Green Wizardries: Slow Fashion and the Mending Cafe

April 18, 2024

It started out innocently enough. I was giving a talk at the Garden Club and I wore a cotton shirt that had been torn in the wash. I had mended it after watching a few Sashiko-mending videos on YouTube. I explained to the gardeners that cotton is a very dirty crop. Cotton production uses heaps of pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and synthetic fertilizer that destroys the carbon in the soil and strips the soil of life and fertility. The current way of cultivating cotton is a disaster for the Living Earth.

After the talk, Wendy Pope approached me and asked if I would give a Sashiko-mending demonstration at the Mending Cafe she had suddenly decided to host. I said, “Sure,” because if I can do this sort of mending successfully, and I find it fun, then almost anyone can do it. I am not a sewing maven; I can barely sew at all.

Nancy Hoyano will give a talk and demonstration on Boro and Sashiko as she is an expert at it. Nancy creates beautiful art pieces with Boro which is a Japanese style of patchwork and Sashiko which is a sort of embroidery style, also Japanese in origin and all the rage at the moment.

Sashiko started as a way to sew layers of cotton or linen together to make it warmer. The traditional style is to use navy-blue cotton or linen for the cloth and heavy, white thread for the stitching. I had a look at this and mended a couple of garments and people liked the work I did. I used colourful embroidery thread so my mending is Sashiko inspired, not the real thing! A couple of ladies I know are such talented craftswomen that they can make wedding dresses and they liked the mending I was doing.

It is common, now, to buy a garment, wear it four or five times and drop it off at a charity shop. This is called Fast Fashion and the cloth is poor and does not stand up to repeated washing. The garment is meant to become waste! Fast Fashion is cheap because it is made using child labour, slave labour or the profiteers simply pay starvation wages to the poor people hired to sew. Fast Fashion is evil. It is also wasteful and if you look around at your fellow Canadians, you will see very few of them who look well dressed at all. Wendy Pope said, “I have been feeling annoyed every time I go into a clothing shop. I want an alternative to Fast Fashion.”

One woman asked me what alternative to cotton cloth would be better and I had to say there is a production cost to every fabric. So we can’t simply abandon cotton for linen, silk or wool and continue to waste those resources. Polyester and other synthetic fabrics degrade over time leaving smaller and smaller pieces of toxic, synthetic material to get into the water supply and from there to poison tiny plankton in the oceans so they are not an option.

A solution to the wasteful practice of Fast Fashion is Slow Fashion. Slow Fashion means buying new clothes with the intention of keeping them for at least forty years, making sure they are well made from durable fabric, not washing them after every wear and doing more spot cleaning. Not washing so often makes cloth last a lot longer and the garment will keep its shape better. Our ancestors who had to wash clothes by hand were great ones for spot cleaning and airing garments.

Other Slow Fashion basics include buying good second hand clothes, shopping at Free Stores and the Free Shop on Northwest Road here on Denman. Mending, darning and lining the clothes that you have is kind of fun and makes the garment unique. You can create many pretty embroidered patterns with Sashiko-style mending.

If you would like to get together with other people for a fun and informative Mending Cafe, meet up at the United Church Hall on Wednesday 24 April from 2 to 4 pm. Bring a mending project but pick a simple one so it will be easy and fun for you. Bring scissors, thread, needles, pins, embroidery thread and cloth scraps. If you don’t have all that, come anyway as we will have extra supplies for beginners. If you have a large piece of cloth and would like to make a pillow case or a cushion cover, bring that too as Wendy will have her portable sewing machine there. There will be a big bag of clean wool to stuff cushions and pillows. Wool makes the very best pillows.

We will be making a big pot of ginger tea and bringing a GF fruit loaf to share. Feel free to bring treats. Admission is by donation.

Letter to the Editor – Helen Grond

April 18, 2024

Letter to the Editor

Is the Advisory Planning Commission a Trojan Horse?

The following are excerpts from an Islands Trust staff report dated January 9, 2017 obtained by FOIA.

