Me to We is a great idea! It’s all about getting individual people to make large changes. Some of the people who have taken me to the we level seem kinda cheesy, but hey – at least they’re doing something. From the site:
“Me to We is a worldwide movement of people finding purpose through living with compassion, strengthening community and making a commitment to our shared humanity. “
Although the new Conservative Federal government in Canada is shying away from the Kyoto Protocol, that isn’t stopping Canada’s mayors and some provinces from taking action anyway! Two weeks ago an annual meeting was held by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, representing 1,400 municipal leaders across Canada. At that meeting a policy statement was adopted that supports Canada’s ratification of Kyoto.
“Municipal governments commit themselves…to implementing policies and operational changes that will achieve a global reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of 30 per cent by 2020 and 80 per cent by 2050, based on 1990 levels,” the statement reads.
Municipal governments realize that they have the power to make a difference in Canada’s greenhouse gas emmisions, since they have a say in things such as transit and landfill regulations.
“In Canada, close to 55 per cent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions can be influenced by decisions made by municipal governments,” the statement says.
Combine this with the latest news of, Quebec’s Provincial Government aiming to become the first province to levy a “carbon tax” in the fight against global warming, and it’s hard not to wonder…….who really needs the Feds anyway???
A team of University of British Columbia engineers have won the Supermileage competition with a car that can drive from Vancouver to Halifax on a Gallon of Gas!
““We achieved this level of efficiency by optimizing many aspects of the vehicle design, including: aerodynamics, light-weight construction, a small displacement engine (54 cc), and conservative driving habits,†says Team Captain Kevin Li.
UBC’s student team has taken first place four out of the six years it has competed, with 2006 marking the fourth straight victory. Last year the UBC team beat out 27 teams by reaching 1,600 miles per gallon (mpg)”
Several major companies and organizations, such as HSBC and the FIFA World Cup are now taking initiatives to counteract the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere they are contributing to through their businesses. For example, HSBC has become the world’s first carbon neutral bank by investing in clean energy projects such as a wind farm in New Zealand to offset emissions from its core operations.
FIFA is planning to offset 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide linked to travel by World Cup spectators. Under one project, it and the German tournament organisers will invest in replacing coal-fired boilers at a South African factory with boilers run on sawdust.
Myclimate.org is an organization out of Germany that is supporting and promoting such carbon offset projects.
I’m heading off to Quebec today and I realized that we haven’t reported on a cool thing that Quebec did recently. Quebec has introduced a carbon tax!