Drought Thyme?

It's been really warm around here lately, and the snow is melting really quickly. When I went outside this morning I noticed that a lot of my herb/flower garden was uncovered, even though I have been moving snow on top of it when I get the chance. When I scrunched down to take a closer look today, lo and behold the thyme was greening up already. Usually the chives are the first things to get growing, but not this year.

Seeing green this early in the year - it's not even technically Spring yet - is a relief to the eyes, which have seen just white, brown and gray for so many months. But I'm worried actually. Because we have had so little snow this Winter. So little precipitation of any kind for much of the past year. Last year's growing conditions were tough, and I worry that we're in for yet more drought.

Last week we got another batch of propaganda from the local MP, and in it was something useful for a change: a link to Agriculture Canada's website on drought monitoring. I checked it out and came across several disturbing maps, showing just how dry its been and for how long. Here's one that shows data for this past Winter. You can see that everywhere in the prairies has had lower than average rain fall, and in the Edmonton area (where it's brown on the map) we have had between 40 - 60% of the average. Areas further north are even worse off.

World Water Day is coming up on March 22nd. I'm going to see how little water I can use on that day. We do fairly well around our house for conserving water, but we could still do better. Canada's per capita water consumption is quite dismal. I think we have the false perception that we have an abundance of fresh water in this country. But maps like this one show that appearances can be deceiving.

How much water does your household use? Could you use less?

My Climate Change "Action Plan"

Since it is becoming increasingly obvious that there will be no binding agreement in Copenhagen next month about how to achieve necessary greenhouse gas emission reductions, I thought I would propose my own binding climate change mitigation strategy. Why not, eh? Members of the so-called "developed" world seem to need a little direction in the matter, a little gentle urging perhaps. So here goes. By the way, I haven't decided if I'm joking or not.

Benign Dictator Theresa's "My Way or the Fry-way" Climate Change Action Plan

• All international and national sporting competitions will cease immediately. That includes the Olympics. All that travel is totally unnecessary and wasteful. Everyone bike/walk to your local sporting venue instead and support your local kids competing out of a sense of fun, rather than a sense of 'when-will-I-get-that-Nike-endorsement' greed.
  
• Politicians, business people, you are heretofore directed to use conference calls and webcams. All your jet-fueled travel is canceled. Your 'leadership' isn't helping anyway.
  
• Tropical and other 'must-have' vacations, same goes: canceled. There's lots do see and do within walking/biking distance of where you live. And if you need that much distraction in your life you have bigger problems anyway.
  
• The Las Vegas strip is closed until further notice. Same goes for all other similar locations worldwide. Way too much electricity used for no good reason. Not to mention setting a really, really bad example on so many levels. (November 27 addendum: Thanks Dubai, for getting right on that.)
  
• Sorry race fans, NASCAR, Formula 1, etc., canceled. Those fossil fuels are needed for other things. Get a pedal bike or a canoe and race that.
  
• Everyone will be vegetarian and like it, so there.
  
• Every household will be required to have and tend a food-bearing vegetable garden. If you have no yard, a community garden plot within walking/biking distance will be found and/or reclaimed for you (i.e., uncovering the soil under now-unneeded parking lots, etc). Seeds and gardening implements will be provided. Gardening/Cooking/Preserving classes will be taught to young and old, in your local community by cool people like Sharon Astyk and her many minions.
  
• Work weeks will heretofore be limited to 4 days out of 7.
  
• Two days a week will be mandatory car-free days. You need to work in your garden, or volunteer, or take a Preserving class, or take a nap, or have some local fun on those days anyway.
  
• Cheap plastic crap will no longer be manufactured or sold. If we're expending resources to manufacture things, those things will be useful and built to last.
  
• Get ready for it: Oil sands operations will be reduced by 50% immediately. We will use natural gas as a primary fuel, rather than using it as part of the tarsands extraction process. No new coal-fired electricity plants and 50% of existing ones will be shut down. All nuclear plants will be shut down, effective immediately. The precautionary principle will be the guiding principle from now on, period. All subsidies to fossil fuel industries will be entirely re-directed to renewables, effective immediately. All buildings will be retrofitted with these cool solar panel shingles.
  
