DOC Nights at Meadowlands Fellowship Church

DOC NIGHTS presents the documentary "Crapshoot".

A hazardous mix of waste is flushed into the sewer every day. The billions of litres of water-combined with unknown quantities of chemicals, solvents, heavy metals, human waste and food-where does it all go?
Filmed in Italy, India, Sweden, the United States and Canada, this bold documentary questions whether the sewer is actually compounding our waste problems. While scientists warn of links between sewage practices and potential health risks, activists, engineers and concerned citizens challenge our fundamental attitudes to waste. Does our need to dispose of waste take precedence over public safety? What are the alternatives?

April 25 at 7:30. Meadowlands Fellowship Church, 211 Stonehenge Dr, Ancaster, free/pay as you can. Questions: Denise 304-1912 or www.meadowlandsfellowship.com.

Peaked Out? Our Energy Challenge

Tuesday Apr 29 2008

PEAKED OUT? OUR ENERGY CHALLENGE
6:30 PM to 9:00 PM
This is a free event to raise awareness around sustainable,renewable energy for the future. Local environmental groups and eco- teams from faith groups will be in attendance to share their resources/ideas with you. We will be screening the film A Crude Awakening; the oil crash. Free energy saving kits, and Natural Life Magazines while supplies last.

Location: Holy Trinity Anglican Church, , 120 Fennell St East Hamilton,


Sponsor: Environment Hamilton and Mountain Ministry Team

Contact Info: Beatrice Ekwa Ekoko beatrice.ekoko@gmail.com 905 627 2696

Waste Management Tours for Faith Groups

This tour has been canceled due to lack of numbers. Stay tuned for an update.

Concerned about waste reduction? Want to learn more about where your garbage ends up then share the information with members of your congregation?

Waste Management Facilities Tour

Environment Hamilton has made two free tours available for members of your faith group.
2 HRS buses leave Fortinos on the corner of Rymal and Centennial at 8:15am on April 25th. One bus is going to the landfill, the other is going to the compost and recycling depots.

People will be returned at Fortinos (and they make their own way home).

There are 33 spots available for each bus tour. Since this is open invitation to faith groups, we are obliged to restrict the number from each to 4 maximum.

This is an opportunity for representatives of the faith groups to take photos, ask questions and perhaps, create a presentation to share with the rest of the congregation. It could be an idea project for youth members as well!
Since this is a first come first served situation, please have your representatives register as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

Contact me at 905 549 0900 or email beatrice.ekoko@gmail.com

Beatrice Ekwa EKoko
Project Manager

next (big) steps

A tremendous sucess by all accounts. Saturday morning about 30 people representing faith groups in the Hamilton area gathered at the Melrose United Church for a mini conference on the topic of climate change and what to do about it.

Guest speakers talked for about five minutes each describing the eco-ventures their churches are involved in. To name a few;
Matt Xagorais talked about the film series he has organized for his church and the Melrose breakfasts that bring in guests who talk about social justice and environmental issues.

Dean Carriere talked about Recycle Cycles (Erskine Presbyterian) that takes donated or throw-away bikes and fixes them up for low price re-sale.

Bill Johnston of the Unitarian church caused a bit of a excitement with the extent of his faith group's activities;all things from carrying out energy and waste audits, to setting up a 'write to your elected officials club.'
Denise Neutel from the Meadowlands Fellowship Christian Reformed Church described how the church was built to use geothermal energy and other 'green' features.

From Environment Hamilton, Don McLean gave good suggestions on directions faith groups can take to further their 'greening' work. Jarah West shared with attendees the resources EH can offer to help them on their way.
Sapphire Singh from Green Venture shared information about the Green Venture programs.

We enjoyed organic fruit juice, munched on delicious berry muffins and cookies baked by Jarah as well as drank fresh coffee courtesy of Matt.

Huge thanks to the 'Rebel' Richard Reble who MC-ed the event- very entertaining delivery Richard.

Climate Canvass Update

Climate Change canvass at the Cactus festival was a success, I’m happy to report- and we have Joanna Chapman to thank for the opportunity. We put up a table outside her store front (Chapman Books) in Dundas and we were able to award pledges by moving over one hundred energy saving Union gas kits.

Had a few interesting conversations with people (that will be more details in a later ‘canvass results).

People said they were doing many of the pledges in the brochure; others said they wished there were pledges like ‘get a rain barrel’ or don’t use pesticides. Two people who cycle said they would like to see Hamilton go with 2 way roads (Are you listening City Council?!)

Someone thought that clothes washed in cold water are unhygienic and dirty!

Perhaps the toughest most difficult obstacle to climate action remains the automobile. There is nothing more challenging- frankly that’s were people stumble the most. “Too hard” “I need to get to work” “I feel safe in the car” “The streets are ugly to walk along”- Again Council listen up! People need incentives to get out of their cars. They want beautiful streets.

More later!

Beatrice

Coming to your neighbourhood [party]

The Durand Neighbourhood Association had their annual party in Durand Park today, and Environment Hamilton was there with some displays including Eat Local, and of course the Climate Change Challenge.

Here Climate Challenge staff Sara gets ready to play the CD map game - turns out the ubiquitous compact disc fits the scale on the map equal to a two kilometre radius - lay the CD on the map and see what is generally a walkable (or easily cycled) distance from the centre.

Put the CD on the location of your residence, and see what falls in the circle.

Looking for a new place to live? Check the location out on the map with a CD first and see what is within reach.

Transportation is by far the largest personal Green House Gas contributor to climate change, so not a bad place to start making changes.

The Hamilton Climate Change Challenge will soon be coming to Hamilton neighbourhoods to take GHG pledges to reduce your climate change footprint.