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GULF ISLANDS ALLIANCE
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Seize the moment to advance Trust vision By Dave SteenThis story first appeared in the spring 2009 GIA newsletter. Islands Trust is well positioned to become a world-leading local government model in its preparations for a leaner future less dependent on oil and more vulnerable to climate change.Its unique preserve and protect mandate allows it to easily adopt the best ideas from progressive movements that promote slower growth and high maintenance of authentic, rural communities. And the new Trust Council says it’s ready to roll up its sleeves. It has committed to focusing on its core services such as land use planning, mapping and bylaw enforcement while reducing pressures on island taxpayers. The Trust’s new executive committee says ‘local and global economic instability’ has also influenced the selection of work it will tackle such as ‘affordable housing, food security, climate change and improved communications with constituents.’ Council can march forward aggressively on two fronts: legislation and education. While development pressures fizzle, the Trust can devote more attention to such chores as plugging loopholes in bylaws, increasing setbacks from high tide lines, limiting house sizes, upholding short term vacation rental bylaws, discouraging time-share housing, and planning transportation systems that cater to pedestrians and cyclists and discourage fuelled vehicles. But a cold, strict legislative strategy will fail unless islanders are persuaded the unique vision for the Gulf Islands is desirable and achievable. The Trust must do much more to reach out and tell its story. Its success depends on winning hearts and minds to the idea that the islands are so precious they must be saved from unplanned, exploitive growth. It’s okay to think big, to see that what we do counts just as much as what others are doing elsewhere to help or hurt the world. Our fate rests not just on how well we treat each other, but on how we treat our environment. This scary economy seems to have softened some people and made them more contemplative. With the stock market and their net worth under attack, they’re looking in other places, such their families and communities, for human warmth, safety and meaning. The rapidly expanding field of sustainability studies trumpets some of these traditional values along with the multiple benefits that flow from land and resource conservation and biodiversity. Here’s a quick look at some of those ideas. The ‘transition town movement’ is taking hold in parts of Britain and the U.S. Rob Hopkins in his book The Transition Handbook: From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience says communities must prepare for economic contraction and hardships. With dwindling global energy, minerals, usable water, food-production and forestry resources, it’s impossible to predict what social and economic strife lies ahead. But, the economic meltdown – it has robbed some people of their homes, jobs, and retirement security and increased our self-dependence – is pressuring us to reduce our consumption and simplify our lifestyles. Coincidentally, environmentalists have long espoused these conditions as desirable; now they are becoming a necessity. The Transition Town movement instructs us to act collectively now to ‘build ways of living that are more connected, more enriching and that recognize the biological limits of our planet.’ Persuading doubters and pessimists that change is essential and achievable is a job for bold and practical visionaries. A community’s resiliency and sustainability are measured in part by the percentage of food and goods produced and consumed locally, traffic volume on local roads, the number of businesses owned by local people and the proportion of the work force employed locally. Hopkins suggests that within the energy/climate change crisis ‘is the potential for an economic, cultural, and social renaissance ... a flourishing of local businesses, local skills and solutions, and a flowering of ingenuity and creativity… At the other end, we will not be the same as we were: we will have become more humble, more connected to the natural world, fitter, leaner, more skilled, and ultimately, wiser.” A December story in The Tyee by Nick Smith described the Citta Slow movement, started in Italy 10 years ago and now taken up by almost 100 communities in Europe, Asia and Australia. Not a ploy to promote tourism, it’s a guide to civic planning. Citta Slow applicants must promise to adopt criteria to address the unique quality of their town, the sustainability of its infrastructure, the preservation of its history and the maintenance of local ways of doing things. Its general goal is to counter the ‘proliferation of uniformity.’ A group in Cowichan Bay, resisting pressures to turn their quaint seaside village into a ‘cookie cutter community’, has applied to be a slow town. If successful, it will be the first in North America. A story in the Revelstoke Times Review in December reminded us that tension between residents and ‘weekenders’ in vacation areas isn’t exclusive to the Gulf Islands. The Weekender Effect: Hyperdevelopment in Mountain Towns by ecological historian Robert William Sandford focuses on the effects of rapid, poorly planned growth in his hometown, Canmore, Alberta. Formerly friendly neighbourhoods were turned into faceless subdivisions on weekdays and party destinations on weekends. Property prices soared so that many were only affordable as second and third homes for the wealthy. Canmore is more than a lesson for everyone who wants to preserve the mountain communities of western Canada. It’s an example of what often happens when a beautiful place is ‘discovered’ and attracts a growing crowd. When it gets too crowded the place is no longer beautiful. So, instead of being lured by tourist dollars and the convenience of fast food joints and strip malls, our communities’ greater value as places to live and enjoy our social and natural environments must be protected, Sandford writes. He doesn’t dismiss all growth as bad, nor is his argument with wealthy weekenders. In fact, he thinks enlightened weekenders can be recruited to work towards the common goal of recognizing and countering the havoc they can, otherwise, wreak.
