DEN Enews

It’s all about Carbon isn’t it? If you participated in Ash Wednesday liturgies last week, then you had a touch of carbon traced onto your forehead in the form of a cross. Lent is also a time to consider our carbon footprint on this earth and Green Anglicans have published a great calendar to guide you in those considerations. Scroll to find it below. In a nutshell…Reducing carbon emissions is good. Activities that release it or increase it are bad.

I have good news and I have bad news. The proverbial question - which do you want first?

News is such a roller coaster these days that Good News is always a great place to start. The province has just announced the recipients of the Low Carbon Community Grants and the Diocese of Nova Scotia and PEI has been awarded $37,500 for DEN’s project of Bringing Electric Vehicle Charging to Nova Scotia’s Faith-Based Communities. According to the website:

“The Low Carbon Communities (LCC) Program supports community-led, innovative solutions to create long-lasting greenhouse gas reductions. The program provides funding for projects that support low-carbon solutions in buildings, electricity and transportation. Project funding helps communities complete the preparatory work required to implement their projects.”

Well done to all who have been working towards this for the last few years.

And now the bad news from the same source with thanks to Eva Evans:

Do you want fracking and uranium mining in NS?

The bill which will allow this (Bill 6) had its first reading on Feb.18 and last Friday, March 7 had its surprise 2nd reading. (The members of the opposition were told that there would be no second readings that day; suddenly Bill 6 was called for second reading late on Friday afternoon after most media was gone and even some MLA’s had left.) This government cannot be trusted!

Now is the time to write a submission to the Public Bills Committee (the next stage of the bill becoming law) stating why you do not want fracking and uranium exploration/mining in NS. email to [email protected] Also email or call the Premier and your MLA. One can also make an in-person submission to the Public Bills Committee. Call 902-424-8941 to find out when the committee is meeting and to register that you want to speak. Today the lady answering the phone said it would probably be next week. For information on the health and environmental hazards go to the Ecology Action website, CAPE NS or look at the last couple of issues of this newsletter. Thank you.

HRM’s budget season is shaping up to be a rough one. Mayor Andy Fillmore has proposed putting critical programs on the Budget Adjustment List (BAL)—a move that could slash funding for climate action, public transit, food security, road safety, and support for unhoused people. If we don’t speak up now, these cuts could have lasting impacts on our city.

Lent Fast by the Green Anglicans in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, called SUSTAINABLE SHIFT - The carbon fast for the Earth.

Run-away climate change, left unaddressed, will make life in Canada less and less affordable – squeezing household budgets, leaving homes in disaster pathways uninsurable, and dragging our economy downwards. That’s why, in the lead-up to the coming election, it’s imperative that all federal parties share a plan for future-proofing our economy. One of the best ways to do this is by aligning financial institutions with Canada’s climate goals. Unsustainable finance is derailing mitigation and adaptation efforts meant to keep climate costs low. Making finance part of the solution will help ease the looming financial burden of climate-fuelled infrastructure damage and our financial system’s overexposure to volatile, declining fossil fuel markets. Cost-saving, climate-aligned finance policy proposals already enjoy support with three out of four Canadians believing that financial institutions should prioritize the long-term good of society over short-term profits. As political parties prepare their platforms for a potential early election this spring, now is the time to remind leaders that an economic plan failing to address the climate-fuelled affordability crisis is no plan at all.

A new factory farming nightmare is unfolding—seafood giant Grupo Profand just got the green light to experiment on baby octopuses in Spain.They’ll use this lab to build the blueprint for mass-producing octopuses in cruel, unnatural conditions. This new lab will experiment on baby octopuses by manipulating their larval development, a critical hurdle that has prevented octopus farming from scaling up. This is how factory farming starts. First, they figure out how to breed animals in captivity, then they scale up to mass production, locking intelligent beings into a life of suffering for profit. Grupo Profand claims this is about “sustainability”—that farming octopuses will ease pressure on wild populations. But factory farming is never the answer, and octopuses are sentient creatures who use tools, solve puzzles, and even dream.

New fossil fuel projects require money, insurance, and permits. Major US insurance company Chubb is backing the climate crisis and environmental racism by continuing to provide coverage for methane gas (aka LNG) expansion in the US Gulf Coast. Methane gas is highly volatile and has more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide over the first 20 years after it reaches the atmosphere. This petition is calling on Chubb to take concrete steps to align with a world that is fighting climate change. This includes ceasing to insure new and expanded coal, oil, and gas projects, divesting all assets from coal, oil, and gas companies which have not published a transition plan, and defining and adopting binding targets for reducing insured emissions. Tell Chubb they cannot claim to be a “steward for the earth” while continuing to prop up polluters.