• Carbon/Greenhouse gas emissions will be capped on a per capita basis, to ensure that the 350 ppm goal is reached in the next 10 years, or maybe 5 years, I haven't decided. The cap will be the same for everybody, regardless of geographical location, income, celebrity status, or political office. If this means you have to reduce your consumption down to 10% of what it is now, get used to it. Fair is fair. Compliance will be enforced by whatever nefarious means I deem suitable.
• Oh, and no one has any more kids until all the kids around the world in orphanages or on the streets have been adopted. "Something" has been "put in the water" already.
  

Really, compared to that, would it be so difficult to get something together at Copenhagen? I am being generally facetious and sarcastic with (some) of these points, but come on! It doesn't take that much planning and it is not a hardship to cut down electricity consumption by half, and in our household we've managed to cut back to 35% of the North American average. I realize that is just a drop in the bucket, but instead of working to increase the number of drops in the bucket, my Canadian government is just throwing out excuses and downplaying expectations before the Copenhagen meeting. It's sickening. What passes for leadership these days is absolutely sickening.

Ok, time to make some ginger tea to reduce my nausea.

Does anyone have any 'dream clauses' you would like to add to this 'action plan'?

November 20th: Friendly Amendments. The following amendments have been suggested by commenters, and are hereby incorporated into the Action Plan . I am a benign dictator after all....

• Hadv's amendment: The status quo is not good enough anymore. The time for change has come. Get used to it.
• Sensible Vermonter's amendment: Renewable power retrofits will be fully subsidized up front. Power generated by these renewable sources will be sold back to the "grid" up until the subsidy is paid back, after which it will become a source of income for the homeowner.
  
• Amber's amendment: Household composting is mandatory. A suitably sized composter will be provided to each household free of charge. Compost can be used by the homeowner or sold back to local compost exchange stations. Barter among neighbors is encouraged. Courses on regular and humanure composting will be offered alongside the Gardening/Cooking/Preserving courses noted above.
  
• Theresa's afterthought amendment: In the spirit of re-localizing sporting and business events, all national and international travel for concerts, book tours, etc., will also be cancelled. Wherever you are, there are lots of talented local artists, authors, musicians and crafters who deserve your patronage.

Additional amendments and clauses remain welcome!


Fried landscape picture courtesy EcoWanderer

Book Review: The World We Have

What with the increasingly dire (but not surprising) economic news, I was glad to read Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh's latest work, The World We Have: A Buddhist Approach to Peace and Ecology. It was a definite respite in the midst of so much uncertainty.

In the interest of simplicity and out of respect, I'm going to adopt the practice of referring to Thich Nhat Hanh as 'Thay', which means 'teacher.' While I'm not an official or formal follower of his, he has certainly taught me much in the short time since I discovered his writing.

I sped through this 141 page volume, eagerly taking in Thay's wise words. He has composed the book in three sections and I'll write a bit about each of them in turn:

1) "A Collective Awakening"

Thay begins by reminding us that "the bells of mindfulness are sounding." These 'bells' are things like floods, droughts, and massive wildfires. He says plainly that while some people are hearkening to the sound of these 'bells,' most people have yet to become awakened to them. But yet, he says we don't have to despair; we can take action in our own lives, and we can help others to "awaken to the true situation": the fact that "the American dream is no longer even possible for Americans. We can't continue to live like this."

Thay goes on to talk about the five mindfulness trainings of Buddhism, the fifth of which is the practice of mindful consumption. Thay says that mindful consumption helps us to "recognize what to consume and what not to consume in order to keep the body, mind and the Earth healthy." He goes on to say that the energy of mindfulness, concentration and insight are what is referred to when we speak of the Buddha, or the Holy Spirit, being within us. It is through this energy that transformation can take place.

