John Frederick George McCone's Friends

John Frederick George McCone's Groups

Please tell us which areas of Transition interest you. For example: growing more food/urban agriculture, relocalizing our economy/local currency, Permaculture, transit, energy efficient buildings, the arts, urban homesteading, preserving seed diversity, placemaking, potlucks, outreach, organizing events, community-building, having fun while saving the world, or...: Permaculture, Food storage, Emergency Preparedness, Energy efficient buildings, reducing packaging materials, Community Gardening, Guerilla Gardeners, community sovereignty

There's a saying that "Transition is not a spectator sport". It's true! Village Vancouver runs on people power, and engaging in activities and projects together helps us accomplish more. Which groups, networks, neighbourhood villages, or projects do you think you might be interested in getting involved with? And what knowledge, skills, resources or other assets can you bring to the mix? (Don't be bashful!): I'm interested in learning about permaculture. But my work is pretty intense and I don't think I have time to manage a garden on my own. Is there any community gardening efforts that I could contribute to where several people are tending the same patch of land? So that if I wasn't available when the patch needed weeding a fellow gardener could take care of it and if they weren't available another weekend I could fill in for them?

I've also got a degree in physics and a Phd. in plasma physics and am currently working in nuclear fusion. I've looked into just about every kind of energy source there is aswell as a wide variety of different energy efficiency, energy storage technologies aswell as non-oil based trasportation. So if anyone wants to know about some energy related question I might be able to help.

What would you like to see improved in Vancouver or in your community regarding sustainability or resiliency? Do you have an idea for a new Transition project or activity?: I'd like it if the Canadian federal government got rid of their ridiculous legislation that bans anyone with less than 1 million dollars in assests from lending money to other people. This is a major an unnecessary roadblock to P2P lending in Canada

http://www.communitylend.com/
http://www.communitylend.com/public/public_loans
http://www.communitylend.com/public/accredited_investor_criteria

Which will artificially and needlessly mean that we continue to depend on the banks for loans and to gain interest on deposits.

Also noticed that in Canada commercial districts are far larger than in Europe, the downside of this is that you have seas of residential zones that are 2 km or more from the nearest shop (its not a problem for me though as I made sure to find a place right next to a commercial zone and my workplace)

I also think there should be a mileage component to car insurance premiums. I've certainly fely that once I own a car, I may aswell drive it. People who drive less miles should pay less car insurance.

I agree to read and abide by the Site Guidelines under the About tab on the navigation bar, remaining respectful in all communications on this web site.: Yes

Don't feel like answering all the questions now? No worries, just tell us briefly why you're interested in joining at this time, and you can come back and update your profile later.: Because I'm worried about inflation peak oil and the like and would like to learn a bit about growing my own food. At the moment I don't have time to be self sufficient what with work and all, but I would like to develop the basic skills and knowledge so if the worst came to the worst I could provide for myself.

Also sick of eating things out of plastic packaging and wondering if I can do away with it or at least set things in motion to allow it to end.

Also regarding the phrase Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. I think we recycle a fair ammount but often forget the reducing and reusing comes first. Its more energy efficient to simply refill a glass container, that to drink it once, put it in a recyling bin, send it to China melt it down, use the molten glass to make another glass bottle and ship it back over here.

I've also been interested in energy efficiency and peak oil.

At 10:01pm on January 12, 2012, Jordan B said…: Hi John,

I see that you're interested in being part of a collaborative garden, so I just wanted to let you know that I am spearheading a Village Vancouver initiative to get a new community garden started in Woodland Park (near Commercial Drive), and one of our plans is to include several collaborative garden spaces in the garden as well. I see that you live in Coquitlam, but would being part of a collaborative garden in Vancouver interest you?

Cheers,

Jordan

P.S. I'm also quite interested in what you have to say about our laws making it illegal to lend money to other people unless you are firmly part of the 1%. I am working on a local currency project geared towards fostering the local food industry, and part of which would include a crowdfunded microlending facility, so I was very interested to read the information about "accredited investors"! It's crazy how blatantly protective of the banks' entrenched positions of power these laws are!