Gabriola bridge defies Trust Act This first report appeared in the spring 2009 GIA newsletter. Despite protests by Islands Trust and many residents, the idea of building a bridge to Gabriola Island from Vancouver Island is not yet dead in the water. A ‘Do you want the bridge?’ question may be part of a public survey on the island possibly by the end of March. Opponents say a bridge would encourage the urbanization of Gabriola, tarnishing the Islands Trust objective to ‘preserve and protect’ the Gulf Islands. The controversy surfaced last fall when the Gabriola Ferry Advisory Committee (GFAC) asked whether Vancouver Island University staff and students might be prepared to conduct a transportation survey on Gabriola. This drew attention to the fact the GFAC is accountable to BC Ferries, not to the Gabriola community. And particularly not to the Trust and its official community plans for Gabriola and Mudge Islands which outlaw a bridge link. At the time, Trustee Sheila Malcolmson (now Islands Trust Chair) pointed out that the GFAC terms of reference oblige its members to be “responsible for representing the policies of their official community plan in the discussion of local ferry service issues.” In response to the initiative for the survey Gabriola’s Local Trust Committee proposed setting up an island transportation committee. Its terms of reference could be ready for review in the next few weeks. (Thanks to Gabriola’s Flying Shingle for this story.)Keep eye on Trust Act To the Islands Trust Council: I am Christine Torgrimson, resident of Salt Spring Island and Chair of the Gulf Islands Alliance. I have come here today to tell you about an intriguing legal opinion that has far-reaching and positive implications for your Islands Trust work. The opinion was sought by the Gulf Islands Alliance, a grassroots citizens’ organization launched recently, with 150 members now from throughout the Trust area and a board of directors representing eleven Trust areas. We are islanders actively dedicated to the protection of the BC Gulf Islands, their natural environments, rural nature, and unique cultures, for now and for future generations. We support the Islands Trust federation in achieving its legislated Object. Our primary aim is to work collaboratively with the Trust to keep our fragile island environments intact and our communities small and diverse. We also work to influence other levels of government and to educate and activate the citizens of the Trust area to further the Trust Object. The Islands Trust Act provided the Trust with strong powers to protect the islands through land use planning and regulation. Those powers were upheld by the 1995 MacMillan Bloedel v. Galiano Island Trust Committee decision by the BC Court of Appeal, which ruled in favour of the Local Trust Committee to enact bylaws that preserve and protect the Trust area and its unique amenities and environment. To confirm that the Gulf Islands Alliance is on solid ground with our mission as well as our view that the Trust can and must do what the Trust Act says it should do, we recently sought a legal opinion about the Trust Object from Tim Howard of Mandell Pinder Barristers & Solicitors, a highly respected Vancouver law firm. Mr. Howard has considerable experience in the field of environmental law. The question we posed to him was: “Are a Local Trust Committee ("LTC"), the Trust Council and/or the Executive Committee (the "Trust Bodies") created under the Islands Trust Act R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 239 as amended (the "Islands Trust Act") required to exercise their powers consistent with the trust objects stated in s. 3 of the Islands Trust Act?” The first paragraph of the six-page legal opinion provides a summary, which I quote in part: “…the Islands Trust Act places a positive legal obligation on Trust Bodies to act in furtherance of the trust objects, namely the preservation and protection of the trust area. A decision by a Trust Body that was made for a purpose other than the statutory purpose stated in s. 3 would arguably fall outside the Trust Body’s statutory power….” Our lawyer takes the position that the Trust Act created the Islands Trust and provided it with strong powers for the primary purpose of preserving and protecting these islands. Unlike other local governments such as municipalities, for example, that allow trade-offs between competing community values such as environment and an expanded tax base, this opinion states that the Trust is mandated to place the preservation and protection of the Trust area and its unique amenities and environment uppermost in its considerations. When you have an opportunity to study the legal opinion, we hope you will draw the same comfort and encouragement from it as we do, because it fully supports your right and obligation to implement and enforce the Trust Object. We also hope it will inspire your further ideas about ways in which the Trust can effectively