The environmental film series at the annual Vancouver International Film Festival appears to have blossomed this year with over a dozen films dealing with issues ranging from food waste and sustainable seafood to climate change and the tar sands.

Some of them are surprising for their genre: Burning Ice brings artists, musicians and poets to the Arctic, and People of a Feather takes us intimately into the lives of Inuit whose very existence depends on the down of eider ducks.

Premiering on Tuesday is a film about Canada's energy use by local filmmaker Charles Wilkinson and produced by his partner, artist Tina Schliessler. I'm particularly excited to see this one as I've known the family since my childhood. Peace Out features interviews with both opponents and proponents of our current destructive energy systems, and aerial footage of the tar sands in Alberta, a project so massive it can be seen from space. Seen from a plane, it's utterly heartbreaking. Ultimately, we all need to use less energy.

You might expect a film about a Vancouver couple who spend a year almost zero-waste and without buying any stuff to be a tale of unimaginable hardship and sacrifice. Indeed, the prospects of using the same toothbrush for 365 days, not replacing worn-out clothing, or making crackers from scratch are daunting but The Clean Bin Project's Jen and Grant take a delighted, energetic approach akin to Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon's The 100-Mile Diet, but on the screen. The project was for them a competition for who could produce the least amount of garbage by year's end (I won't tell you who won), and involved learning about plastics, asking for their cheese unwrapped in their reusable container, and making the most of an old razor. Their enthusiasm was infectious. The 76-minute film is merely a glimpse at an entire year, but if it suggests anything about the 525,600 minutes they spent saving the planet, I think they enjoyed most of them.

Their artistically delicious film intersperses their own narrative of discovery — and occasional humourous disappointment — with the broader view of our consumption-based lifestyle and its consequences: successful community recycling initiatives; the Pacific Garbage Patch (which is twice the size of Texas); albatross death by plastic; landfills; and incomprehensibly large volumes of disposable stuff as depicted by Seattle artist Chris Jordan.

Friday, April 22nd isn't just Good Friday. It's also Earth Day, and in celebration, Vancouver's youth have organized a parade and festival! I'll be there with my bicycle and as many dorky treehugging pins as I can dig up. (Find me if you'd like a Vote Environment button with Suzuki's retro face on it!)

Coincidentally, this is the 41st Earth Day and, on May 2nd, Canada has its 41st federal election. Before you head to the polls as early as this weekend — because you ARE voting (or if you're a minor, telling your parents to vote), right? — think about how important it is to you to have clean air, clean water and healthy food to eat. Think about what kind of world today's youth will be facing in the future if climate change isn't mitigated today, if oil spills continue, and if our precious salmon fail to thrive. If you're a youth yourself, what do you want the world to look like? We can take many actions ourselves, but Canadians understand the government wields the biggest power to make sweeping changes in the areas where consumers have little influence. And the Canadian government needs to know that we care about our environment.

The garden is greener on the other side of the road. (Photo by urbanwild via Flickr)

I thought I'd alert you dreamers, makers and thinkers to some upcoming events in Vancouver.

This should be an interesting month, with David Owen speaking Thursday on why Manhattan is the greenest city, and if Portland isn't, Mark Lakeman is sure to prove they're ready to take the lead.

"Eco-Dreaming Vancouver!" with Mark Lakeman, City Repair Co-Founder, Portland

Friday, March 25, 7:30pm – 9:30pm
Join us for Mark's "The Village Lives" presentation on how Portland is rapidly becoming the USA's leading green city!

Saturday, March 26, 10am – 5pm
Join us for a day of Collaborative and City Repair Games facilitated by Mark Lakeman, Power of Hope and Village Vancouver. We will spend the day building community, having fun, and learning how to work as "villages" to ecologically re-design and retrofit our neighbourhoods. Registration 9:30 am. Please RSVP for Saturday workshops to: sara[at]powerofhope.org

Location: W2 Storyeum, 151 West Cordova
Cash bar and lunch service available by W2 Catering.
More information and register by donation at ecodreamingvancouver.eventbrite.com

Thanks to Sara Dent.

The 10th annual World Community Film Festival presents "social justice and environmental films set around the world and across the street." Opening tonight, it runs through Sunday afternoon at Langara College.

I'm particularly interested in films like Dirt! and Fresh, both to do with sustainable agriculture. There are films on water, pollution and biodiversity as well. Also, if you missed it in theatres, Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie plays Sunday at 3:30pm.

Come check out this variety of films that address social justice and environmental issues — two things that are inextricably linked!

This daily green blog challenge is in celebration of David Suzuki's 75th birthday, supporting the David Suzuki Foundation. Please help me out by sponsoring me online now.
Note: I am writing solely on my own behalf, and do not claim to represent the David Suzuki Foundation or its views here.

I'm passing on this message from the Climate Action Network:

World leaders are meeting in Copenhagen at the UN Climate Summit over the next two weeks to negotiate a new global climate agreement.

Between December 11th and 14th, Canadians will be organizing and attending events across the country to send a clear message: The world wants a real deal. That means a climate agreement that is fair, ambitious and binding. Rallies in support of a real deal are being held in major cities in Canada and around the world on December 12th as part of the Global Day of Action.

Vancouver's participating

11am - 9pm, December 12, 2009
Vancouver Public Library, Central Branch Promenade. 350 West Georgia St, Vancouver

Join people at the VPL for a full day of climate action:

11am - Open Discussion (filmed)
12pm - Opening Ceremonies / Music
1-3pm - Speakers, Kids Programming, Theatre
3pm - Flashlight, Bikelight, Cellphone Vigil
5pm - Candlelight Vigil @ the Art Gallery
5:30pm - Candle vigil procession back to library for singing and to warm up.

Facebook event page

Visit TckTckTck.org to find out what else is going on around the world. It's also not too late to send an email to the Prime Minister to tell him you want action on climate change. Over 11,000 people already have.

Don't live in Vancouver? Find an event in your community! Don't live in Canada? Avaaz has you covered.

Update! Thanks to everyone who came out.

I hope my lack of writing lately is a sign of a good social life rather than exhaustion. Here is finally my experience at the recent slow food cycle.

The gems are often tucked away at the end of a road. Like last year's treasures in Pemberton, the most wonderful spots in Agassiz's slow food cycle route lay a ways down a road or off a nondescript path you only just had to trust would lead somewhere.

At one end of the self-guided, circuitous route through Agassiz's sprawling farmland and country houses was a paradise I could not have expected. The Back Porch seemed to suggest with its name a rustic and romantic place. Greeted by dozens of bikes, we found ourselves on a farm that could have been transplanted from the artsy, organic culture of BC's Gulf Islands. A pottery studio and coffee grinding shop occupied the first outbuilding, a unique combination that was at once odd and harmonious. Antique coffee grinders (ca. 1919) sat among vintage graphic design pieces which tickled my design nerd fancy!