While the battle for climate-change mitigation will be won or lost by regulating the big polluters, it is all too easy for us to scrutinize them to the exclusion of our own profligate greenhouse-gas-emission practices. The following letter in the print edition of today's Toronto Star should give us all pause:
We in Ontario should try for numerous gestures of reconciliation with our western neighbours.
I agree with Jason Kenney that programs for reduction of carbon emissions should focus on consumers, perhaps more than on producers. I’m a consumer.
The oil companies will continue to develop their resources as long as it is a profitable enterprise.
When we as consumers reduce our demands, oil production will be reduced accordingly. The transportation industry is the biggest contributor to carbon emissions: Long distance trucking and air cargo are filling the atmosphere with carbon, because we want our wine and beer from Europe and Australia, our clothing from Asia, our cars and computers from Japan and China, our asparagus from Peru, our fruit from California, etc.
Buy local wine, even if you think it’s not as good; buy local craft beer.
Try to buy food from the nearest possible sources, though, admittedly, in winter that’s not easy. I believe we should trade in our cars with big engines and go hybrid (better range than all-electric), even if it’s more expensive and less convenient.
Reduce long-range travel by car or plane; use transit, or car pool to work if at all possible. Think of using electricity to heat your home, even if it’s more expensive, because it’s cleaner.
Recalibrating the energy industry toward cleaner technology and alternative sources of energy will provide major employment opportunities in Alberta and everywhere. It will cause wrenching grief for some, just as the prohibition of fishing for cod caused grief for workers in Atlantic Canada some years ago.
Fighting the oil producers will only cause resentment. Everyone has to make major lifestyle changes. We have to start with ourselves.
Noel Cooper, Brechin, Ont.
As Pogo declared, Lorne: We have met the enemy and it is us.
ReplyDeleteTruer words have rarely been written, Owen.
Delete.. the Salamander has alter egos.. and in various such.. is often lambasted for optimism, altruism, being naive.. or.. well you get the gist. We ie 'The Boss' and I.. and can include my tall son.. are wicked ass walkers, bikers, bladers. Our families do not belong to Costco. We shop locally, adore cerain Ontario vineyards, demand Ontario corn in season, Lake Erie Perch, PEI oysters, western (that means west side of the Great Divide) wild salmon. Fresh pasta is St Lawrence Market or Kensington, from good Manitoba, Sakatchewan grains. Baked goods local - check. Fiddlehead greens in season - farmed in Simcoe or wild picked Cape Breton or New Brunswick, scallops, lobster too. Guess where from? We always ask before purchase. Potatoes Ontario and PEI. We adore great corn meal, local grown (I grew corn.. I know corn).. Beef is from all provinces (I know beef, raised em), range fed chicken, & turkey from Bruce County too. Car (Mini Cooper 10 years young 18,000 K) leaves driveway on Saturdays for basic groceries, a 'plonk run' for wine and beer. We confess to an infatuation with Washington State / Oregon Zinfandels and Seven Falls merlot. Ok.. the odd Toro Bravo from Spain - sauvignon blanc for 7.95 falls somehow into our LCBO bags with a big moose on the side of the bag..
ReplyDeleteI don't have to apologize to my Alberta prairie 1st cousins or their oil patch employed families via long distance, Facebook or email etc. They are no more 'Western' disgruntled, whiny alienated Albertans than I am from Mozambique or Tazmania. They are thrifty educated Calgary home owners and renters who may also own and be building small escapes, off the grid mountainside property in the vicinity of Nelson, BC or Kamloops.
Hardy folk, some with Masters In Education degrees, drill masters on fracking sites, oil supply, survey experts, health food store managers, bike repair experts who tune bindings, and wax skis in winter, cross country adventurers, white water kayakers who adore western Vancouver Island. Do they own a yellow vest.. not ! They range from late 60's to toddlers.. All think Jason Kenney is a jackass, and Scheer too. Their vote is private & I would never ask anyway. Strangely, they all collectively reflect my impression of British Columbians & Albertans ie 'Prairie Folk' from the various times I lived and worked there.. similar to Saskatchewan where I worked and lived as well.
I got a kick out of the son in law of my first cousin, lauding Jordan Peterson's fatuous comment that (paraphrased) 'Environmental protesters are just people trying to impress family or friends' .. Well I thought my disinterested awareness of this new media darling psychologist.. was parked in an elevator in a vacant basement.. but it plunged through the floor to hell, with a Tweet i caught from a close friend of The Boss.. Yes, it was Peterson and his daughter, flaunting their abs and pecs on a beach.. and seemingly its the cover of a book.. on how to cure Depression and Anxiety With Meat Only.. now I may forward that to my 2nd cousin by marriage.. as well as Premier Jason Kenney pimping his 'Conservative Prayer Breakfast with Pat Nixon'.. its a lovely, indeed holy poster that I will pontify on Facebook soonly !
We try to buy as much local/Ontario produce, not just for the environmental implications but also for the quality. After all, what is trucked in long distance is either picked before its optimum time or has already got that 'institutionalized' loss of flavour so well-known with imports. As for wine, I have to admit I buy from farther afield, usually Italy or Chile. The value and quality allows my alcohol budget to go much further than it otherwise would. I guess my point is that each of us can do something to reduce our impact. It does Not have to be all or nothing. My argument is with those who refuse to modify their habits even a little, à la I MUST have my beef EVERYDAY lest I become weak, a stance that betrays both dietary ignorance and contempt for efforts at climate-change mitigation.
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