Brockville Climate Action Group

BBC News / Lord David Puttnam / 28 October 2008

[...] There is a pressing need to understand how we can draw on the drive of local communities to reduce CO2 emissions.

This means not just focusing on innovation in science and technology but also on the innovative ways communities can work together and with other partners, to deliver tangible solutions to climate change.

MSNBC / AP / 06 July 2008

ALBANY, N.Y. - For years, Mel Williams rarely ate fruit and vegetables — unless it came out of a can.

Fresh produce was too expensive or too far away until the state-funded “Veggie Mobile” started bringing the fruits and vegetables to him at a lower price.

“I’m a diabetic and I have problems with my heart,” the 66-year-old said. “The canned stuff has so much sodium in it. So now with the fresh fruit, it’s less sugar and carbohydrates and stuff.”

Williams is one of millions of Americans living in a “food desert,” urban or rural areas unserved by a big grocery chain that can serve up fresh foods at lower costs. He’s in Troy, a former industrial city about 10 miles from New York’s capital.

With the rapidly climbing cost of food and fuel, states and nonprofit groups are finding ways to get healthy food to these underserved areas [...]

Government of Ontario / Press Release / 30 May 2008

The lion-tailed macaques at the Toronto Zoo are going green, with some help from a provincial fund that supports community-based conservation projects.

The plan is to retrofit the macaques' exhibit with a geo-exchange heating and cooling system - and to showcase the technology through education programs and tours for the zoo's 1.4 million annual visitors.

The retrofit project is one of 22 that will receive a total of $740,000 in funding from the 2008-2009 Community Conservation Initiatives (CCI) fund.

The 2008 Upwind Downwind Conference: Climate Change & Healthy Cities will be held on February 25th & 26th, 2008 at the Hamilton Convention Centre in Hamilton, Ontario. The two day conference will focus on Air Quality and Climate Change and the linkages with public health, planning and action.

Who should attend?

Arizona Daily Star / Stephanie Innes / 11 January 2008

Ending local hunger will take a group effort, and apparently not enough of us are pitching in.

Sure, we donate to Tucson's Community Food Bank, but officials there say not enough of us are aware of its long-term goal — eliminating the need for emergency food boxes. That goal has proved more than elusive.

The food bank is giving out more than 15,000 emergency food boxes a month, a 25 percent jump over this time last year. A food box is designed to feed a family of four for three or four days.

Between November 2nd and 4th, 2007, more than 500 citizens from the Kingston region gathered at the Food Down the Road Local Food Summit to celebrate the successes and challenges of building a sustainable local food system.* Participants were invited to write down their ideas on “key priorities to build our sustainable local food system.” This invitation yielded more than 600 thoughtful submissions; during the final session of the Summit, participants sorted this data and identified priorities for our local food system.