last night i got together with a couple friends and headed down to the old walker theatre (i still can't call it the b.c.) to catch a lecture from one of canada's foremost champions of environmentalism; dr. david suzuki. after an awe inspiring anthem by raffi (played at least four times) the crowd had grown restless and were ready to hear the words of wisdom from the star of the nature of things.
while not everything that was spoken last night gripped me at my core, there were a couple of loud trumpet calls that rang in my ears. the first was the rampant consumerism that is prevalent in our society today. this has been no secret, but it was interesting to hear it from a different perspective. our ecological footprint is directly affected by the amount we consume...not just the waste we produce, but the stuff that we have. families today are half the size they were 40 years ago and we live in houses twice the size (with a bathroom for every person in the house). families have more than one vehicle (again some people have one for every person in the house). we measure our worth by the stuff that we have. our economics are based on the financial picture alone. we fail to take into account things like the affect our actions are having on our future, how peaceful, patient, grace-filled we are, how happy and loving we are becoming. these sorts of things do not fit in our economy. it is dollars and cents; baby...the other stuff is just window dressing. i am working to change this perspective in my own life. while i may not be prime minister and able to affect policy for the entire nation, i can affect my own family and the people i hold dear to my heart.
the second thing challenged me was to have a vision for the future. there were echoes of king solomon when david suggested that we need to have a picture of what we want our canada to look like. without a vision the people perish. do i want a future where the air is clean enough for my children to breath without fear of what invisible toxins threaten their health? the kind of air you fill your lungs with on the side of a lake in northeastern manitoba, more than50 kilometers from the nearest form of civilization? do i want a canada where you could drink the water from any stream and not wonder what sort of chemicals have been dumped in it or what sort of cancer i may develop from ingesting water that is not bottled and purified? when i think of my own city of winnipeg, i would love to see a greener, cleaner, healthier thriving metropolis.
wo what can i do to bring about this preferred future? what can i do to lighten the weight of my personal ecological footprint? well i have already begun to make some smaller changes in the way i live. i purchased a bicycle and will be using it as a primary mode of transportation to and from work in the spring. cutting down on the waste, of water, of energy, and of food is becoming more of a priority for me. the benefits far outweigh the costs...as a matter of a fact; it seems to be saving me money to be ecofriendly. i have signed up for the nature challenge. the challenge breaks down ten things we could do to lower our ecological footprint and bring us to a place of sustainability in a few short years. doing even three of these this year would make a huge difference.
when i look at our responsibility as stewards of god's creation, i wonder how we are living up to the challenge of tending the garden. creation is groaning...longing for the sons of glory to be revealed. i want to ease her groaning by treading a little more lightly on her soil. i want to take responsibility for my footprint and help ensure a beautiful creation for my children.
what about you?
while not everything that was spoken last night gripped me at my core, there were a couple of loud trumpet calls that rang in my ears. the first was the rampant consumerism that is prevalent in our society today. this has been no secret, but it was interesting to hear it from a different perspective. our ecological footprint is directly affected by the amount we consume...not just the waste we produce, but the stuff that we have. families today are half the size they were 40 years ago and we live in houses twice the size (with a bathroom for every person in the house). families have more than one vehicle (again some people have one for every person in the house). we measure our worth by the stuff that we have. our economics are based on the financial picture alone. we fail to take into account things like the affect our actions are having on our future, how peaceful, patient, grace-filled we are, how happy and loving we are becoming. these sorts of things do not fit in our economy. it is dollars and cents; baby...the other stuff is just window dressing. i am working to change this perspective in my own life. while i may not be prime minister and able to affect policy for the entire nation, i can affect my own family and the people i hold dear to my heart.
the second thing challenged me was to have a vision for the future. there were echoes of king solomon when david suggested that we need to have a picture of what we want our canada to look like. without a vision the people perish. do i want a future where the air is clean enough for my children to breath without fear of what invisible toxins threaten their health? the kind of air you fill your lungs with on the side of a lake in northeastern manitoba, more than50 kilometers from the nearest form of civilization? do i want a canada where you could drink the water from any stream and not wonder what sort of chemicals have been dumped in it or what sort of cancer i may develop from ingesting water that is not bottled and purified? when i think of my own city of winnipeg, i would love to see a greener, cleaner, healthier thriving metropolis.
