Community Category

In 2011, writer and director Josh Fox and activist actor Mark Ruffalo were on a mission to stop fracking in New York State. Ruffalo had read that in 2009, Stanford professor Mark Z. Jacobsen had proposed the feasibility of a nationwide transition to one hundred per cent renewable energy. Financier Marco Krapels brokered a meeting between them and The Solutions Project began. They use scientific research, financial proposals and celebrity power to get the word out that all fifty US states can be one hundred per cent renewable-powered. Parvati MagazineRead More

A research grant for whale-spotting on a Hawaiian island launched positive change for cetaceans around the world. In 1980 Greg Kaufman started Pacific Whale Foundation on the island of Maui in Hawai’i. Its first Research Director was Kaufman’s fellow whale-spotter Dr. Paul Forestell, who is now chair of PWF’s Board of Directors. Parvati Magazine caught up with Forestell to learn more. PMAG: How did the love for whales begin? PF: I must admit that my original reason for going to Hawaii was to get out of the New Brunswick winters!Read More

Crisis calls us to step out of our status quo mindset and meet the needs of the moment with compassion, courage and forward thinking. The communities devastated by September 2017’s monster hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria are among the latest examples of this call. One of the most significant responses comes in the form of Tesla’s solar energy. Hurricane Irma edged past the tiny American island territory of Puerto Rico, leaving a million people without power, but leaving the island functional enough to serve as a base for relief effortsRead More

With 7,100 action projects across Canada to date, Evergreen has been connecting people to nature and making cities flourish since 1991. Their overarching mission is to support green cities, with the goal of revitalizing urban landscapes into sustainable cities with low to zero carbon footprints. Evergreen’s crown jewel project is the Brickworks, an area along the Don River that the city of Toronto once considered wasteland. Forty acres of contaminated, former brick factory land have been transformed into an urban park that draws people from Toronto and the surrounding areasRead More

Former US Vice President Al Gore was in Toronto recently to host a pre-screening of his new movie An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power. Along with many other Climate Reality Leaders previously trained by Mr. Gore, I was in attendance for this special screening. An Inconvenient Sequel is a follow-up, a decade later, to An Inconvenient Truth, the groundbreaking and award-winning 2006 film with Mr. Gore that made climate change a household word. The sequel shows how his life, and the world, have changed in the past decade. It showsRead More

This month, our Community editor Uttama Anderson asked Hands Across the Sand founder Dave Rauschkolb, and his sister, volunteer CEO Dede Shelton, to talk about a simple act of protest that has captured the world’s heart. Hands Across the Sand started in 2010 with 10,000 Floridians protesting against offshore oil drilling. In response to the tragic oil blowout in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, a new wave of protest grew. It became the largest gathering of people in the world united against expanding offshore oil drilling, and championing cleanRead More

In 1997, twenty-three-year-old Julia Butterfly Hill climbed into a 1,500 year old redwood tree to protest the clear-cut foresting that eventually left a mere three percent of the original redwoods standing in California. When she climbed down again in 1999, the world knew her name. Julia, who chose the name Butterfly as a little girl after a butterfly landed on her hand and stayed for seven hours, had her outlook changed forever by a nearly fatal car crash in her early twenties. Her head injury required a year of difficultRead More

Have you ever felt overwhelmed or frustrated about something happening in your community? What would inspire you to take action? In 1987, three surfers from Malibu, California found their moment of inspiration when increasing private development and pollution on their favourite beach threatened their surf scene. Glenn Hening, Lance Carson and Tom Pratte organized a successful grassroots protest and unknowingly created a movement. Thirty years later, beach lovers band together as part of worldwide Surfrider Foundation initiatives. Dr. Chad Nelsen worked for 16 years as Surfrider’s Environmental Director while earningRead More

Tom Szaky is a man with a mission to eliminate waste. Parvati Magazine caught up with him this month to inquire about some of the innovative ways he collects and repurposes hard-to-recycle waste through his global company TerraCycle. Parvati Magazine: Individuals, schools and offices in 20 countries send TerraCycle their hard-to-recycle waste, and you have it made into cool stuff! At this time, which of your products are you excited about? Tom Szaky: I am excited about an announcement we recently made with Procter & Gamble to manufacture the world’sRead More

Captain Paul Watson is the founder of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which protects whales, seals and dolphins around the world. Parvati Magazine connected with him to ask about his work. Parvati Magazine: You have devoted your life to protecting and serving marine mammals. Was there a moment in your life that you knew this was what you had to do? Captain Paul Watson: I started rescuing beavers from leg hold traps when I was eleven years old and I am pretty much doing the same thing sixty years later. MyRead More