Charting the Road to Carbon Neutrality

Thank you to everyone who responded to our questionnaire on ways to improve our webinar series. Those suggestions are incorporated into Season 3 of Climate and the Arts starting on Wednesday, January 13th, from 11 am to noon PST, and continuing every second Wednesday at the same time until May 19th.

Today the value of real estate in Manhattan is worth twice that of the entire world’s forest cover. Yet our forests and associated soils contain more carbon than the atmosphere; regulate water supply and quality and support 50% of ecosystem biodiversity to sustain life on this fragile planet. 

In a carbon neutral world, the true value of nature’s capacity to store carbon will far exceed real estate values. The year 2021 will be critical for achieving the first steps on the road to carbon neutrality.

Most large emitting countries and many local governments have endorsed carbon neutrality goals by 2050. They require a global balance between carbon emissions and carbon storage, which if not met will mean that the world will face warming well over 2C and runaway climate change with devastating impacts.

Over the next 20 years, more than 10 billion tons of net carbon reduction will have to come from the land use sector: forestry, agriculture, parks and watersheds through the regeneration of soils, carbon credits and conservation. Similarly, significant emission reductions will be required in urban settings through reforms to transportation, space heating and waste generation.

What policies and governance changes will be required to achieve this transformation in British Columbia and Canada? Tune in January 13th, from 11 am to noon, to learn how we can achieve this with innovative projects and solutions provided by leading experts.

Achieving carbon neutrality will strengthen the role of rural and urban communities and support true reconciliation with Indigenous people across Canada. This season, hear about how new regulatory and financial approaches can expedite innovation and reduce inequality before time closes in on these game changing opportunities available now. Also, learn what Indigenous and community leaders are doing to create real change, enjoy the role of the arts in stimulating imagination and innovation, and hear from those who are animating this change and expanding our collective consciousness. 

A carbon neutral world will be a far kinder, safer and more compassionate place due to lessons learned in the pandemic.

Don’t miss this exciting series and notifications of the video replays. Be sure to sign up for free here: 

What A Year... Thanks To You!

Despite Covid, 2020 was a year of immense community building and creativity. 
Creatively United's inclusive and collaborative mandate to bring social and environmental solutions to the forefront creatively, resulted in a new partnership with the Gail O'Riordan Climate and the Arts Legacy Series and the production of more than 35 videos and free webinars between April and November 2020, including a special two-hour TEDx program in collaboration with BC Drawdown, a Pachemama Alliance member. We also collaborated with the Wildwood Ecoforestry Institute to bring needed awareness to a new forest framework and letter writing campaign, which many of our viewers took part in.
 

One of the highlights of this summer included Awaken – A Forest Ballet, with Ballet Victoria and Order of Canada singer/songwriter, Ann Mortifee, and musicians Ed Henderson (guitarist with the band Chilliwack), and Finn Manniche (cello).

Working collaboratively with a professional team of people resulted in an incredibly synergistic and dynamic video that came together fluidly and is now being used by the Habitat Acquisition Trust (HAT) to fundraise $1.2 million required for this stunning 49-acre forest to become a protected urban forest by this upcoming Earth Day, April 22, 2021.

Other community partnerships include the Mount Work Coalition who is working to prevent the expansion of the Hartland Landfill and the loss of 73 acres of established forest. 

This very organized community group has expanded their outreach through Creatively United’s network and is working with our Climate and the Arts partner, former Deputy Minister of the Environment, Jonathan O’Riordan, who has since joined their board and ours, to explore a variety of options to fulfill on our respective mandates. 

Covid has actually provided many gifts... it certainly amplified the conversations we have been building since our inception eight years ago with the incorporation of our organization as a registered non-profit society, six months after our very first and highly successful Earth Day community festival in 2012. 

We also continue to promote numerous community events on CreativelyUnited.org, plus support Dr. Trevor Hancock’s Conversations for a One Planet Region, the Esquimalt ECO Team, the Community Trees Matter Network and more than 175 non-profits in our online Pair Up directory, plus be a part of One Planet Saanich.

Looking Ahead to 2021

This upcoming January 13th, 2021 we will present Season 3 of our webinar series with a bi-monthly format so that we have time for many other projects. 

Some of the projects pending for 2021 include: 

1. A multi-part video series on the importance and role of rivers and water for providing vital ecosystem functions, using the Columbia River as a living example of what was, what is and what needs to happen next. 
2. The development and production of a multi-collaborative video with Ballet Victoria, members of the Victoria Symphony and Victoria Chamber Choir on the importance of urban forests.  
3. Campaigns to support biodiversity in parks, forests, watersheds, soils and agriculture.
4. New governance models to support zero waste, energy efficient buildings and carbon neutrality.

Stay tuned! 2021 promises to be an exciting year as we continue to become even more creatively united.

The Creatively United for the Planet Society is a registered non-profit society. Since 2012, we have brought together more than 10,000 people from throughout the region who care about happy, healthy, and resilient communities. We have done so through eight zero-waste sustainability showcases, numerous community events and educational talks, collaborative partnerships, a video series, and the CreativelyUnited.org free community information network, resource and solutions sharing hub. 

The Gail O'Riordan Climate and the Arts Legacy Fund, supported by The Victoria Foundation, is dedicated to changing human consciousness towards global environmental change by combining science with the creativity of the performing arts.

The Ecoforestry Institute Society (EIS) is a registered non-profit, charitable society comprised of a volunteer Board and a strong core of community volunteers. They are dedicated to the principles and practices of ecoforestry – demonstrating that we can harvest trees and plants from the forest while maintaining healthy and integrated ecological systems.

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