wo what can i do to bring about this preferred future? what can i do to lighten the weight of my personal ecological footprint? well i have already begun to make some smaller changes in the way i live. i purchased a bicycle and will be using it as a primary mode of transportation to and from work in the spring. cutting down on the waste, of water, of energy, and of food is becoming more of a priority for me. the benefits far outweigh the costs...as a matter of a fact; it seems to be saving me money to be ecofriendly. i have signed up for the nature challenge. the challenge breaks down ten things we could do to lower our ecological footprint and bring us to a place of sustainability in a few short years. doing even three of these this year would make a huge difference.
when i look at our responsibility as stewards of god's creation, i wonder how we are living up to the challenge of tending the garden. creation is groaning...longing for the sons of glory to be revealed. i want to ease her groaning by treading a little more lightly on her soil. i want to take responsibility for my footprint and help ensure a beautiful creation for my children.
what about you?
peace to you,
scott
4 comments:
Yes, I signed up for the Nature Challenge today, as well! The environment has become a very important issue for myself these last few years, no doubt due largely to the amount of information I learned on this subject while going to school (Mechanical Engineering).
One of the things that caught hold of me during David Suzuki's talk was when he mentioned two important characterisitics that are required of us in order to tackle the environmental problem: compassion and humility. I immediately associated those two characteristics with something else...Christianity. Ever since becoming a Christian I've heard over and over again how followers of Christ are to be humble and compassionate. Hearing Suzuki mention these two things as the most important gives me hope that we will eventually be able to restore our planet to its former beauty and wonder and perfectness that God intended.
I agree with rampant consumerism, that is definitely a problem these days.
But the majority of people, which consists of the middle class and lower, do not have a bathroom per person in the house. Id love to see some facts on that one because even rich people i know do not have one per person.
As far as cars go, what are we supposed to do about being busy at the same time as other family members. The hybrids that are built are very pricey and have little or no capacity for long trips without gas. There is a reason all hybrids have gas tanks in them.
As you can probably tell I'm not all for this new craze we call global warming, i don't believe it should be the number one priority like some would have it be. There are far more pressing issues right now that could be solved with the amount of money being poured into a problem that goes up 1 degree Fahrenheit in the last century.
No i understand we are supposed to keep God's creation clean. But God's creation are also people, and as much as people think the world matters, the people in the world matter more. It is going to take quite a while for the earth to die out. People in some parts of this world don't see their teen years, and we are doing nothing but avoiding that with the global warming hysteria.
Honestly, when will we tackle problems that need to be solved now? I understand i may be a one man army here, but aids and other diseases are going to kill us much faster then Global warming.
David Suzuki is mean. I went to his retarded Nature Challenge and decided I would answer his poll at the botttom. The one where you answer the questions about whether Kyoto is attainable or not. So, of course I clicked on "No, and it's not worth even trying." Immediately my computer turned black and shut down. Damn you David Suzuki!!!!!!
So....after it restarted I read his Nature Challenge. Now, before you judge me prematurely I am fairly confident that I have lived a fairly "green" life. I had (and ate from) that awful "More with Less" cookbook long before any of you.
So, David Suzuki wants me to reduce my home energy use by 10%. Well, I really don't feel bad about using Hydro. Seems like a good power source to me. Pretty cheap. Doesn't seem to be bothering the environment too much. I could change some bulbs to energy efficient ones I guess. Except, I don't like the white light they throw off. With my skin tone I prefer a more yellow light.
But, I would like to change my furnace. I like the idea of saving money. So...I'll probably check that out sometime to see if it makes sense for me. Next on his list. Don't use pesticides. Is he nuts? What's going to kill the bugs that will kill the locally grown produce and vegetables. Sorry, the earth isn't big enough for us to try to grow all our crops and fruits on land that is n't managed by chemicals. By the way my sister was an organic farmer for many years. I know what it takes to grow crops like this. It doesn't make sense for our world. By the way, I believe a lot of lives would be saved in Africa if the bleeding heart NGO's would get out of the way and let them spray for mosqitoes. Yes, we would lose a few parrots.
