Rally for shale gas, rally for woodlot, and other events

Thank you for all those that joined us during Boost Your Eco! Despite some technical difficulties in the beginning, it was a good few days. There are some important events coming up, and some events are postponed.



1. April 4 Shale Gas Exploration ban rally

2. April 4 Food justice speaking series

3. April 7 ****Rally for the woodlot****

4. April 9 Free school postponed

5. April 9 Drink Local pub crawl postponed

6. April 9 Wood lot tour

7. April 13 workshop

8. April 30th CCNB Spring into Action Auction.

Can you light your tap water on fire?

After watching Burning Water and Gasland, two great documentaries about communities feeling the impacts of hydrofracturing (aka fracking), it is shocking to hear that a community in southern New Brunswick is experiencing the same thing. The Concerned Citizens of Penobsquis have been fighting for over 10 years for their drinking water.

Please take some time to go to Penobsquis.ca and learn more about their plight.

For more information about fracking, the Conservation Council of NB has prepared this primer on this issue. We hope that NB citizens will listen to their story and find some way to help the community while preventing it from happening across NB. The first step is to educate your friends and yourselves about the issue.

If you want to get involved check out the facebook group New Brunswickers Concerned About Shale Gas.

You can also keep up with the news through the NB Media Co-op.

Boost Your Eco

This is the 5th annual Boost Your Eco! festival. Through BYE, Students for Sustainability hope to bring light to specific issues concerning people in our community, province and globally. This year our theme for the festival in "Fire," and with such will be looking at how this element has become a visual for the environmental destruction of planet and people are currently facing. We hope to see lots of students, faculty and community members coming out to learn about such pressing issues. Please come and show your support.

Schedule:
All week: JDH visual display with interesting facts

Thursday the 24th
2pm JDH cafeteria apple crisp, snacks, and "Home".
"Home" is a 2009 documentary by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. The film is almost entirely composed of aerial shots of various places on Earth. It shows the diversity of life on Earth and how humanity is threatening the ecological balance of the planet.

Friday the 25th
2:30PM BMH 101 "Burning Water", popcorn and short discussion
"Burning Water "is a documentary by Cameron Esler and Tadzio Richards. It looks at hydrofraking in the area of of Rosebud, Calgary. In the Rosebud River valley, an hour east of Calgary, the water in many homes can be lit on fire. Everyone agrees there's gas in the water. Few agree on why. As gas wells sprout up across North America, and all around Rosebud, the Lauridsen family struggles to stay together and remain part of their community, at the same time confronting the dark truth of what may be happening beneath the surface.

3:30PM BMH 101 "Sweet Crude", popcorn and short discussion
"Sweet Crude" is a 2009 documentary written by the Seattle International Film Festival. Despite the valuable crude oil that flows from the ground beneath their feet, the impoverished villagers in the Niger Delta wage a daily struggle to survive. This Seattle-made documentary journeys to the region to examine the complex powder keg situation that could have drastic local and global effects.


5PM Critical Mass Bike Ride (time changed due to potential inclement weather).

6PM potluck @ Conserver House, 180 St. John St! Everyone is encouraged to bring something, but we will provide chili or soup so don't worry if you can't bring anything.

7PM Cinema Politica Presents "Gasland" at Conserver House
Discussion with Stephanie Merrill afterwards.
"Gasland" is a 2010 documentary by Josh Fox. The largest domestic natural gas drilling boom in history has swept across the United States. The Halliburton-developed drilling technology of "fracking" or hydraulic fracturing has unlocked a "Saudia Arabia of natural gas" just beneath us. But is fracking safe? When Josh Fox is asked to lease his land for drilling, he embarks on a cross-country odyssey uncovering a trail of secrets, lies and contamination. A recently drilled nearby Pennsylvania town reports that residents are able to light their drinking water on fire. This is just one of the many absurd and astonishing revelations of a new country called GASLAND. Part verite travelogue, part expose, part mystery, part bluegrass banjo meltdown, part showdown.

Saturday the 26th
7:30-9:30 Earth Hour at Boyce Farmer's Market
Free admission, "You will enjoy the unplugged sounds of the Downtown Blues Band and Katie MacDonald, and be entertained by the Calithumpians and Perley the Magician."

TD Go green video contest

We've entered into the TD Go Green Challenge and voting is happening for the People's Choice Award until March 11th online. We could win 2,500$ for sustainability initiatives! Please vote for our video here. Make sure you confirm your vote.


Hard to believe that the 5th Annual Boost Your Eco is coming up. This year's theme will be Fire, following from previous years where we had themes like Water and Earth. Facebook event page is here. It will be happening March 24th and 25th. We're looking to partner with artists and maybe do a cool project!

Upcoming still is our pub crawl which we hope will happen on April 9th after NBEN's Free School.

We've also gotten heritage seeds donated and greatly discounted by Hope Seeds so we can start growing a summer garden. Interested in getting some seedlings or helping out? E-mail us please!

We've now moved over to a facebook Page instead of Group here.

Lots to plan this semester...

Lots of exciting things we want to work on this semester. If you see something you like, come help us out! If you think we're missing something, well why not put it into action!?

Minutes of most recent meeting:
Pubcrawl maybe on the 1st or 7th or 8th of April

Selling mugs somewhere other than JDH this semester.

We found out that the fancy new recycling bins weren't bought by STU but by the Congress 2011 to make it a green conference. Hopefully stu keeps them....

Food purchasing coop:
E-mail stubulkfood@gmail.com to get order forms and we'll get people to order local bulk foods to make it cheap! Tabling Wednesday and Thursday JDH 10-1ish.

Boost your eco:
This year's theme can be fire since last year was earth and before we had water. 
Movie suggestions: Home, The Age of Stupid, Kayanisqaats, Gasland, Shell in Nigeria movie (title?)
Key words - BURN (out), fire, fuel
Have it on a wednesday or thursday? guerilla boost your eco? 
will ask res life about Aramark hosting a 100mile dinner around this time and request that we have cheaper menu options breakfast/brunch/or dinner?
want to show films during class time/afternoon and ask that classes come
will ask roombookings about when BMH 101 is available, tentative dates March 23,24, 30-31
trash bash could be during boost your eco?
have it coincide with lights out coffee house with res life