In the alleyway behind my dwellings, an obsolete TV has been laying on its side for a few days. Yesterday, I noticed, someone had gutted it and its insides are now strewn along the gravel road. And today, a DVD player was added to the mix. It’s a big, bulky thing that has probably overstayed its welcome.
I imagined that it was at one time a cutting-edge model. That the owners had been saving up for it and maybe even held off renting The Matrix until they could watch it with the amazing quality of DVD. That the owners were the first out of their friends to have a DVD player and what a big deal that would have been.
Alas, the DVD player grew old, as all things do. And it couldn’t compete with the newer, sleeker, more efficient models that have come along to take its place. So the owners, perhaps with a touch of sadness, maybe an inkling of guilt, left it beside the bin. Time to move on.
Imagine, for a moment, what the city would look like if the items we intended for the landfill were left on the sidewalks, staring back at us. If all the DVD players and hastily- purchased, immediately-regretted gadgets were allowed to pile up. If the piles of food we let go to spoil, and the general junk we accumulate throughout our lives were not swept away but allowed to remind us of our materially-transient habits.
That day may be sooner than we think. There is a chance that City of Vancouver outside workers could go on strike soon if talks between the CUPE 1004 union leaders and the city negotiating team fail to reach an agreement.
A large majority of workers, 96 per cent, have voted in favor to strike because of the city’s attempt to withdraw benefits in a time of economic prosperity, they say.
The potential strike will involve about 2 000 workers who service the sewers, water systems, and parks. Vancouver’s landfill, which receives trash from Surrey, Richmond, Delta, and Vancouver would be shut down so many people would be affected.
The last time that Vancouver had a garbage strike was in 1997 when trash and recycling was left uncollected for six weeks. If anything, perhaps a garbage strike will force us to closely examine what disposable really means.
It might be outta sight, outta mind, but trash has got to go somewhere. And for those of us that reside in Vancouver, that somewhere is either the Vancouver Landfill in Delta, the Waste-To-Energy facility in Burnaby or the soon-to-close landfill in Cache Creek.
Many things have to be considered in order for the 3 million tonnes of waste created by residents and businesses to be disposed of in an unoffensive and responsible way.
For example, at the landfill in Delta birds have learned that there is a wealth of food and nest-making bits available. However, they become a nuisance because “they create a negative image of landfills and scatter litter onto surrounding areas. Birds are also a potential aviation hazard.”
To combat the problem, birds of prey have been introduced to the area to stave off the gulls. Harris hawks, Goshawks, and Peregrine falcons, with a combination of a recording of a seagull in distress, all provide a deterrence for the gulls to come in and mess up the trashpiles.
The Vancouver Landfill must also deal with the foul smelling gas that is created when materials begin to decompose. The gas, mostly carbon dioxide and methane, is collected and reused or burned off. Of the 54,919,000 m3 of gas amassed in 2005, 55% was used to generate electricity while the rest was flared off. The entire project saves the equivalent of taking 76,000 vehicles off the road in CO2 emissions.
At the Waste-To-Enegrgy facility, steam and electricity are created by incinerating 11.5 tonnes of garbage, at 1000 degrees Celsius, every hour. The steam is sold to a paper mill and the electricity is sold to BC Hydro. The remaining metal bits are recycled into reinforcing steel and the ash goes into making roads or is layered on top of the garbage piles in Delta.
The Cache Creek landfill is set to reach capacity in 2008 and the GVRD is currently considering different ideas to replace the site. Cache Creek is nearly 4 hours away and receives around 16% of the waste the GVRD.
According to the GVRD website, about 50% of the waste created in the GVRD is currently recycled, 17% is incinerated and the remaining 33% is sent to landfills. In order to lessen the amount of rubbish that ends up in landfills, the responsibility lies with consumers. The key is to buy products that generate less waste, have less packaging, and are made of recyclable materials.
CitizenShift is looking for a summer intern to start ASAP! This is a special human resources initiative and specific conditions apply. Please see below.
