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Bill 6 Passed Third reading - Now What?
Diocesan Environment Network
April 01, 2025
Bill 6 passed third reading in the legislature, ignoring moratoriums and the advice of experts a decade ago. Every letter, rally and speech has not changed that decision. Our hope now is to support the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs whose March 28th letter to the premier stated: “Yesterday, the Assembly met and reaffirmed a resolution passed in 2014 which stated that the Assembly does not support any hydraulic fracturing activity….and will continue to oppose any and all fracturing activity….As a result, the Assembly is looking into filing an injunction into Nova Scotia’s law-making process on hydraulic fracturing and uranium mining.”
You may also want to search out Say No To Fracking Nova Scotia on the Change.org website. This petition demands the premier and government maintain the ban, conduct environmental impact assessments, prioritize renewable energy solutions, respect Indigenous lands and protect our province’s legacy of natural beauty and clean water.
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The days are longer and if you are a gardener, you know where your mind has been going. It’s still too early to clean up in consideration of the pollinators, but it is not too early to take stock of your seeds and plans for this year. This Sunday at The Deanery, their Open House is also hosting a seed share!
Speaking of seed shares, this editor has just planted over 300 Swamp Milkweed seeds. If germination is successful, these will be offered first to parishes in the Dartmouth Region and to the day care at her church. Any extras will be sent to Synod. Milkweed is the only food source for the Monarch Butterfly and its place in pollinator gardens supports other species as well.
Grandma’s Going Green has spread seeds to many parishes and groups along the South Shore and some will also be going to Synod. What are gardening plans for your faith building? Perhaps let your Synod delegate know they need to be in line to pick up these free resources. Please drop us a note and let us feature your plans. Your activity is inspiration to others. Please pass that encouragement along!
While you are pondering gardening and seeds, you may want to start thinking now about Earth Week and the Season of Creation for 2025 by exploring the links below.
“All faith communities are invited to come Together for the Love of Creation. Share your communities’ plans to connect, listen, learn, grow, advocate, pray and play for Earth Week 2025 (April 20-27). Every action builds hope for climate justice.”
to read more and add your event to the map.
Federal Election 2025 - Make your Vote count but most importantly -VOTE!
Please explore this voter toolkit from the Ecology Action Centre.
with thanks to Eva Evans & Jesse Hamilton
Major electricity agencies are releasing a plan this year that will outline Toronto’s electricity sources for the next 20 years. This plan is known as the Integrated Regional Resource Plan. Within it is an opportunity to lower electricity bills, integrate affordable renewable energy like wind and solar, and reduce air pollution by phasing out the city’s highly polluting gas plant. Increased energy efficiency, electricity storage, and rooftop solar need to be a part of this plan. Take action to demand cleaner and cheaper energy generation for Canada’s biggest city!
Greenpeace Africa is asking for help again in protecting Kenya's forests. In 2023, when the lifting of the logging ban threatened Kenya’s forests, thousands of people took action and stopped it. Parts of Suam Forest are slated to be destroyed for the construction of a border town, acres of Oloolua Forest is to be handed over to a private developer, while large areas of Karura and Aberdare forests could be torn up for a road expansion project. Despite the government’s promise of new trees, the simple fact is we cannot use seedlings to replant our way into a forest ecosystem.
Oil giant TotalEnergies is about to build the biggest heated oil pipeline in the world. The East African Crude Oil Pipeline is going right through some of the world's most important elephant, lion, and chimpanzee reserves. It will displace tens of thousands of families in Uganda and Tanzania, and the extraction of oil will generate over 34 million tons of CO2 emissions every single year. Activists who protest this pipeline continue to be arrested. A main hope in stopping this environmental catastrophe has been pressuring banks to not fund the project. However, in the last few days there have been announcements of African banks moving this disaster ahead. The project developer still needs to raise the majority of funding for the pipeline construction, which has an expected price tag of $5 billion. EACOP is now looking to attract interest from Islamic financial institutions in the Middle East. More than a million people have signed this petition showing global support to stop the drilling in National Parks and cancel the East African Crude Oil Pipeline.
Every year, around 73 million sharks are killed due to the international shark fin trade. This loss of life has led to a 71% decline in shark and ray populations over the last 50 years, and this has far-reaching negative consequences for marine ecosystems. While sharks often play a villain role in popular culture, they are highly intelligent, emotionally complex, social, and sentient creatures. They have roamed the oceans freely for countless centuries and now they are on the brink of extinction thanks to human activity. Shark finning is one of the cruelest practices in the animal trade. It involves cutting the fins off of live sharks, then throwing them back into the ocean unable to swim so they die slow and agonizing deaths. This petition is going to CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, asking to ban the international shark fin trade.
with thanks to Claudia Zinck
Pedal Power
A decade or more ago Grandma was visiting friends who enjoyed learning of non-conventional means of energy. Marnie had a lot of gardens. Her entire house lot were gardens, fruit trees or paths. Come August she used a large amount of water to irrigate, even when mulching.