In the remainder of this section, Thay focuses quite a lot on the Buddhist ideas of interbeing and impermanence. He illustrates these points with examples from Nature. The concept of inter-being can be illustrated by the case of kernel of corn growing into a corn stalk: the seed has not died, it has become the plant. The plant could not exist without the seed's existence; and the seed can not exist without the plant. Similarly, nature and humans inter-are. Every single thing coexists with every other single thing. In Thay's words:

We human beings have always singled our selves out from the rest of the natural world. We classify other animals and living beings as 'nature,' a thing apart from us, and we act as if we're somehow separate from it....Human beings and nature are inseparable. Just as we should not harm ourselves, we should not harm nature. To harm nature is to harm ourselves, and vice versa." (pp 34-35)

I've talked about this concept of interconnection before - it really is the foundation of things I think, pretty much literally. From the concept of inter-being, stems the idea of impermanence. They are two sides of the same coin, really. A yin-yang relationship. Since everything is connected to everything else, any particular thing has no discrete beginning or end. Thay uses another natural idea to illustrate this concept: that of the rising and falling wave in the ocean. If one focuses on the wave itself, one might rejoice at the building up of the wave, and lament its cresting and tumbling into the shore. But if one focuses on the ocean into which the wave is being re-drawn, then there is no need to grieve the loss of the wave, because the water itself is all-encompassing. I can't say this as eloquently as Thay can - here are his words on the subject:

A rising wave has a lot of joy. When the wave is falling, there may be some anxiety about the ending of the wave. Rising always brings about falling. Birth gives rise to death. But if the wave practices meditation and realizes she is water, she can collapse and tumble with joy. She may die as a wave, but she will always be alive as water. The teaching of the Buddha helps us to touch our true nature and receive the insight that will dissipate all kinds of fear (pp 49-50).

It is from this idea that I gained the most comfort from the book. Like Thay says, my fear has dissipated somewhat. Like everything else, civilizations rise and fall, turn and return. Recognizing this, I can let go of the idea that things need to stay the same to be good. Thay goes on to describe The Five Remembrances which practitioners of Buddhism meditate on to help them accept the idea of impermanence. When we no longer fear impermanence, we have a measure of peace, and so we can get on with the task of doing what needs to be done.

2) "Our Message is Our Action"

Thay says that our individual thoughts, words and actions are our continuation. In death, "all we take with us and all we leave behind are the fruits of our thoughts, speech and action during our lifetime. That is our karma, our continuation." Because of this, a path of "service, love and protection" directly influences the world in a positive way, the same way we have been influenced positively by others' compassionate actions before us. Thay goes on to say that "we know that our parents, our ancestors and our teachers all expect us to live our lives in a way that will protect the planet. We have to allow our ancestors, our teachers and the Buddha in us to act."

But what to do? We can't do everything that needs doing - there is just too much. One of Thay's students asked him a similar question, to which he responded, "take one thing and do it deeply and carefully, and you will be doing everything at the same time." This came as quite a relief to me. In order to do our One Thing well, and for as long as it needs doing, we need the strength of peace. Peace is found through the well of mindfulness. Thay says,

It's important that while volunteering or taking part in environmental activism, we find ways to continue with our practice of mindful breathing, mindful walking and mindful speaking. Let us not give in to anger or despair when reflecting on the current state of the world or when confronted with those who engage in the wasteful use of resources. Instead we can make our own lives an example of simple living (p. 76).

Thay goes on to describe the type of actions taken at his monasteries and practice centers in Europe and North America, actions such as powering one monastery entirely with solar power, and having 'no car days' at several others. As the founder of the Engaged Buddhism movement, Thay and his followers certainly 'walk the walk.'

3) "Practices for Mindful Living"

The third section of Thay's book is full of several different ways that we can learn to be more mindful and connected with 'the world we have.' The first of these are some gathas, reminding us during every day activities, such as eating meals, washing our hands or walking outside, that "the Earth provides us with precious gifts every day." There are several gathas in the book, but I will quote just one (p. 108) -- this one is to be brought to mind when washing one's hands:

Water flows over these hands
May I use them skillfully
To preserve our precious planet

Thay also describes a breathing exercise to do when reciting the Five Mindfulness Practices, as well as outlining a deep relaxation method, and some meditations called the Five Earth Touchings. He concludes this section with a checklist of changes in behavior the reader can complete and commit to, and carry along in one's purse or wallet, to be reminded of the commitments made. The reader is also invited to mail the list to the Deer Park Monastery, and the practitioners there will then send email reminders to the reader to encourage follow through with the commitments.

