The largest city of Manitoba, Canada, is the capital Winnipeg.
Winnipeg was incorporated 1873 and has a population of ~635.000
UPDATE:
How can we get life in Winnipeg more sustainable?
One possible solution:
Use of renewable energy = Solar + Wind energy!
Many cities around the globe do it, let's try to get Winnipeg more green
more Nature friendly for us and our children!
The past couple of years I have been tremendously touched by the
number of positive responses and feedback that I have received in my
efforts while pushing our city and provincial governments to "do a
little bit more" for a greener healthier sustainable future. I am
very confident that Winnipeggers / Manitobans want to see a brighter
sustainable economic future for the next generation.
Here is where we are today:
- A provincial government who prides itself on doing "just enough" or
very little, next to nothing in an effort to maintain their seat in
power.
- City councilors, who for the most part, doing what their provincial
campaign backers tell them to do, which in most cases have no bearing
on the their own community's needs.
- The business community waiting on provincial and city governments to
put in place policies that have a meaningful environmental economical
sustainable climate.
This we must change!!
Why should we change this? Here's why:
Bloomberg, who is the world's leading independent expert on renewable
energy, projects that by 2030 two hundred billion dollars ($200
billion) will be spent annually on green environmental projects. Our
current deficit stands at $500 million dollars that means we spent
$500 million more than we earned and our overall debt currently stands
at over $12 billion and growing. Let's do the math: 10% of $200
billion is $20 billion - which if we could only put the policies in
place to attract green business from around the world both our deficit
and our debt would be cleared in a few years. Now let us say we fall
short and we happened to only attract 1% of this projected amount, it
will see us with $2 billion investment and I'm sure this type of green
investment in this province would create more jobs than we have seen
in the last 10 years. In fact, because our government does so little,
maybe we could achieve attracting a .5 of a percent that is $1 billion
annually. Now what do you think - can we achieve that? Will our
governments help with policies?
With billions of dollars in new revenue it will keep our community
working; prevent us from waiting for federal financial handouts; will
create true economic growth, and it will ensure a more sustainable
future for our children. Not paper economy, as most of us are
accustom to. We can do this - I know we can, and when you go to polls
vote for the candidate that has demonstrated good sound leadership
with respect to the environment. We need our economy strong again but
we cannot do it with policy makers sitting on their thumbs.
Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. are the countries leading with respect
to policies to create a brighter economic and environmental future.
So we are competing with all the other provinces of Canada, U.K. and
the U.S. and the question we must ask ourselves: Will we get our
piece of the pie? And if not, is blaming double-dipping politicians
who will get a federal and provincial pension of $80,000+ a year the
answer, or do we DEMAND from them action and not political rhetoric.
Just in February of this year in Vancouver, Wal-Mart's Green Business
Summit was held and a number of companies pledged to take the lead on
creating sustainable economic growth. I'm sure you have seen them:
Sun Chips = 100% compostable bags Hallmark Canada = almost 10%
of reduction in it's energy use HJ Heinz = reduce greenhouse gas
emissions by 11.8% globally and 18.9% in Canada Home Depot =
220,000 million KWH saved and are testing solar and wind-powered LED
parking lot lighting for a further reduction Wal-Mart = solar
panels in 30+ stores and selecting fish and produce from farmers that
practice safe environmental standards And I'm sure there are
others.
Right here in Winnipeg - at Polo Park Shopping Center they have
experimented with solar panels at their entrance lights and has worked
out beautifully for them saving them hundreds if not thousands of
dollars. We need Manitoba Hydro and the provincial government to not
be comfortable with being the leader of renewable resource energy
production, but instead look to take advantage of the opportunities
the world is presenting us as per Bloomberg's $200 billion projected
expenditures.
Our business community and our citizens at large must embrace
composting. The Brady Landfill is no longer a garbage dump but a very
valuable resource of collecting and storing methane gas for use, as
well as creating small to medium businesses that sell recyclable
products.
