Saanich - Judy Brownoff

I was quite impressed with Judy. I have always thought that it must be difficult to be a politician. There aren't many jobs with worse reputations than that. How do you maintain your integrity, express you personal beliefs and try to represent thousands of people who all say different things? I think Judy does a pretty good job at it.

She expressed the frustrations that can occur when dealing with bureaucracy and making changes happen. I wonder if it is because a certain type of person usually goes into politics and the people who are forward thinking are wary of going that way. If more people like Judy were elected, we might not have to complain about how slow change happens. I think she has a great opportunity in this area to be a forward thinking community. There are allot of people in the Vic area that are miles ahead of most of the rest of Canada, sustainability wise. There needs to be more people in areas like this to push the issue because other communities with less forward thinking citizens might find it easier to follow suit after Saanich does it first.

Environmental Ethics

This topic gets me fired up, mostly because this is one area where I tend to differ from most of my classmates. In the 4 quadrant framework for Env ethics, i tend to lean towards the Anthropocentric, Duty-based corner. I love and respect the environment. I believe in protecting all parts of nature, but i do NOT believe that humans are equal to nature. I do not think that humans are just another species on this planet (ruining it most people like to add). I believe that we are set apart and are stewards of the environment. I do not that this gives us free reign to do whatever we please with it, like the Utilitarian anthropocentric view. I believe that we are responsible for maintaining and responsibly using what we have power over. I believe that we are not doing a good job of this, and I don't think it is possible to be proper stewards when everyone in the world has a different view on what should be done with nature.


This is what depresses me when I think about our future. How can we make the planet a better place when we have so many different people who think so differently about how they want to live. I hope there is some way that humans can respect nature enough to stop exploiting it.

Integrated Community Sustainability Planning

It seems like a no brainer that this is a good idea for communities. Yet, if you look at many cities, Victoria and all over North America, you see short sited planning and gridlock, cars and people. Too many people making too many short sighted decisions. I lived in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, for 5 years. These two cities, although separate, were one big city. The street grid in the older Waterloo were based on old Mennonite horse-carriage paths, and the street grid of Kitchener was a modern grid-like structure. They were basically laid side by side, overlapping in places, and they did NOT mesh. If you knew the ins and outs of the city you could get places fast, if you didn't, it was maddening.

Lately the two municipal governments of KW have learned to work together and have strategically tried to improve the road systems. Integrated sustainable planning may take a little more effort, but the long term benefits far out way the headaches that could be avoided. The principles of Integration, Scale, Governance and Inclusion are four pillars of good decision making and should be adopted all over N America.

Sustainability Indicators

The UN has categorizes sustainability into measurable indicators in order to classify sustainability, and i like it. Maybe its because I am a competitive guy. I liked it when Canada was the 'best country to live in' for all those years in the late 90's, now we keep losing to Sweden and Denmark (although I wouldn't complain about free university). I like being able to see measurable results and compare them to other people/countries. Now if I was living in Sierra Leone, I might not care so much that my sustainability score was less than Qatar.

I think that there would be most useful for a country to measure growth. For Canada our indicators can be studied every year to see what kind of progress we are making. This also allows our politicians some baselines for policy making. I was not pleased to see that Canada only has 6 indicators and the UK has over 60. Maybe Canada has less to work on ;)

E-Dialogue

The idea of sharing ideas and connecting with people all over the world seems like a great idea... at first. In principle the idea is fantastic. Bringing together the great minds from all over the world, without travelling and spewing GHG into the atmosphere. You also can have an infinite audience, no worrying about selling out lecture halls. It seems like a great idea.

Then I got invited to one. One of my profs, not you Chris ;), sent some groups an email about a GHG e-dialogue. Some of the world experts were going to talk about this relevant subject. I instantly clicked the delete option on my email account. When my colleagues got the email, there response was similar. Maybe it is because we already spend TOO much of our days with our butts in chairs in class or in front of a computer. I already think my vision has been impaired because off too much face to screen time, the LAST thing i wanted to do was read long-winded typing about carbon footprints. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but i like face to face talking. It keeps me more engaged. The computer and the Internet has brought us many great opportunities, but it also is keeping us inside, too much.

maybe if I was sitting on the beach with a laptop.. then I might be in.

Green Maps

When I saw the Victoria Green Map in class the other day, I thought it was cool, and a fantastic idea. I wish I had one of those for every city that I have lived in. They would be an especially valuable tool to new people moving into the city. I can live in a place for years and not know about a cool store that is within blocks of my place. It is frustrating to me when I find a new restaurant that I love, and I could have been eating there for months and didn't know it! For new residents of a neighborhood, it would be like a welcoming gift, and would be an instant connection to their new surroundings.

I find that I get into ruts, where I go to what is familiar. The same restaurants, grocery stores ect... There are probably hundreds of interesting things in Victoria that I will miss out on doing. Every once and a while I get adventurous and explore, looking for new things to do and almost every time I find something I love. This tool will help fast track those random adventures and help connect me to my community.

Holistic Planning

Who is better suited to plan a major community development program, a panel of experts, or the people who live in the community affected? I think most people in the class would say that it is the people in the community that would know whats best for them. So what are we spending all this money for training at University? What is the point of having experts if you are going to let lay people make the decisions? In my experiences with the masses, in general, people will make more short-term beneficial decisions. People want lower taxes, lower prices, more variety.... and NOW, regardless of the future consequences. Hoe else can you explain the climate crisis we find ourselves in?