In conclusion, I can only say that this book seemed to simplify a lot of things for me, and provide some relief from the self-imposed burden of feeling that I had to do everything but yet couldn't do enough. I'm a little bit better now at stopping to appreciate the beauty of the moment, just doing one thing at a time, and taking care to do that one thing deeply and well.

Stand up and Vote for the Environment!

There is just one week to go before Canadians head to the polls in what could be the most important Federal election ever. Yes, ever.

In this election Canadians must decide whether they want to go forward and make the changes necessary to keep our planet hospitable to life, or whether they want to stay the course and let corporate greed and consumerism continue suck the lifeblood from our humanity and our planet.

Think I'm overstating things a bit? I don't. Simply put, without a human-friendly planet to live on, all manner of economic activity will utterly cease. There is no separating the environment from the economy. We can no longer labor under the delusion that the two are separate entities. We either stop killing the planet now, or eventually (and eventually is sooner all the time) the conditions on the planet will kill us, period. Gaia will have her revenge; Nature will bat last. Of these things I am absolutely certain.

So, when it comes time to vote, we must ensure that Conservative leader Stephen Harper does NOT win a majority government. If he wins, the environment loses. If the environment loses, we lose and will have firmly set ourselves, our children, and our children's children on a path to destruction. Do I sound paranoid and apocalyptic? Sure I do. I'm afraid, very afraid. I try and conceal these fears and moderate my statements when I talk to people, but fundamentally, this is what I believe: We are killing ourselves with our greed and it has to stop.

Today, Canada's top climate scientists have banded togther and sent an open letter to Canadians urging them to vote for the environment. The scientists agree that people just don't seem to understand how urgent the issue of climate change is. These are scientists who depend on federal funding for their work but are taking a stand and speaking out anyway. We must all speak out in kind. We must all find our voice, go to our local polling station and vote for the candidate with the best chance of defeating the Conservative candidate. The folks at voteforenvironment.ca have made it easy to find out which candidate to vote for - people in Edmonton-Strathcona and Edmonton-Centre please take note! Your ridings are the only two in Alberta with a chance to defeat the Conservative incumbents. These ridings are hotly contested and in the past as few as three votes has made a difference!

Don't let this opportunity of a lifetime (yours and your children's lifetime) slip away. Vote for the Environment on October 14th.

Action or "Action"?

Daharja has an excellent post over at Cluttercut in which she talks about the 350.org website, which is, from what I can tell, a site trying to build awareness of the importance of reducing our carbon emissions until there are only 350 parts per million in the atmosphere. The old goal was 450, but newer research points to 350 being the target we need to reach in order to mitigate the worst effects of climate change.

Daharja is incensed, and rightly so I would say, about the fact that you're never going to inspire anyone to change their actions in the direction needed by merely focusing on a raising awareness of a number. And I'm pretty sure Kiashu at Green with Gun would classify the whole endeavor as glorified slacktivism (maybe not even glorified). Here's a quote from the "Take Action" portion of the 350.org website:

What we need most right now are your actions that take the number 350 and drive it home: in art, in music, in political demonstrations, in any other way you can imagine.

I have to disagree. I'd say what we need most right now are actions that directly reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that are being emitted into the atmosphere. Actions like those the Riot for Austerity people are undertaking, or a One Tonne Lifestyle that Kiashu describes. I don't think that paintings of the number 350 are going to cut it, or protest songs for that matter, even if they're sung by U2.

This got me thinking to what the word "action" has come to mean. This dictionary defines action in a number of ways, but all the definitions have something to do with physical movement directed toward a specific purpose. But more and more, I've noticed that "action" seems to have come to refer to things that don't involve a lot of physical movement or energy, such as joining a facebook group or, or forwarding an email, or signing an online petition. And a lot of this so called "action" is diffuse in purpose as well.

