Another year has come and gone, and it is inevitably time to reopen those textbooks and personal planners to try and figure out a way to make this year better than the last. You hear yourself making promises like “I will go to my lectures this semester” and “I will not start to write papers the day before they are due.”
You may also be thinking of new and innovative ways to bolster that resumé or give some of your spare time to charitable organizations. After all, this is the year you are going to become the person you always wanted to be-thoughtful, organized, conscientious.
But with so many causes and catastrophes in our midst, it can be difficult to pick just one direction to devote our time and energy. For those of you who have yet to make that elusive New Year’s resolution, I urge you to consider environmental activism.
Here we have an issue that touches all Canadians. Be it the media or grassroots organizations, it seems like everyone is becoming more involved in the world of environmental activism, leaving lots of room for the average citizen to participate. Even stars like Harrison Ford and Robert Downey Jr. have used their celebrity to support environmental efforts instead of other world issues like AIDS in Africa or the genocide in Darfur.
The consequences of environmental degradation are real, and the desire for change is becoming a force to be reckoned with on a global scale. According to the Canadian Automobile Association’s 2006 public opinion survey, nearly 60 per cent of Canadians are extremely concerned about climate change and global warming. Another 48 per cent gave our federal Conservative government a poor grade when it came to addressing climate change.
It is time we dedicated our time, energy, and money to really making our voices heard, so that we can make changes locally and incite change globally. For if we all sit back and wait for others to take charge and clean up the mess we all have made, it will one day be too late.
While Canada has abandoned the environmental commitments it made under the Kyoto Accord, California’s government has implemented policies that meet and even surpass those stipulated by the international treaty. It’s time to question the wisdom behind Canada’s environmental goals. The Conservatives have attempted to justify the withdrawal from Kyoto by proposing their own “made-in-Canada” approach, but Canadians quickly rejected the weak Clean Air Act. This is an issue that deserves the effort and time of our elected government-an issue that begs the attention of Stephen Harper himself. David Suzuki, Canada’s most renowned environmental scientist, insists that we need a public awareness campaign that puts climate change and pollution at the top of the list.
We are in the midst of a slow-motion catastrophe. The most prominent argument against environmental protection and change revolves around the idea that global warming and the depletion of environmental resources is merely a cyclical chain of events that occurs naturally as the earth ages. But we cannot listen to the arguments set forth by groups with vested interests, like the fossil fuel and automobile industries, whose focus on profit clearly shapes their points of view. It has been proven that 16,000 Canadians die annually because of the burning of fossil fuels, not to mention the obvious affects this practice has on the climate. After all, the automobile industry fought for decades to oppose seat belts and air bags because the cost was supposedly prohibitive, but we would never imagine making cars today without either.
The question then remains: how are we supposed to get involved? How can concerned citizens make their voices heard? The most daunting task for would-be volunteers is getting started. Toronto has many organizations, the most notable being the Toronto Environmental Alliance, which would love the support of hard working, well-educated individuals. TEA’s philosophy targets not only the Toronto core, but also aims for change on a global scale.
Franz Hartmann, TEA’s co-executive director, believes that “[t]he number one global issue is climate change. In Toronto, we also have to worry about smog, which has essentially the same root causes as climate change. We have to change how Toronto and the planet think about and use energy. The good news is that if we deal with climate change properly, we create a wonderful, sustainable future. There is everything to gain and nothing to lose by acting now.”
If you’d like to work with concerned individuals, community groups, and professionals who all seek a greener world, the TEA is looking for your help. Visit www.torontoenvironment.org for more information.
