Sierra Club Blog Posts

Thinking Ahead: Lessons from Childhood

 
When I was a young child, every summer my mom and I would go to the Laundromat to do the wash. I thought it was an amazing amount of fun to meet new people, use the change machine, and sometimes I’d even be allowed to get a chocolate bar out of the vending machine! What could be better than that?
 
What I never considered is why we went to the Laundromat. The reason was, with new and increasing development of our area,  despite having two wells on our property, summer often meant that there was not enough water.  My parents, in an effort to ensure the taps would keep running,  would find lots of ways to use less water at our house, such as installing efficient fixtures, instructing my brother and I not to flush unless necessary, and doing the laundry elsewhere.
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Minister Kent,

I want to apologize for filling your email box. It was my somewhat crude means of demonstrating to you that Sierra Club’s position on climate change is widely supported.  

It is not a complicated position. We believe it’s a moral responsibility to take real action on climate change for the benefit of future Canadians and people around the world.

We also believe our actions need not be the economic Armageddon some members of your government have suggested. This difference of opinion might be the result of a mutual misunderstanding stemming from your government's refusal to sit down and talk about the global climate crisis. We have been trading insults but not much more.
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Dear Premier Stelmach,

A decade ago I sat through several presentations on the Alberta Clean Air Strategic Alliance (CASA) approach, adopted and employed by your government, to deal with flaring and natural gas venting.

CASA was established in March 1994 as a ‘new’ way to manage air quality in Alberta. Composed of representatives of industry, government and non-government organizations, the body was tasked with finding a solution and the government would act on their recommendations. And it worked - all expressed great admiration for the approach, process and outcome.

I'm wondering why your government abandoned it.

The government’s recent announcement of a new ‘monitoring panel’ is worrying. Starkly different from the open and inclusive CASA approach, the panel is dominated by industry and excludes key stakeholders, including local residents.... Read more »

January 25th, 2011

BRRR!!!! I guess one lesson we learn about the wild: Sometimes it’s just too cold!  This week we had a big barrier to face: the weather!

On Monday, it was so cold that we weren’t allowed to go outside (Day Care policies prevent going outside if the temperature dips below -20!), so we took the opportunity to do some talking and brainstorming about what we already know about the outside.  I was pleasantly surprised to find out that almost all of the children at the centre LOVE playing outside!

I had brought a number of games for us to enjoy inside (learning about animals, birds, and trees of course!) and we did an imagination game where we thought about our favorite place to be outside, and thought of things we can see, touch, hear, and smell while we are there.  
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