"'The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of
comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy'"
and I will add what decisions he makes when faced with new ways of
creating a more lasting economic future for our children’s' generation
and having a lesser impact on the environment.
Who would of thought that a little over of a year after the community
has embraced the name change of "Garbage Day" to "Recycle Day",
"Plastic Bag Day" at the Legislature and months after "Reusable Bag
Day" that we would see advertising on sides of buses, bus shelters,
giant billboards encouraging our community to recycle more. Not just
grocery stores encouraging the use of reusable bags, but retailers
too. So it can be done!!
Hard work, vision, determination, accountability, thinking outside the
box are all essential ingredients to ensure that we don't fall asleep
while the rest of the country and the world takes advantage of the
green shift.
Let's keep Winnipeg beautiful !!
Don Woodstock (204) 880-1564
ENVIRONMENT RALLY
You are invited to the steps of the Legislature on October 21st, 2010
at 11:30 A.M. to state your position and proposals for future projects
on making our beautiful city of Winnipeg a more sustainable community.
This is your opportunity to clearly state your environmental plans
for the next 5 to 10 years.
As a known environmentalist who is responsible for our city now
charging for plastic bags and a 70% reduction in the use of plastic
shopping bags, and author of the "Garbage Day" name change to
"Recycle Day", I believe it is very important that we now get concrete plans
and not political rhetoric that will benefit us economically and
create long-term sustainability.
Areas of Interest:
1) Solar Energy
2) Compostable Plastic Bags
3) Modern Recycling Facility
4) Composting
5) Brady Landfill
As one of the Community Leaders for the David Suzuki Foundation and a
liaison to the Bear Springs Blossom Nature Conservation world-renowned
environmental organization, (www.keep-Earth-beautiful.org) a site
built in our honor, we look forward to your participation in this
event.
Please RSVP by October 18th by
phone (204) 880-1564 or
e-mail 'donwoodstock@gmail.com'
Yours truly,
Don Woodstock
---------------------------------------------
I must take this opportunity to thank Ken Friesen of the CBCRA
(Canadian Beverage Container Recycling Association) for their
marketing approach in encouraging our citizens/community to recycle in
their new ad campaign
As a Winnipeg Transit driver and author of "Recycle Day" name change I am blown away to drive a bus that has Recycle Everywhere written on the side of it.
Now that this is done we now need to see other business/community and government departments joining with their own marketing campaigns to
get Winnipeg to be among one of Canada's top recycling cities.
I am confident that this would be a step in the right direction to ensure a cleaner, healthier and a more sustainable environment for our
children's children.
Don Woodstock

Don Woodstock promoting reusable bags

On March 22nd, we had experienced the consciousness of Winnipeggers' efforts to go green.
Following up from our success of our Plastic Bag Day where we gave away over 3,000 reusable bags we have all the major retail outlets in our city and province fulfilling part of their corporate responsibility to help us to be among Canada's top green cities.
Reusable Bag Day is just that; a day where our shopping public will be encouraged to use reusable bags instead of plastic bags. We are all aware of the damning effects to the environment that plastic bags cause so this is truly one sure way of moving us away from the habit of using plastic bags. I am confident that this one day will save in excess of $3 million plastic bags entering our landfill and contaminating our ground and water supply. Surely, another big day for the environment.
Thanks to Debra Green from Polo Park Shopping Centre, her efforts ensured all of our major malls/shopping centres joined our efforts in encouraging a sustainable approach to shopping. Thanks to Andrew Long of Curve 94.3 FM for his vision in supporting this worthy event. I'm sure other media houses will give us all the support they can.
Reusable Bag Day in Winnipeg and throughout Manitoba is a joint effort of members of the Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors, Retail Council of Canada, Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers, Multi-Material Stewardship Manitoba and individual stores and malls throughout the city/province.
So remember, when you go shopping please take your reusable bag.
Thank you
Don Woodstock

Blossom of a fire-wheel fed by the energy of Earth's sun
Just in case, someone had asked YOU about all the snow in the US-Northeast and where Global warming is:
Did you find a quick intelligent response?