I hear of kids who want to be video game designers when they grow up and I keep thinking to myself, but will you actually be able to DO anything? And before I get too sanctimonious, I remind myself that writing letters to my elected representatives doesn't take a lot of physical activity either, nor does blogging, nor does turning off my house lights for an hour at a specified time. Some of these things are relatively harmless, even if they aren't necessarily effective, but surely the time spent at most of them could be better spent doing things that would really qualify as action towards reducing greenhouse gases, such as buying less stuff, growing our own food, planting more trees, driving less, eating less, hauling out that old bicycle and riding it, conserving water, composting, refraining from turning on the air conditioner or fan, etc.

How do we get people who are used to "action," back in the habit of concrete and direct action again? The knuckle-down-and-get-it-done-even-if- it's-hard kind of action? The get-your-hands-dirty-kind-of-action? Daharja says that only the things we love will inspire people to real and right action. I have to agree.

What do you love? What inspires you to do things differently even though it's hard to change the habits of a lifetime? I'm in the middle of thinking through these questions for myself, as I also learn to go from "action" to action.

Picture courtesy this Flickr site

An Inspiring Lunch Hour!

Of all the ecological things that we ponder in our household, Gord is the one who thinks about water-related issues the most. He noticed that one of Canada's (and maybe the world's) foremost experts on water ecology, Dr. David Schindler, was speaking at a lunchtime town hall meeting at CBC Edmonton's interactive space. So we both headed down there at lunch today, me walking from work and he half-driving, half-taking public transit to listen.

Accompanying Dr. Schindler was Dr. Steve McLean, Canadian astronaut. The purpose of the meeting was to talk about Edmonton author Thomas Wharton's award winning book, Icefields. The book was written in 1995, in a time when the prospect of glaciers disappearing wasn't thought possible.

But, it has turned out to be all too possible. Dr. McLean spoke about how seeing the Earth from space made him feel more connected to it than before, because he could see how fragile and amazing it is. Dr. Schindler spoke about how frustrating it is to have scientists' efforts at measuring climate change and other scientific phenomena undermined by decades of government funding cuts. Both of these speakers pointed out how essential it is that we measure things like oxygen emitted from the Earth's atmosphere into space and the flow rates of our rivers before they are seriously affected by climate change. Otherwise we have no baseline of information from which to measure what is being affected and how.

At this point I turned to Gord and said that this lack of data is what climate change deniers would want. That way, there is no solid evidence of how things used to be, which would mean there can be no solid evidence that things are actually changing. This lets the deniers say that the science and the scientists are "imprecise," and gives them more ammunition to delay taking any restorative action.

We need to demand that our governments restore funding to those agencies that monitor the weather, the rivers, the wilderness, the glaciers. We need this information so we can take pro-active steps to mitigate against the worst effects of climate change.

Picture courtesy CBC Edmonton flickr site

Emergency Petition - Please sign!

Please add your name to the petition to demand that these three countries get on board with the rest of the world at the Bali Climate Change Conference!

Scientists agree that a 25-40% reduction in carbon emissions are needed by 2020 to avert the worst of global warming scenarios. If you feel strongly about this, please consider adding your signature to those of the 165 000+ people who have already done so in the past 45 hours!

Canada and the Bali Conference on Climate Change

I am appalled at the position being put forth by Canada's Prime Minister, Stephen Harper and his so-called Environment Minister, John Baird, at the United Nations climate change conference currently underway in Bali. The Harper government is proposing that Canada is a "leader" in climate change action because Harper's government has made the "commitment" to cut Canada's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 20% from 2006 levels. Since the rest of the world measures their GHG cuts based on 1990 levels, as per the Kyoto protocol (which the previous government ratified but then Harper reneged on), this means that Canada will actually be allowed to increase its GHG emissions by 10% overall, because our emissions have increased by about 30% since 1990. Harper must think Canadians are too stupid to do the math. He and Baird are also saying that they won't sign any agreement on reduction targets for Canada if the US or China won't commit to binding targets too. I'm in the midst of writing a letter to the PM and the Environment Minister about this, which I'll post here when I've got it done.

But the main thing I wanted to post about today was the fact that Harper seems to be oblivious to the fact that many if not most Canadians think that we should be committing to absolute GHG reduction targets and specific time lines. Today in the Edmonton Journal there were numerous letters to the Editor about this very thing. The letter writers made it clear that Canada needs to show leadership by committing to binding, significant, absolute (not intensity-based) GHG reduction targets regardless of what other nations do. We in the west have been the main cause of the GHG problem in the first place, so we need to suck it up and do something about it, rather than whine that China isn't doing it's part or worry that the US will be ticked off if we commit to something to which they aren't committing.

