11 students from across BC will be selected to
participate in the bilingual forum, which this year looks
at issues involving the theme:
Our Earth, Our Environment, Act!/Notre Terre,
Notre Environment, Notre Affaire!
For more information and links
to an application form, visit:
www.bced.gov.bc.ca/edinfo/ics.htm
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