EARTH DAY+ONE
Saturday, April 23, 2022
Hook, line and thinker …
Say that straight, or with a lithtp ~ and you’ve got to smile or laugh either way.
What are we falling for every day – when we read the news or hear someone set us straight on an issue, on their self-important, non-expert narrow view of a set of unchecked facts? Poilievre? Kenny? Trudeau?, and the list goes on.
We should be thinking for ourselves more often – more deliberately, and for a long spell before we open our mouths to share. I hit send too soon too often. I speak out and speak up more often than I should. I have messed up many things, but my failures have been a smaller number than what I’ve got right. And, like everyone, I have detractors, critics, opponents and competitors – none of whom see life through my lens.
And I realize I don’t see life through their lens either. These messes have taught me some things, but not enough yet.
Most things we cannot change in several lifetimes, but there is one we should. How we took care of our earth-home has never been great – and now our over-crowding and over-abusing resources have come home to roost. Some would say it came to roost a long time ago and many things are too far gone to be fixed by any actions we take now, but what other choice do we have?
Yesterday was earth day.
Just one day.
We need 365 of those!
Yesterday, earth day, and so it seems for everyone who ever hugged a tree and every corporation or government who says they love the environment, it’s a reminder – the ringing bell kind – that the time for every organization wanting to paint itself green, actually to do things differently. Pros/cons and hypocrites are abundant, but so are people who care deeply.
Our pandemic experiences have reminded us how interconnected and interdependent we are – and Mr. Putin’s war has underscored that we are perhaps too interdependent on many things. There are too many things to be done on too many fronts simultaneously that it seems too daunting to solve for X …
There is no magic policy, product, or process to fix everything. Those who blame it all on one cause or another as the root of all evils or the magic-bullet solution – are often proven wrong.
Turn on any media source, and if they weren’t covering the climate, they were covering the war in Ukraine or the COVID-19 variant du jour. Different day, same issues, same problems, same 8 billion people giving the earth one day of attention.
Many care and take proactive actions, but not nearly enough to incorporate a new standard for everything they do. Meanwhile, in Canada, the PMO decrees there will be compliance. Can they effectively demand change from 38 million people? Perhaps they should walk around and talk to Canadians – many will agree on the significance of the problem, but there are too many views – or too much avoidance – to build consensus on solutions.
It seems, from my viewpoint, in the energy-innovating engine of the country’s economy – perhaps a too-cynical view, mandarins in Ottawa don’t trust people to change, so they command us to change and then express dismay when we hate a carbon tax and the government strangling our primary industry to the mat while approving worthy offshore projects at the other end of the country.
In Canada, provinces have jurisdiction over resources, but lately, Ottawa seems to act as if they alone have the best interest of the country and the planet at heart. I’m sure most Canadians buy the theory of better practices around energy, climate, and emissions – but the days of blindly trusting the government to do it, or to make sure we do the right things, are a fantasy from another time.
That’s what I was thinking about on earth day.
Reader feedback:
Mornin’ Mr. Mark. As usual your common sense approach makes total sense … we might be ‘past it all’, but better safe than sorry, NB, Two Hills, AB