If you’re interested, write to us immediately at: citizen{at}nfb{dot}ca
—————————————-
TEMPORARY POSITION OF 12 WEEKS
INTERNET PRODUCTION INTERNSHIP
ENGLISH PROGRAM
QUEBEC CENTRE / CITIZENSHIFT
$13 PER HOUR
SUMMARY
As one of the special measures under its Employment Equity Program, the National Film Board of Canada is offering a summer job with CitizenShift, an interactive Web site in the English Program branch that integrates video, written material, audio and other media and provides a space where filmmakers and citizens can share knowledge, get connected, and most importantly, debate social issues. The competition is open to Canadian students belonging to any of the three employment equity designated groups at the NFB (Aboriginal people, visible minorities and persons with disabilities). The position is intended to provide the student with work experience in his/her field of studies and paid employment during the summer of 2007.
Reporting to the Project Coordinator, the summer intern will be involved in activities related to the revamping of the Web site and production activities, such as:
* Prepares texts and images (banners and buttons) for putting online.
* Acts as liaison between external programmers and the CitizenShift team.
* Conducts testing and quality control of new site components.
* Participates in blogging about various relevant subjects.
* Makes changes in the blog templates and admin configurations.
* Researches content items for specific dossiers such as short videos, texts, photos, audio.
* Prepares materials for digitization process.
* Maintains and updates mailing lists.
* Assists in outreach activities.
CANDIDATE PROFILE
* Member of one of the three employment equity-designated groups (Aboriginal people, visible minorities and persons with disabilities).
* Canadian citizen or permanent resident.
* College or University student currently enrolled in full-time studies in Film, Communications or Multimedia. (or related subject)
* Returning to school on a full-time basis in September 2007.
* Web development experience.
* Proficient in Microsoft Office software (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) and Internet search tools.
* Strong sense of responsibility, initiative, tact, discretion, judgment and work ethic.
* Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, as well as the ability to organize and manage a number of projects at once and meet tight deadlines.
* Good command of English spoken and written. Spoken French an asset.
Interested candidates with the above profile are invited to submit their resumé, accompanied by a cover letter indicating the employment equity group to which they belong and competition AB-ETCS-2007. Applications should be sent by e-mail to citizen[at]nfb[dot]ca.
A few “wiki” films from last months wiki conference (RococoCamp) here in Montreal. The movies were created / edited on a final cut station in the open space of the conference. They were overseen by Mélanie Charbonneau but everyone was welcome to edit.
And this one is a great overview of the One Laptop per Child project which is an initiative aimed at bridging the digital divide in developing nations:
We are currently looking for a Technology Coordinator to join our team.
Under the supervision of the CitizenShift producer, and in collaboration with the other team members, this three day per week contract is all about taking the lead on technological and site related issues and will play a key role in the site revamp project.
The Technology Coordinator will:
• Participate in the planning and implementation of CitizenShift’s site revamp project.
• Contribute to the project’s overall vision for the integration of new technologies;
• Take the lead in adding and updating content as well as implementing new features on the site and blog;
• Create new blogs for our featured bloggers, add banners, graphic elements and new content to the site.
• Solve routine content-maintenance issues (in co-operation with other teams at the NFB as necessary, ex. IT dept, digitization, Web Team, etc…);
• Research, implement and document new tools to improve the team members’ work and provide the necessary training;
• Participate in the community blog by posting pertinent and relevant entries;
• Gather and document weekly, monthly and quarterly site statistics and present them in a coherent report;
Qualifications:
- Able to work in a collaborative team environment
- Has at least 3 yrs experience working on Web sites and blogs, including good knowledge of CSS, HTML and XML standards.
- Knowledge of Drupal and/or WordPress would be an asset
- Familiarity with open source technologies and ideologies
- Good knowledge of graphic and/or design software
- Basic understanding of video formats, encoding and Web transmission standards
- Excellent English language skills, functional spoken French required
If you have the necessary skills and are interested in this contract, please contact us by June 22nd, 2007, at: citizen@nfb.ca
Please indicate ‘technology coordinator’ in the subject line.