Trained experts are hired in order to prevent rash decisions. During class discussions I heard a variety of opinions on this topic and my best culmination of those ideas is that a panel of experts should be hired to create a plan based on the general desires of the masses and let the people edit and/or choose from options created by the experts. This will maintain the integrity of the quality of work while allowing the public to feel involved in the process. Its like Ive heard from many nurses who say they know more about the patients than the doctors, but it is important to always make them feel like what you are doing was their idea, to maintain their dominant stature over the nurses.

Community Planning

Community planning without involving the community seems pretty silly, and yet I'm guessing it happens more often then I know. Hearing about horror stories like "Bare" Mountain makes me cringe to think that something like that could happen. The great web source community planning.net had a great quote that I thought was ideal... "If you want to know how the shoe fits, ask the person who is wearing it, not the one who made it."

I believe that municipalities have the right, as elected officials, to seek out the local community when altering/adding it. I'm sure that there are plenty of opportunities for me to be involved in local processes, but I simply do not know about them. Whose fault is that, mine or theirs? Maybe its both.... I certainly do not get off my butt and seek out opportunities to get involved in neighborhood planning decision's, but at the same time I am never made aware of anything going on. Maybe if meetings were 'jazzed up' a bit, then more people would want to participate. It think it is important that local government use resources like this website to keep current with new and exciting ways to engage the public. Maybe then, more people wearing the shoes can decide how to make them more comfortable.

United Nations

Today in class we learned about the United Nations attempt at bringing sustainability into countries around the world through a plan of action called Agenda 21. Originated at the Rio conference in 1992, this plan outlines ways for all levels of government in any country to lesson human impacts on the environment as well as grow sustainably taking into account environmental, social and economical issues. This plan uses a variety of vaguely worded statements that in an ideal world would be taken to heart. Over 178 countries committed to this agenda (Chris thinks no one in the class could name 178 countries, but I could). This agenda had good intentions and could have made a huge global impact. Instead it has fallen to the wayside, overshadowed by the oil crisis and global climate change. Chris said in class that if this agenda was adhered to strictly then maybe some of the climate change issues we are facing today would be far less severe. I agree with that statement, unfortunately, as we have seen with the UN in the past, they have no way of enforcing what people commit to. With every country in a different circumstance and with a different agenda, it seems like it would be impossible to have a global monitoring and enforcing system that would be truly fair.

Sustainable attitute

During the last class when we were talking about the 4 sections of BC Healthy Communities view of a community as well as spiral dynamics, it struck me that the left sided, inner self attitudes determine what the right side, organizational decisions are. It doesnt matter how many rules and regulations we impose on north americans, there has to be a wholesale change in attitudes before we can, as a whole, move into the integration and holistinc MEMES.

Yesterday I was reading my favortie book, Uncle Johns Bathroom Reader, and I read a story about Hal Taussig. He owns a successful tourism company called Untours and potentially is very wealthy. BUT, he has chosen to live a very modest life. He donates all the profits from his company, save enough to pay his modest bills, and take care of his ailing wife. He doest own a car and bikes to work, even at the age of 81. His money all goes to aiding the poor to get out of poverty.
"If capitalism is good, it should be good for the poor," Taussig declares. "I invest in entrepreneurial efforts to help poor people leverage themselves out of poverty."
In my opnion our (western culture) idea of what we 'need' to live is extremely warped, when all we need is food, water, shelter and clothing. Unfotunatly, people like Hal are quite rare. Hopefully his story has and will continue to affect peoples attitudes. If everyone thought the way he does, the world would easily maintain sustainability.

Newf

Let your capital be simplicity and contentment," Henry David Thoreau

Social Capital

In class today we talked about social capital, and like all scholarly derived concepts, there are a million convoluted definitions available for you to try and decipher. I came about a very simple and concise definition by Timothy Smith and Michael Doherty from Australia, they define social capital as:
" the networks and connections between people that contribute to social cohesion"
Things like community groups, church, sports teams, family groups, social clubs ect.. are all things that increase social capital. Each person has a different amount of social capital and everyone values and enjoys different things. My personal social capital is found in things like my church, people who i share common interests like music and sports, my family, connecting with nature and my classmates. At this point in my life I don't feel like I am gaining any social capital because of all the moving i have been doing. Being a student, particularly in an intense course, does not allow me to explore new and exciting things in my community. Being aware of this concept will help to me ensure that I am purposely seeking to increase my social capital in my community.

Temporary Communities

I have been an on-again off-again student for more about 8 years. I have lived in 9 different houses/apartments in 5 different cities. Each time I settled in a different place I knew it would be a temporary situation. The life of a post-secondary student is unique and is what I call 'life in a bubble'. Because I know, on my backburner, that I will move on from the place I am living in, my desire to deeply connect to my community is minimal. In fact, I generally benefit from where I live without really giving back. I have this ideal idea in my head about the community that I will put down roots and invest in. I see growing my family and raising my kids in a small community where all its members interact and help each other out. I believe it takes a commitment by people in a community to truly make it last. Sustainability is only accomplished when long term goals are incorporated. I dont feel cononected to my current community in which I live, and the main reason is that I am not commited to being a part of it or making it better. At its roots this attitude is selfish. I dont want to invest in a place where I wont remain to see the benifits. I try not to live by this attitude, but I find, deep down, that it shapes my decisions.
When I make the final move (hopefully) and settle into my new home in Ontario, I plan to invest in my community. How this will happen is still unclear, but I know that because I plan to be there for a long time, that it will help my commitment to make my surrounding environement better. The community living survey that I completed for the CRC (http://www.survey.crcresearch.org/index.php?sid=6)
showed me that contributing to welcoming and safety in a community are ways that I can help.

Newfs Sustainability Blog

Hey Everyone,

This blog is a place where I will be sharing some thoughts on my community and what sustainability means to me.