Turning Over a New Leaf

My recent health kick has got me out of the house and in to the gym – ironically just above the Superstore, which I chose to look at in a positive light, overlooking all those fruits and veggies as I struggle down the steps following my BodyPump class (a real killer! Beware!) In the past, I had always viewed the gym with hesitation and suspicion, knowing just how hard it will make you work and not always with the rewards hoped for. However, I’ve had a recent change of heart – I initially started going after a friend, day after day expressed how good it made her feel. Knowing my own struggle with the winter blah’s, her ranting and raving got me out of the house and in to the gym – and I think I might be a better person for it! Admittedly, I’m sore. Very sore. But I know it’s a good sore and I definitely can relate to my friend’s jubilation about the benefits of the gym. It’s also motivated me to look at food in a different light – do I really need that slice when I know it’ll take me an hour to burn it off? There’s so many great, colourful and tasty alternatives, why bother? I’m trying things too that I don’t think I ever would have, bored of the same old peas and carrots. Ever tried a celery root? okra? endives? Well, I have! yum yum and off I go hunting for a recipe that teaches me how to make them. Ta da! There’s one exhausting, satisfying and fun filled day all in one! Good bye winter blues and hello healthy, toned and happy me! The only thing that I tend to struggle with is the fact that fresh means no preservatives (not including the fertilizers and pesticides that seem to accompany most imported foods) and spoil far too quickly and I end up having a heap of xyz vegetable for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It absolutely kills me to throw out food, knowing very well how scarce it is in different parts of the world. Today, UNICEF is launching a  social media campaign aimed at raising awareness about food droughts in the Sahel region of Africa. It’s pretty awful and makes my daily gym-healthy routine sort of extravagant. At the same time, from my little town just north of Toronto, the most I can do is spread the word and donate my time and attention (sorry, funds are a little low although the right sentiments are there!) to spreading the word. I think sometimes  realizing what other’s don’t have motivates other’s to take advantage of the resources and opportunities that are right under our noses. With that said, I’m off for another gruelling workout, but I’m sure I’ll be better for it in the long run!

A Movement in the Making

I kayaked with a beluga whale! I saw a beaver in the wild! I climbed a sand dune! I could not have said that until a few weeks ago and the exhilaration of it spilled over to my blog – see posted about a week ago. I was truly awestruck and still am marveling that this was indeed my country – really, came at me from out of the blue. If anything, it’s made me even more eco-conscious and a great advocate for eco-travel and conservation.

Ironically, just as the thrill for the natural world subsides, my mood falls in to an abyss as word of wildlife destruction in the Gulf Coast starts to permeate the headlines. Not just any wildlife, but the whales that I had so fondly become accustomed to. Shockingly, these massive animals that fear none have found their match in deadly oil that slowly is killing everything it touches.  What an awful thought! I’m not surprised then that the tourism industry would be affected, not only on the Gulf Coast, but also in Canada where oil exploration continues throughout northern Alberta.

Prospecting for oil is big business, which regardless of good intentions and taking the necessary precautions, is driven by consumerism and is done at the expense of another reliable industry. Opting for greater investment in green technology and alternative energies just might save tourism, or save just about every other business out there. Business are waking up to the realities that consumers do not want to support products that are damaging to the environment, cause wildlife extinction or cause air qualities to deteriorate and alas, the CSR executives, Green PR Consultants and Tech junkies are finding more and more areas for work.

Most of the world is waking up to this reality and Canadian industry is well poised to lead the way. Bombardier was just awarded to created energy savings high speed trains for Chinese expansion (think China’s version of the TGV), but Canada’s National VIA Rail hasn’t yet upgraded. Is it that our politicians and CEO’s are simply too old to adjust in their ways of thinking? It seems counter productive to support oil exploration in the name of business development when it destroys others, while at the same time destroying our quality of life through the air we breathe, the water we drink, the animals we enjoy…the list goes on.

The contradictions are astounding and in searching out solutions and sharing ideas, I’ve recently started to blog on another site : http://www.greeniters.com where I hope to continue to share my thoughts and also learn something new along the way about all things Green. Feel free to visit!

It’s a Sustainable Life

Sus-TAIN-able!! Whoa, I hear it everywhere – from Oprah to Obama, on the news, in the papers, around town, in the grocery stores and I’m sure it’s one of those words that will be on next year’s Spelling Bee List. So what the heck does it mean? Seriously, it’s only within the last months, maybe a year that it’s been rolling off the tongue of everyone and it’s been evolving into, sustainable development, sustainable living, sustainable business…just throw a sustainable in front of it and all of a sudden my sentence has drama!

I like it because it has speaks to continuity and maintaining that whatever we have right now will last into the future. Maybe that’s why it pairs so nicely with the Green Movement – ensuring that businesses are responsible to the environment where they work, that our household products are friendly to our ecosystem and that economic and international development projects consider conservation, health and environmental concerns.  It’s a great concept and I happily embrace it. But I also think sustainability can go beyond our concern for the earth and can also be applied to our relationships with each other and among communities.

If I’ve learned anything over the last few decades is that things change, priorities change, people change. That’s why circles of friends are always changing and why the value of old friends and family increases over time. I think if you were to ask anyone, family and friends would be at the top of the list of ‘Most Important Things in Life’. But, it’s not easy to keep such a close network of relationships and it takes work, much more than simply switching laundry detergents or getting a hybrid. Adaptation and prioritizing are key and we’ve clearly done it regarding the environment, but for ourselves and those closest to us, I think many of us have fallen short. Do you think that sustainable relationships and communities are giving way to sustainable growth, innovation and paychecks? If our relationships really are the most important aspects of our lives, then the same fervor, passion and energy that many of us felt for green products, living and  technology, should be – if not more – applied to maintaining our network of relationships. If we did, perhaps we’d have more cordial and sustainable communities – after all, it’s the people that build them, not the other way around.

Blurring the Line

It’s been on everyone’s mind for the last several weeks, but no one has dared whisper it for fear that we’ll be jinxed and it’ll fade into the distance like a dream. It’s been hinted at and even overjoyed when we got a snippet of it a few days ago…the sun! Winters are everlasting in Canada and Mother Nature simply can not make up her mind, flip-flopping back and forth between sunny rays and dreary days that I simply just want to hid until it makes up its mind! I marvel at it though, thinking that the sun is such a life-source for every person, animal, or plant on the earth and we never get tired of it. Won’t ever be replaced by Apple’s newest ap or NASA’s expanding technology. Instead, we imitate it , thank God for it and trade stories about what it was like when we didn’t have it.

In general, I love natural landscapes or environments and all things that are a part of it. In fact, most of my ‘to-do-before-I-die’ List is based on natural landscapes / scenery.  So, it should be no big surprise that when I saw Disney’s ‘Earth’, I really enjoyed it.  It shadows four animals and the struggles that they go through to survive, most of which meant migrating with the sun to warmer climates at different times of the year. It really was fascinating and showcased exactly how these animals were having to deal with global warming. It also highlighted the importance of forests, fauna and ecosystems as vital for human development and sustainability.

I don’t want to complain about my government…again – then I’d really turn into a broken record! What I do want to do is more or less to highlight how many people have turned their profession in to a cause in support of conservation, sustainability and advocacy. Journalists, social scientists, film-makers.  There clearly are scores of people out there who have made the environment,conservation and spreading awareness about it a priority, but I’ve noticed that the line between environmental advocacy and reinforcing social norms is getting to be a bit blurry.

The documentaries nominated at last week’s Oscar ceremony were phenomenal and most of them to shed light on hidden atrocities.  The film that won, The Cove, documented a particular Cove in Japan where dolphins were lured and then killed for their meat. In light of the typical Western view that dolphins are the beloved Savior of the Seas, it’s an awful reality, but one that may also be a Japanese food source, like cattle would be in middle America. It is Difficult to enforce  social norms on other nations, isn’t it? Just as I’m sure that dogs in China, guinea pigs in Peru, tarantulas in Cambodia or crickets and scorpions in Thailand are not exactly the delicacies of the North American palate, as long as it is safe to eat and they are not endangered of extinction, then I find it difficult to condemn a practice that may be to the locals as what salmon is to us. If the documentary highlighted how the dolphins were endangered or were vital to other ecosystems in the area, then I might feel more inclined to appreciate this type of cinematography. And although I don’t like to see murdered dolphins, I can accept it as synonymous to a poultry farm or other meat breeding establishments.

By blurring the line between environmental conservation and social advocacy, we’re not really getting anywhere – just a lot of hot air.

Chinese Fortune Cookies

China, China, China. What can I say, it’s a walking contradiction. How can a society, in some ways, have developed thousands of years in advance of the Western World but fall behind in others – way behind? After all, it was the Chinese who avoided the Plague by implementing hygenic measures; and it was the Chinese who invented gun powder. They should be more economically advanced with the best insitutions and scientific discovery. I guess that’s what a Civil war, a World war and dabbling in Maoist socialism gives you.

I think now though, they’ve finally gotten a hold of capitalism and is taking it for a ride. It’s been reported that China is leading the world in investments in alternative energies – but arent’ they the one of the world’s greatest emitters? Something that the US is aiming for and Canada has feebly given up. It’s ironic too that China would invest so heavily in wind and solar energies, knowing the long history that it’s had in striking up oil deals with auspicious leaders around the globe, notably Sudan , which others wouldn’t touch with a stick.

Democracy however isn’t important to China, money is. Loosening its grip on Tibetans or Taiwanese is unlikely to come any time soon, despite the support that the US may lend to them. At the same time, the tides of democracy are hard to quell in a growing and globalized world. Why else would Google have reported a major cyber attack and “also said hackers had infiltrated the private Gmail accounts of human rights activists, suggesting the effort might have been more than just mischief“. Using the internet to squash opposition, what kind of government does that? Kudos to Google for not packing up shop and leaving, but rather creating Goojje - Google’s little sister.

China has entered the 21st century with a bang, and to the bank I might add, but it hasn’t gone far enough. Coming to terms with the past would be a first step in identifying exactly who they, what their goals are and how they will go about in achieving it. No more claiming to be one thing and doing another. Next, identifying niche markets has worked fantastically and is likely to continue, along with the further development of the provinces, which is sure to reduce the number of poverty stricken families – imagine what a billion productive workers could do for the economy? I don’t dare think that minimum wage would rise soon as it’s cause for heavy investment from abroad. But one can only hope that with greater investment, the spread of web technologies and raising of living standards, a middle class will emerge to threaten the status quo. Something happend like that in 18th Century France, no?

Whatever may happen in the future, China will always be a major player in the world’s economy. But altering attitudes, behaviour and policy of the ruling elites to respect democratic values is another task entirely. We may just have to wait until the elders die out and a younger generation replaces them a la Democratic House. It doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t still advocate for change or get rid of sanctions or stop critisizing. It just means patience is necessary.

A Glance at Summits Past and Canada’s Place at Copenhagen

This week, it seems as though the world is holding its breath for the Copenhagen Summit and whether or not it will produce the results long hoped for.  Leading up to it, allegations of climate change fallacies have surfaced, two of the world’s top oil producing giants have deepened their relationship and Canada has finally decided to step up to the plate.  As story after story is reported from Denmark, I’m optimistic that goals will be reached or, at the very least, strived for. At the same time, I wonder how such Summit’s were ever to succeed in the past.

Scandals seem to lurk over the shoulder of any good summit of importance, though have evolved with time from spy allegations to political corruption to the sexual behavior of the day’s notables.  So, why should this be any different? It may be the case that researcher’s had joined two data sets to produce easier to understand results, but it shouldn’t shut down the Summit, after all it’s December in Canada and I haven’t had a chance to use my snow tires yet – hard to deny that climate change is all wrong.

Secondly, the strengthening of relationships between states is hardly new and rarely judged.  In fact, it’s because of such relationships that trade can be profitable, migration improved and criminal networks thwarted.  However, being aware of ties between nations can be significant, remembering a certain non-aggression treaty that foreshadowed World War Two.  Today, therefore, watching Iran and Venezuela continue their charade…er,… I mean, relationship, stresses the need for alternative energy sources in order to avoid two of the world’s top oil producer’s (and non-democracies) from becoming too powerful, which in the current world order, is not manpower or weapons, but the control of natural resources, which enable us to sustain our quality of life and ensure our continuance into the future.

Enter Canada.  We are a nation, full of natural beauty and bounty which should be preserved, not only for the sake of nature, but for the sake of our own sustainability.  Now is the time to be investing in clean energy, exploring new technologies and promoting the way of the future, particularly at a time of rising unemployment.  The PM’s decision to attend the Summit, following the American and Chinese delegations, is commendable, despite his lack of enthusiasm for it.  It will be interesting to see whether Canada will make a valiant effort at Copenhagen to listen, to compromise and to evaluate the events, as a global player, instead of making a less than graceful exit à la UN General Assembly, back in September.

Whatever the outcome and commitments that are made in the next weeks, climate change is here to stay, as I grab my sunscreen and shades and head out into the vast wilderness of the Wal-Mart parking lot to pick up a Christmas tree.