Extreme weather is 'Climate Change'! Not only does all that snow and ice not disprove global warming, it actually matches scientific predictions that climate change will increase extreme weather events of many kinds, including heavy snowfalls in regions like the Northeast.
Ask the guy who gave these remarks:
Did you hear about the snow record?
Can you explain what record means?
Do you think breaking a record is normal?
Record heat in South America,
Record floods in Mexico
Record snow in the US-Northeast
All that confirms what we published in our studies:
How Climate change will change our life,
how climate change is endangering humans and all life on Earth!
To get more information, please visit our website


NASA satellites measure temperatures and the amount of arctic summer days.
Can you see the trend?
Don Woodstock on Feb. 24, 2010
One of the hot topics last week was dealing with/looking at giving our citizens a chance to increase their garbage input to the landfill. While I agree with the notion that everyone has the right to decide whether or not to recycle, I am sure we can all agree that without the consciousness and willingness of most of our citizens to recycle as much as possible, our city will remain at the bottom of the ladder among cities that are moving towards a more sustainable future.
I am confident that we have not truly examined the effects of last week’s action by City Council, and we still have some tweaking to do with the subject. Council in my view has done their best with the situation at hand however; here is a different angle that I would humbly ask His Worship the Mayor and Councilors to consider.
The Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce has been embarking on this concept to sell our beautiful city to the world as a Green Sustainable City in an attempt to attract Green businesses. What will the headline read with this vote to allow our citizens up to 360 liters of garbage to be placed in the dump? It may be viewed by others that we clearly have no interest in promoting recycling as a way of life to ensure that our children’s children will have a more sustainable future.
In the late 60's, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau embraced multiculturalism which paved the way for me, a country boy from Jamaica and so many others from all over the world, to hold our heads up high and say without fear of contradiction, THIS IS MY WINNIPEG, MY COUNTRY TOO.
I'm sure there are other noted politicians that have been known to step out on a limb to do the right thing despite criticisms and the possibility of a loss of votes. This may be one of such moments, similarly when we had the controversy of a “No Smoking” Ban or the building of the Flood way. Please let us take advantage of this moment to put our city on the recycling path and reduce the amount of garbage to our landfills.
Besides, who needs to dispose of 240 or more liters of garbage each week? Winnipeg police with all it's hardworking men and woman need our help cracking down on criminals using our neighbourhoods as cover for grow ops or meth labs. One indicator of this, is excessive weekly garbage disposal, which means that you could be doing something, chikeeny, hanky panky or illegal. If you generate more than 240 liters of garbage each week then the police dept should be at your door checking what are you disposing of. For those who may need to throw away more than 240 liters of garbage, you should be paying $140 or more, an inconvenient amount not $33 .
We should all know by now that there are huge economical and environmental benefits to recycling. Let’s face it, when compared to the rest of Canada, we have cheap labour, cheap land and cheap hydro, the perfect model for a successful recycling plant with us selling the finished product right here in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
I GET IT,in Jamaica we say " Yes Ayah, I an I man see it star, Yeah". Council is made up of various political factions, Right, Centre, Left and somewhere in between. But could it be that the Provincial NDP government is trying to find a way to prevent the City of Winnipeg from looking green and to be among the top cities in Canada that recycle because this imagine goes against their core beliefs and principles? Shouldn’t we have a green sustainable agenda without any political backlash – whether you are from the conservatives, liberals, green or NDP parties?
I believe the time has come for us to rise above any and all hidden agendas and think about how we can alter our consumption habits in order to bring about a healthy, clean and sustainable environment for our children's’ children with great economical benefits.
Recently The David Suzuki Foundation’s Finding Solutions news letter “Winter edition” featured what we have accomplished with the name change from garbage day to Recycle Day, and we are reminded of the importance of the fruit fly, “IT'S AN HONOR TO BE CALLED A FRUIT FLY.”