One visit with Marnie was in the middle of filling all of the water containers for the garden. She told me Lee was in the basement powering the pump. I had to see this. Lee was sitting on a bike that was attached to a generator that was filling their water tank.
It was one of those “brilliant” moments.
They had plenty of water in their well but every time that pump came on they saw dollar signs floating away. It became so easy that even in winter they would go down and ride the bike for a few minutes and fill the water tank.
So what else can you do with pedal power?
First, we need to know how pedal power works. I found these sites to help explain how we pedal a bike which causes an electrical current that gets stored in a battery and used.
It is great to build something from scratch but just so you know the pedal generators are available at stores such as Alli Express, Amazon or https://canadianpreparedness.ca/
We have all seen photos of the multi-person ride for charity bike. New Zealand did one better with a Beer Bike complete with a beer keg in the front
In Holland, kids pedal their bus to school. Think of how they must wear off some energy before they get to class. Take a look here. https://www.fastcompany.com/2679248/dutch-kids-pedal-their-own-bus-to-school
Our own Ecology Centre has a bike repair shop that travels by bike.
Since the late 1800s, pedal power was used for lathes, saws, grinders, drills, and cutting machines. Grandma’s treadle sewing machine is a form of pedal power.
There even is a pedal-powered thrashing machine. I admit we don’t grow a lot of grain on Nova Scotia farms compared to on the prairies. Maybe that is why this is the perfect solution for rural folk who grow just a small plot of grain. Grandma is thinking of buckwheat, high in protein, and grows in poor soil, often in small fields. Here are videos on grain thrashing and Bean thrashing.
Then there are Karbikes. I want one! I know I have as much chance as getting an Eliptigo but these Karbikes are the best thing for the city.
KARBIKES are being used in France. They are a two-seater (one behind the other) or they are a one-seater and room for parcels.
They have 4 wheels, a windshield and wipers, side doors and headlights. It is everything a car has but smaller and driven by pedalling and an electric motor
In a world where one tries to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels, maybe pedal power is yet another answer to our problems.
Pollinator Seed
Thanks to Karri Brown of the NS Agriculture Department, we now know that buckwheat will not become invasive. Buckwheat will only reproduce by seed. Leftover grain that dropped to the ground may start a new plant the next spring but it is unlikely.
Grandma won’t do any damage by adding buckwheat to our pollinator mix
Kari also told me that Black Eyed Susans (Rudbeckia) Joe Pye Weed, cone flowers, and clovers are great pollinator plants without worry of spreading too fast. If you use only red clover, then the above plants are also considered “native” Canadian if not native to the eastern provinces.
Knowing which plants are your native plants helps someone like Grandma. Usually, native plants are NOT invasive. They require less maintenance yet provide food and shelter to wildlife.
We hope to use one of the community garden boxes this year to grow coneflowers to make part of our seed for next year. The local Co-op will have Buckwheat this spring. We can always hope that McKenzie Seed is generous for a second year, but even so, Grandma feels a seed mixture may be a better idea for future pollinator seed packs. More research and study to follow.
Any ideas out there, write Grandma at [email protected]
Popcycle Stick Harmonica
Using craft sticks or better still, tongue depressors to make a musical instrument. I worried about the toothpick pieces and used pieces of plastic straws that worked as well.
Another music maker is Sand Shakers. Save some childproof bottles such as the ones from medicines. We have one lad who wants to see how things are made so we needed to do extra vacuuming after the first shaker lids came off..
Add sand to bottles and decorate the bottles. Let them shake their sand shakers through the hymns. It isn’t loud enough to bother the congregation and allows them to be part of the church group a bit more.
Something to eat
It is getting close to spring and Grandma still has lots of jars of rhubarb in the basement. One very easy way to use up any extra canned (or frozen) fruit is in an upside-down cake.
Remember that Grandma is trying to learn to cook and bake small. This makes a 4 serving dessert. Add what we call squirty cream and this is a great end to a meal.
Upsidedown Rhubarb Cake
I start with a pint of rhubarb sauce but you could cut up 2-3 stalks of fresh rhubarb and add a bit more liquid to your pan. (Don’t like rhubarb, use tinned or frozen fruit. A favourite childhood memory was a peach upside-down cake with a tin of peaches)
Add a cake batter and bake the pan for 25 minutes in a 350 oven.
Cake Batter
1 cup butter
½ cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. nutmeg
½ cup milk
