The Gabriola Climate 12-12-12 project is a Sustainable Gabriola initiative, and ran Sept-2022 to Aug-2023. Over the 12 months, we presented 12 wicked problems related to climate change, and brought the community together to seek 12 (and more) local solutions drawn from Gabriolans’ collective wisdom and experience.
Summaries of each month follow. For more info about the 12-12-12 project, there’s a fuller description at the bottom of this page.
September 2022: Local Terrestrial Ecosystems
A focus on Gabriola’s land-based ecosystems, and how they are being affected by climate change.
Click to view page: Brainstormed ideas from Sept. Climate Cafe
or download (PDF): Brainstorming from Sept. Climate Cafe
Factsheet: Climate Change & Local Terrestrial Ecosystems
October: Climate change & Food security
October’s event focussed on Gabriola’s food systems — transportation in the food supply, local agriculture, home growing, and how the island’s food security is being affected by climate change.
Click to download (PDF): Summary of ideas from Food Security events
Factsheet: Climate Change & Food Security
November: Climate change & energy
The global, national and local context for energy use and the relationship between energy and climate change.
Click to download (PDF): Brainstormed ideas from Energy Climate Cafe
Factsheet: Climate Change & Local Energy Use
December 2022: rethinking waste
A focus on consumption, Gabriola’s waste and the relationship between consumption, waste and climate change.
Click to download (PDF): Brainstormed Ideas from Waste Climate Cafe
Factsheet: Climate Change: Reducing Consumption & Rethinking Waste
January 2023: Indigenous Ways of Knowing
In January we focused on Indigenous ways of knowing, how this can provide insight into interconnectedness, and the importance of stories in understanding climate change. Geraldine Manson, David Bodaly and Ardyth Cooper shared stories related to climate change and invited conversations with those present.
Highlights of January event (PDF)
Backgrounder: Climate Change & Indigenous Ways of Knowing
February: Health & Well-Being
In February we focused on the intersections between health, well-being and Climate Change. Both physical and psychological impacts of climate change will be discussed, together with how we can respond to the challenges locally.
Click here (PDF) for the presentation by Dr. Sandra Allison (Medical Health Officer for Central Vancouver Island) and Crystal Bowes.
Click here (PDF) for a summary of the cafe.
Factsheet: Climate Change, Health & Well-Being
March: Climate Change & Art
In March we asked the question, “How does art inform local responses to global crises? We heard from the six artists in the Gabriola Arts Council’s commissioned Covid vs Climate art show. Six artists and many participants discussed how art can inspire local responses to climate change.
Factsheet: Climate Change & Art
April 2023: rethinking Gabriola’s economy
In April, we challenged society’s stories about the economy, turning those story upside down and identifying ways economics could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions rather than the other way around. The gift economy, sharing economy, circular economy, cooperative economy and different ways of measuring success were all included in the discussion.
Factsheet: Climate Change & Local Economy
May: Climate change & Transportation
In May we discussed the changes we could all make to reduce our transportation related emissions and environmental impacts. We also held an EV Expo that featured electric bikes, cars and trucks, and lots of Q&A!
You can find a summary of the cafe discussion here.
Are you interested in exploring the potential of a transportation co-op (e-bike, electric car, or truck). If so, please fill out our short survey. Thanks!
Factsheet: Climate Change & Transportation
June: Climate Change & Shelter
In June we discussed what Gabriolans can do to reduce housing-related GHG emissions and environmental impacts. We also took a tour of small carbon footprint Gabriola homes.
Factsheet: Climate Change & Local Buildings
July 2023: Climate Change & Water
July’s event, held in an alarmingly long drought, attracted great interest in discussing the impacts of, and ways we can deal with, Gabriola’s perennial summer water shortage.
Factsheet: Climate Change & Water, also diagram of Rainwater harvesting system components
Rebate and resource links: RDN water stewardship rebates; BC government info on salt water intrusion; Islands Trust info on freshwater water sustainability; a BC government map to find your well site.
August: Climate Change & Action!
This event is the culmination of the Climate 12-12-12 project, and its 11 Climate Cafes over the past year. At each Cafe, participants offered their ideas on how climate change intersects with specific topics right here on Gabriola, and also through the general lenses of Indigenous Ways of Knowing, and Arts & Culture.
The August event presented summaries of all those Cafe ideas, topic by topic. It asked participants to prioritize the ideas and identify the low-hanging fruit. Then they were invited to form Action Teams, to start turning those ideas into actions to reduce Gabriolans’ climate impact and adapt to our changing climate.
September 2023: Climate-12 Action Teams
The August wrap event was also the launch of the Climate-12 Action phase of this project, which moves from talk and ideas to making things happen. That phase of the project has its own page at Climate-12 Action.
About Gabriola Climate 12-12-12
The Gabriola Climate 12-12-12 project is a Sustainable Gabriola initiative that begins in September 2022 and will run for 12 months.
Our focus is “local impacts, local solutions,” with the aim of countering the general hopelessness and helplessness many Gabriolans feel in the face of the global climate crisis.
Gabriola Climate 12-12-12 will, over 12 months, present 12 wicked problems related to climate change, and seek 12 (and more) local solutions drawn from Gabriolans’ collective wisdom and experience.
Our topics are drawn from the 2010 Gabriola Community Sustainability Plan (PDF, 38 pages), with themes such as ecosystems, food, waste, transportation, water, and community well-being, all to be examined through a climate lens. We will highlight the many local successes we’ve already had in meeting these impacts, and bring aware and concerned locals together at our events to create more Gabriola-made solutions.
We’ll have announcements in the Sounder, by email, and on social media each month announcing the coming topic, and inviting you to that month’s events for information on, and discussion of, local solutions for adaptation and mitigation.
We can’t solve a global climate crisis at the local Gabriola level, but there is much we can do, as individuals and as a community, to mitigate and adapt, to make our own lives more active and hopeful, and perhaps to set an example for the world!
—the Gabriola Climate Working Group (Fay Weller, Joan Johnson, Steve Earle, Greg Blee)