CPAWS has invited people to leave comments about 100 years Parks Canada. There's one from Judy Gibson pointing out very well what we all should know by now and that is that the new government sucks. They only think about economical growth, specifically through the exploiting or contaminating Canada's natural resources. She writes: "...but I am extremely worried that a number of new MPs have no real understanding of the enormous responsibilities awaiting them. They will need to be trained to think as responsible adults who care about social and environmental concerns, .... Much focus has been on ‘the economy’ as though it were not itself driven by a balanced and responsible management of the environment, and social programs, and ethical business practices."
David Suzuki writes in his recent blog Science Matters that it's not our right to leave the world's devastated environment to our children and expect them to clean up. He also reports on a speech of his daughter that left world leaders speechless and on a boy who started at 13 his own organization to raise awareness of climate change. This boy wants children to ask their parents and leaders, "Do I matter to you?" ... For many adults, the honest answer would have to be, "No, we're more concerned about cheap gas, the economy, profits for the fossil fuel industry, and having more stuff."
Richard Louv in Last Child in the Woods certainly has similar phrases in his books. There is far too much focus on the economy and one's own wealth than on the environment. Obviously, that's got to do with our lost connection to the environment and the scarce knowledge that we have about it makes us not care.
Something in our economic model also seems to trigger a thinking that care for the environment and economic growth can't go hand in hand. I actually find it odd, but good, that our electricity provider, EPCOR, promotes ways on how to safe energy. Maybe they hope nobody listens. Any way, those two E's are not opposites like hate and love but it surely needs a will to make them run smoothly together.
That reminds me of a brochure my daughter picked up today. It advocates to stop animal cruelty by becoming vegan! But you don't have to be vegan to protect animals and assure them a happy life. If you are concerned about feed lots and inhumane slaughter methods, you could find out where your animal products come from and chose those that allow you to eat them with a clear conscience. Honestly, we would not keep cattle, pigs and hens just for cuddles if nobody was to consume their products (meat, eggs, milk). If the whole world turned vegan there's no need to keep livestock. So this can't be the goal of vegans and vegetarians. Returning them to the wild is impossible. Besides, we are not capable any more to live with wild animals around us, near us. It's scares the hell out of most of us to think of a bear in the backyard.
Interestingly, Louv mentions that we are disconnected from the sources of our food too; that lots of people dislike hunting and think children shouldn't play shooting at birds. But we are hunters & gatherers! In my opinion there's nothing wrong with hunting or fishing as long as the animal gets used well, e.g. eating - eat more than just the filet or steak, turn the hide into clothing, make a pillow from the feathers, ..... Compared to this, killing an elephant to get the ivory and then leave the carcass to rot is plain wasteful and stupid and unacceptable.
We don't have to go to the extreme ends of options. But our priorities certainly need a makeover and reordering.
No comments:
Post a Comment