Green Neighbours 21 is a grassroots, action-oriented group of people living in Ward 21 area of Toronto (and beyond) in Ontario, Canada, who are working together to respond to climate change and other environmental issues.
As an environmental group, Ward 21 (St. Paul’s) residents of Green Neighbours 21 have been actively installing solar energy projects on their own roofs for years.
Here are great Green Neighbours 21 green action groups & events in the summer:
1. Green Neighbours 21 Green Action Groups
“There will be no regular Green Neighbours 21 meetings over the summer.
Our next meeting will be in September – details to come.
In the meantime we are hard at work preparing for the two major events in the fall. There’s lots to do. Your ideas and energy will help make the following events a success, so if you’re willing to help out, please get in touch with the team leader:
- A Candidates’ meeting for the provincial election focusing on environmental issues – Team leader Jim Eager jeager@sympatico.ca.
- A winter festival (an eco energy fair with lots of fun, participatory, family friendly and arts-related activities) – Team Leader Judy Vellend greenneighbours@yahoo.ca“
Also, Green Neighbours 21 has formed five green action groups.
You are invited to participate in any or all green action groups that interest you.
Please have a look at the five green action groups’ projects, and contact the group leader directly about getting involved. Your participation can help make the following green projects successful:
- Home Energy Efficiency Teams (HEET) and Green Apartment Living
- Group Leader: Jim Eager (jeager@sympatico.ca)
- The following two projects are temporarily combined due to participant numbers and overlap of interests:
- Home Energy Efficiency Teams (HEET) is a grass roots neighbour-helping-neighbour, or “barn raising,” project meant to assist home owners and renters alike in making their living spaces warmer–and cooler–by sealing up the draughts using simple techniques such as caulking and weather stripping of doors and windows, installing sealing pads in electrical outlets, covering leaky windows with heat shrink plastic, switching from hot incandescent light bulbs to cooler CFCs, and the like. If you have the applicable skills and experience that you’d like to share, or want to learn those skills and tighten up your home, this is the project for you.
- Green Apartment Living – Attention renters, co-op and condo dwellers: we need your ideas and energy! This group aims to organize and empower multi-unit building residents to green both their personal living spaces and their buildings in general. It also aims to develop ways to engage fellow residents and persuade building management/owners to green their buildings by showing them how they can reduce operating and energy costs.
- Winter Festival (Eco-energy & Arts Fair)
- Group Leader: Judy Vellend (greenneighbours@yahoo.ca)
- This group will plan a festival for the fall that will include:
- an eco-energy fair
- with vendors of energy- saving products and services
- fun,
- participatory,
- arts-related, and
- family-friendly displays and activities.
- Candidates’ Meeting Fall Provincial Election
- Group Leader: Jim Eager (jeager@sympatico.ca)
- This event will provide an opportunity to ask the candidates in Saint Paul’s riding to focus on the critical issues of maintaining the provincial green energy plan, transit funding and expansion, and other environmental issues.
- The election will be on October 6, so we will need to start work on this *before* the summer holidays are over.
- We will need people to serve on a planning committee as well as help out on the day.
- Eco-Tour of Caledon Area
- Group Leader: Ron Graner (rgraner@trebnet.com)
- This group is planning a tour of eco-sites (green energy co-op, solar farms, wind turbines) and historic mills in the Caledon area, and
- aims to liaise with eco-groups in the area.
- Collaborative Vegetable Gardening
- Group Leader: Nelson Wong (nelson@nwai.ca)
- This group aims to share resources, ideas, labour and materials for urban gardening in different settings, ranging from apartment balconies to back yards of homes.
2. Ontario’s Mega Quarry
At our June 13th meeting we learned about efforts underway to stop a mega quarry in Dufferin County that would be located on prime agricultural land at the headwaters of five rivers.”
Here’s some additional information:
“Paint In”: Come Paint The Beauty Of The Hills At Risk
Sunday, July 3, 11:00-5:00 pm
Cosack Family’s Peace Valley Ranch (Rawhide Adventures)
638135 Prince of Wales Rd. (south off Dufferin County Rd. 21), beside the Bruce Trail
In Support of Art Tourism, NDACT & CAUSE
Escorted Tours to the Proposed Quarry site, Food and More …
Non-Painters and Volunteers are Welcome
To register and get info, please contact Martha Bull marthaartist@gmail.com 416-546-2555
Articles
http://www.homemakers.com/blog/ecologic/2011/05/09/community-fights-mega-quarry/
http://www.foodinthehills.ca/2011/05/departments/you-can%E2%80%99t-eat-aggregates/
http://rabble.ca/news/2011/06/monster-mine-plan-cuts-deep-ontario-farmland
Website
3. Interesting Articles
Here is a couple of articles of interest:
Extreme Weather Moves onto the Agenda (Toronto Star, June 19)
http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/article/1010988–extreme-weather-moves-on-to-agenda
The Earth is Full, Thomas L. Friedman (NYT June 7)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/08/opinion/08friedman.html?scp=1&sq=the%20earth%20is%20full&st=cse
Green Neighbours 21
http://www.gn21.ca/
———————————————
You may also like:
Please Request an Environmental Assessment on Ontario’s Mega Quarry Before July 11, 2011