Responsible Consumption Week 2012
Hi all!
Hope you are gearing up and excited for RCW next week, I know I am!!
This year, during the week of March 12-16th the Student Environment Center will be holding a Responsible Consumption Week (RCW). The purpose of this week is to spread awareness of the affects of our personal consumption to the student body at large. We are planning to hold a variety of events throughout the week ranging from hosting a responsible purchasing day (green vendors) to holding workshops, film nights and a lecture series.
We are offering free coffee, provided by Ethical Bean, all week from 9-11am in the resource center (room 245 upstairs in the SUB) for everyone who brings their own coffee mug.
All week, there will be a competition called The Backpack Campaign which encourages people to bring their own utensils, containers, and bags in their backpacks instead of using disposables. From Monday to Friday during RCW when you come by the resource center to get your free coffee, show us that you bring your own food container and utensils and you will be entered into a raffle!
The list of events, for your reference, is here:
The schedule of RCW events:
Monday March 12th
SEC is partnering with Cinema Politica to bring you: The Age of Stupid 3-5 room 207/209 in the SUB
Tuesday March 13th
Responsible Consumption Fair from 9-5 in the SUB concourse featuring green vendors from around the city and other green-oriented clubs around campus. A great way to learn more about what UBC’s eco-friendly clubs are all about!
SEC & Cinema Politica are showing a double feature in the Norm Theatre, showcasing Dreamland from 5- 6:30 and Blood in the Mobile from 7-8.
Wednesday March 14th
Professor George Hoberg of the faculty of forestry and founder of UBCC350 will be giving a talk titled “why meeting the climate challenge requires getting political”
room 207/209 in the SUB at 3:30, a question and answer period will follow.
Thursday March 15th
SEC presents speed workshops on do it yourself sustainability. A great event for busy students to come by and learn some quick skills in being green. The location and time is TBA
This event features:
o food mapping by Sprouts
o Easy vegan cooking with Simon-Luc from SEC
o bike maintenance 101 by the bike co-op
o and more!
Also on thursday, Tzeporah Berman, the Co-head Climate and Energy Program Director for Greenpeace will be giving a talk in room 207/209 in the SUB time TBA
Friday March 16th
Jolan Bailey, the Canadian Outreach Coordinator for Forest Ethics, will be giving a talk in the SUB room 207/209 from 3-4.
Finally, to end off our week of responsible consumption, SEC is hosting a potluck dinner from 6-11pm, at the resource centre, room 245U! Come out, bring something tasty and let’s celebrate a great week!
facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/events/201980563236869/
Bill McKibben will be presenting an engaging lecture on Wednesday, November 16th at 12:30 pm at the Chan Centre. Bill McKibben is an environmentalist, author, and activist, with a focus on climate justice. He will be sharing stories from the front lines of the climate fight and answer questions.
Tickets are FREE for UBC students, faculty, and staff! You can pick them up from the Chan Centre.
For more information visit…
Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=182496145166236
Twitter feed: @terryubc
Enviro Links. October 24.
Solar power is overtaking kerosine in lighting in rural Asia and Africa.
Update on the Rena oil spill. Why hasn’t this been in the news??
New way of harnessing wind power: windstalks. (Contrary to the name, it doesn’t actually stalk wind)
So what do corporations do when arctic ice melts?
An actual tower of trees. What do you think the realistic effects might be?
New pictures showing the true scale of shark fining.
More proof of lack of proof of lack of global warming. That sentence made more sense in my head.
How is climate change affecting indigenous people? Inspiring.
More evidence is needed, but this seriously seems like cutting off the nose to spite the face.
UBC Huddle
How does diversity affect collective mobilization?
