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Sections cover Events, General Interest, and On Being Green.
Links to back issues, subscribe/unsubscribe, and join the SGI Greens are at the end.

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SGI Greens (Green Party of Canada) news and events:

December 1 to 31 – BC Environmental Film Festival

We recommend participating in the 2024 BC Environmental Film Festival (BCEFF) in December. This festival is a celebration of impactful films that inspire change and promote sustainability. Watch groundbreaking films highlighting environmental challenges and solutions. Be part of the conversation on climate action, biodiversity, and sustainability. Support filmmakers advocating for a greener future!

Green Party members get an exclusive 20% discount on all festival passes!

   Discount Code: GREEN2024
   Offer Ends: December 10th
   Festival Dates: December 1-31

Here are a few examples of the excellent films that will be on offer:

1.   The Spirit Who Swims (55 min, Canada) – A love manifesto to Salmon foregrounding its spiritual and material importance to Indigenous peoples along the Fraser River and an urgent call to rethink our relationship with the natural world.
2.   For Winter (54 min, USA) – On the frozen heights of Canada’s tallest peak, an international team of scientists launches a daring expedition to unearth thousands of years of climate data in one record-breaking ice core.
3.   Send Kelp! (90 min, Canada) – A bootstrapping seaweed nerd takes on climate change and global food insecurity armed with nothing but determination when she sets up her own kelp farm.
4.   Time to Say Goodbye (137 min, Germany) – A reporter saves a polar bear in Canada from being shot – and realizes on his adventure/nature documentary that he himself is the real problem for the polar bear and that he can save much more than just this animal.  
5.   Usugilix Awakun (11 min, USA) – Illuminating the profound connection between the Unangax̂ people and their environment, Usugilix Awakun showcases the resilience and resourcefulness of a culture in the face of unprecedented challenges.
6.   Grizzly Rewild (52 min, Canada) – Grizzly Rewild showcases five orphaned grizzly cubs being reared at the world’s only grizzly rewilding facility in Smithers, British Columbia and then follows them being released back into the wild wearing GPS collars.

Dan Kells and Tom Niemann had the opportunity to preview four of these and found them all to be excellent films with compelling stories and beautiful cinematography. In February, SGI Greens plan to bring one of this year’s films, and related expert panelists, to the Star Cinema. 

Dec 8, 5 pm – Sparkles Parade in Sidney

Elizabeth May is registered to be in the Sidney Sparkles Parade at 5 pm on December 8. It is her only parade down Beacon Avenue in the dark, so she may be going in an open top electric car decorated with Christmas lights. While it’s a “non-partisan” event, it’s always great to have Greens show up to join her in the parade. Have fun wearing Christmasy hats and handing out candy canes! 

BC Greens news and events: (because we’re friends)

Congratulations to Rob Botterell (SAN) and Jeremy Valeriote (West Vancouver-Sea to Sky) on becoming the next Green MLAs in the BC legislature!  Rob and Jeremy were sworn in at the legislature November 12th. They have since participated in “MLA School” for newly elected members, designed to equip them with the administrative and financial knowledge to get them off to a great start.

Many sincere thanks again to all of the wonderful, dedicated volunteers who helped elect Rob and Jeremy!!

Wondering what gifts to give? Look no further!

Green Knitting Sales: The Green Knitters are still knitting up a storm, and have some fabulous items available just in time for the colder weather, and seasonal gifts. Here are the locations, times and dates:

Salt Spring Island – TJ Beans Coffee Shop, Ganges: Thursday Dec 5th, 1 – 3 pm. 

Saanich Peninsula – 9655 Ardmore Drive, North Saanich:  Saturday Dec 7th, 1 – 3 pm.

Price list: Toques $60; fingerless gloves $60; headbands $30. We also have a limited number of cowls in different designs ($60) and a few smaller children’s sized hats ($35) and headbands ($30).

Want to hear from the SAN riding association? We’d love to keep connected to as many people as possible in the riding. Want to hear about local BC Greens news and events? Questions? Contact us here. 

Community Information: 

December – various dates

The folks at Creatively United have an excellent online calendar of local events.

General interest:

Good news snippets 

• Inexpensive EVs are on the way. They’re already available in some of the smaller auto markets around the world, which are likely to leapfrog directly into EV sales, instead of spending decades using fossil fuel cars. 
• According to the International Solar Energy Society, solar power is on track to generate more electricity than all the world’s nuclear power plants in 2026, than its wind turbines in 2027, than its dams in 2028, its gas-fired power plants in 2030 and its coal-fired ones in 2032.

Climate (and other) solutions

• The clean energy revolution may experience some setbacks with Trump’s re-election, but he can’t stop it. Green tech is not only more efficient, it is now cheaper, and “the market” won’t ignore that. Some premiers should take note. It’s now clear that using clean energy not only helps fight climate change – it also helps address the “kitchen table” issues of inflation and the cost of living that get so much play in politics.
• For an intense update on the potential of transitioning to wind, water and solar energy, watch Mark Z. Jacobson’s presentation to a meeting in Australia (which has an economy with similarities to Canada’s, and  is making great strides). Mark’s presentation runs from about minute 5:00-21:00 in this video.