We have the attention of The Marine Conservation of UK and other International environmental groups.
Your Worship, councilors -- the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, our citizens and the international community awaits your decision.
Don Woodstock is a member of Bear Springs Blossom Nature Conservation, an international non profit organization.
On Tuesday Feb. 9, 2010, in a presentation at city council's public works committee Don Woodstock said
.. 'size does matter and we need to encourage the citizens of Winnipeg to recycle more and with a 240 litres recycling cart instead of 60 litres we will increase our recyclables'.
The vote : Unanimous Decision.
As the author of the name change from 'Garbage Day to Recycling Day" Don Woodstock is VERY PLEASED with the progress and is confident Winnipeg will be among Canada's top Greenest Cities.
Vision can become Reality.
Keep Winnipeg Beautiful!
Thanks to Mayor Sam Katz, Councillors Mike Pagtakhan and Gord Steeves for their support in making the name change from 'garbage day' to 'RECYCLE DAY' a reality.
In 2006, my passion to get our city moving towards a greener more sustainable environment propelled me to educate myself on environmental issues.
I found that recycling is a 'way of life' and we all have a role to play in order to leave a healthier future for the next generation.
“Your World and Mine” documentary was made and copies delivered to civic and provincial governments, electronic and print media. Shaw Cable and the Free Press answered the call with a 'Green Page' in the Free Press and “U, Me and the Environment” co-hosted and produced with Jeremy Valance and myself, became a reality.
My first presentation at City Hall in 2008, I asked the Executive Policy Committee to help reduce the amount of plastic shopping bags we send to our land fills because they are a bi-product of petroleum. It takes hundreds of years to break down and when they do, they leave harmful toxins, which will only contaminate our water supplies and marine life. They agreed unanimously which resulted in our retail stores now charging for plastic shopping bags in an effort to break our need for plastic shopping bags.
In my second presentation, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes 'The world won't get much better if we just let it be” helped make the case for renaming garbage day to 'RECYCLE DAY', in an effort to encourage our citizens to recycle more.
I met with the former Minister of Industry Science and Technology Jim Rondeau and his Dept Minister Doug Smith in March ‘09 with three independent entrepreneur dealing in tire recycling, composting and Gasifire ( Green business that turns our waste into valuable commodity and energy/heat). I said then that with Barack Obama as President of the USA, the world will be a greener place and we should use what we have to gain a competitive advantage for our Province.
From October 2010, the University of Manitoba's goal is to establish Canada as a leader in the production of bio fuels and bio plastics made from agricultural waste.
Our first International Day to ban plastic bags was on the 09/12/2009 and Winnipeg citizens really showed how much they cared about the environment by dropping off over 45,000 plastic shopping bags and taking over 3000 reusable bags home. Thanks to Sobeys, Curve 94.3, Power 97, Shaw TV, The David Suzuki Foundation, Bear Spring Blossom Nature Conservation, other media, and Volunteers. The day was a tremendous success.
I'm truly pleased with our progress thus far and we are indeed a greener city. Another Vision becoming a reality.
Now that we are here, how can we as elected officials and citizens help push for our city to become Canada's top greenest city?.I believe we would have double digit economic growth, what do you think?
What does green mean…to me it's visualizing the world our children will inherit and having a social conscience and the courage to leave a cleaner, healthier and a sustainable environment for them by altering personal consumption habits while influencing others in my home, office and community to do the same. It's up to you and me and no one else.
My ultimate VISION is that our citizens will demand more from our elected official which will motivate them to make decisions that will ensure a safer, cleaner, healthier environment for our children's children.

Don Woodstock
Winnipeg MB
350 Climate Action Rally
We have met at the legislature at 1:30 to join the Global Day of Action on Climate Change. Our rally has included different speakers, music, and an hopefully an audio link to Ottawa's "Fill the Hill" event.
Our message to Ottawa is simple: Canada must negotiate seriously and constructively in Copenhagen.
