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Last Meeting December 17, 2019
Bill Davidson, President, chaired the meeting and gave the invocation.
John Hayto led us for the singing of O Canada.
Peter Clarke, Sergeant-at-Arms, introduced visitors and guests.
Chair's Announcements:
- We had a great turnout last week at our annual holiday social. It was a full house!
- Work continues on the strategic plan. Thanks to those who met last week again. We are moving forward and making progress. Saarika is busy putting some documentation together; committee chairs: thank you for the information you have provided to date, we'll be looking for more.
- We have received an email from a Rotarian in Columbia. She has two young adult children (18 & 21) coming to study English in Vancouver for 6 months (Jan 13th to June). She has asked for the following (thanks to Franco Gallo for translating her message and offering to connect with her):
- Any volunteer activities that her kids could potentially do over the weekends.
- If there is any exchange program for a Rotarian family to host them (they have a family to host for the 1st month only).
- In case the above is not possible, do we know of any family (non-Rotarian) that would host them (for a fee) that we can recommend. Mom is asking for good references.
Secretary's announcements provided by Parisa Adrangi:
- reminders of upcoming events/meetings (see above)
- birthdays: Gordon Esau Dec 17th, Nabil Sabet Dec 19th, Kayo Otake Dec 24th, Curt Haase Dec 25th
- member anniversaries: Mark Zhou 1 year, Ralf Behringer 9 years, Robert Dueck 14 years, Chris Motion 14 years, Richard Higgins 23 years, Fred West 23 years
- wedding anniversaries: Mark Zhou & Tamara Mihic 4 years Dec 19th, Ralph & Sue Towsley 23 years Dec 28th, John & Beverly Richardson 44 years Dec 20th, David & Joy Motion 48 years Dec 18th, D'Arcy & Jill Warner 57 years Dec 29th
Special announcements and members' moments:
- John Hayto let us know that our exchange student, Mar Gaston, is in Children's Hospital recovering from an operation removing her ruptured appendix. Mar's Dad has arrived to be with her. All visitors and messages of good wishes are welcome. Update: Mar is home at the Hayto's recovering nicely.
- Chris Motion reviewed the best way to make your year-end donations to the Vancouver Rotary Club Foundation (see info above from Phil Webber). If you have any issues or questions contact Chris.
- Peter Clarke was interviewed by Networking Committee rep, Navid Morawej.
- Peter started by saying that these interviews are wonderful. He and Navid, in the preparation for it, were able to connect in a way that just isn't possible at our lunch meetings. Highly recommend everyone volunteer to do it.
- He then went on to say that there is a theme that runs through his life for which he thanks his parents. Peter was one of five children adopted into his family. His Dad was a joyful person. In the 1980s he lost almost everything and had to start his professional life over in the trophy business. Peter's memory is that his Dad managed all of this will grace, even in the most difficult times. He passed away from cancer and as was necessary, in due course, Peter cleared out his desk. There he found a crumpled piece of paper at the back of the drawer with a quote Peter holds dear to this day:
"There's no limit to what a man can do if he doesn't care who gets the credit."
- Peter's Mom was an incredibly strong woman both physically and spiritually. She developed dementia in her later life. A later memory Peter has is when visiting her towards the end of her life, he was lamenting to his wife, Collette, about his tough week. His Mom, become lucid, held his hand and said, "It's all about the people.", thereby putting it all in perspective.
- Peter faced some very tough time himself in 2016. He stretched his company to purchase a commercial building for which he took possession on Sept. 1st. At the time he was still renting his original location. On Sept. 24th he suffered a stroke. During his most stressful time he became his weakest physically and mentally. Over the years people had told him he was too nice. Too nice to his customers, too nice to his employees, too nice to everyone. He believes that this characteristic of his came back to him in spades during the time after his stroke. Everyone around him lifted and carried him through his recovery, taking care of his business and him personally.
- All in all, Peter feels extremely lucky. He now tries to appreciate every aspect of his life and constantly works to manage his stress levels. He has added a vulnerability to his leadership skills; something he, after his health crisis, views as a strength.
- Peter's motto: "There is no limit to what a man can achieve -- it's all about people."
- Gerry Glazier let us know that the Rotary World Help is doing really well. They loaded their 21st container of the year last weekend. If you want to help with future loadings, contact Gerry or Kaz for info, both of whom are consistent helpers.
- Jim Evans noted that in the last Rotary Canada magazine there is a picture on the inside front cover of E. Leslie Pidgeon golfing. It is noted that he was Rotary's first president from outside the U.S., holding office 1917-1918. He was a member of our club in the early 1900's, holding the position of club president in 1914-15.
- CLICK HERE to read a bio under the Canadian Rotary International Presidents, interestingly it notes in this bio that he never held a position as club president, a district governor, or a director before becoming international president.
Program:
Gordon Esau introduced our guest speakers, Sandi Goldie & Jim Bronson who came to introduce us to Dealing with our Climate Crisis: A short into to Project Drawdown.
Jim & Sandi introduced themselves, acknowledged their sources for the talk: (1) DRAWDOWN, the Environmental Book of the Year in 2017: The book summarizes the findings of over 200 environmental scientists and researchers. (2) The Pachamama Alliance, which has developed the classes to spread the ideas in Drawdown. Their materials have been used to present over 20 Drawdown workshops in the Lower Mainland over the last year. They acknowledged that they are not experts in climate change or in the Drawdown research project. They are offering to us what we've learned over the last few years.
They also acknowledged Rotary International for putting environmental sustainability as a high priority for Rotary Clubs around the world. There is a Environmental Sustainability Rotary Action Group that provides special learning events as well as an Environmental Sustainability Tool Kit. As stated on the RI website. “By helping to protect our natural world, we support all of our areas of focus”. When you attend the RI Convention in Hawaii next June you can choose to attend the Celebrating Our Island Planet session on World Environment Day, June 5, 2020.
