Monday, October 23, 7 to 9 pm @ Edward Milne Community School, 6218 Sooke Rd

Dr. Trevor Hancock is a professor and senior scholar at the University of Victoria‘s School of Public Health and Social Policy as well as a regular columnist with the Victoria Times Colonist.  He’ll be our guest speaker in the EMCS library on Oct. 23 at 7 pm. Admission is free or by small donation. 

Recognizing that we are entering the Anthropocene, a new, human-induced geological epoch, Dr. Hancock launched the Conversations for a One Planet Region initiative a year ago. The Conversations explore how we on the south Island might find a way to reduce our ecological footprint to the equivalent of one planet – a reduction of about 80 percent – while continuing to enjoy a long life of good quality with a low level of inequality.

“This will mean, among other things, re-designing our energy, transportation, urban development and food systems, indeed our whole economy and way of life, taking into account the intergenerational wellbeing of our children,” explains Dr. Hancock.

Part of this involves changing the way we chart progress, using alternative scales such as the Happy Planet Index, created in 2006 by the UK’s New Economics Foundation to measure the factors that lead to genuine (as opposed to strictly material) happiness.

A series of One Planet Region Conversations have been held over the last year and momentum is growing through collaborative work with such local organizations as Creatively United, Cities for Everyone, Greater Victoria Acting Together, the Better Transit Alliance – Greater Victoria, BC Sustainable Energy Association: Victoria Chapter and the Social Environmental Alliance – SEA.

Now Transition Sooke is getting involved by bringing Dr. Hancock’s One Planet Region vision to a Sooke audience for the first time. He’ll be introduced by Royal Roads University faculty member Paivi Abernethy, one of our board members at Transition Sooke and a member of the One Planet Region team.

One Planet Region website: https://onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca/oneplanetconversations/home/about.

Dr. Hancock’s introduction to Times Colonist readers: http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/columnists/trevor-hancock-imagining-victoria-as-a-one-planet-region-1.2319533