Written by guest blogger Denise Deby, who writes on local and global social and environmental issues, and is trying to figure out how to get to all of the great events listed below.
I don’t know how many showers April will bring our way, but this month Ottawa is certainly blooming with environment-focused events.
As well as those we’ve already posted about – the film Breathtaking on April 4, the Best of the Planet in Focus Film Festival April 5-8, and the Woodland Window Display April 1-22 – there are numerous other activities coming up:
- The Canadian Museum of Nature celebrates Earth Month with lectures, workshops, concerts and some great speakers on biodiversity throughout April. Do check their website at http://nature.ca/ for details.
- Writer, activist and academic Raj Patel will speak on Tuesday, April 5, 7-10 p.m. at the University of Ottawa (University Centre, Alumni Auditorium). The author of Stuffed and Starved and The Value of Nothing, Patel will discuss the world food situation in which the imbalance of world resources has created an epidemic of obesity in some parts of the world and starvation in others – and how we can create communities with true food sovereignty. Check http://www.casid-acedi.ca/index.php?q=node/266 for event details.
- A small organisation with a big heart, Helping with Furniture, is holding its fifth annual fund-raising dinner on Friday, April 8 at St. Elias Banquet Hall, 750 Ridgewood Avenue, starting at 6 p.m. We did a blog post here a while back about Helping with Furniture, which recycles furniture from people who have no more need of it to refugees in Ottawa who are without furniture.
- BearAmI Productions presents Eco-Jest-Us, “an eco-fun variety show,” on Saturday, April 9 at 2 and 7 p.m. The show will feature theatre, improv, poetry, visual arts and more “to celebrate the earth and protest environmental folly.”
- The Ottawa International Writers Festival takes place in April and May. Among their offerings (listed on their revamped website at http://www.writersfestival.org/events) is “Here on Earth: A Natural History of Our Planet” on April 14, in which Tim Flannery discusses humans’ place in nature.
- The National Capital Wildlife Festival continues through April, with nature walks and interpretive programs taking place around the city. The Festival’s Forum on Forests (also part of the Museum of Nature’s April schedule) takes place on Tuesday, April 12, 6-9:30 p.m. at the Museum. The Forum celebrates National Wildlife Week (April 10-16) and the International Year of Forests 2011, and includes speakers from the City of Ottawa, the Eastern Ontario Model Forest, the Ottawa Forests and Greenspace Advisory Committee, Tree Canada and the Nature Conservancy of Canada.
- If that’s not enough (phew!), Ecology Ottawa has its regular monthly events listings at http://www.ecologyottawa.ca/calendar/04.php.
Expect even more events as we get closer to Earth Day, April 22, and to the arrival of real spring.
Green Living Ottawa 