Catastrophic climate change is happening, human systems are pushing it further and we need to act now, together. Period.
On Monday, June 26th, a group of concerned community members came together at our Mission: Transition! workshop to talk about doing just that. The discussion focused on questions like, "how can we accelerate our transition to a low carbon future?," "how is climate change changing your community?", "what climate solutions are already underway in your neighbourhood?", and "what solutions would you like to see in the future?" Force of Nature gave a few short presentations on climate change and successful grassroots climate solutions, in between interactive group discussions and ideastorm activities that revolved around those important questions.
After the group brainstormed climate solutions and voted on their interests, we dove deeper into the topics with the most votes. Groups were able to write or sketch solutions they knew about and envisioned in their communities on a map of the Lower Mainland. Here are some of the known existing and envisioned solutions that were brought up:
LOCAL AGRICULTURE:
(Existing): Urban Bee keeping, home and community gardens, urban farms
(Envisioned): Vertical Gardens, Rooftop agriculture, Education around gardening, eating in season and veggie recipes.
MICRO-GRIDS AND ENERGY STORAGE:
(Existing): False Creek community/district energy system, neighborhood ground source heat pumps, East Vancouver Cohousing solar project
(Envisioned): Battery storage, strada (geothermal) energy generation, decentralized grids, solar over parking lots, hotspring heating, energy co-ops
GREEN SUBSIDIES AND TAXES:
(Existing): Electric Car subsidies, BC Carbon tax,
(Envisioned): Bike subsidies, subsidized appliance ‘upgrade,’ BC Hydro as a facilitator of energy (rather than a supplier), tax break for low energy homes/consumption, solar panel grants, green education grants
TRANSPORTATION:
(Existing): Bus-only/carpool lanes, bike lanes, electric buses, skytrain, mobi/car2go/evo
(Envisioned): Unionized uber, 4-day work week with staggered commute hours, increased seabus and skytrain/light rail routes, SFU Gondola, Autonomous vehicles
GREEN JOBS:
(Existing): BC Housing Corp, Green retrofitting, wind turbine factory, Tesla
(Envisioned): Solar Panel Factory, sustainable agriculture, local production, transition trainers, wave energy (Local company “Bluetility” is working on this), increased education, healthcare and social services.
MISCLLANEOUS:
Find alternatives to capitalism, mobilize the environmental movement to elect environmental candidates, proportional representation, waste reduction.
While climate change will continue to affect all life on this planet, Mission: Transition is Force of Nature’s way of bringing people together to talk about the challenges ahead. But more than that, MT is an opportunity to chat with folks in our community about building a beautiful future. As we saw at the town hall, there are already lots of really great people working on really great climate-solutions-projects right here in the lower mainland. While these projects and a movement of people exist, there are still so many climate solutions we envision in our communities. We just need to make them happen. After all, the future we share together, is the future we build together.
SO WHAT WILL YOU AND YOUR COMMUNITY DO?
We can start connecting with our friends, coworkers, family, clubs, societies or other social circles to talk about projects for our neighborhoods, today! It is truly amazing what a small group of people can do, when we work together. So, let’s take the pledge to cooperate and build a healthy, sustainable and equitable future for our community!
Want to hold your own Mission: Transition workshop? We’ve had them in yoga studios, churches, temples, homes, just about anywhere! You can be the one to gather your friends, family and neighbors to talk about climate solutions in YOUR community. You can even give your own presentation!
Interested? Please contact [email protected] or contact us through our contact form.
Can you make a one-time or monthly donation to help us run more climate solutions workshops in Metro Vancouver? Donors help us cover costs like space and equipment rentals, posters, flyers and more! Your contribution will directly grow the work we do to promote and work on climate solutions in the Lower Mainland. See our current work here.
Want to volunteer with Force of Nature and work on climate solutions? Click here to check out some upcoming shifts, or contact our organizer Jake directly at the e-mail address above.
Join the Force of Nature community to stay connected to our work and events!