Monarch butterflies' multigenerational migration is legendary — a journey up to 3,000 miles from Mexico to Canada, and undertaken by animals weighing less than a gram. Currently, the western monarch population, which winters on the coast of California, has fallen by 95%. The eastern population, which migrates to Mexico for the winter, is at its second-smallest size ever recorded and less than one-sixth the size needed to be out of danger of collapse. Both these butterfly migrations could be lost without increased measures to secure their future. After a decade-long fight, the proposal to protect monarchs under the U.S. Endangered Species Act is finally on the table. Send a message to push for finalization and strong protections for these winged wonders and their critical habitat before it's too late. 

If a pesticide has already been banned for use on the basis of its toxicity and threat to humans, wildlife, and the wider environment, there can be no justification for keeping it. In Northern Ireland, there have been 64 confirmed incidents of abuse of banned or highly toxic chemicals to target birds of prey since 2009. Scotland faced a similar problem with illegal wildlife poisoning, so in 2005 it introduced new legislation making it an offence to be ‘in possession’ of certain banned substances like pesticides. The legislation included prosecution and confiscation, and saved countless creatures. This petition is seeking a similar result in Northern Ireland through an urgent review of the use of banned pesticides to kill wildlife and the creation of a new law which prohibits the ‘possession’ of highly toxic poisons. Sodium cyanide and strychnine are 2 of these poisons. Help this network of voluntary raptor fieldworkers obtain needed change to protect birds, wildlife, and environment from harmful pesticides.  

Moving Days 

My friend is selling her house and starting a new life after losing a family member. Grief is paralyzing her as she struggles each day to “move on”.

Now comes the crunch of not only packing up a house, but doing so responsibly, environmentally, trying not to cause more landfill issues when just packing a box is painful.

So what do you do with a houseful of things you collected in life?

Some were easy. That pile of lumber joined another pile of lumber to help with community garden boxes.

Those bi-fold doors sitting in the basement for five years will become a garden shelter.

Dishes and clothes can go to the donation sites.

Big items like kayaks and e-scooters were sold.

Then you are left with a lifetime of kitchen things, linen, gardening tools and a thousand small things you never knew you even had before now. There had to be an easier way to do this. Here are a few tips that we are learning.

Use containers you already have. We found duffel bags, empty plastic tubs, suitcases, and a whole bunch of reusable bags.

All the household linen that was moving except a set of sheets and towels were packed into big gym bags in a cleared area of the basement. Donations went in cardboard boxes by the garage door.

We got more creative by using the linen that was going with her to wrap around glass wear that was also moving.

Cardboard boxes, saved in many households were donated but a trip to the local grocers found many more.

Although easy to say to sell what you don’t need and donate the rest, there are things that no one wants. Grandma now has enough nails and screws for the year, but no one needs all these different bits of hardware that was too good to throw out 15 years ago.

Do your best and then take the time to go to your dump and dispose in the different bins for different material. At least it will be recycled or repurposed

Grandma has learned that she needs to declutter even more than she has. I do tend to put similar items in tubs, clearly marked so when needed they would be somewhat packed to go.

My friend’s move has taught me how little one needs. That pile of lumber and nails will always be used. Others like the middle of a propane campfire is not needed by myself, but a friend of a family member wants it.

Maybe we need more giveaways. Buying something is becoming harder but giving away what you don’t want anymore may be an answer.

Churches often have halls. If people with trucks would volunteer to make a run to the donation drop offs after the event, maybe more people would declutter. Either that or they will bring more home to use. Either way, without using money, people are getting things they could use.

Something to eat

Grandma is finding some interesting new ways to prep and just new foods.

Radishes look pretty in your salad, but Grandma never really liked them. Slice the radishes and add salt and lemon juice. That’s all. Shake them around in a dish and sit for 15 minutes. They are the best tasting radishes you will ever eat.

Chick peas!?! Grandma tried chick peas in a few recipes and disliked them. We still ate them, but they were a blah dish. Put a tin of chick peas in a food processor. Add lemon juice, salt and olive oil and process. There is a nutty, tasty vegetable to add a bit on any plate.

Update to the Seed Share Project. Thanks to Claudia and the parish in Blandford all of the boxes are filled with seed packets destined for the south shore. Bravo to Claudia and all who helped make this dream a reality.