Eat meat free meals one day a week. Now that I am on phase three of the South Beach Diet I can do that. But...I'll be honest . It's an economic choice. And...I hope you all are o.k. with the gas, because the alternative is legumes. Not good.
Buy locally grown food and produce. Uhhh....no. I live in Manitoba. I like fresh fruit (especially tropical fruit - mangoes = yummy), vegetables and so on. Sorry, you guys can eat wintered crab apples or whatever. Give it a whirl - more good stuff for me.
Choose a fuel efficient vehicle. Hmmm...family of 6 = mini-van. Sorry Dave.
Walk, bike or carpool. Well, I carpool twice a week. I cycled to work one year until November 19th. Wiped out on some ice and realized how retarded it is for people to cycle in winter in Manitoba. Transit. Takes me more than an hour to get to work. My pride gets in the way too. Besides, I really like driving my car - by myself.
Choose a home close to work. Sure, if I can get the right neighborhood and a home for the right price. So far, no luck. Maybe if I had Dave's money.
Support alternative transportation. Has anyone seen the International CXT? The worlds biggest pickup. Or, the Ford F650? That truck is totally awesome. Come on Super 7.
So...yeah alternative vehicles. I am so there. Seriously, what does that mean "support"? High fives for people who ride recumbent bicycles?
And finally, "Learn more and share with others". I feel I have already done that. Just Google , "Ford F650".
Finally, I would like to have some dialogue on what you guys mean by "Rampant Consumerism". Are you implying that freedom in the marketplace is a bad thing?
Wait, that wasn't the final thing.
I think there are many things that a Christian can and should strive for. In fact I don't need very long at all after comparing myself to the Fruits of the Spirit or the "Love" chapter (1 Corinthians 13) and I see I that I have plenty to do. Yeah, the environment is important and currently trendy but its way down on my list (as if you hadn't picked that up by now).
Anecdote. One day I was driving down Henderson Highway and as I was stopping at a light I saw a kid open a candy bar and just drop the wrapper on the ground. I rolled down my window and yelled at him to pick it up. He was really embarassed and cussed me out. So.. yeah I am doing my part.
Really badly.
Peace.
Mike
I think you have stumbled on the exact issue we wrestle with. Just how environmentally friendly should we be? Is it enough to change my lightbulbs and furnace? Is it enough to toss my milk jug in the blue box? Mike, it sounds like you and your family are making choices that will not only benefit the environment, but also turn out to be cost effective and make sense for your lifestyle. This is exactly what I am trying to accomplish. It is not feasible for me to purchase a hybrid vehicle right now. The Civic will have to do. And I will be able to ride a bike this summer to work, so I will do that. But in -40…it might take a miracle to get me to pedal down Portage Ave. I think many people get up in arms about the whole global warming, David Suzuki and Al Gore phenomenon that is at the forefront of media and political conversations right now. It’s cool to be green (as long as we still get to keep our consumeristic ideals). There is that consumerism word again. I would not lump most of the people I consider friends in the rampant consumer category. I am not into communism. But I am bothered by the fur coat wearing, diamond ring sporting, H2 driving, crusty ladies who order their double tall extra wet cappuccinos every day (sometimes twice a day). I am all for freedom in the marketplace, but what good are we doing with the abundance that we have? Are we thinking of others when we make our decisions? I personally have begun to think about how my choices affect the environment, for people around me and for my kids’ future. I took the Nature Challenge, and was not able to check off all the boxes…but what I am able to do, I want to lighten my footprint.
I would also love to own a gas guzzler (not the Ford F650...but maybe a 68 Mustang Fastback or a 62 Corvette or my dad’s old car-a 66 Dodge HEMI Charger) Lucky for me, the moral dilemma and finances are not the only thing to keep me from polluting the environment with a HEMI. My wife would leave me if I owned a muscle car. ;)
So I say we do what is in our power (and will) to do…nothing more and nothing less. If you are challenged to make changes in your life that affect the world around you in a positive way, whether it is the environment or our attitudes, I think we are headed in the right direction.
On another tangent…I think that making environmentally friendly choices is an act of love…
Peace to you,
Scott
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