accomplish this. In that regard, we have a specific suggestion today. We request that you amend the Trust Policy Manual to require all staff reports to analyze whether a proposed action by a Local Trust Committee or by Trust Council would further or hinder the Trust Object. We would like to see a thoughtful analysis in staff reports rather than the simple checklist currently recommended in the Trust Policy Manual. For example, if a new bylaw is suggested, the staff report would evaluate whether the bylaw provides effective protection for the Trust area and if not, would describe how it could do so. Such a policy would have many benefits. It would create a more focussed and effective partnership between staff and trustees as you work together to implement the Trust Object and Policy Statement. Keeping the Object and Policy Statement foremost in the minds of Trust staff would strengthen the Trust’s corporate culture of dedication to protecting the islands. Staff reports that explain how each new bylaw or policy implements the Object would also remind the public about the Trust Policy Statement and how the Trust protects these islands. We believe that this will also strengthen public support for the Trust. Adoption of this policy will support implementation of all aspects of Trust Council’s strategic objectives, complement the current review of local planning services, and help assure that all Trust-approved projects are focussed on achieving the Trust Object. The Islands Trust is a rare and precious model for an extraordinary place. You Trustees, and we island stewards of this Trust area, have a serious responsibility to see that this unique archipelago is indeed preserved and protected. As Islands Trust Chair Kim Benson reminded us in a recent editorial, the challenges and complexity of delivering the Trust mandate are “escalating dramatically.” The Trust area population is growing at twice the BC and Canada rate, and at about 10 times the rate of other rural areas in Canada. The pressures to cut down the trees, demand more of the fresh waters, cater to more tourists, and provide more housing are growing exponentially, even before we face the greater pressures likely engendered by the 2010 Olympics. We must all work together to protect this national treasure we are entrusted with and fully utilize the powers of one of the most unique governments in the world—the Islands Trust. The Gulf Islands Alliance formed for exactly this reason. We are not unrealistically against all growth and development, but we are serious about promoting a strong Islands Trust that supports the “preserve and protect” Object every day in word and deed. We have sought and now present this legal opinion to help ensure the full implementation of the Trust Object. We hope you will implement our proposal for Trust Object analyses in staff reports; we look forward to working with you on other measures to preserve and protect the Trust area, and we will continue our efforts to build a strong base of islanders who support the Trust Object and act responsibly as stewards of this Trust area. Trust gets more serious about bylaw enforcement This first report appeared in the spring 2009 GIA newsletter. By Maxine LeichterBylaws that are weak or not enforced are sometimes a major cause of bad feelings and frustration among residents and landowners in the southern Gulf Islands. Last year, Island Trust Council commissioned a report on bylaw enforcement and litigation management by Consultant Rob Roycroft. After review and revisions by staff and trustees, Council endorsed most of the recommendations. One initiative is to use ticketing and larger fines in cases of chronic non-compliance. Tickets can only be issued where ticketing bylaws exist, on Denman, Galiano, North Pender, Salt Spring and Thetis. Not one ticket has been issued on Salt Spring since the ticketing bylaw was implemented more that three years ago. The report also recommended a ‘layered’ approach in dealing with violators. It starts by making them aware of the infraction, and follows up with a verbal communication. It proceeds to ticketing and even court action until compliance is achieved. The report was based on interviews with trustees and their bylaw enforcement staff, a review of practices by other rural local governments in BC, and comments from Trust lawyers. It also called for reorganizing the bylaw enforcement program, hiring another bylaw enforcement officer, conducting routine follow-up inspections on development permits, and reviewing all bylaws to improve the likelihood of successful enforcement actions. This last recommendation is critical. Unenforceable bylaws may be worse than no bylaws. They discredit the Trust and the rule of law. To give important bylaws the best chance of standing up to a court challenge, lawyers experienced in land use matters should be recruited to assist in their drafting, reviewing and rewriting. If expert legal help is unavailable, a good guideline