1.We need real emission reduction targets not "intensity" targets
2.We need to stop waiting for other countries like China and get on with it ourselves
This past year, Canada's climate change performance ranked 59th among the 60 countries with the highest CO2 emissions, worse than every country except Saudi Arabia. Canada persisted in blocking even the meager measures of the Kyoto protocol. Our Kyoto target was a 6% reduction from 1990 emission levels by 2012. Our newest commitment translates to a 2.7% reduction from 1990 levels by 2020. (Dressed up in new language as 20% below 2006 levels.)
By contrast, Norway, another oil-exporting nation, is planning a 40% reduction by 2020.
Winnipeg's Climate Action Rally is part of the Global Day of Action on Climate Change. People in thousands of communities in 150 countries will gather to show their concern for our climate crisis and to call for real action at the U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen.
Photos of the thousands of events will be displayed to global media on Oct. 24 via the giant screens in New York's Times Square. Then they will be hand-delivered to diplomats and delegates at U.N. Headquarters.
350.org has chosen to center this campaign on the number 350 because most policy discussions are still based on the goal of staying under a limit of 450 ppm atmospheric CO2 and 2 degrees warming, as suggested by the data in the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2007 Report, which greatly underestimated the pace of climate change. Current science suggests that 350 ppm and 1.7 degrees warming are more likely the threshold to prevent irreversible runaway warming.
Cheers
Don
The NDP Government was asked to do a simple but very significant act for the environment,
BAN PLASTIC BAGS
We have given the Government
45,000 reasons,
the amount of plastic bags collected at our 'Plastic Bag Day ' event, why banning plastic bags is a very progressive thing to do for the environment and our children's, children future.
Together we can and will create a more sustainable environment for all.
Please encourage all your friends and family who can make it to be there, Government will only do what the people wants.
Thanks,
Don Woodstock
September 12th, 2009 was truly the Day we Broke Our Plastic Bag Addiction at the Manitoba Legislature
Approx.45, 000 PLASTIC BAGS WERE COLLECTED (44,674), OVER 3000 SOBEY'S REUSABLE BAGS HANDED OUT. A VERY SUCCESSFUL DAY FOR THE ENVIRONMENT.
Thanks to POWER 97, CURVE 94.3, Shaw TV, Sobey's, Bio bag Canada, Biosak, The David Suzuki Foundation, Bear Springs Blossom Nature Conservation, NCI FM, CJOB, HOT 103, Kick FM, CKUW and all other media who send out emails and blogs
encouraging everyone to take their plastic bags to the grounds of the Leg.
Thanks to Coinamatic for demonstrating that we need to wash our reusable bags.
To the Principal, Staff and Students at Weston School who's efforts saved 2300 plastic bags from contaminating our water and the environment,
"WAY TO GO GUYS, GOOD JOB".
We had children 3 to 12 dropping off their plastic bags and collecting reusable bags.
Tyler and Sam, 8 and 11 years old, dropped off 485 plastic bags.
Kathy dropped off 970 plastic bags.
To all here in Winnipeg and those who came from out of town your efforts have capture Canada and the World attention.
"Don't stop" - the advice David Suzuki gave me in 2007.
Our Dogie Poop Bags was well received by all and clearly a very marketable product.
This was a great day for the environment and a positive step in our community journey on becoming one of Canada's top Greenest City.
To our volunteers a Million thanks you, our children will remember September 12th, 2009.
Plastic Bag Day at the
Manitoba Legislature Building
Winnipeg, MB
September 12, 2009
A day to end our addiction to plastic bags.
Many brought their bags to the steps of the
Manitoba Legislature Building
Winnipeg, MB
One thing is for sure,
Don Woodstock will always aggressively look for ways and means to help promote green consciousness.
To Don, green means visualizing the world our children will inherit, and having a social conscience and the courage to leave a cleaner, healthier, and sustainable environment for them by altering personal consumption habits while influencing others in one’s home, office, and community to do the same.
Every little bit counts, and
together we can make a difference.
Don Woodstock
|
|