The Great Turning: An (inspiring) Sneak Peak for Change in Vancouver
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Image by Ben West
Become the change you seek in Vancouver! Getting started is as easy as attending Saturday's Great Turning Unconference
Rub shoulders with hundreds of change agents and more than 40 passionate community leaders as you’re introduced to innovative community-based projects that are making Vancouver more resilient and sustainable at the Great Turning Unconference, presented by Be The Change Earth Alliance.
The day will be organized into three distinct streams pivotal to our communities’ health and resilience: Action, Innovation and Consciousness. (Read more about the day here.)
Below is a sneak peak of some of the exciting initiatives and topics that will be covered. Also, check out Be The Change Earth Aliiance's YouTube Channel for video introductions from each of the presenters.
ACTION:
Oil Tankers on the BC Coast: Ben West, Wilderness Committee
The proposed Enbridge gateway pipeline would bring crude oil from the tar sands in Alberta to super tankers in Kitimat, greatly increasing the risk of a devastating oil spill on the BC Coast, particularly in the narrow passes of the Inside Passage. (Remember the BC Ferries Queen of the North incident several years ago? Yeah, those waters.)
The Wilderness Committee is actively working to raise awareness about the dangers of tankers on the Pacific Coast (see image at top), including organizing the event A Day for the Bay in October 2011, a celebration of the coast organized to send a message to the provincial and federal government that BC residents do not want oil tankers in the Salish Sea.
Currently two tankers per week carrying about twice the volume of oil as the Exxon Valdez travel through Vancouver Harbour, a practice that started in 2007 without public notice or discussion.
Community Rail: John Vissers, Fraser Valley Conservancy
Is this railroad the answer to a more sustainable Lower Mainland? (Image: Flickr / Robert Nyman)
In 1911, the Lower Mainland had a green, zero-emissions public transportation system linking all the communities from Vancouver to Chilliwack. Fifty years ago we fell in love with cars and abandoned the train. However, the people of BC still own this railway, a potential starting point for building and connecting sustainable, walkable communities across the Lower Mainland.
"I'm an optimist, and believe we have the tools, the knowledge and the desire to create a sustainable future," says John Vissers, a long-time environmental activist who recently turned his energy to promoting and developing projects that help build community resilience, habitat conservation, community garden projects and sustainable public transportation. His latest endeavour, Rail for the Valley, received a Reader's Choice Award for top climate action project in BC via TheTyee.ca.
Living Without Plastic: Taina Uitto, Plastic Manners
Taina Uitto gave up plastic, and she want to help you do the same. (Image: Taina Uitto)
On January 1, 2010, Taina Uitto gave up plastic. It improved her life and now she’s set on motivating others to do the same—for the planet and themselves. Captured through the blog Plastic Manners, Uitto presents readers with insight on her encounters with plastic and her experience navigating her plastic-free challenge.
Fish Farms: Tyee Bridge, Wild Salmon Circle
The Wild Salmon Circle aims to keep the salmon-farming industry in check. (Image: Flilckr / JB Melquist)
The Wild Salmon Circle is a grassroots, citizen-run and -funded action group dedicated to the removal of open-net fish farms from BC’s coast and the restoration of healthy wild salmon runs in Canada. Founded in 2009 by Tyee Bridge, the goal of the Wild Salmon Circle is to put political and consumer pressure on the salmon-farming industry in BC.
Bridge is a Vancouver-based writer and frequent contributor to Vancouver Magazine, Swerve and BC Business (as well as Granville Magazine, in its print form). He will introduce participants to the study-action circle concept and draw upon his own personal experience with the Wild Salmon Circle to explain why they are an essential "old-but-new" social technology for global transformation. He will then walk participants through the process of starting their own circles and growing them into formidable forces for change.
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