The last letter to the Editor I read today was signed by "Bill Bourne." Now, I'm not sure if this is Bill Bourne the Edmonton folk singer and songwriter, but I wouldn't be a bit surprised if it were, given his songs about peace and fairness, like Pie and Ice Cream.

If these or other things that your government is doing or not doing bother you, please write to them, or to the Editorial page in your local newspaper. The government needs to know what ordinary Canadians who are concerned for their and their children's future are thinking. I didn't vote for Stephen Harper, or his party member in my riding, and I'm sure not going to let them think he or his party or his Environment Minister speak for me on this topic.

Also, here is an interesting article from the Globe and Mail on the topic.

Near-constant companions: Irony and Anxiety

Since I've been on this journey of seeing myself as part of the oneness of all things, I've had the experience more often of being either struck by the ridiculous irony of something, or of being overcome with anxiety, or both. I had two recent examples of this that I thought I'd share.

1) Back in the summer I had posted about the central square in my city and how the powers that be had redesigned it so it now had more concrete and fewer trees. One day I noticed people writing on the concrete in chalk, commenting on the lack of trees and remembering when the City Square was full of grass and trees. I added my two cents worth on the concrete that day and felt a bit hopeful.

Now it's winter, with Christmas time approaching. While walking through the City Square earlier this week, what do I see but a tree there. A huge evergreen tree. You guessed it: a Christmas tree. A 50+ foot tree that had been cut down and brought into the otherwise concrete-laden Square, and decorated with lights, and sponsored by EPCOR even. (After all, what's a tree without an official sponsor?)

So, not only have the numerous CO2-absorbing, O2-producing trees that were in the Square originally cut down, but this tree was cut down too, and brought back to the denuded location as a supposed symbol of the Seasonal sentiments of Love, Hope, Renewal and Goodwill. Ironic, yes?

2) Also earlier this week, I was at the hairdresser's having my increasingly numerous grey hairs dealt with once again. On my way out I bought some 'product' (a habit which I will have to ditch one of these days, but don't have the guts to do it just yet). The hairdresser remembered that I didn't want a plastic bag with my purchase, and I didn't want a paper appointment reminder card either. I thanked her and said it was nice that she remembered those things. She replied that it wasn't that hard since, "You're the only person I know who's going green." I made some feeble attempt to smile and say that I would just have to keep talking about it to more people. Meanwhile, my heart sank and my anxiety level escalated.

I worry. I worry that people look at the cut-down Christmas tree and don't see the irony, and I worry that people just think that 'going green' is a fad or an affectation or an eccentricity.

Remember that "doomsday clock" from the mid-1980's that represented how close humanity was to global thermonuclear war and utter annihilation? That 'clock' has recently been expanded to include the effects of climate change on humanity. That's right: climate change is now seen as having just as catastrophic an effect on the planet as would global thermonuclear war.

It's time to see the irony. It's time to wake up and feel the anxiety and do something about it. Because we're at 5 minutes to midnight again.

Pushing on Political Icebergs

Greenpa at the Little Blog in the Big Woods talks about the concept of pushing on icebergs. It can seem futile for an individual person to keep pushing on such a big object and expect it to actually move in a different direction. But with enough individual people pushing for a long enough time, even a behemoth can be moved. When I saw the CTV news late last week showing the results of the latest Canadian political poll, it felt like a shift could really be happening!

For the first time ever, the Green Party polled as the third most popular political party in all of Canada. In the Western provinces, 18% of people said they would vote Green if an election were held on the day of the poll! That's almost one in five people -- I guess me and my little denim Green Party bag don't have to feel so lonely anymore! You can seen the complete poll results here.