The subject of the report was “Vacation Home Rentals Policy Review, Draft Project Charter”

The recommendations were

1. That the LTC endorse the draft Project Charter for the Vacation Home Rental Review Project.

2. That the Hornby Island Local Trust Committee pursue targeted recruitment for up to three additional members for the Advisory Planning Commission in support of the Vacation Home Rental Review Project.

According to the background section:

“Throughout 2016, the LTC discussed emerging issues on the subject of home vacation rentals on Hornby Island, and identified the need for a review process in 2017/2018 to assess the effectiveness of policies, regulations, and enforcement regarding vacation home rentals on Hornby Island.”

The five year review of home sharing was held in a LTC meeting on December 4, 2017. There were more staff than the public there. I thought the meeting was “the” review and had no idea about the extent of the “project”. At that meeting, questions were asked of the Trustees and staff if there were any problems or complaints regarding home-shares over the last five years and the answer was that no complaints had been received or issues identified. The consensus was that the important Hornby practice was doing fine and needed no revisions or actions. The planner was asked to remove language from her report indicating that strict enforcement of the regulations should be introduced as there were no underlying issues requiring such harsh language with respect to enforcement. Surely, the Trust has better ways to devote their time and budgets than invent issues around activities that had no problems or complaints in the five years preceding? What exactly were the “emerging” issues referred to by the LTC throughout 2016 that they did not report on in that meeting?

The January 9 staff report outlined the “overarching milestones and timeline for the Vacation Home Rentals (VHR) Policy Review:” as follows:

– A community survey, to be administered by Staff with input from the APC;

– Staff analysis of emerging trends and issues on the topic of VHR:

– A community consultation process facilitated by the APC to further explore the topics raised through

the survey and identified by staff;

– Referral to the APC of specific policy areas for in-depth discussion and recommendations;

– Possible improvements to VHR policies and guidelines.

I would like to see the results of the above 5 “overarching milestones” that were supposed to have been achieved. Were they even done? The results were never included in the March 29, 2022 APC report. Why not?

Recommendations to the LTC regarding the APC are as follows:

“Because the APC is to have a substantial role in the community review of VHR policies, the LTC has expressed a desire to have an APC that represents the diversity of the Hornby Island community in regards to this topic. Considering this specific intention, Staff recommends that the LTC identify desired communities of interest it looks to engage in order to provide direction for targeted recruitment of future APC members.”

I responded to the ad looking for members to serve on the APC on January 23, 2017. The deadline was January 26. I was not selected. It was reported that no one responded to the ad when in fact I had. I have applied 4 times over the years and have never been selected. My family home-shares. My family also provides long term, low-cost homes to approximately 15 working Hornby Islanders; homes that are subsidized by our home-sharing practice. Would that not make me a reasonable candidate for the APC? I have served on ISLA, HICEEC, The Farmland Trust, Hornby Denman Growers and Producers, Emergency Preparedness and countless other committees over 32 years. I am a passionate advocate for the working class of Hornby Island and a small business owner. I guess I don’t belong to a “desired community of interest”.

If the LTC desired to have an APC that represents the diversity of the community, why did it only choose members that were publicly outspoken against home-sharing. Is that in the best interests of the community at large? Is the APC a Trojan horse that can be utilized to over-ride a fair and democratic process whenever elected officials have agendas? The Trustees at the time (one still in office) have repeatedly stated in public and on social media that they find summers on Hornby too busy and would prefer to have the Island to themselves.

The loss of home-sharing may reduce summer traffic by a few percent and will unlikely increase low cost housing. It will almost certainly increase home insecurity. Unfortunately, hundreds of working individuals including business owners, service folks, retirees and home owners will have their livelihoods damaged beyond repair by a “desired community of interest”. I can only assume that something else is going on because none of this makes any sense at all.

Respectfully submitted

Helen Grond

The Planet suffocates amidst a Quagmire of Deforestation

April 18, 2024

In 1983 Eduardo Galeno wrote the following; (my adaptations are in brackets).

