The CBC reports that 800 people are killed annually in Toronto from air pollution. (CBC.ca also has a very good summary of smog.) Today's report arrives on the same day that Toronto received a smog alert, the 14th of this year, equaling the total for all of last year before we even hit summer. We're certainly no better out left here in Vancouver. Despite our conceits to the contrary, I can see the milky air between me and the vaunted mountains, the brown crust on the sky when I look out at the city from any elevation.
A few months ago I wrote a post entitled What We'll be Remembered For. A few points of reference had converged at once for me and made for an interesting common theme - that we were ruining our planet, hobbling the future of all our children and eventually killing ourselves off.
To echo the funny George Carlin point, environmentalism isn't about saving the environment, it's about saving humans. The environment, as we call our planet, will do just fine without us. More likely, everything else will be far better off. Humanity has been compared to a cancer on the planet, spoiling the elements all life rely upon and eventually destoying the host systems and ourselves.
In the comments of What We'll be Remembered For, The Duck wisely suggested taking the One Tonne Challenge currently on offer from the Canadian federal government. That's a start, does anyone else have any sound advice for minimizing our effects on nature?
Posted by James Sherrett at June 6, 2005 05:51 PMI'm sorry but the One Tonne Challenge in my opinion is a bit of a joke. It really pisses me off that the average consumer is being made to believe that the serious environmental problems on our planet is their (our) fault, and that it's up to us to do something about it. Until we REALLY start coming down heavy on the large corporations which produce so much excess garbage, packaging and pollution, then everything we do is just pissing on a forest fire. The laws about smoking in restaurants? Please. What a joke. Safe air in the restaurant, and then we walk out in Toronto and have our lungs filled up with the crap from cars. Until we start REALLY doing something at the core of the problem, we are sad to say, doomed.
Posted by: patricia at June 7, 2005 02:48 PMWe as consumers dictate everything capitalist. Corporations are supported by us, we don't buy what they sell, and they go broke. Plain and simple. Every step we take to reduce is a step in the right direction. Plant a tree, buy a hybrid car, compost, recycle, it might seem hocky and minor in comparison, but I would rather be a hypocrite doing something, then be a part of the problem doing nothing.
Posted by: Crazy Craig at June 8, 2005 03:59 PMIt's no joke. Do something and take the One Tonne Challenge. Until the "average consumer" is made to "believe that the serious environmental problems on our planet is their (our) fault" we will continue to see smog alerts, allergies, asthma, brown skies, increasing cancer rates (38% of Canadian women will develop cancer during their lifetimes. Amoung men, 44% will develop cancer during their lifetimes.) You can REALLY choose to take personal responsibility. Or, you can REALLY choose to keep driving gas-guzzling machines to buy cheap plastic bubbles for your children to live in and their year's supply of Reactin(tm) at WalMart.
Posted by: Steve at June 9, 2005 11:03 AM