When communicating with the public, we have to choose our words carefully. Use the ‘Kryptonite Factor’ to identify words and phrases that might be misunderstood. Terms we use within the industry may not resonate with the average person or, may turn them off entirely from what we hope to accomplish.
More than 40 actions and targets in a new government-wide plan will help all sectors, communities and British Columbians keep our water healthy and secure, now and in the future,
Living Water Smart is a blueprint for cultural, environmental, industrial, community and agricultural change that will help safeguard the province’s water resources into the future. Drawing on a variety of policy measures, including planning, regulatory change, education, and incentives like economic instruments and rewards, the plan commits to new actions and builds on existing efforts to protect and keep B.C.’s water healthy and secure.
“Living Water Smart – British Columbia’s Water Plan” contains new elements of education, planning, policy, economic incentives and regulatory change aimed at protecting BC’s fresh water resources, particularly habitat and source water quality. Benefits are anticipated through action in many sectors, including business, cultural, education, industrial, environmental, communities and agriculture.
If you think peer pressure ends in high school, think again. The same peer pressure that forced some of us into clothing and hairstyles that haunt us decades later, when our children find our high school yearbooks, can be used to motivate people to conserve water. Studies conducted by Arizona State University conclude that “the ‘Everybody else is doing it’ message works better than trying to appeal to people’s sense of social responsibility, desire to save money or even their hope of safeguarding the earth for future generations.”
Seven major themes emerged from interviews with municipal parks' managers in British Columbia.While all the parks departments survey actively to improve watering efficiency, only a select few are investigating ways to significantly reduce demand for water or implementing land management practices to conserve water. Nevertheless. they are doing the best they can given limited budgets, staff and conflicting priorities.
Sometimes parks’ watering practices seem to fly in the face of common sense, and when the public perceives that a city department is not practicing what it preaches, they can get downright indignant. But, it turns out that most parks departments in BC are doing a pretty good job when it comes to water conservation. There are two situations, however, that generate lots of spirited telephone calls from residents accusing parks departments of ‘wasting’ water.
The Marley Affect is the degree to which an individual or society is nclined or disinclined to learn from past mistakes in order to change the course of the future. In Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, Scrooge saw shadows of what “might be” in his future, he was inspired to change. The point of the story is that there is always hope. Today the shadows of what “might be” make headlines almost daily. This means that society is no longer ignoring them and there really is reason to hope.
Faster than a speeding bullet, school children in the Okanagan are learning how to be good environmental citizens, thanks to the EECO Heroes. EECO stands for Environmental Educators of the Central Okanagan. In real life, the EECO Heroes are five ordinary City of Kelowna and Central Okanagan Regional District educators, who realized that combining their creative energy, ideas and budgets into one big, splashy elementary/middle school program could be more effective than offering five separate programs.
Why do some people spend thousands of hours and dollars to grow a plant that is not even native to North America? In American Green: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn, historian Ted Steinberg traces it to three factors: indoor plumbing, suburbia, and clever marketing on the part of the lawn care industry.
