Last night, I saw Dr. David Suzuki speak. He's this brilliant scientist, environmentalist and Vancouverite who is insanely amazing and I'm so incredibly honoured to have been in the same room as him last night. And he gave this speech, his legacy speech, which was an hour long, never boring, and took everyone in the room on this crazy journey that all connected and made sense and was entirely consuming to listen to.
It hit me like An Inconvenient Truth and it's like I've been pushed into motion again. These past couple of months I've been making these plans. Plans to read more and learn more and write more but I haven't made anything happen. So it starts now. Really, I mean it. I'm going to write and be published and renew my efforts in the fight for the only environment that can sustain human life.
This is it. There's no planet B and if we cut down all the trees, pollute all the air and water and suck the nutrients out of our soil, there's going to be nothing left but a whole lot of hungry, thirsty, human refugees living on nothing but an empty shell. And it's depressing and it's not fair that our inheritance is a burning, broken world but that's the way it is and I'm sorry, but getting angry and blaming people isn't enough. This may be the 59th minute but it's the only thing we have to work with and the governments and corporations may be against us but if there's one single truth I've taken from Dr. Suzuki, it's that there is no economy without the environment. We depend on one thing and it's not our GDP.
I feel like this blog has been a huge downer when what I'm actually trying to say is how alive I feel. It may look like there's a lot of suck ahead but there's so much possibility, too. Yes, people have been fighting these same issues for a really long time and, yes, the issues have gotten a lot worse but absolutely nothing is set in stone. And we can turn this ship around, or at least minimize the damage of that iceberg that we've already hit. We've got lifeboats, we just have to open our eyes and work towards them.
Are you with me?
1 comment:
Wow. Totally.
You know, I've always had this question about global warming. There's an incredible amount of evidence indicating that the planet is getting warmer, and there's a substantial amount of evidence indicating that humans are responsible for that. However, the data isn't 100% set one way or the other and sometimes scientists -- who really ARE activist scientists; I'm not using that as a misguided insult -- omit the facts in order to prove their point? Well, even if you don't believe that global warming is caused by humans (which I personally believe is a rather ignorant opinion, but whatever), why would that make you any less inclined to save the planet? If you look around and see the ridiculous amount of garbage we leave behind, how much energy we waste, how much we're directly hurting the environment-- why aren't those tangible, undeniable facts of life equal, if not more, reason for being an environmentalist?
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