Launched in 1970, Earth Day has grown in Canada to Earth Week and stands as an opportunity to stage events and projects to address local issues. Here are a few ways to celebrate locally:
Plant Swap
Join the Green Streets Plant Swap on April 22 from 1-4 pm at the Tupper Greenway (500 block of East 23rd Ave). Here you can swap and buy plants, trade or donate old gardening tools, get advice from master gardeners, partake in Earth Day activities hosted by Sir Charles Tupper Secondary School leadership students, or bring an item for the potluck snack table. Email for more information.
Earth Day Vancouver
Join in the Earth Day festivities at Everett Crowley Park (entrance at Kerr Street and 64th Avenue) on April 21 from 11am to 4pm. Everyone’s welcome. Volunteers can help plant 1,000 native trees.
Earth Day Parade
Join the Earth Day parade, celebration and day of learning on April 22 at 11am. The parade will proceed north from the Commercial-Broadway Skytrain Station along Commercial Drive to Grandview Park. Once there, enjoy funky live music, a family tent, a student art competition, hands-on activities, and special guest speakers.
Evergreens’s Green City Race
Race against the clock using public transit and your own two feet on April 21 from 11am to 2pm (awards ceremony to follow). Your team’s physical, mental and environmental savvy will be put to the test. Find out more or register ($40 each).
Earth Day Market
Check out the Slow Food Vancouver and Winter Farmers Market special Earth Day Market on April 21. Here you’ll find kids activities, demonstrations and talks by Slow Food experts as well as a scavenger hunt and a ‘taste the distance’ comparison between market produce and imported produce.
(From the One Day Vancouver Online Newsletter)
]]>Celebrate cycling this month at the ‘Year of the Bike’ Kick-off Party on April 28 from 1-4pm at Woodward’s. Join VACC for some family-friendly bike fun including a bike rodeo, bike decorating, face painting, a unicycle station, prizes, and much more.
(From OneDayVancouver online newsletter)
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Links: (http://vancouver.ca/olympicvillage/habitatisland.htm) (http://www.ec.gc.ca/pbjo-bpog/default.asp?lang=En&n=5F0CA7DE-1)
Source: One Day Vancouver enews, March 2012
]]>On February 22, the City launched an $800,000 Charge And Go Vancouver electric vehicle infrastructure trial, which will see at least 67 chargers for use at home, work and ‘on-the-go’ installed by the end of 2013. The trial, funded by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (via funding from the Government of Canada), the Province of BC, BC Hydro and the City will help us better understand installation needs and the suitability of different sites while increasing the opportunity for electric vehicle owners to charge their rides.
Source: One Day Vancouver monthly email of March 2012
]]>Immediately after the death of his beloved Geli he frequently professed an abhorrence of meat, but Dione Lucas, a chef who used to prepare Hitler’s meals when he dined in Hamburg in the 1930’s, wrote in her Gourmet Cooking School Book: “I do not mean to spoil your appetite for stuffed squab, but you might be interested to know that it was a great favorite with Hitler, who dined at the Hotel often. Let us not hold that against this fine recipe, though.”
Both Robert Payne’s Life and Death of Adolf Hitler (1973) and J. H. Toland’s Adolf Hitler: The Definitive Biography (1976) mention his fondness for Bavarian hams and sausage, and Albert Speer’s memoirs mention Hitler’s insistence on a well stocked meat locker in his bunker.”
]]>Includes whales, dolphins and porpoises. A total of 87-88 species, covering their physical description, distribution and habitat, behaviour, and endangered status.
Found this on the AskAway Delicious site.
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There will be one opening talk each day and a very special closing talk on Sunday by Sarah Kramer. The rest of the days will be organized by the attendees during the morning agenda-setting.
$15 per weekend.
The format of the event will be Open Space, meaning that the attendees (that means you) will set the agenda at the beginning of the day. Anyone can propose a session for the event.
Saturday
Opening speaker: Camille Labchuck - is a law student and activist based in Toronto. Before attending law school, Camille managed communications for the federal Green Party, and worked as a public relations specialist with Humane Society International/Canada.
Closing speaker: Rob Laidlaw - is a Chartered Biologist and the founder and Executive Director of Zoocheck Canada
Sunday
Opening speaker: Lesley Fox - is the Executive Director for The Association for the Protection of Fur-Bearing Animals, an organization dedicated to ending the commercial fur trade. She is also the Vice-President of Earthsave Canada.
Closing speaker: Sarah Kramer - co-author a best selling cookbook - ‘How it all Vegan’
The roof of a city-owned downtown parkade will be converted to a high-tech vertical growing space capable of producing 95 tonnes of fresh vegetables a year.
Vancouver-based Valcent Products has entered into a memorandum of understanding with EasyPark, the corporate manager of the city’s parkades, to build a 6,000-square-foot greenhouse on underutilized space on the roof of the parkade at 535 Richards Street, in the heart of the downtown core.
The inside of the greenhouse will be anything but ordinary. Four-metre-high stacks of growing trays on motorized conveyors will ferry plants up, down and around for watering, to capture the sun’s rays and then move them into position for an easy harvest.
The array will produce about the same amount of produce as 6.4 hectares (16 acres) of California fields, according to Christopher Ng, chief operating officer of Valcent.
Construction will begin on the project in January, with an eye to harvesting the first crops in April. The greenhouse will cover less than half of the available space on the rooftop, leaving open the possibility that a second, equally productive greenhouse can be built in the future.
Ng reasons that Valcent’s growing technology is a perfect match with Vancouver’s stated goal of becoming the greenest city in the world by 2020. He found the city was not only willing to listen to his idea, but also to act on it. EasyPark came up with suggestions for proper-ties that might work.
EasyPark general manager Mel McKinney for EasyPark sees the VertiCrop installation as a way to promote environmental leadership while repurposing an underused city asset.
“This long-term lease generates direct financial benefit to Vancouverites while showcasing Vancouver’s sustainability innovation,” said McKinney in a quote supplied by email.
“We saw some synergy ... between [the city’s] greenest city goals and our technology to grow food in an urban environment,” Ng said.
Valcent has struck the deal with EasyPark and local food supplier PSWJ Holdings to market and distribute the produce.
Talks are also underway with a bicycle-based food delivery company and Ng figures to lure the city’s top chefs aboard once the quality of the product is established.
The VertiCrop system can be used to grow at least 20 varieties of lettuces, herbs and greens, provided they are under 30 centimetres (one foot) tall.
The Richards Street property has good access to light throughout the day despite being surrounded by tall buildings, so no artificial lighting will be required. Heat will be provided by the sun through much of the year and low-car-bon hydroelectric power during the coldest months.
The greenhouse will be clad with fluoropolymer sheets rather than glass to enhance light transmission and reduce the risk of damage due to wind.
Growing greens close to home makes sense both environ-mentally and nutritionally, Ng said.
“In the winter our lettuce comes from California, Mexico and as far south as Chile,” he said. “The food miles are just phenomenal.
“Plus, lettuce loses half its nutritional value in the first 96 hours after you pick it. California lettuce hasn’t even crossed the border in 96 hours.”
The memorandum calls for a formal lease on the parkade space to be signed within 90 days.
rshore@vancouversun.com
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Trees should be set out on their own 1 metre clear of your cart(s) and laid on their sides.
Do not place the tree inside your cart. Do not bag or bundle the tree.
Please remember to remove all decorations and tinsel.
Alternatively, you may drop off your tree at the Vancouver South Transfer Station or the Vancouver Landfill at no charge up to and including January 31.
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