“The sterile machine (of industry) hates everything that grows (old) …It can produce nothing but prisoners and cadavers, spies and police, beggars and exiles……Extermination plan: Destroy the grass (and the forest and the oceans), pull up very last little living thing by the roots, sprinkle the earth with salt (and pesticides) Afterward, kill all memory of grass, (forests and oceans). To colonize consciences, suppress them; to suppress them, empty them of the past.” Eduardo Galeno

Around 440 million years ago, land plants appeared and took hold of land surfaces. Before this there was very little atmospheric oxygen. Plants remove carbon dioxide (but not methane) from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. Before 1988 our atmospheric CO2 was about 350 parts per million. Last year at this time, CO2 ppm were measured at 424.80. If we had stopped cutting down primary/old forests in 1988, the carbon already released could have been sequestered and we could have possibly slowed down our current trajectory towards irreversible harm. Forests are not simply a collection of trees in one specific area but a laboratory for the evolution and diversity of plants and animals, all co-operating to sustain life on this planet. “…old-growth temperate rainforests are the most extensive and impressive example of temperate rainforest in the world…..are amoungst the most massive ecosystems on earth. Tremendous accumulations of biomass result from the combination of long periods of time between disturbances; the longevity of many north-western trees, their inherent ability to grow large, and relatively slow decomposition rates…..Evergreen conifers can gather sunlight and grow almost all year round ” Andy MacKinnon and Jim Pojar, 1994. Forests know how to sustain life. Maybe humans can learn a thing or two from them.

Difficult as it is to imagine, the news media is telling us that this summer’s forest fires could be worse than last year. The CO2 released from Canada’s wildfires combined with our GHG emissions from burning coal, gas and oil makes Canada a leading global climate criminal. The on-line climate action information bulletins rarely mention deforestation as a cause of the climate crisis. They rarely mention how forests and their accompanying biodiversity/biomass absorb atmospheric C02. Dr. Stephan Harding explains: “the very structure of an ecosystem-namely which species are present, the depths of it’s roots, the extent of it’s leafiness, it’s release of cloud-seeding chemicals to the air-all have massive effects not only on climate both locally and globally but also on the great cycling of chemical beings around the planet.”

Publicly funded BC Timber Sales continues to allow the clear-cutting of the last remaining old forests, i.e., deforestation, on Crown Lands. Rapid loss of biodiversity is happening each and every day in the forests of BC. “…the current mass extinction is a crime of vast proportions…..cutting down the forest is a catastrophe, not only for the millions of species living in them, but also for the world’s climate.. ” Dr. Stephan Harding claimed in the book Animate Earth, in the year 2006.

Most people agree that random slaughtering of humans is unethical. but rationalists would argue that overpopulation will balance out the loss of those killed. But most people will argue that murder is wrong because each person has intrinsic value. Since there is no divide between human and “more than” human life forms, can we not conclude that it is wrong to dismantle any aspect of the natural world? Until humans humbly respect the sanctity of life, we will not stop destroying the forests, the oceans, and the grasslands. Modern humans have been hoodwinked into ignoring the very basic laws of nature.

“even if solar, wind, and other green technologies were able to completely replace fossil fuels, an impossible scenario in itself, (they actually have a NET ZERO CARBON REDUCTION PER DOLLAR) as long as deforestation continues, that is not enough to stop global warming…..Stopping deforestation and restoring logged areas would remove more carbon dioxide from the AIR EACH YEAR THAT IS GENERATED BY ALL THE CARS ON THE PLANET. ” Bright Green Lies, co-authored by .Derrick Jensen

Two weeks ago I wrote BCTS, demanding that they take all old-growth cutblocks off their auction list. Not surprisingly, no word back so next up is the Minister of Forests.

Blurry

April 18, 2024

TALENT SHOW MAY 18

April 11, 2024

Talent show vector background, poster, template. Inscription bright on red curtain.