Thanks!
After attending a talk put on by the David Suzuki Foundation last month around the conditions of our oceans, I was feeling horrified and utterly dumbfounded.
Dr. Daniel Pauly of the UBC Fisheries centre co-hosted the panel with Dr. David Suzuki, and spoke of how at this rate, in 30-40 years all the major fish types that we eat such as tuna will be a thing of the past. Deep sea trawling and other unsustainable practices are reaping the ocean of all its wealth. And what can we do about it?
i just stumbled upon blogfish - a great blog about ocean conservation &sustainable fisheries based outta seattle.
What does the future hold for sustainable seafood?
I think some trends are obvious. First, sustainability is a way of thinking more than a precisely defined set of measurable criteria. When people commit to sustainability, the most important thing is to develop new sustainable thinking and not merely adjust the details of today’s fishing. Over time, we’ll learn more and revise our management plans, and good sustainable thinking will carry us through all of the challenges. Today’s precise “sustainable” standards may look unsustainable using tomorrow’s better knowledge of ocean ecosystems and fishing impacts.
Second, sustainability is not just about using inefficient fishing methods. We won’t get to sustainability by locking in place some romantic vision of noble fisheries that use yesterday’s supposedly “kinder & gentler” technology. We’re going to need every bit of our ingenuity to create tomorrow’s sustainable fisheries. The most sustainable fishing of tomorrow will probably be done using tomorrow’s best high-tech gear. There’s not a great history of success for regulating fisheries by requiring inefficiency.
Third, sustainable fishing may not provide as many fishing jobs as today’s unsustainable fishing. Some people are probably going to have to go out of the fishing business to create a prosperous and sustainable future. We have too many fishing fleets that have been bloated by wrong-headed government subsidies, and that’s actually the root of unsustainable fishing. Fish can’t provide jobs for everyone who wants them. Fisheries can not be a jobs program if we want to make them sustainable.
Finally, and this was my main advice to the Seafood Watch Program…we’ll see if they find it useful. Conservationists should try to help create a viable path to sustainability. It’s not good enough to articulate some grand high goal, and stand back and criticize anyone who doesn’t meet it.
It was great to finally meet the artist behind such awesome controversial work!
(I heard about him during the development of our Roadsworth dossier. Here you’ll see a clip with Ron’s views on graffiti)
When I first walked in to the gallery I was a bit let down to not see some of the memorable, edgy, political billboards I’ve come to associate with him. Still, the work I did see kept me glued to the canvas for sometime with a big smirk on my face… the price tag created a whole other expression!
I attended the show with a couple of good friends. One in particular, Jerome Prieur, an outstanding Lowbrow artist in his own right (also represented by Yves Laroche).
-Jerome (left), Ron’s “Rabbbit” sketch (wall), Bruce
For those of you curious about this leading figure in the Lowbrow movement, the exhibit will be on until June 12 at Gallerie Yves Laroche (4 St-Paul East, Montreal).
-Ron English (far left), Van Arno and the Yves Laroche gallery gang
Montrealer in her mid-twenties.
Freelance journalist and photographer,
with an interest in human rights and sustainable living.
Has a cheerful disposition.
Tynesha is CITIZENShift's summer intern from Concordia University's Communication department (Mtl., QC). Brimming with interests, she states "I enjoy school, I sing in a choir and I am also involved in community radio and volunteer work with youth. In the future, I look forward to developing a company that merges my three great passions in sound, community engagement, and music."
David Widgington was the event coordinator for the Citizen Media Rendez-vous 2010 (http://citizen-media.ca). He is a mobile journalist (MoJo) who is well-versed in community radio, video and print and web-based media practices. He has a particular interest these days with diaspora communities returning to Southern Sudan since the end of the war. He is script-writing a documentary project on the subject. (http://southsudaninfo.net).
