Vancouver

The community marketplace not only provides health benefits, it also contributes to the quality of life in rural settings.

Community marketplaces and related endeavours, such as farmers' markets, seed exchanges, and simple networking, are among the best features of rural life. Indeed, such amenities also produce benefits for city dwellers, as produce is frequently brought into urban settings to be sold country style. Vancouver's Granville Island is one of the most successful of such city marketplaces.

What do rec centres and care homes have in common? They've been using toxic cleaners, but now workers and unions are cleaning up the cleaners.

by Sean Griffin

Nancy Jir, a member of the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union-CAW (Canadian Auto Workers) who works at Canadian Fishing Company in Vancouver, doesn't usually talk much at meetings. But when she stepped forward at a union environment workshop last year to explain how the commercial cleaning materials she was using at the plant were giving her rashes and chronic eye irritation, she had no idea of the campaign it would spark.

Vancouver was a known hot spot and NO ONE is checking the health impacts.

by Frank Rotering

A recent US study has acknowledged for the first time that fallout from nuclear weapons tests in the 1950s and early 1960s exposed the entire US population to radiation. Although levels were low, they were higher than previously suspected, and heavily concentrated in a number of "hot spots," including California, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho.

Amidst the concrete and skyscrapers of the city sprouts a determined group of folk who are turning backyards, balconies and vacant lots into a green oasis of food. Growing food in the city is not a novel idea, but with concerns about food security, food systems and people wanting to connect with the land – urban agriculture is a “growing” movement. Our Solutions – Urban Food section highlights some of the urban agriculture initiatives and ideas that are playing a role in regreening the urban landscape. This series of articles includes Vancouver’s Urban Farming Census, Sharing Backyards mapping project, youth guerilla gardening, community trust farming, myths about backyard chickens, how to turn lawn into garden

The time is now for us to cre­ate those rivulets that will lead to a mighty, sustainable future BC where oil tankers are banned from our coast and dirty tar sands pipelines are not allowed; where laws ensure the pres­ervation of our remaining old growth forests and our endangered species; and, where many more wilderness areas have the provincial park protec­tion they deserve.

by Joe Foy

Good green policies like bike-ways, pedestrian friendly streets, increased transit, decreased freeways and car use, composting and recycling, urban food production, stream rehabilitation and green space protection can make all our lives better.

by Joe Foy 

Mirror mirror on the wall – who is the greenest of them all? My own face stared back at me, half covered in shaving cream. I had just read an on-line opinion article with my morning coffee entitled “Greenest city moniker an Orwellian nightmare” written by Harvey Enchin, and published in the Vancouver Sun. 

Mr. Enchin had started his article with the statement that “… Green economies don’t create wealth, but dissipate it, which should send a shudder down the spine of every person in Vancouver” What on Earth had sparked Mr. Enchin’s ire, I wondered? 

by James Hickling

World-famous Wreck Beach, located in Pacific Spirit Park on the tip of Point Grey in Vancouver, is now threatened by a controversial plan to develop residential housing at the University of British Columbia campus. 

Recognized as a clothing-optional beach since the 1920s, Wreck Beach is renowned for its wilderness- like setting, pristine viewscapes and unique social culture. Steep cliffs and huge old-growth trees shelter the shore from urban pressures, making the beach a refuge for all kinds of marine and avian wildlife, as well as for people of all shapes and