little bitty girl

Earth Day came and went last weekend. I've been thinking a lot about my life and how I live. I remember when I was first introduced to the concept of Earth Day. It was in grade seven and I thought to myself,"OK, this is something new and interesting." I guess you can say that interest has stayed with me ever since.

There have been a lot of debates lately from oil producers and disbelievers of global warming. So much so, that there already is new documentary out to counter Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth." I believe they're calling it "The Great Global Warming Swindle." Currently in Canada, British Columbia has implemented the watching of "An Inconvenient Truth" to be mandatory in social studies classes. A big oil producer in that province wants to donate large sums of money to make sure "The Great Global Warming Swindle" is also part of that curriculum to give "youth the chance to make an educated decision" about this great debate.

I can't help but be skeptical of big corporations who want to fund the idea that global warming is a natural phenomenon and not a man-made problem. Because at the end of the day, they're the ones who have the most profit to lose should there be a bigger movement to make society conscious of how consumerism impacts the world they live in.

Which also brings me to this point - and this may sound completely naive - but why does every decision made based around money? It's always all about the bottom line with no thought to the consequences of gaining that huge profit. Recently, the Minister of Environment stated that in order to meet emission standards for Kyoto would spark a recession in the economy. (I spit on you, greedy grubbing Harper Government). I just think this kind of attitude, especially from a politician, is so irresponsible. It basically gives corporations a reason not to be accountable. I am of the firm belief that being socially/environmentally conscious can go hand in hand with being profitable. I am sure that money is gonna make you real happy when we've totally fucked the planet we live on and your children/grandchildren live in a planet with no trees/animals and completely polluted air.

My stance is this, that even if if global warming doesn't exist, it doesn't take a person with a PHD to figure out that the more crap you put out, the more polluted the world is going to be. Because there just isn't anywhere for that crap to go. I don't get why living a more responsible life is such a bad thing. All it really takes to be more environmentally conscious are making small choices, and you'll wonder after a couple of months why you never did it earlier.

Sure, Stefan and I are not perfect; but we are making efforts to be more careful about the choices we make about how our lives are impacting the lives of our future children. If you're looking for other sources of inspiration of women debating about alternative choices and thinking about this issue, read this incredible collaborative blog, Sew Green.