Global Action on Climate Change, 08 Dec

On December 8, Rally Around the Earth for Climate Justice and a Safer, Healthier Planet!
- www.actfortheearth.org/climatechaos

In December, 190 countries will meet in Bali, Indonesia for the UN Kyoto Climate Talks to negotiate our future. Join hundreds of thousands of people in at least 50 countries (and counting) who will be on the streets to demand that world leaders take urgent action to stop climate chaos.
- www.climatechaos.ca (taken from regular poster on tab "Dec 8")

There are currently actions planned in 16 Canadian cities (in 10 provinces) for the December 8 global day of action to stop climate chaos. Check back at www.climatechaos.ca often for updated information. Organizing an event for December 8 that's not listed? Let us know!

Check details at www.climatechaos.ca to see if there's an event planned in your community. If not, there's not much time left, but even a token event will help send a message.
- www.climatechaos.ca

To find contacts in other countries around the world, or to register a contact for a country not yet listed, see the Global Climate Campaign website.

UN/IPCC - Climate Change Worse Than We Thought

On 17 November, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its fourth report, summarizing its overall findings. Information for the press is available in text format or video. Ban Ki-moon's comments are reported on the UN News site.

All major news media covered this story, including the CBC. One of the better articles I've seen online is from the International Harold Tribune (IHT): Alarming UN report on climate change too rosy, many say. The IHT coverage includes a related article: Ban calls climate change 'defining challenge of our age'. A search for "climate change" on the IHT shows quite a few other good articles on the subject.

The IPCC report "is expected to form the basis of discussions in Bali next month when world leaders gather under the auspices of the UN to try to agree to a successor pact to the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions, which is due to expire by 2012," according to the UN news site.

Sask Election Results: Greens Quadruple Vote

If you haven't yet seen the results of the 2007 Saskatchewan election, there's a great analysis posted on the Green Party of Canada site by Jim Harris: "Greens Quadruple vote in Saskatchewan".

Some of the Green Party Sask highlights are:

• Green candidates in 48 out of 58 constituencies (83%).


• Green votes, province-wide: 9,076 (2.0%), versus 2,323 votes (.55%) in 2003.

In Regina Lakeview constituency, I received 392 votes (4.4%), which was the highest total number of votes in the province, and the third-highest percentage of the popular vote. This is obviously a good constituency in which to be doing some organizing work over the next four years!

Official results will be posted at Elections Saskatchewan when available. In the mean time, everyone's using their unofficial results.

Green Party #3 in Canada Today

The latest Strategic Counsel survey for the Globe and Mail/CTV News shows the Green Party in third place, nationally. The Green Party, with 13%, has overtaken both the NDP (12%) and the Bloc Quebecois (11%) for the first time ever. (Click here for full report.)

Growth Economy?

One significant factor contributing to our current environmental crisis is our growth economy. To be successful and attract investors, corporations need to show growth in revenue, in sales, in market share, and in profitability. Countries measure their economic health by growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP). One result is that we reward and value wasteful, unnecessary production much more than we do quiet conservation. Even ignoring wastefulness, simple grade-school arithmetic tells us that a never-ending growth economy operating in a finite world is unsustainable - a fact most governments and coroporate spokespersons choose to ignore.

Sandra Finley, Leader of the Green Party of Saskatchewan, has written a pertinent article on the need for change in our economic indicators. I recommend it to my readers. Click here to view Sandras's article.