Thursday, April 30, 2009

Interviews at the Sudbury Earth Day Festival 2009

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Friday, April 24, 2009

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Creepy hallway - Heritage / NDSS High School

Here's a nice shot from Flickr on an abandoned Sudbury high school. Makes you wonder if there might not be other uses fro al lthe low enrollment schools slated to close.

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Monday, April 20, 2009

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Resilient City Research Report


The U.K. telegraph today published highlights of a upcoming report from Demos thinktank entitled Resilient Nation -How communities respond to systemic breakdown. Demos publishes all it's publications as ebooks free for download under a creative commons license.

The report looks at the complex interconnectedness of modern British urban life and suggests that an interruption or severe shock to any single node such as transportation, fuel, energy or food could quickly ripple outwards and paralyze the entire system.

Resilient Nation authors characterize the current state of affairs as a 'brittle' society, or one which is disaster prone and ripe to fast collapse. A city which relies on top down master planning or centralized decision making has huge implications for disaster preparedness when the head cannot connect to the surrounding areas or any single link is capable of disrupting the entire supply chain.

While not sounding alarmist like similar Y2k end of the millennium scenarios, DEMO's research suggests that city officials need to proactively look to popular social networking sites like FaceBook and Twitter to get out the message before problems arise.

Finally, Demo's suggest that 4 keystones for a resilient city include the four "Es" of - community engagement, education, empowerment and encouragement. Not such a bad checklist to use when thinking about and envisioning what could be a very unpleasant wake up call for any city!

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Friday, April 17, 2009

GreenSudbury T-shirts for Earth Day




Just finished new t-shirts that will available at the Sudbury Earth Day Festival through the GreenSudbury booth and Onelove Clothing.

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Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Lively High School Students Help Light Up the World


The Light Up The World Foundation brings ultra-efficient, durable and near permanent White Light Emitting Diodes (WLED) lighting solutions powered by renewable energy to the world's poor in ecologically sensitive and remote rural areas.LUTW has lit up more than 14,000 homes in 42 countries.

Since, 2005, families in rural Costa Rica have been benefiting from solar powered LED lighting was initiated and is coordinated by David Wiwchar
a science teacher at Lasalle Secondary School in Sudbury, Ontario and his wife, Pam.

For 17 Rainbow District School Board students, the March holiday was spent spreading a little light into the lives of less fortunate people. The students took part in the Ligh Up Costa Rica campaign, delivering 100 LED lighting systems to some of the poorest and remote areas in the world. Another 100 systems are scheduled for delivery this fall.

“Students backpacked into the mountains to install systems after an Eco-Adventure itinerary that included visits to volcanoes, coral reefs, rainforest canopy zip-lines, a sloth rehabilitation centre and educational parks,” says David Wiwchar, vice-principal of Lively District Secondary School. Wiwchar has been leading the local “Light Up Costa Rica” effort since its inception six years ago.

“Approximately 350 homes have now been lit, a remarkable achievement for the enthusiastic students who have participated in this project over the past few years,” says Wiwchar.
“Each panel benefits five to 10 members, on average, in a household. With our most recent delivery, more than 1,750 people will have received the gift of light as a result of the generous contributions of our many donors.”

Students and teachers involved in the project — from Lasalle Secondary School, Lively District Secondary School and Manitoulin Secondary School — commended the communities of Sudbury, Espanola and Manitoulin for their ongoing support of this project.

“Donations toward the lighting systems, at a cost of $150 each, and sponsorship of student travel enabled young people in Rainbow Schools to experience the joy of volunteering as they met their graduation requirement of 40 hours of community service,” says Wiwchar.
A total of 68 students have participated in the Costa Rica excursion since the launch of the project. “These students have lived an incredible volunteer experience, bringing light to hundreds of children and families in the rainforest,” he adds.

The public will be able to view a slide show of the 2009 trip to Costa Rica at the Earth Day celebration on Saturday, April 18, 2009 at Market Square.

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Sunday, April 12, 2009

DownTown Sudbury Public Potential

I took these snapshots of the first Public Art Project in Downtown Sudbury in years and mixed a short promo video using animoto. The pieces are designed using recycled materials by Univ. of Waterloo students in support of the City''s bid for a new school of artchitecture

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Saturday, April 11, 2009

Northwatch Spring Meeting

Northwatch Spring Meeting
Saturday, April 25th, 2009
9:30 am to 4:30 pm
Centre de Sante, Frood Road, Sudbury

Childcare available on advance request. Pre-registration is required.