to writing effective bylaws is the Green Bylaws Toolkit for Conserving Sensitive Ecosystems and Green Infrastructure prepared by the University of Victoria Law Clinic and others, available at www.greenbylaws.ca. Bylaw enforcement is essential for the integrity and worth of the Trust Act. A Gulf Islands Alliance legal opinion, commissioned two years ago, concluded that everything the Trust does should be in defence of the Trust’s ‘preserve and protect’ mandate. Whereas traditional local governments weigh the competing values of development and protection, the Trust must give protection priority. Local Trust Committees should make certain that island bylaws and development permit area (DPA) regulations are followed. DPAs include some coastal areas, areas of ecological significance, and steep slopes. Under DPA provisions a property owner may be required to lay out a plan as to how he will protect the sensitive area before land clearing is allowed to proceed. Unfortunately, some DPA regulations have loopholes and appear not to be enforceable. For example, some Salt Spring residents complain that one DPA allows lakeside owners to extend their properties by dumping soil into Cusheon Lake. A scientific report concluded that an overabundance of phosphorus in the soil causes algae blooms which can suddenly turn toxic to humans and wildlife. Other complaints have been made about Salt Spring’s steep slope DPA that allows a cozy arrangement in which engineers hired by landowners can determine how many trees can be cut and how much ground stripped bare on unstable slopes. On Thetis the zoning bylaw doesn’t limit the number of accessory buildings that can be built on any residential parcel. It also fails to describe them. The result is that a house can qualify as an accessory building, and a single residential lot can have two houses. Residents concerned about a bylaw issue should talk to their trustees and get details on Trust Council’s stance on enforcement.
Everyone can help Regulate hydrofracturing
Trust asks how it can change Here's GIA's report at the time on the governance review: Because local government generally plays a bigger role in our lives than senior governments, it's a time for us to be extra vigilant. A consultant has released a 39-page report on ways the Trust might change. (It's available at www.islandstrust.bc.ca. Open 'Trust Council,' select 'Governance Task Force' and then open 'Islands Trust Governance Review Report.') Much attention is given the fact that the Trust is no sterling example of representation by population. Rather, its unique mandate is to protect a special area as much or more than be responsive to local wishes. Each of its 13 island areas, no matter how big or small their populations, elects two trustees. However, island populations and related demands on the Trust have grown substantially since the Trust was formed. Salt Spring, in particular, is feeling that pressure. Consequently the report considers whether more trustees should be added to Salt Spring's Local Trust Committee or even to other LTCs, as well as whether the additional Trustees should sit on Trust Council. The report also looks at how the Trust relates to the overlapping of jurisdictions of regional districts, such as the Capital Regional District. The trust formed a 13-member governance task force last year in response to public demands for changes needed to "meet new challenges and better represent issues and concerns," said Trust Chair Kim Benson. If, for instance, the Trust wants to add a third and fourth trustee to Salt Spring's roster and/or reduce North and South Pender's complement from four to two, or adopt a 'double direct' election process which would enable more local trustees to be elected while continuing to send only two from each island area to Trust Council, it will need provincial legislative approval by next spring to be ready for local elections later the same year. Because it won't act without resident and property owner input, 11 public meetings were held this spring. This month Trust Council will decide whether to recommend amendments to Trust Act. Needless to say, governance is a complicated business. What may be suitable for a small island may not work well on a big one. The Gulf Islands Alliance has one over-all concern - that no changes made to Trust governance lead to weakening the Trust's preserve and protect mandate. At this point in our young life, we've reached no conclusions about what changes we can collectively support. We sympathize with trustees from the more populous islands who cope with heavy workloads. We feel unease when fingers are pointed at perceived inadequacies of the Trust. We hear those who say a move toward municipal status would be a serious political and financial threat to the effectiveness, if not the very existence, of the Trust. We encourage all Trust advocates to support changes that will sustain, even strengthen, the Trust and all its islands together.
