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I was really more concerned about human rights and poverty until more recently when I started to understand how climate change really had to take centre stage. If the world is not inhabitable, there will be no humans to worry about other peoples' human rights or poverty.
I think a lot of problems are connected to the main problem of having treated our world like a giant toxic dump, which in turn is making our bodies and those of our children full of toxic, carcinogenic, hormone disrupting, bioaccumulative chemicals or other substances.
One reason corporations feel free to pollute (in North America), is because the leader of the U.S. and Canada right now, do not care much about the environment. Corporations themselves have also changed. Companies centuries ago were built on the morals of their owners. In this century, there is no concern for ethics or morality; a corporation's job, according to corporations, is to make money for itself and its shareholders - no matter what needs to be done in order to maximize those profits.
The North American Free Trade Agreement gives more power to corporations on some issues that to the countries involved. Say that a company wanted to come to Canada or the U.S. to build a chemical plant in the middle of urban settlements and that this is a company and industry that has a record of emitting toxic chemicals in the air or spewing them in the water. Under NAFTA, if a country or city is getting inthe way of a company making profits, the company can sue under a NAFTA tribunal, which takes place secretly without the country or city present. Canada has already been sued in such a fashion when Canada tried to keep a polluter from setting up shop and polluting the environment. Guess who won, the country or company. The company won millions of dollars in compensation.
We have also let agri-business take the place of farms. The agri-businesses do not care about the environment; cramming thousands of animals in feedlots and letting their feces collect in manure pools that leek into drinking water or rivers or using geneticallly modified single crops which require great amounts of pesticides, which also poison the air and soil and air (not to mention the farm workers and their families). Agri-business is not just the farm, but has become conglomerates of everything from the farm to the supermarket and everything in between. Farmers get less money; consumers pay more, but there are great profits for the agri-businesses.
There are interconnections between farmers planting more corn or wheat than can be used, which is then sent as surplus to poor countries, which then unfortunately ends up undermining that country's farmers.
After I read a book on Bhopal, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring and another one called Frederick Street by Maude Barlow, which is a story about Canada's version of the Love Canal, you realize that people and company's and government's couldn't have done a better job than if they had tried, to poison the environment and ourselves. Global warming is just a continuation of what we've been doing to ourselves and leading up to all along.
However, now that I have mentioned a few depressing things, I will mention some good ones. Since the federal governments are not doing much if anything, many cities and states or provinces are. I was very surprized and happy to learn how much Governor Schwartzenager is doing in California and other states - even though you don't think a Republican would generally do this.
I am also received responses from the many senators and members of parliament I wrote to, to let them know of my concern about global warming. A number have hybrid cars, or walk or bicycle to work and many letters were more personal than you often see with responses from government officials about what they were personally doing about climate change. I even had one Member of Parliament in another province than where I live, and from a conservative party, call me because of my letter. He has children and he is trying to do what he can for the environment.
I have been very encouraged by many of the responses from the politicians.
I am on a Green Committee at work (because of a co-worker who saw An Inconvenient Truth and was motivated to get a committee set up at work. Because of it, I have made many more changes than I would have otherwise. I get my electricity now from a company that puts 100% green energy into the power grid for the energy I use. The company is called Blue Frog Power, and is only in Alberta and Ontario right now.
One of the first things the Green Committee did was to set up a viewing of the Al Gore documentary for about 50 people. I have never heard people in my branch listen to anything so intently and quietly. And who knows what those 50 people are doing and who they are influencing.
Everyone needs to make whatever changes they can, not only to reduce their impact on the environment, but to support organic foods and products and local ones, which removes money from some of the multi-national corporations. There are a number of recycled tissue products that are available, especially napkins, toilet paper, paper towel (there are not so many tissues (I hate to say Kleenex, since neither the kleenex boxes or the tissues are recyclable) that are recyclable.
One of my friends and a co-worker mentioned that the last time she had tried recycled toilet paper that it was all rough and horrible (must have been quite awhile ago). So I ended up bringing a package of recycled toilet paper to work and distributing a roll to various people so they might decide to start buying recycled toilet paper. It is such an easy thing to do to help out.
I think anyone who tries to make some changes in their lives, will find it easier once started to make even more, and to share what they have done with others. There are many, many websites, and books and articles in newspapers these days (many more than I remember seeing a year ago), so it is going to get harder for people and businesses and governments to ignore (climate change).
I used to think everyone single person's attitude and habits had to be changed, but I no longer believe this. One book/article/?? suggested if 10% of the population were to get really involved with the issue, that that would be enough. A Margaret Mead quote I found recently and use all the time, which provides me with encouragement, says:
A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
I also firmly believe that one person can make a difference (even if they are not Ghandi or Mother Theresa or Nelson Mandala, etc.). My two sons are also my motivation; I want to do whatever I can so that there will still be an earth for people to live on.
In a poll of Canadians some months ago, 62% said they did not believe that earth would be habitable in 100 years. Fear can be a good motivator unless it sends you all the way into despair. I try to keep a balance between occasional feelings of panic, particularly after I read a particularly stark book about the issue, and optimism and the ability to continue to write or email politicians or put my comments onblogs or send them to the editor of a newspaper. It is not so important to me whether I know if a certain action with others has any impact or not, as long as I keep at it (and keep after the politicians or companies or whoever needs to make changes).
I'm in the process of changing mutual fund investments to company's who are environmentally or socially responsible. I don't need to have my savings or retirement money made out of profits from tobacco or weapons or the worst polluters on the planet. I'm trying to talk the people who look after the company pension plan about the worst companies who stock the pension plan has purchased. I haven't got a response yet, but it will take them some time to respond to all the issues and points I raised and sources I used.
May the force be with us.
Dryad
Forest Guardian
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