Sessions will include:
- regional roundtables and open space workshops
- electricity updates and a window into the world of energy planning in Ontario
- a look at sweeping changes proposed for forest planning in Ontario
- strategy session around forest management planning for local and regional forests
- source water protection updates
- discussion of mining impacts in the Sudbury basin (including Sudbury Soils Studies)

Do you have an agenda item you'd like to see added? There's room for you! Please email your idea in advance, or come with your suggestions.

Please pre-register by April 23rd by emailing northwatch@onlink.net or calling 705 497 0373. Requests for childcare must be made no later than April 20th.

Northwatch
Box 282, North Bay P1B 8H2


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Thursday, April 9, 2009

Sudbury Identifed as Green Post Industrial Model

Look Inside >>
Spring 2009
The Spring issue of Canadian Green Living magazines lead feature article Greenest Cities of Tomorrow picks Sudbury as the Model for Post Industrial Green!

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Wednesday, April 8, 2009

G.N.O. Exhibition Mining Plantation


Aldermac – Mining Plantation

Exhibition : Friday April 10 to Saturday May 9
Opening reception: Friday April 10 at 5pm
Artist talk: Saturday May 9 at 3pm


For artist Véronique Doucet, presenting the project Aldermac – Plantation minière in Sudbury marks the completion of a work of artistic and environmental research. This research undertaken in 2002 studies the devastation brought about by the stockpiling of 1.5 million tons of acidic mining residues in a 76-hectare area. With the help of the Conseil régional en environnement de l’Abitibi-Témiscamingue (CREAT), the artist fought a determined battle to bring about the environmental rehabilitation of the Aldermac slag dump at Arntfield, 24 kilometers from Rouyn-Noranda.

In the multidisciplinary project presented in Rouyn-Noranda, Doucet uses many different means to inform the public and convince certain governmental agencies of the importance to act in this matter. She produced, among others, a series of post cards giving close to 3000 people the opportunity to get involved in a letter campaign.

After many interventions by the artist and CREAT, the latter received a letter announcing that the site would be rehabilitated. Work estimated at 16.5 million $ is currently underway.

The Sudbury exhibition contains a pictorial installation presenting a map of the Aldermac site and of the artist’s travels, an experimental video documenting the work done by her environmental militia as well as a series of photos and samples of pH levels in water which document the artist’s discoveries in her expeditions on the site.

Véronique Doucet is an environmental artist who, through her art and her political activism, has succeeded in effecting change in her environment. She holds a B.A. in Art with a major in plastic arts and minors in arts and sciences from Université de Montréal. Her works have been exhibited all across Quebec; this is her first exhibition in Ontario.

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Climate Change and Christian Responsibility



EARTH DAY: Plan to attend a special Earth Day evening at Saint Patrick’s Parish, 39 Walford Road, Sudbury from 7:00 to 9:00 PM on Wednesday, April 22. Cathy Orlando-Mathur of St. James Anglican Parish, Sudbury will speak on “Climate Change and Christian Responsibility”. Cathy is the Science Outreach Coordinator at Laurentian University. She has trained under David Suzuki and Al Gore. Following Cathy’s talk, Fleur Hackett of the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace will give a short, related presentation entitled “Carbon Sabbath”. There is no admission charge. Instead everyone is asked to bring a non-perishable food item for the Inner City Home.

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Sudbury Urban Farming Youth Internship



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Sudbury hosts Maude Barlow and Sid Ryan Thurs. April 16

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Sunday, April 5, 2009

Sudbury Community Action Plan

photo by: ideanorth
Following the 3 community presentations held over 4 days in January 2009 from Gil Penalosa of Walk and Bike For Life the Final Report of recommendations has been released as a downloadable pdf document.

Highlights include

  • A new look at the Rainbow Routes Trail system
  • Bike share and and increased cycling throughout the city for increased health benefits
  • More seating and public furniture
  • Graphed results from over 90 participants
  • Maps of suggested area's
  • Car Free Days

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