TALENT SHOW MAY 18

VARGAS ISLAND TRIP AND BOOKS TO GHANA ARE TEAMING UP TO PRESENT AN EXCITING NIGHT OF ENTERTAINMENT.

The Grade 5/6/7 Class, led by Mr. Daniel Farrow, is looking to raise funds for an educational trip to Vargas Island! The Cedar Coast Eco-Lodge on Vargas Island (15 minute boat trip from Tofino) will guide the students through immersive nature experiences, focussing on culture and history, off grid living systems and how they interact with the local ecosystem.

Raising money to supply books to schools in Ghana is an ongoing project and the procedes for this year will go to a school run by an NGO called Theolak Foundation which is headed by an amazing woman who works tirelessly for kids in many ways.

If you wish to participate and you want to do something musical call Bethany Ireland @ 2503351330. For all other performances call Jude Kirk @ 2503350546.

The Amazing Origins of commonly used phrases

April 11, 2024

Here is the essence of an amazing article on the origins of familiar English phrases written William Poulu . Most people in England get married in June because that was when they took their yearly bath. Brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide their body odour. The order of taking that one yearly bath went from the man of the house to the last being the babies. Needless to say, the water was very dirty by then. Leading to the saying, “Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater”.

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw, piled high with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so, all the cats, dogs, mice etc climbed up there. When it rained, the straw would become slippery and the animals would slip and fall off the roof.- Hence the phrase, “It’s raining cats and dogs”.

The floor of poor people’s houses was dirt. Leading to the phrase, “dirt poor”. The slightly more wealthy people put straw on their floors, which, over time piled up into “thresh”. They would then put a piece of wood across the base of the doorway to hold in the ‘thresh’. This became known as a ‘thresh hold”.

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burned bottom of the bread. The family ate the middle of the bread and guests ate the upper crust. A phase that is now used to describe the wealthy.

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination of lead and alcohol would, sometimes knock the imbibers out for a day or two. The imbiber would be laid out on the kitchen table and prepared for burial. The family would gather round and eat and drink and wait to see if the person would wake up, creating the custom of, “holding a wake” before burial.

Urine was used to tan hides. Families would pee in a pot and sell the urine to a local tannery. Those who were too poor to own a pot were called people, “who did not have a pot to piss in.”

England is old and small and, in the Middle Ages, they were running out of burial sites. People started digging up old coffins to reuse the site. Scratch marks were noticed inside some of the coffins, indicating that these people had been buried alive.. They decided to attach a string to the hand of corpses and run it up to the surface, where it was attached to a bell. Someone would sit by the grave on the first night after burial to listen, in case the bell rang. This was called the “graveyard shift” and someone might be “saved by the bell”.

There we go, a small voyage into linguistic history. We have different problems today but, overall, I remain grateful to be alive in the 21st century and hope that we can improve the wellbeing of all Canadians in the near future. Bring on the Federal and Provincial elections..

A Global Security System

April 11, 2024

A Global Security System Sally Campbell

Having touched upon the complex subject of “security” earlier this year, my ears have now become hyper-attuned to the words “security” and “safety”. It is troubling to think how far we have progressed as human societies on so many levels, and yet how poorly we have addressed our common universal need for security and safety. During the 20^th century, we saw new beginnings, with the development of institutions such as the League of Nations which led to the founding of the UN. The 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact outlawed war and has never been overturned. The Geneva Conventions, The International Court of Justice, and The Rome Statute which founded the International Criminal Court – these constitute a framework for international law and international humanitarian law. They clearly set out war crimes, especially respecting civilians, aid workers and war prisoners. The many arms limitation treaties represent society’s understanding of the lethal direction in which we’ve been headed for many decades now. Yet somehow people now feel (and are) less safe and secure than ever before.

Why is that and what can we do about it?

In my view, we are in the throes of “the end of empire” and no, it isn’t pleasant. Watching a tv series like The Fall of Civilizations is rather chilling as it shows in devastating detail how, time and again, our world has experienced horrific violence wrought in the name of imperialism and colonialism. And worse yet, settler-colonialism in places like the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and our most devastating recent example, Israel-Palestine.

