See this as a call to arms for two things: voting and voting green (small "g" that is). I was born in 1975 and my first understanding of ecology was in 1986, the Exxon Valdez Disaster. The images of dead marine life devasted me. Six years later in grade 12, I created a mock business plan for an environmental disaster clean up organization. I suppose even then I suspected we wouldn't learn the lessons of that earlier spill. Now 10 years later, I'm participating in the Greenpeace boycott of Esso gas, if I buy a new car I want it to be a hybrid, I recycle, I don't use aerosol cans, I'm politically engaged in the sense that I'm interested in the news, and I'm horrified about the prospects of off shore drilling and another four-year plague (source: President Bush).
I'm also three quarters of the way through reading an advance copy of Greenpeace (available September, Raincoast) by Rex Weyler. Rex's book is about the crap that was going on politically, which forced a small group of Vancouver protesters to band together to fight governments around the world. These are the people who got in a fishing boat and sailed to Amchitka (Aleutian Islands: 4,000 miles from Vancouver) to confront US nuclear bomb testing, they followed Russian whaling ships and blocked the shot of the harpoons with zodiacs, they threw themselves infront of baby seals being slaughtered on the ice floes that are their nurseries, and although I think I'm environmentally friendly, it would apparently take 4 planets worth of resources if everyone followed my lifestyle.
In 1969 Greenpeace sparked a mind-shift that literally changed how we think about the world around us. I think we need another mind bomb.
So who are you voting for?
Reasons why women in particular should not vote for Stephen Harper's Conservatives (I doubt they'll conserve anything).
What does David Suzuki say? Well his foundation has to remain non-partisan, but you should check out the Foundation's survey and see what the NDP, Liberals and Greens have to say about the environment. I think my choice is between the NDP and the Liberals.
So how are you voting? Take me to your leader.
Posted by monique at June 26, 2004 07:30 PM