Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – Blog action Day
A Fantastic Idea – A Great Way to Create Communities and Action
Every October 15 Blog action Day takes a theme, passes that onto bloggers from around the world, and collates the posts. The goal is one day – one message. This year is Climate Change…
First and last, the purpose of Blog Action Day is to create a discussion. We ask bloggers to take a single day out of their schedule and focus it on an important issue.
By doing so on the same day, the blogging community effectively changes the conversation on the web and focuses audiences around the globe on that issue.
Out of this discussion naturally flow ideas, advice, plans, and action. In 2007 on the theme of the Environment, we saw bloggers running environmental experiments, detailing innovative ideas on creating sustainable practices, and focusing their audience’s attention on organizations and companies promoting green agendas. In 2008 we covered the theme of Poverty, and similarly focused the blogging community’s energies around discussing the wide breadth of the issue from many perspectives and identifying innovative and unexpected solutions. This year we aim to do the same for Climate Change, an issue that threatens us all.
Post something on your blog (or get a blog if you don’t have one), and write about something that is relevant to climate change.
So here is my thought about one of the many themes surrounding climate change – and has relevance in a shrinking economy. The ideal of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, This can be as simple as personally sorting paper, cans, glass and plastics into a recycling box, to municipalities making certain that principle is forefront when dealing with larger infrastructure projects.
Johnson Street Bridge Victoria BC
We all recognize that buildings, roads, and bridges need constant maintenance, sometimes replacement, but too often the planning is all about new build, with not enough thought going into restoration. In Victoria some of us are questioning City Council over the plans to replace the 80+ year old Johnson Street Bridge, with Reuse and Recycle themes paramount.
Reuse – instead of primarily seeking answers to restoring the ‘Blue Bridge’, Victoria City Council went for the shiny new replacement option: even in that they did not consider utilizing recycled material as the main part of a new structure, simply to include some elements of the old bridge for ‘historical relevance. The entire plan is about economic stability and sustainability in the short term, very little is seriously being considered regarding the long term.
Recycle – in the event the Johnson Street Bridge receives the local (Provincial and Federal?) support for replacement, where are the detailed plans and environmental impact studies for the dismantling of the current bridge? There have been discussions of using all, or part, of the bridge in a new location – which begs the question, if it can be reused, why not as it is, in place?
Reduce – a new bridge will cost an estimated $63 million, with refurbishment estimated at $25 million. The message propagated by city council is enhanced and safer crossing for all traffic – vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists. In fact the current bridge could offer the same with refurbishment, using little imagination and less direct cost. The argument against refurbishment is possible lengthy closures, impacting traffic and businesses.
Victoria’s Johnson Street Bridge is an example of local politicians paying lip service to the basic concepts of climate change policy and themes, and re-directing the ideal of sustainability from environmental to primarily economic.
Maybe we should organize a local Victoria BC blog action day on the Johnson Street Bridge!