Gideon Levy, senior journalist for Ha’aretz, the Israeli daily, said that Israel’s ongoing violence and dispossession of the Palestinian people rests upon 3 myths that Zionists have embraced to establish and maintain supremacy in Israel-Palestine:

Jewish people are the chosen people.
Jewish people are the eternal victims.
Palestinian people are less than fully human.

(Levy at UVic, 2015, sponsored by Canadians for Justice & Peace in the Middle East, CJPME)

Variations on that theme can be seen in the mythology around the Canadian settler-colonialism context:

Euro-Christian settlers had a superior culture to bring to this land.
The Doctrine of Discovery gave explorers the right to claim “vacant land” in the name of their sovereign. Vacant land was that which was not populated by Christians.
Indigenous peoples were uncivilized savages.

Behind these implanted false ideas, of course, was the desire for the land, for its resources, for control over the region at the expense of the indigenous people living there. Greed, ambition, ignorance, willful blindness – all these underlay the so-called brave and noble endeavours of the settlers. The people that my non-indigenous ancestors taught were heroes were actually usurpers and plunderers, bringing weapons, disease and entitlement. It seems to me that until we in the imperial West truly understand and account for our own settler-colonial violence, we will look the other way as others wreak havoc on indigenous populations. The massive outcry

over Israel’s killing of 6 Western foreign–aid workers (and 1 Palestinian) from World Central Kitchen last week, after about 200 innocent Palestinian aid workers have suffered the same fate with little condemnation of those war crimes, was a grim reminder of our devaluation of “the other”.

Right now, a huge challenge for non-indigenous peoples everywhere is to de-colonize our minds and hearts. I view this as a life-long learning and listening process. Part of the learning is to confront militarism and Canada’s role as loyal 1^st lieutenant of first the UK and now the US, in sustaining empire. We have considered ourselves as “honest broker” in foreign policy, the “good guys”. Yves Engler offers a solid debunking of that myth in his recent blog post of April 1^st, 2024. He shows Canada’s ongoing role in supporting Israel’s settler-colonial project on Palestinian land. As he says, “The honest broker construct is damaging for two reasons. It confuses people about Canada’s role in the world, undermining the critical consciousness required to seriously challenge Canadian foreign policy. It suggests Ottawa is a benevolent international actor rather than largely driven by the interests of empire and corporations.” (Italics mine.)

Canada has such an opportunity to recalibrate right now. We’re on the brink of purchasing armed drones (the 2 most favoured bids are from Israel & the US); we’ve not yet taken delivery of the F-35 fighter jets we’ve bought from the US because they don’t work. If Trump gets re- elected, he may reassert pressure on Canada (as per his November, 2019 letter) to increase our annual contribution to NATO to 2% of our GDP from its current 1.3%.

At the same time, all levels of government recognize our affordable housing crisis, the need to invest more deeply in our health care system, the need to make child care & education key priorities, to fairly fund our reconciliation process, and to reverse our shameful role in the climate crisis. To do this, we could start by freeing up funding from war/war-preparation rather than sliding into more spending. The latter course will be inevitable unless we reassess our stance in the world and move away from aggressive alliances such as NATO. The fact that international small arms sales have tripled since 2001 (A Global Security System: An Alternative to War, World Beyond War, 5^th Edition, 2020 @ p.51) is a good indicator of the collision course our world is currently on. We need to shift from a war system to a system where we define peace by common human security rather than protection of national interests.

If not now, when?

Next week: more on A Global Security System.

Green Wizardries: A Safe and Happy Place

April 11, 2024

Green Wizardries, A Safe and Happy Place, by Maxine Rogers

I was walking in the woods with some friends and we came across one of those huge old stumps that may well have been cut before the First World War. The stump had been burned over and the pileated woodpeckers had been drilling holes in it over what looked to be many generations. In one of the holes, one of my friends spotted a neat, little tiny nest. It would have been the right size for a wren.

