So Thursday when I was standing in line at Tim's waiting to get some food and some guy approached me about signing my name on a petition for government responsibility for our country's sustainability, I thought 'well ya, I'll sign, this stuff is what I'm all about'. Then the guy told me to go to a little meet they were gonna have, and David Suzuki was gonna be guest speaking. He dropped this casually, but how does Dal not let more students know about this stuff? I mean; David Suzuki at Dal at a promto-rally for Students for Sustainability and nobody cares to really publicize this besides the day of (and believe me, I'm all over the LSC (life science centre - dal's bio and oceanography buildings) so I would've seen a poster or something along those lines). Special thanks, though you'll probably never hear of this, to Brendan Brazier (pro triathlete did a speech about the importance of sustainable approach to diet), Maude Barlow and David Suzuki, and all the students involved with the CFS (Can. Federation of Students), Sierra Club and Suzuki Foundation that made it possible for me and about 300+ others hear from some of the world's experts about the problems our species are currently facing.
What really gets me is that why is sustainability suddenly become the trend that people veer away from publicly. You really break it down and think about it, and people sit by and say how great being green is and its really starting to get popular, but then what do these people actually do for sustainability (the root of being green)? Not buy bags in the grocery stores? Use reusable thermoses for coffee/tea? Is that all students can really contribute to the whole movement? I mean, we're students here, and the growing trend now with the federal election coming is that students have a voice now, so why doesn't someone use it. I know I should catch a lot of flack for saying this because people can ask me what I do, why aren't I out there contributing and starting rallies and all that jazz. Well listen, I don't have the time. That's the facts, but I do do my best in everyday life to reuse, recycle, reduce my carbon footprint (a phrase that the papers have picked up but the public veers away from). Let me first talk more about what I mean that people are veering away - you start talking about sustainability and being green, and people almost feel uneasy about it. Or they talk but they don't do. I mean, people in biology and life science courses I see everyday and just as bad, and these people should be the most concerned. This is your field you're studying...is it really unsubstantial? I know this is a lot of ranting and it may be hard to take something from this, but it comes down to stop the talk. Start doing.1) All you people spending 30$/month on bottled water - are you kidding me? "It tastes better", "there's chemicals in the city water". Well, here's news for you, there's chemicals in all the water, including the water that hydrates the plants you eat and quenches the thirst of the animals you eat, so this shit is unavoidable. Admittedly, I didn't know about the negative effect on the environment of the bottle of water, but this is because I didn't think critically about it. Plastics are made of huge compounds that are not broken down. And although encouraged compared to waste, the recycling process of water bottles is not "good" for the environment, its the lesser of the two evils. So stop it, drink water from your house. Wanna grab a Brita for the taste, sure, I mean to look into the effects of these little carbon suckers on the environment soon.
1b) still on the water subject, I know some people think its gross but stop flushing the toilet every time you tinkle. I'm embarrassed to be included in the North American demographic of water wasters while looking at us compared to Euro counterparts. Don't fill the sink when you wash the dishes, you don't need that much water...just be responsible.
2)When its avoidable and unnecessary (as often is) stop printing notes off the computer. Not every class needs 7 colour pages of slides when you sit and write notes and it takes a total of a page and a half.
3) Vote. Please vote. I don't give a shit (excuse the language) if you think your vote doesn't count, because you are one of the 50-60% of students that think their votes don't count. MORE THEN HALF! I'd say there's a reason your vote doesn't mean crap, because you're infecting your peers to think that theirs don't and that's just not true. Urge your parents to vote, and preferably, urge your parents to consider to vote on your and your children's considerations in hand. This is bold to put out there but; Canadians: Stop bitching about taxes. I want a government to tax me more because they don't, contrary to popular belief, piss all of this money away (only a portion). The reality of life is that our our quality of living costs money, and in my opinion just in the span of my teenage years the quality of our country has gone down, much down. I want free health care to continue with a proper amount of capable doctors, I want free education for students of a respectable calibre (I say this because no, it shouldn't be free for everyone because some people are just too lazy to take the responsibility of their education seriously and you shouldn't be born with this right, but work towards it, ex. make third/fourth year free so you have to survive the first two to be applicable. If you aren't smart enough to complete a university degree [hey, sorry, its a fact of life sometimes] then make trade college free for students who meet requirements), I want to see greener cities, a clean water system. Suzuki talked of a simpler time just in his life when you could drink from any lake or stream and know it was safe, that was less then 50 years ago. The human existence of thousands of years was erased in a simple 50-100 yrs. I want to be an independent nation! I don't want to be mini-America. I want our products produced here to be a desire around the world, or ATLEAST a desire in our own company. And Harper - you're an idiot for backing out of Kyoto. That's a whole other issue.
Our quality of living is a privilege, not a necessity or a given birth right. VOTING IS A PRIVILEGE. Yes, believe it or not there are countries out there that are not democratic. You all know this but you still aren't hit home on the subject. If someone took away your right to vote, which you already don't exercise, you would be in an uproar, but right now you don't use it anyways. That friends is a wasted vote. So, newly appointed government, tax me more as long as the quality of living goes up. Quality of living; my friends and family are and remain healthy, my great expanse of Canadian ecosystems recover and are protected, I live happily knowing a portion of my pay is going to support the family down there road where the mother can't work because she has to stay home with four children, are these things really bad? I don't need the newest clothes on my back that will quickly fade, I need the memory of times where economic prosperity meant stronger cultural programs and better paid teachers and doctors, not higher paid lawyers and boardroom tycoons and the newest gadgets. If you disagree with me, let me hear about it, everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but I just hope these are educated opinions.
There are a lot more things I could wish to add to this list (I got really sidetracked by the rant about voting), but people will hopefully change over time, think about things I've never thought about, prove me wrong. I welcome it, because what I think of the future of the nation I would welcome being wrong.
On a less ranting note, I took the train up to Rimouski to meet with my dad for a half-marathon along the bay. Rimouski is really nice, but a lot different then I thought it would be. I really liked the look of Amqui on the train and hope to visit it one day. I do wish I spoke French though, always have but up here especially and if anyone has got any tips about how to improve it other then continuing taking courses at uni I'd be welcome to them. Last I thought of was to start reading lower level French novels, which sounds like a plan to me.
"We have created the illusion that everything is alright by using up the rightful legacy of our children and grandchildren" - David Suzuki, an amazing public speaker, if you have the chance to go see him do it.
One other great point he made that I won't elabore on; Ecology and economy come from the same root word, greek oikos meaning home or household. Ecology being the study and understanding of the home and economy being the management. You can't have an economy without the ecology. In these terms, you look at the tree; Economy standards if its in the ground, the tree is useless, only once removed and sold is it worth anything. In ecology, this tree is vital to life, provides oxygen to the world (kinda important for humans...), affects climate and weather systems with evaporation of water out of its system, supplying ecosystems with homes for biodiversity and many other reasons. The services that nature provides are seen as an extranality, economics for useless, of no worth. That tree in the ground sounds important enough to me to keep it there, no matter the dollar that it produces dead.