Is this greenwashing?  

• The fossil fuel industry and its supporters like to point to the land area and mineral resources needed for renewable energy, suggesting that we don’t have enough land and that the energy transition will have huge environmental costs. What they carefully neglect to mention is the huge costs in terms of land use and environmental impacts associated with the extraction of much greater volumes of material required for the fossil fuel industry.
  

On Being Green:

Our Readers

• Have you seen this [Raven Trust’s suggestions for a Green Friday]? Might be something you want to add to the December newsletter although I know it’s short notice. (I’m so sick of all this Black Friday exhortation to frenzied consumption – Green Friday seems like a good antidote!)

     – KO

• Bob MacKie and I presented Rachel Notley with an inflatable Unicorn at a talk she was giving with the SSI Forum at Fulford Hall earlier this month.
  
  This resulted from a speech she gave years ago when she was Premier of Alberta and was miffed at the Trans Mountain Pipeline protesters at the Tank Farm on Burnaby Mountain, for some reason she singled out Salt Springers for comment, calling us latte drinking Unicorn Riders out of touch with reality. Ten Salt Springers were arrested including me, I was number three that morning after Kennedy Stuart and Elizabeth May.

When I heard her comments I thought that it would be a lovely opportunity to have some fun so contacted Andrea Palframan on SSI who within a half hour came up with a rendering of a beautiful Unicorn head on Rainbow colours with the logo.

Live to Ride. Ride to Live.
Salt Spring Island Unicorn Riders Association

SSI Unicorn EV Parade, December 1, 2019

At first I thought it was the Hells Angels logo, turns out it’s the Harley Davidson Motorcycle logo. Later that year we had an EV Christmas Light Parade through downtown Ganges with our electric cars lit up with Christmas Lights and Corplas Unicorn renderings taped to the top of our cars. David Denning had a tomato wire cone affixed to his hood covered in paper and lit up, very funny. It was a quiet Parade.

At the Forum event Rachel gave her version of why she took certain actions while in office to a capacity audience. She also took our Presentation in good fun and lots of people took photos. The Gulf Island Driftwood had us on the front page.

I will look for some photos and send them later today.

Bye for now.

     -TM

Tom Mitchell, Rachel Notley, Bob MacKie and a genuine SSI Unicorn, November 16, 2024

• You likely remember the CBC Article in 2018 about “‘In Alberta we ride horses, not unicorns’: Rachel Notley calls pipeline opponents unrealistic” and Robin’s “Unicorns Continue to Inspire on Salt Spring” in the Driftwood in 2021.
      – BM

What we’re reading

How many people have heard of the term neoliberalism, or even realize it controls our lives?

Guardian journalist George Monbiot and filmmaker Peter Hutchison set out to inform people through their recent book, THE INVISIBLE DOCTRINE: The Secret History of Neoliberalism.

In order for our civilization to survive, I believe we have to change the political and

economic systems. The former could be transformed by a form of proportional representation, but the latter is more difficult as it has become thoroughly embedded in our culture, and protected by the rich and powerful for the last forty years.

Often described as capitalism on steroids, neoliberalism favours free markets, deregulation,

privatization, and low taxes for the wealthy. Freedom from regulation leads to destruction of the planet and nature. Capitalism needs constant growth, which is impossible on a finite planet, causing some to look at space and the ocean floor as new frontiers.

The authors describe the history of neoliberalism, starting with an idea by two exiles from Nazi-occupied Austria who saw Roosevelt’s Green New Deal and Britain’s welfare state as expressions of collectivism – putting the interests of society before the individual. Incubated and fostered by some of the world’s richest people and businesses, it came into being during the oil crisis in the 1970s, when governments were looking for a new form of economics. Neoliberalism was embraced by leaders like Thatcher, Reagan and Pinochet, who crushed unions, cut taxes, privatized public services, and deregulated markets. The result has been increased inequity and a degraded planet. In addition, citizens have been encouraged to consume excessively and brainwashed to believe that humans are basically competitive.

Monbiot and Hutchison see humans as a species that is naturally adaptive and co-operative. They call for increasing democratic engagement in community and regional politics based on equality and fairness for everyone. Not only would this result in a happier, more equitable society, but it would save us from the alienation and loneliness that is increasingly prevalent.

I feel that the following quote by American lawyer and climate justice organizer Colette Pichon Battle, explains neoliberalism in a nutshell:

“Climate change is not the problem. It is the economic system built by the few to extract every precious ounce of value out of this planet and its people. This system has created the problem.”

Reviewed by Shelagh Butterworth Levey

 

George Monbiot explains the book’s main ideas in a lively interview which you can view here.