That got me to thinking about how very lucky we all are to live on our tiny islands, away from it all. Denman and Hornby got through the First World War with the loss of some of the young people but little real inconvenience to everyone here who was not doing military service. The Second World War was much the same but we did have a Japanese-incendiary balloon land on Denman in a field. I do not think it did any damage.

It feels to me that we have never been so close to a nuclear exchange between the great powers and be damned to the rest of us. The Americans refuse to hold diplomatic talks with the Russians when what is most needed is a diplomatic solution and an end to hostilities.

I found an interesting documentary on the Babushkas of Chernobyl. A bunch of, mostly, women who were evacuated from villages inside the forbidden zone around the worst parts of nuclear contamination. They missed their homes and way of life so much that they hiked back and dug under fences to get to their homes. One old lady said that she was so hungry and tired when she got home that she ate a berry and said, “If I die, it is God’s will.” She didn’t die and the old ladies all seemed quite healthy and spry.

The wildlife is burgeoning in the forbidden zone. Somehow buffalo, which they call bison, found their way to the zone, travelling through some very heavily populated country to get there where they met up with red deer, elk (which I suspect are the critters we call moose), horses that had gone wild, stray dogs, wild boar, wolves and heaps of birds and fish. The forbidden zone is a kind of paradise where nature has taken back the land from human depredation and stocked it with an unbelievable richness of wildlife.

A recent study on the wolves of Chernobyl, who are at the top of the food chain, found they have developed a resistance to cancer. I suspect a lot of other creatures have also developed a surprising resistance to cancer. The old ladies who returned to their homes in the forbidden zone keep chickens, geese and some pigs. They have beautiful, lavish gardens. They forage for wild herbs, berries and mushrooms. Some of the mushrooms were very contaminated but the old ladies ate them and were very healthy and robust. Yes, I am puzzled too but that is what happened.

So, a limited nuclear exchange will not be the end of the world although it may well be the end of the more wasteful parts of our civilization such as consumer culture as I think such an exchange would cause a lot of what passes for normal to unravel.

Our islands are like that tiny nest, tucked away in a hidden place. I reckon that this is going to be a great year to learn to live locally and to garden intensively. Gardening is soothing to the nerves and promotes good sleep and is inexpensive. That is more than can be claimed for therapy.

This spring is cold and this means you still have time to plant lettuce, spinach and peas. We are trenching and filling the trenches half full of compost, then a seed potato, then more compost, wood ash and a layer of sand as our soil is a bit of a heavy clay. It is essential to make the garden soil richer every year. The more organic matter that you put in the soil, the better it holds water.

I have my peas planted in pots in our polytunnel and the pots are sitting on hanging shelves so no mouse can get at them to eat the peas. We do this with beans and corn too. I have lots of tomato and pepper seedlings inside the house on shelves under LED lamps. I also have seedlings of petunias, pansies and zinnias to delight the heart and feed the pollinators.

Other things to do to prepare for whatever might come include learning to knit, and work wool. Learning to nurse family members through common illnesses at home. You really want to stay out of our local hospitals as people go in for one thing but sometimes come out with a case of life-altering clostridium difficile, an infection of the colon. Symptoms range from diarrhea to life-threatening damage to the colon. This is due to inadequate hygiene in the hospitals.

On that note, I will wish you happy gardening and good fortune.

Conrad Campbell

April 11, 2024

This week we are pleased to feature country music superstar and home organization specialist Conrad Campbell.

Why did you choose to make Denman Island your home?

In 1979 I fell in with a couple of A&W carhops that were involved in the production and distribution of illegal milkshakes they were making in an old Winnebago behind the mall in Victoria. Head Office caught wind of their scheme and they both moved to Denman Island to hide out. 35 years later one of them asked me to move in with her so I did.

What is your greatest fear?

Exiting my vehicle to use the washroom on the ferry in high winds and then my toupee blows off and gets entangled in the cables setting into motion a series of events that sees hundreds of commuters and school children hopelessly stranded in the middle of Baynes Sound while news helicopters circle overhead.