Major changes in our world can seem to take forever or, they can happen very quickly. Noted in 1900 a picture shown – one car, lots of horses & buggies; just 13 years later – all cars, no horses to be seen.
Sandi was introduced to the Drawdown, the most comprehensive plan every proposed to reverse global warming book about two years ago when she attended an information session in Oregon. She was so impressed and uplifted that she wanted to bring the information to BC. She and Jim are regular presenters and are training new presenters who are spreading the hopeful solutions around the province.
Last April's Rotarian magazine focused on climate solutions, showing how Rotary groups are partnering in many projects that will lead towards environmental sustainability. The magazine specifically highlighted six and noted which Drawdown solution each was correlated with.
What are we looking at? In 1953, a young scientist named Charles David Keeling began to measure the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. The problem is that it has been steadily rising since 1955. The definition of Drawdown is that point in time when we begin to take more greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere than we are adding. There are definite steps we can take with the most impactful being:
- Refrigeration management – disposing properly of old CFCs and HCFCs. This was highlighted by National Geographic last April. Thanks to the worldwide agreement in 1987 – The Montreal Protocol – no one is producing the worst refrigerants anymore, but a lot of it is still in existing refrigerators and air conditioners. We must manage their disposal properly. The capacity of these greenhouse gases to warm the atmosphere is 1,000 to 9,000 times greater than that of CO2. The Project Drawdown researchers determined, using only peer-reviewed studies, that with careful management, we can eliminate nearly 90 gigatons of CO2 equivalent greenhouse gases by 2050. For comparison, the entire world's emissions of greenhouse gases in 2016 were about 36 gigatons.
- On shore wind generation. Current costs for on shore wind generation are about 2.9 cents per kilowatt-hour, compared to 3.8 cents for fossil gas. Goldman-Sachs research states, “wind provides the lowest cost source of new (electrical generating) capacity.” The Drawdown research shows that, by 2050, ramping up wind-generation can save about 85 gigatons of CO2 equivalent … AND save $6.2 trillion overall. This shows what we see with many of the Drawdown solutions. They save so much that they would be a great choice even if they didn’t eliminate greenhouse gas emissions.
- Reduced food waste. This is currently being implemented by Rotary clubs in Columbia and California. According to a Globe and Mail article January 17, 2019, more than half of our food in Canada ends up in the landfill, where it produces methane. So, this is an example where Drawdown groups in the Lower Mainland are also working on the same issue, locally. Reducing Food Waste worldwide can save an astounding 70.5 gigatons of CO2 equivalent by 2050.
- Plant-rich diet. Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh said, “Making the transition to a plant-based diet may be the most effective way an individual can stop climate change.” If 50% of the world’s population restricts their diet to a healthy 2,500 calories per day and reduces meat consumption overall, Drawdown estimates over 25 gigatons of emissions could be avoided from dietary change alone. If avoided deforestation from land use change is included, an additional 40 gigatons of emissions could be avoided, making healthy, plant-rich diets one of the most impactful solutions at a total of 66 gigatons reduced.
- Protecting tropical forests. Rotary clubs in Madagascar, Italy and France have partnered with a local non-profit on a project to reforest about 125 acres with native species grown from wild seed. could save over 61 gigatons of CO2 equivalent by 2050. For comparison that is almost twice as much as the entire world emitted in 2016. Our club supported a West Vancouver Rotary project of reforestation as well as their project supporting girls' education in Uganda.
- Educating Girls. Rotary clubs, including ours, are partnering on educating girls globally.
- Family planning. With effective family planning, studies show that parents choose to have smaller, healthier, more prosperous families. It is VERY interesting to note that combining Educating Girls with Family Planning becomes the Number One Solution.
- Solar farms. In Alberta a huge solar farm is under construction. At 400 megawatts the Travers solar project will not only be four times larger than any other solar project in the country, but also one of the largest solar projects in the world. Prairie land will be producing solar power where Greengate Technologies has already installed many wind turbines.
- Silvopasture. This is an ancient practice that integrates trees and pasture into a single system for raising livestock. Research suggests silvopasture far outpaces any grassland technique for counteracting the methane emissions of livestock and sequestering carbon under-hoof. Pastures strewn or crisscrossed with trees sequester five to ten times as much carbon as those of the same size that are treeless, storing it in both biomass and soil. Silvopasturing will save almost 2 tons of CO2 equivalents per acre or about 31 gigatons total by 2050.
- Rooftop solar. Rotary clubs in Haiti and Colorado have led a global grant project to install hybrid solar, diesel, and grid power system. The school saved $4,000 a year in fuel costs and reduced air and noise pollution. Rooftop solar installations are popping up all over the world, relieving pressure on our electrical grids and giving us the security of distributed generation. The estimated results by 2050: 24.6 gigatons of Co2 equivalent reductions and $3.4 trillion net savings.
- Regenerative agriculture. Rotary clubs in Taiwan and Thailand trained 40 people in a Taiwan village in organic farming techniques. This solution has the potential to save 23 gigatons of CO2 equivalent by 2050 from both sequestration and reduced emissions, and a net savings of $1.8 Trillion
In closing, We can certainly adopt some of these solutions. All of us can. All of us can make a difference. As MACLEAN’s modeled for us in August, we get to choose how we respond to the serious challenges we're facing. Let’s open our eyes to the climate challenge, and then focus on our opportunity to take effective action toward substantive solutions.
For more information and get updates on Drawdown classes in BC, you can go to the homepage of our new website, BCDrawdown.org.
Extra links:
Meeting adjourned with a toast wishing everyone a very merry Christmas, and a happy and safe New Years.
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK
