climate change Archives — Lindsay Advocate

Don’t get in the way of progress

Published on November 24, 2019 in Opinion by Trevor Hutchinson

Kawartha Lakes City Council recently voted to reject a motion by the municipal Heritage Committee to designate the properties at St. David Street and Riverview Road in Lindsay as a site of “cultural heritage value and interest.” The motion also barred staff from continuing the process to designate the site officially. I don’t think that motion went far enough.

Keep Reading

Fenelon Falls joins Lindsay in climate strike action

Published on September 28, 2019 in Community/Environment by Geoff Coleman

Thanks to organizing efforts by 17-year old Abby Jardine, Fenelon Falls joined other parts of Canada and much of the world in a climate strike September 27.

Rallying at the old Fenelon Falls Theatre marquee sign, about 50 marchers took to Fenelon Falls’ main street to bring attention to the issue of climate change.

Keep Reading

Federal election Q & A with Elizabeth Fraser of the Green Party of Canada

Published on September 22, 2019 in Federal by Roderick Benns

Roderick Benns recently interviewed the PPC, Conservative, Liberal, Green, and NDP candidates for Haliburton, Kawartha Lakes, Brock riding to help voters make an informed decision leading up to the election in October. In our fourth installment is Elizabeth Fraser from the Green Party of Canada.

Benns: Can you highlight a policy of your party that will lead to increased employment and increased average income in our riding?

Fraser: One of the Green’s economic policies which could be applied in the riding of Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock as a way of increasing employment is the Green Venture Capital Fund. This fund is part of the Green Party’s focus on small businesses and would provide support for small local green businesses.

Keep Reading

Federal election Q & A with Gene Balfour of the People’s Party of Canada (PPC)

Published on September 5, 2019 in Federal by Roderick Benns

Roderick Benns recently interviewed the PPC, Conservative, Liberal, Green, and NDP candidates for Haliburton, Kawartha Lakes, Brock riding to help voters make an informed decision leading up to the election in October. In our first installment is Gene Balfour of the PPC.

Benns: Can you highlight a policy of your party that will lead to increased employment and increased average income in our riding?

Balfour: The Peoples Party of Canada will create an economic, investment and governance environment designed to out-compete other jurisdictions so that new jobs, long term career opportunities and income growth will take place within our communities.

Keep Reading

Environmental Youth Hero Award recipients recognized

Published on June 28, 2019 in Environment by Lindsay Advocate

During the week of June 24, Kawartha Lakes Environmental Advisory Committee recognized students across the municipality for their exemplary efforts toward enhancing and protecting the environment in the current school year (2018 to 2019). A total of three awards were presented to students ranging from Junior Kindergarten to Grade 7.

The first Environmental Youth Hero award was presented to Alexis Benns, a Grade 7 student at Central Senior Public School, who was nominated for her efforts in raising awareness on climate change by organizing community marches. Alexis felt compelled to take action on her own because of her recent studies of the impacts that climate change is having on the environment. On March 15 and May 3, Ms. Benns was able to organize two marches that involved not only students from multiple schools within the area, but members of the community as well.

Keep Reading

Putting the carbon tax through the spin cycle

Published on May 29, 2019 in Opinion by Trevor Hutchinson

In 1946 George Orwell, the writer of 1984 wrote in his seminal Politics and the English Language that, “When one watches some tired hack on the platform mechanically repeating the familiar phrases … one often has a curious feeling that one is not watching a live human being but some kind of dummy, the appropriate noises are coming out of his larynx, but his brain his not involved.”

But who is this Orwell? He probably took courses at university that were not tied to ‘performance outcomes’! He merely warned generations of the dangers of totalitarianism. Clearly not a man who was ‘open for business.’

Keep Reading

‘We want change:’ Student activists demand climate change action in strike

Published on May 3, 2019 in Environment by Mallory Cramp-Waldinsperger

They may not be old enough to vote, but a group of students made their voices loud and clear in today’s climate strike. What began as a handful of Central Senior Public School students gathering at Victoria Park quickly grew to a swarm of approximately 70 protesters.

As they marched down Kent Street in downtown Lindsay today, the students, accompanied by several adult supporters carried handmade signs with slogans like “The sea is rising, so are we,” and “Planet over profit.”

Keep Reading

Healthy Environment Plan 18 months in the making

Published on March 22, 2019 in Environment/Municipal by Lindsay Advocate

The Healthy Environment Plan has been 18 months in the making, involving a 60-member working group and consultations with more than 2,600 community members.

Council Champion Tracy Richardson kicked off the presentation by sharing that “the Healthy Environment Plan is a transformational plan that maps out high-level strategies for reducing greenhouse gasses over the next 10 years. It addresses changes in our growing seasons, droughts, flooding, impact of freeze-thaw cycles and warmer lake temperatures. This is a community plan; it was created with the community and will be carried out by all of us as we seek to cope with climate change adaptation and mitigation.”

Keep Reading

Take the climate change quiz for Kawartha Lakes

Published on January 23, 2019 in Community/Environment by Jamie Morris

How much do you know about climate change and how it’s affecting us here in the City of Kawartha Lakes? Test yourself by taking this quiz, based on a presentation made to council by Deb Pearson and Ginny Colling, members of the Kawartha Lakes Environmental Advisory Committee who’ve taken on climate change education as their mission.

Note: For some questions there may be more than one correct answer. Answers (and some explanations of the connections to climate change) are at the end.

Since 2001 how many of the hottest years on record have occurred? a) 3; b) 10; c) 15; d) 17

What is the main source and cause of rising global temperatures? a) Burning of fossil fuels; b) Agricultural practices; c) Forest burning; d) Naturally-occurring CO2

Keep Reading

An inconvenient column: Local climate change educators walk the talk

Published on April 19, 2018 in Around Town/Community/Environment/Opinion by Jamie Morris

When I meet with Deborah Pearson and Ginny Colling it’s over herbal tea and Mickael’s day-olds, and their only pressing deadline is a sleep yoga workshop, starting in an hour-and-a-half.

So, after busy professional careers — for Deborah 30 years of elementary school teaching (mostly with the Trillium Board, but also in Canada’s sub-arctic and in Europe), and for Ginny 29 years teaching Journalism and Public Relations at Durham College — this is the retirement lifestyle that fills their days?

Keep Reading