Have you always been a fan of country music?

Back in the mid 80’s I was working on a construction site and one of the roofing guys accidently dropped his nail gun and the hose looped around a rafter and it swung around and hit me in the back of the head and deposited a 4″ nail just behind my left ear. I spoke to my Doctor about it and he said it was better to leave it alone as trying to extract it was too risky. Ever since then I’ve liked country music.

What would you do if you won the lottery?

If I ever won the lottery I wouldn’t walk around with a smug sense of superiority and look down on poor people like I do now.

What would be your advice to the young people of today?

I would say to them that it’s more important to look good than feel good, and that it’s okay to laugh as long as you don’t point.

Letter to the Editor – Linda Armstrong

April 11, 2024

Disclaimer: this letter is a contrarian view in support of an author that does not believe that the consequences of burning fossil fuels is being accurately portrayed.

________________________________________________________________________

Recently I have become aware of author, Alex Epstein and his book titled : Why Human Flourishing Requires More Oil, Coal and Natural Gas- Not Less. I am reading this excellent positive perspective and felt that others may be interested in these facts.

Here is the pre amble on the inner cover.

What if the “experts” have gotten everything about the future of energy wrong?

What if fossil fuels are the energy of the future–and that’s a good thing?

Over the past decade, philosopher and energy expert Alex Epstein has predicted that any negative impacts of fossil fuel use on our climate will be outweighed by the unique benefits of fossil fuels to human flourishing–including their unrivaled ability to provide low-cost, reliable energy to billions of people around the world.

And contrary to what we hear from the media “experts” about today’s renewable revolution and climate emergency, reality has proven Epstein right:

Fact: Fossil fuels are still the dominant source of energy around the world, while much-hyped renewables are causing skyrocketing electricity prices and increased blackouts.
Fact: Fossil fuel development has brought global poverty to a record low.
Fact: While fossil fuels have contributed to the 1 degree of warming in the past 170 years, climate-related deaths are at an all-time low.

What does the future hold? In Fossil Future, Epstein applies his distinctive “human-flourishing framework” to the latest evidence and comes to the shocking conclusion that the benefits of fossil fuels will far outweigh their side-effects for generations to come. The true path to global human flourishing is a combination of using more fossil fuels, getting better at climate mastery, and establishing energy freedom policies that allow nuclear energy and other promising alternatives to reach their long-term potential.

Today’s pervasive claims of imminent climate catastrophe and renewable energy dominance are based on what Epstein calls the “anti-impact framework””–a set of faulty methods, false assumptions, and anti-human values that have caused the media’s designated experts to make wildly wrong predictions about fossil fuels. Deeply researched and wide-ranging, this book will cause you to rethink everything you thought you knew about the future of our energy use, our environment and our climate.

ALEX EPSTEIN is an energy expert and founder of the Centre for Industrial Progress, which offers a positive, pro-human alternative to the Green Movement. His New York Times best selling book, The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels, has been widely praised as the most persuasive argument ever made for our continuing use of fossil fuels, winning Epstein the “ Most Original Thinker of 2014″ award from The McLaughlin Group.

“At this strange time in history, with a mass movement demanding an end to the 80 percent of our energy provided by fossil fuels , Alex Epstein has the nerve to walk in the streets of New York City wearing a T-shirt that blares “I Love Fossil Fuels” This book confirms the genius of his stance.

Net zero is suicide” –Patrick Moore, cofounder of Greenpeace and author of Fake Invisible Catastrophes and Threats of Doom.

“In this book Alex Epstein champions a humanity-centric alternative to the anti-fossil fuel climate hysteria that is disturbingly pervasive among today’s elites. Policymakers across the political spectrum should heed Epstein’s arguments and abandon the disastrous path we are on before it is too late.”-Chip Roy, U.S. Congressman(TX-21)

Check it out for your selves…(:

sincerely, Linda Armstrong

I really appreciate the Islands Grapevine and look forward to its arrival in my mailbox on Hornby Island (: