The day the penny dropped
There are things I depend on in this life – Sunday night dinners with the family; that the Rolling Stones will live to tour again, and that my grandkids can ski the Helm Glacier.
If you had asked me years ago if I thought global warming or climate change was real I would have said “sure”. If you had asked me “when?” I probably would have guessed a hundred, maybe a thousand years from now. I mean, the Helm Glacier isn’t going anywhere soon, right?
Two years ago when Vancity started towards going carbon neutral I put my hand up to go on a program to lower my emissions myself to set a good example. I’ll admit at first I wasn’t thrilled about the idea of trading my Audi in for a hybrid Accord. It’s interesting, but Hybrids have more power than you think, though the silence when you stop in traffic takes some getting used to.
The things I did to lower my emissions – the carpooling, the teleconferencing to reducing my business travel, the small things around the office – the double siding of paper, the turning off the lights and computer monitors, the banning of paper coffee cups, were not always second nature for me. I didn’t always get why I was doing these small things. How could they have any real impact? But I started seeing the impact they have, and over time they became part of my lifestyle.
As a banker and a business leader, I’m convinced that “green” business is good business, but, personally, I’m going to be brutally frank here –the personal reason for being environmentally conscious wasn’t exactly sinking in. The parts were all there, but they weren’t quite fitting together to form a complete picture for me.
Then I watched “An Inconvenient Truth” and the penny dropped. Big time. It was Gore’s message – calm, rational, unhysterical - that broke though. The proof was in the show and it was undeniable. It was the timeframe, though, that rattled me most. Forget a hundred or a thousand years from now. Climate change is happening now.
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Brian, I'm the producer of
Brian,
I'm the producer of Peak Moment television, mentioned in your P.S. to Dave. We are honored and pleased to have you mention us (and curious to know how you found us, too!).
Peak Moment highlights positive responses to peak oil and climate change through local community action. Our conversations are with people making changes towards sustainability--like folks who people this website.
We visited and videotaped a number of Peak Moment Conversations last summer in Vancouver, and were positively impressed by the number of forward-thinking measures and practices going on in your region--Vancouver is a greener city than most.
Some of those shows are produced and viewable online at our website www.peakmoment.tv. If you click on the "Conversations" link, you can watch or listen to these episodes from Vancouver/Victoria (listed by episode number):
33 MOBY: An Inner City Community Garden Project
34 Vancouver's Co-operative Auto Network
35 The Vancouver Food Policy Council
36 An Urban Developer Goes for the Green
More shows from your area will be produced. And of course, you can get ideas from other communities on our shows, too--there are about 50 online. We also welcome visitors on our website, and subscribers--we put out an announcement usually monthly. Folks can reach me at janaia-at-peakmoment.tv (California).
Keep up the good consciousness and good work! We'll look forward to visiting and taping more programs in your fair city in the future.
Janaia
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Janaia, votes in the
Janaia, votes in the election are starting to flow. thanks for the update and links to the other videos your groups has been working on. You are quite right that Vancouver is fortunate to have many forward thinking planners, non-profits, co-ops and credit unions. Vancity has played a significant role in many of the progressive initiatives in this region and will continue to as long as our elected officials stay relevant. please consider passing on this website to people you know in Vancouver http://videosonvancity.ning.com
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Dave, Great to hear that the
Dave,
Great to hear that the penny has dropped for you. With all due respect, I'm sure you'll agree that it's about time. I was fortunate enough to do a graduate degree at the School of Community and Regional Planning (SCARP) at UBC. SCARP has been talking about this among the other serious global sustainability issues for the past couple of decades, so for some of us it is really relieving to hear someone of your stature and accomplishments committing to address these issues head on.
Now the question is what to do about? I think the examples of small changes you suggest are a start, but are they going to aggregate to the scale and scope necessary to address the magnitude and complexity of global warming? My question to you, given you position, is how can we leverage the economic, social, intellectual and spiritual capital that exists within Vancity?
I have some ideas, and that's why I am running in this year's Board of Directors Election. It is also why I want to encourage as many members as possible to go to Videos on Vancity - a website I built to allow members' voices to be collected and shared. Ideally these videos will be shared with staff, with directors and with the rest of the membership of this Credit Union.
Please consider going over there and putting up a video yourself. It would be great to see and hear you declaring your intentions. Perhaps more inspiring though would be to see and hear a senior staff member of Vancity engage with other Vancity members in this critical discourse.
Cheers,
Brian Smith
p.s. Check out Peak Moment, a series of videos hosted at youtube that comprise community responses to a changing energy future.