Trust's devotion Dear Trustees: The Gulf Islands Alliance is a non-profit, grassroots organization with members based on islands under the jurisdiction of the Islands Trust. Among our objectives is to increase the effectiveness of the Islands Trust in fulfilling its "preserve and protect" object. This letter provides comments on behalf of our members and the public regarding the Local Planning Services Review. We have some suggestions for improving how planning services are being delivered to Local Trust Committees and island communities. We recognize that we may not be as well informed on this subject as we would like to be and we look forward to exchanging views and information with you on this subject. We wish to emphasize our support for what we believe to be a very significant recommendation that was made in the Local Planning Services Review conducted by Stantec Consulting in March 2007. On page 6 of that report under item 5.12 appears the following recommendation. "It appears that most people understand the mandate, but there are not many people that feel that the Islands Trust is doing anything different or better than other typical BC municipalities in protecting and preserving the environment. The Islands Trust has the same planning tools as regional districts. "This should get a higher priority and attention by working it in as a key element in its current and long range planning - from recruitment through processes. As LPS is functionally reorganized and other effective planning systems get put in place, there should be more time for addressing the specific elements of this key mandate and getting the Islands Trust into a leadership edge position." On page one, the Stantec report states that a wide range of people were interviewed, including most trustees, Trust planning staff and outside stakeholders. This indicates that most trustees agreed with this sentiment. The Gulf Islands Alliance (GIA) also believes that pursuit of the Trust mandate should get a higher priority in the day-to-day actions of Trust staff. One way to do this would be to implement the suggestion that GIA made at the June 2007 Trust Council meeting, that the Trust Policy Manual be amended to require all staff reports to analyze whether a proposed action by a Local Trust Committee or by Trust Council would further or hinder the Trust Object. We would like to see a thoughtful analysis in staff reports rather than the simple checklist currently recommended in the Trust Policy Manual. For example, when a Local Trust Committee (LTC) considers a new bylaw, the Trust staff report should include an analysis as to whether the new bylaw provides stronger or weaker protection for that island's environment and community character and why. Additionally, trustees, especially new trustees, may not always be fully aware of the legal tools that can be used to protect their island communities. When LTCs express their desire to increase protection for their island community, they depend on Trust staff to tell them how to accomplish this. That they receive this information is critical. It has been suggested that staff time could be used more efficiently if bylaws and OCPs were more standardized across the islands. Although standardization is certainly more efficient, we urge caution. A great deal of work and community sweat has been invested in each island's OCP and bylaws. The Trust islands are very different from one another. The Trust Act created individual LTCs and gave them the power to write individual OCPs and bylaws in order to protect these very differences. Any changes for the sake of efficiency should be encouraged but not imposed, and adopted only with the support of local communities and their LTC. For example, when new bylaws are being written for the first time, staff should be encouraged to use the appropriate Trust model bylaw as a starting point. If there is something that doesn't fit the island, that can be adjusted. It has been suggested that some planning staff members be dedicated to working only on long- term planning. During two recent OCP reviews (Salt Spring and North Pender), much hostility has been directed at local trustees. Perhaps this could have been prevented if the public participation process had been designed differently. It would be of benefit to have at least one Trust staff member who is an expert in state-of-the-art public participation processes. This staff person could work with LTCs to create OCP review programs that meet the needs of individual islands and promote productive collaboration among the trustees and the community. The OCP resulting from such a process would likely enjoy greater public support. In revising OCPs, communities need to be informed about possible strategies to accomplish their goals. It would be helpful to have model OCP language for communities to work from. This does not need to be created from scratch because excellent model language has already been developed by