November 3, 5:00pm-6:30pm
Rm 256 Chilcotin Board Room, I.K. Barber Learning Ctr
Arzeena Hamir, Richmond Food Security Society (Coordinator)
Claudia Li, Shark Truth (Founder)
Dr. Raul Pacheco-Vega, Department of Political Science UBC (Instructor)
Winnie Hwo, David Suzuki Foundation (Climate Change Campaigner)
November 10, 5:00pm-6:30pm
Rm 302 Dodson Room, I.K. Barber Learning Ctr
Mable Elmore, Member of Legislative Assembly of British Columbia
Fatima Jaffer, Trikone Vancouver (Facilitator)
Dr. Brian O’Neill, School of Social Work UBC (Professor)
Ash Brar, Sher Vancouver (Founder)
Recommended Reading: http://bit.ly/LGBTQrights
November 17, 5:00pm-6:30pm
Rm 302 Dodson Room, I.K. Barber Learning Ctr
Panelists:
Raymond Louie, City of Vancouver (Councillor)
RJ Aquino, City of Vancouver (Candidate for Councillor)
Mable Elmore, Member of Legislative Assembly of British Columbia
Dr. Barbara Arneill, Department of Political Science UBC (Professor)
Recommended Listening: http://www.cbc.ca/metromorning/episodes/2011/10/12/civic-engagement-1/
Aboriginal Students Longhouse Lunch
The UBC school of Social Work will be holding a lunch at the First Nations Longhouse to raise awareness on the Arviat History Project, which screened at the Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit Film Festival in Toronto. The project allows Inuit youth and elders to share their experiences and the history of the Arctic from an Inuit perspective.
Speaker at UBC: Canada and the Geopolitics of Oil and Gas
This weekend on Saturday October 15, Mr. Charles Emmerson will be speaking at Woodward at 8:15 pm on the geopolitics of oil and gas in Canada. Check out the picture below for the official poster.
Film Screening – Qimmit: A Clash of Two Truths
An Ocean View: an interesting fact about ocean water
For this week I thought I’d pass on long-winded posts and descriptions and instead offer you a quick fact about ocean water!
In one drop of ocean water, you will find, roughly:
- 300 non-photosynthetic protists
- 300 Eukaryotic algae
- 300 Synechococcus bacteria
- 3,000 Prochlorococcus bacteria
- 30,000 of diverse bacteria
- 3000,000 viruses
Fall General Meeting – October 13, 2011
Come out to our Fall General Meeting in two weeks time!
This will be a regular “event planning” meeting, but the first half of the meeting will be dedicated to electing NEW EXECUTIVE!
So if you’ve ever wanted to be on the executive for a club, this is your chance! None of the positions require specific experience, although we suggest that the new co-chair be familiar with the group and the resource groups.
Just sos you know, being an executive is super fun, looks awesome on your resume, and makes you cool new friends (Promise!)
All positions will also be provided full training.
Positions that we are looking to fill include:
Secretary : take minutes, send minutes, post minutes to the website and check the email and mail
Co-Chair: help facilitate meetings, plan agendas for meetings, be a general “go to” person for the club. Past experience with the resource groups is preferred but not required.
Public Relations Officer (Media Coordinator): Update facebook page, website, occasionally send emails.
Responsible Consumption Week Coordinator: Be the go-to person for our yearly conference!
possible extra positions include Social Coordinator and General Events Coordinator – depending on interest.
An Ocean View: fishing and angling
Let’s talk about a “sport”: fishing.
Sure, fishing is a sport. Human against animal, reason against nature, battling it out to see who gets to win the day. Well, not really. Let me lay it down for you: the human is at a much greater advantage than the fish. Usually, the fisherman has a net, or a harpoon, or a fishing rod. The fish has nothing but the muscles in its body, its oh-so-tearable cheeks and the slim comfort that maybe, just maybe, the line will break.
Fishing has long been a method for humans to gather food. At one time, humans did it by hand. The next step was using a sharp stick- a harpoon, if you will. Then came a lot of different methods: netting, trapping, angling, the like. Fishing was and is practiced by human civilizations all around the world: ocean fishing, stream fishing, lake fishing, all these a way to harvest the resources that humans desperately needed to survive. How far have we come since then?
I engaged in angling as a youth. The thrill of the hunt never really did leave my bones: I’ll admit that every time I watch an “Animal Planet” special where there’s a hunting scene, I tend to get excitable. I was never really patient enough to be sitting around to fish, and I mostly caught pike. I never met a fish I did not release back into the water, however. And that might just be the wrong way to do it.
Fishing is a fun sport, I know. But if it’s not for food, why bother? Torturing animals with a hook is not really my idea of sport. And even when you are fishing for food, I prefer individuals angling to corporations with an armada of fishing skiffs and boats that plunder our seas indiscriminately, catching more fish than will ever be consumed by humans the world over, and killing about 75% of the catch just because it’s not the fish you’re looking for.
It’s always a complicated scenario. How do you go about fishing for food AND keep an eye on the environment so that things stay sustainable? That’s the topic of next week’s installment: MPAs.
‘Til then, keep an ocean view, friends!
