Are you destroying our planet for the kids...?
This is the legacy created for our kids so far...
a 3.5 tonnes garbage island floating around in the Pacific
65 billion tons of waste/per year - just Canada alone
50% of Canadian waste is packaging
US reports 4 billion tons of toxic chemicals releases into environment just in 2005
CRA alone used 15,000 trees worth of paper in 2005
1 tonne of C0 2 produced by 1 person flying a return trip from Vancouver to Ottawa
1 trillion tons of greenhouse emissions since industrialization
no long term storage for nuclear waste in North American (must hold for 24,000 years
worldwide oil usage is 80,000,000 barrels/day, much is temporarily used as products that are used a short time, then discarded, and remainder burned and emitted to atmosphere
it took 4.5 billion years for bacteria to extra CO2 from atmosphere in sufficient quantity to make air breathable by life and convert it to fossil fuels
Comments
Doing what you can to reduce
Doing what you can to reduce your own footprint is great and I do my part (for the most part). But I believe creating solutions that are environmentally friendly and cost saving for industries will be the main way to get them to convert (many solutions are available and being developed), creating environmentally friendly options for consumers that are either equal to, or better than, their counterparts in terms of functionality and cost will help consumers make better choices, and pressuring governments to make changes that are not covered by the solutions above is what will need to happen to really make a big difference. Being aware of alternatives that are environmentally sound and actually buying them (and letting non-environmentally friendly competitors and the stores that sell their products know that you have switched and why) will help maximize your own impact on industries. Look at organic food, people demanded it, payed for it, and now it is fairly readily available, much cheaper than it used to be (making it more affordable for more people to buy) and is now saving tones of herbicides/pesticides/hormones from being sprayed. Same goes for the amount of greenhouse gasses being saved by more and more people being aware of the benefits of buying locally produced frood. I think it is important to look at the enormity of the situation, but also to look at the enormous potential to change things for the better. The will is there if the solutions are. Look at the Tesla Roadster for another example - the first production, all electric sports car. Not a single one has driven off the assembly line, yet all 2008 models are sold and there is a wait list for 2009! People want to make a changeand will buy this stuff when it is made available.
Live intentionally.
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Doing what you can to reduce
Doing what you can to reduce your own footprint is great and I do my part (for the most part). But I believe creating solutions that are environmentally friendly and cost saving for industries will be the main way to get them to convert (many solutions are available and being developed), creating environmentally friendly options for consumers that are either equal to, or better than, their counterparts in terms of functionality and cost will help consumers make better choices, and pressuring governments to make changes that are not covered by the solutions above is what will need to happen to really make a big difference. Being aware of alternatives that are environmentally sound and actually buying them (and letting non-environmentally friendly competitors and the stores that sell their products know that you have switched and why) will help maximize your own impact on industries. Look at organic food, people demanded it, payed for it, and now it is fairly readily available, much cheaper than it used to be (making it more affordable for more people to buy) and is now saving tones of herbicides/pesticides/hormones from being sprayed. Same goes for the amount of greenhouse gasses being saved by more and more people being aware of the benefits of buying locally produced frood. I think it is important to look at the enormity of the situation, but also to look at the enormous potential to change things for the better. The will is there if the solutions are. Look at the Tesla Roadster for another example - the first production, all electric sports car. Not a single one has driven off the assembly line, yet all 2008 models are sold and there is a wait list for 2009! People want to make a changeand will buy this stuff when it is made available.
Live intentionally.
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Thanks Nick, Those
Thanks Nick,
Those are really great ideas. You put a lot of time and thought into this. For parents in my community, I am trying to educate them on the impact of their spending and what values they are modelling for their kids. In my household and, I hope eventually, many households in my community, we are talking about about the WHYs of BUY NOTHING DAY (Nov 23), Fair Trade Shopping, Organic Food Shopping, Riding Our Bikes to school everyday (3km!) and back, asking Santa to not make toys with packaging or even to not make toys at all and save the planet's resources for the animals that need it, like the polar bears.
Asking the WHYs make us WISE!
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I'd love to hear your ideas
I'd love to hear your ideas for things I can do to start to change our course...
What are you doing?