The Futurology Exchange by Okanagan Life Magazine

Big Ideas We Need Now — #7

Inspired by This Magazine's feature "40 ideas We Need Now," we invited some of Okanagan Life's regular contributors, along with other notable Valley residents to give us a big idea whose time has come, for the Okanagan and for the world. Sadly, more than 90 per cent of those we invited said they were simply too busy. Perhaps, then, the first big idea is that we should all slow down so that we actually have the time to contemplate how to collectively make a better future. Still, we managed to receive a diverse array of ideas that are sure to make you think, make you laugh, make you angry or even make you want to put in your own two cents. Well, here's your chance. Comment on these ideas, or add your own by emailing us. In the meantime…

Green Roofs — Is Farming’s Future Over Our Heads?
by David Madison

I look down from my small airplane on a tidal flood of new subdivisions washing up our hillsides. I see miles of fresh pavement covering the earth to prevent us from getting dust on the shiny chrome of massive off-road SUVs that ply their way from these new homes to supermarkets, soccer fields and schools so that our obese offspring can be fed, exercised and educated in controlled, supervised and sanitized ways.

My view from above is mostly grey; the grey of shingle or tar rooftops, cement driveways, multi-lane highways and huge parking lots. In the summer this great heat-collecting mass sends violent thermals into the afternoon sky and creates its own microclimate. If I were blindfolded I could tell when I’m flying over the city because of the sudden roughness of the air. In winter the reverse is true and the inversion holds the millions of molecules from our burned hydrocarbons close to the surface cloaking the entire valley in a choking, monochromatic depressing grey. It’s the Okanagan’s own version of a fart in a phone booth.

Big Ideas We Need Now — #10 & 11

Inspired by This Magazine's feature "40 ideas We Need Now," we invited some of Okanagan Life's regular contributors, along with other notable Valley residents to give us a big idea whose time has come, for the Okanagan and for the world. Sadly, more than 90 per cent of those we invited said they were simply too busy. Perhaps, then, the first big idea is that we should all slow down so that we actually have the time to contemplate how to collectively make a better future. Still, we managed to receive a diverse array of ideas that are sure to make you think, make you laugh, make you angry or even make you want to put in your own two cents. Well, here's your chance. Comment on these ideas, or add your own by emailing us. In the meantime…

Do It Yourself
by Jennifer Cockrall-King & Florian Maurer

Big ideas for the Okanagan? This conjures up the image of Gary Larson’s cartoon of a sheep in the middle of a herd shouting: “I want to be me!” When it comes to needing BIG ideas, we’re in it together with the rest of the world. Let’s cut out the “I am special” silliness.

Some BIG ideas have been around forever. It is more a case of picking them up again when needed, and that’s what our submission is about: DIY. Do it yourself! It’s what an architect and a food writer can agree on. It offers ways to confront grim problems: shortage of food and shelter, abundance of unrealistic expectations. Here is our take on it.

The Future of the Okanagan: A Round Table Discussion Worth Responding To

Compelling conversations don't get much better than this one (available as a text transcript or audio recording), held at the Rotary Centre for the Arts this past November. Okanagan Life Magazine invited some of the Okanagan's best minds and important players to sit down and talk about the Valley's future, as well as options for its sustainability. What we heard at this discussion left us determined to learn more about the issues and with a new mandate to help get the Okanagan's residents involved and participating in a broad exchange of ideas.

Listening to this discussion, it becomes very clear that our shared future is being shaped right now, and if we all go along with the status quo, we may be in for a great deal of unpleasant consequences. Now is not the time to be apathetic.

Hear what a development manager, a wine industry consultant, an organic farmer, an aquatic biologist, a technology expert, a registered architect, a business consultant to First Nations, and three UBC-O professors (from the schools of economics, engineering and sociology) have to say on issues such as the impacts of global factors on the Okanagan, growth and development questions, and the impacts that absentee homeowners have on our communities.

This blog has been set up to share news, views, reviews and interviews on the subject of the Okanagan's future and it's sustainability. I encourage everyone to make comments on anything we post here, beginning with your thoughts and reactions to this round table discussion. Don't leave the important ideas and debates to back room meetings. Get involved and voice your opinions so that our leaders cannot ignore you.

Fresh Outlook Foundation CEO, Joanne de Vries: Sustainability in the Okanagan

When we were doing background research to prepare for the round table discussion that would become the backbone of our Okanagan Life magazine feature story, A Jolt From the Blue ... The Future of Our Valley (January/February 2008), we came across word of a conference that was to be held in Kelowna (November 2007) - the Building Sustainable Communities Conference. We immediately signed up and were bowled over by the quality of the presentations we attended.

This was the second annual conference, hosted by an Okanagan NGO called the Fresh Outlook Foundation, a social marketing organization dedicated to the "development and delivery of programs that enable and encourage sustainable behaviors in people’s home, workplaces, and recreational activities throughout British Columbia."

Fresh Outlook was founded by Joanne de Vries, who describes herself as a communications consultant who has worked 15 years "helping local governments in BC educate and consult with their publics, primarily about sustainability issues such as water use efficiency, solid waste management, energy efficiency, transportation demand management also some strategic and official community planning."

In an interview about the conference, we asked her some of the questions that we planned to pose at our round table discussion. Here's what Joanne had to say.

Stuff: 101

Here's a fast, entertaining primer on the lifecycle and impacts of the products we all consume. The Story of Stuff is a website with a 20-minute enhanced video that breaks down the complexities of our modern system of production and consumption into a message that is very easy to understand. It's focus in on the United States, but it applies equally to Canada. Look around at all the stuff you have after you watch this and it will become apparent very quickly just how much one person's impact can be.