Deborah Curran in her new publication, the "Green Infrastructure Toolkit," which will be released this month. We urge the Trust to review this document. The bylaw language in this document was developed specifically to protect environmental values. In addition to model language, it would be most helpful to have various language options with an explanation of what each example would accomplish. There has been discussion about how best to meet the needs of the smaller islands which do not have planners in residence. We think that it is important to have planners who specialize in certain islands so they can become familiar with the personality and history of each island. This will reduce unnecessary mistakes that can take much time to fix. Towards this end, we would not favour removing the Trust office from Gabriola. It has been suggested that planners visit the smaller islands regularly to meet with the community there. We believe this would have the advantage of helping build positive relationships between the community and their Trust planner. However, at this time when it seems that there is a scarcity of Trust planning staff, we do have concerns about so many hours of planners' time being spent traveling to and from Victoria. Many in our islands' community fear that university planning programs do not prepare planners for protecting a community, but rather for developing it. Therefore, we urge the Trust to provide in-service training for its staff about best practices around the world for protecting the culture and environment of endangered communities. This would include courses about how to conduct public participation programs that empower people and allow all sides of an issue to be debated in an open and constructive manner. Money for such programs is available from several granting organizations. In closing, we urge you to seek out ways that Trust staff resources can be extended by encouraging Trust staff to work collaboratively with community groups on each island. Our islands are most generously endowed with community members who are experts in a variety of fields, including community planning, grant writing, biology, ecology. For example, the Trust could collaborate with a community group to sponsor staff in-service training, explore ways to work together to conduct better public participation programs, or gather statistical or biological information needed by the Trust. Funding for such programs could be applied for jointly by the Trust and the community group. We are most interested in your work and welcome any of you to call us to discuss any of these suggestions. I can be reached at 250/537-1577 or at mleichter@telus.net. Maxine Leichter, Trust Policy Project Chair, Gulf Islands Alliance (Full Stantec Consulting report) Put place before people By Graham Brazier, Denman Island The Islands Trust Governance Task Force may have gotten more than it bargained for when it requested an independent consultant examine its structure with a view to improving how it governs. The work of the Task Force on Governance began in March of 2006 and will conclude with a report to Trust Council in June 2007. However, no sooner had the Task Force determined that a larger Local Trust Committee for Salt Spring Island was warranted, than the independent consultant released his report with startlingly different conclusions. It's evident that the Task Force and the consultant have fundamentally differing views of what the Islands Trust is, and what it ought to be. The Task Force is made up of Trustees, all steeped in the 'culture' which views the Trust as a 'local government' and views us, the residents and landowners of the Trust Area, as the folks they 'represent'. Trustees see their role as that of balancing the interests of their residents and landowners (those who elect them) against the interests of the environment. The best of them view themselves as 'councillors with a mandated conscience'. Nevertheless, as time has passed, the interests of the electorate have continued to encroach on the interests of the environment. And, of course, there's no reason to expect that to change in the future. Some islands will move slower than others, but all are likely to continue to expand human-based interests at the expense of other interests, much like other jurisdictions where local governments are responsible for land-use. The Consultant, who suggests that he may also speak for the Province, sees the Trust quite differently. He sees it as an organization established to protect a 'place'. That is its only function. Throughout the report the phrase 'places' before 'people' appears again and again and again. In his view, the Trust was not intended to be a local government, it was not intended to represent the interests of its residents. On the contrary, it was intended to protect the 'place' for the 'people of British Columbia' largely from Trust Area residents and landowners. It is my impression that this view is