I Am a Free Speech Zone Dance. Friday, November 27 at Cambrian Hall, 215 E 17th Ave (at Main) Doors 8:00 PM, $10. With Pawnshop Diamond, The SSRI’s and DJ Citizen.
This benefit supports groups fighting the free speech issues surrounding the Olympics in Vancouver next year - such as:

“The city also won provincial approval giving enforcement officials the right to enter private homes and businesses on 24- hours’ notice and remove any offending signs at the owner’s expense…..Signs that mock or disparage Olympic sponsors would also violate the bylaw… the city may ask the court to impose a fine of as much as C$10,000 and six months in jail upon conviction.”

Read the full article, then come out and fight for your right to party on November 27!

Join up at the Facebook event page right here.

Hey, isn’t this great news:

Oil spills in Arctic ice may be easier to clean than those in open water, according to research funded by oil companies that are seeking offshore exploration in federal waters….

…The researchers said they conducted the test by discharging thousands of gallons of crude oil in broken and slushy ice off the northern coast of Norway - such experiments have never been approved in U.S. waters.

Wait a minute… isn’t polar ice melting much faster than we initially thought? And the biggest emissions producers in the world are still dragging their heels about changing their ways?

So at the rate the ice is melting, this study really won’t make that much of a difference in the long run, will it? Thanks, Norway!

Yes, we’re still going to need oil and gas for a while - it is the dominant form of energy right now, and the alternatives either aren’t well supported or, like ethanol, cause a whole new set of environmental issues.

But we can still take steps to make our energy use more efficient - like using public transportation, rather than showing off doing burnouts in a gas-guzzling Hummer. And we can be careful with the limited resources we’ve got - like researching more fuel-efficient vehicles, rather than dumping thousands of gallons of oil into the Arctic just to prove something pointless.

If we can drain away the planet’s supply of oil and gas a little more slowly, maybe it’ll buy us a little more time to come up with an actual sustainable solution that won’t destroy us.

ARCTIC is back in town, and can be found next at the University of British Columbia’s Student Union Building, at the SUB Gallery Lounge on the main floor, along with special guests. Doors at 8:30, cover is $PWYC ($5-10 suggested).

Don’t forget to check out our video from our fall tour and see what kind of adventures & misadventures took place…