Also, I have already pestered friends and family members about this, but I'll say it again here. If you live in Canada and feel that the leader of the national Green Party, Elizabeth May, should be included in the televised debates the next time there is a federal election, please sign this petition. The leaders of the other four parties are always invited to participate, and one of these parties (the Bloc Quebecois) doesn't even run a national slate of candidates. Oh, and if you are the least bit curious, why not check out some of the Green Party's positions on important issues like climate change, building a green economy, health care, a fair tax structure, the democratic process and even beauty and integrity.

The Green Party is the only party I know of that bases its policies on the six principles of ecological wisdom, non-violence, social justice, sustainability, participatory democracy and respect for diversity. Those are the kinds of things that motivate me to keep on pushing on my little part of that metaphorical iceberg. I would surely like to see that iceberg move before the real icebergs all melt.

A Letter the Premier of Alberta

Today Gord and I sent the following letter to Ed Stelmach, the Premier of Alberta. We are both in favor of increasing the royalties that the oil companies have to pay to Alberta for the extraction of fossil fuels. Not surprisingly, the oil companies have really been putting the pressure on the government to keep the royalty structure the same, so we thought we'd do the Canadian thing and write a letter. If there are any other Albertans out there reading this, please consider writing a letter yourself.

Thanks to Kyle at Green With A Gun in Australia for permitting me to use his summary of the slow absorption/fast emission problem for inclusion in the letter.

Dear Premier Stelmach;

We are writing to you today as two very concerned Alberta citizens. We have a number of concerns, including the prospect of a nuclear power plant being forced on the citizens of Alberta, as well as the rampant progress of industry, and the destruction of rich farmland, wetlands and natural green spaces in the service of urban sprawl. Every day our water becomes more scarce and polluted, our air more foul, and our climate more erratic, all in the name of providing increased profits to industry.

We are writing to you today to remind you that the purpose of a government is to safeguard the interests of the public by protecting public commons: our air, water, land, and all of our natural resources. These things belong to all Albertans, not just to industry. A government is commissioned to be the steward of these resources, on behalf of the people.

We take our own personal stewardship of the planet very seriously, and as such have undertaken the challenge to reduce our household’s energy and commodity consumption, and our resultant greenhouse gas emissions by 90% of that of the average North American household. This is the level of reduction that George Monbiot, in his book “Heat: How to Stop the Planet from Burning” recommends as a measure everyone will have to undertake if we are going to minimize the now inevitable effects of global warming. We have not yet achieved this goal, but we are working towards it daily.

As persons committed to doing our part, we ask you to do yours: Ensure that industry pays its fair share of royalties to the people of Alberta for the privilege of making a profit from the “trust fund” that is in the ground and belongs to all of us. Fossil fuels were created over hundreds of millions of years. Humanity has been using them up in just a few hundred years. That is, we are burning them one million times faster than they were created. Concomitantly, we are putting carbon into the atmosphere a million times faster than it went into the ground.

If the oil industry has to slow down its extraction of this resource because it is only permitted to make a decent profit instead of an obscene one, this can only be a positive result for Albertans and for the well-being of this one planet we all share.

Thank you for weighing our concerns, ones shared by many Albertans young and old, in your decision-making process.

Picture courtesy this Flickr site

What to do?

There are days when I get so confused and disheartened about the state of the planet. Then there are other days where I have hope and think, even believe, that humanity will get its act together and actually do something to stop us all from hurtling down this apocalyptic slope. On those kinds of days I think Al Gore is right, if we all just get together and change our light bulbs, turn down the furnace and stop using plastic bags, maybe we'll be ok. But then there are the other days, like today, where I can't help but think along the lines that this guy does, and that it's too late to do anything but brace ourselves for frying in the dark.

And no matter what kind of day it is for me on this front, I wonder what should I do about it? Should I talk to people about my concerns or shut up because they're getting tired of hearing it already? Should I worry about the privately-owned nuclear power plant they're probably going to build a couple hundred miles north of here, or be thankful it's not another coal mine? Should I keep trying to grow my own food or quit because there's not enough time for me to learn how to grow enough and preserve it properly anyway? Should I just keep politely telling people I've become vegetarian for health reasons or scream out loud that factory farming is one of the most horrific and cruel things we humans do to the species with whom we share this one planet?

Some days, like today, I just don't know what to do.

Image courtesy: www.masternewmedia.org