closer to the original motivation for the formation of the Trust. This view identifies the 'place' as worthy of protection and sees 'people', particularly residents and landowners, as the main threat to that 'place'. It was, and continues to be, residents and landowners that seek to intrude, to subdivide, to log, to pave. We, the residents, have great difficulty seeing ourselves as 'the enemy', but it is evident that from the inception of the Trust, we have managed to wrest power away from the appointed Trustees back to the local electorate and have presided over the all the negative environmental impacts that have occurred since 1978 when that power shift took place.Shift planning focus 50 ways you can help Home energy use - Install a solar or 'on demand' hot water heater - Turn down the temperature on your hot water heater - Use the clothes dryer less - Hang clothes outside or on an inside drying rack - Insulate your house more fully - Ensure that your windows and doors have good weather-stripping - Reduce your water use, particularly hot water - Buy energy-efficient appliances - Use programmable thermostats to turn down the heat at night - Use energy-efficient light bulbs - Design and live in a small, energy-efficient home - Incorporate solar, wind or geothermal energy into your home - Ask your energy company to provide power from renewable sources Food - Grow and produce your own food - Buy locally grown and produced food - Buy organic food - Avoid buying processed and packaged food - Modify your diet to include less red meat - Compost your garden waste - Use re-usable grocery bags Political - Get involved with others working on climate change - Lobby for local, provincial and federal policies that reduce greenhouse gases - Encourage your school or business to reduce energy use and emissions - Invest in businesses that are part of the solution to climate change - Contribute funds to and support organizations and efforts working on climate change Overall consumption - Have a smaller family - Consume less-ask if you really need it - Consider the total energy and transportation costs of your purchases - Buy second-hand - Rent, share, or borrow - Buy things that last - Buy things without excess packaging - Buy from climate-friendly companies - Recycle - Try not to waste paper - Carry your own cup or refillable bottle - Buy organic cotton clothes Education - Talk with your friends and family about climate change - Read more about climate change - Write letters to the newspaper - Buy books about climate change for public and school libraries - Ensure that your schools are educating children about climate change - Re-read this list once in a while to remind yourself that you can be a part of the climate change solution in more than 50 waysFind the will to face up Use pen and paper "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world, indeed it's the only thing that ever has," said renowned anthropologist Margaret Mead. A well-written letter remains one of the most effective tools in constructing a better world. Here are some ways to make your letters really count. The more personal your letter is, the more influence it has. Say what's on your mind and in your heart. Use your own words wherever possible, but don't think you have to write like an expert to have influence. Handwrite your letter if your handwriting is legible and this is easy for you. If you prefer to type a letter, make sure you sign it and then add a handwritten P.S. and hand write the address on the envelope. It's best to be brief, clear and specific. Keep your letter to one page if possible. State your opinion and your specific request in the first few sentences. Always ask the policy maker to state her or his position in a response to your letter or ask them a question that you say you would like them to answer. Be courteous and reasonable. Show respect for the policy makers you contact, even when you know you disagree with them. We are all in this together and will have to work together to find the solutions. Include your address on your letter as well as your envelope (an envelope can get lost) and the date. Some options: - Enclose a published article on the subject issue. - Describe how the issue affects you and/or your community. - Write or call a second time. Once they have given you a reply, a follow-up can have a stronger impact on policymakers and their aides than the initial communication. - Thank the policy maker for taking a 'correct' stand or ask for clarification or question any of their unsatisfactory answers. - Always ask them to respond to your letter. - Keep a copy of your letter (if you type them) and responses. You never know when you might want to refer exactly to something you said before or that was said to you. If the people lead, eventually the leaders will follow.
Population and tourism growth Alliance keeps wary eye back to the top of the page |
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