Reflection

On the debate team you are taught very early on to separate your arguments into five different arguments; political, economic, moral, religious, social, and environmental. However, I believe environmental is not a separate topic but rather a field that needs to and is merging with all these topics. Environmental issues are everyone’s issues.

It is a political issue not only because 89% of Canada is crown land (41% federal, 48% provincial) but also because our governments create the policies and subsidies that preserve and support our environment. Our government has a great responsibility to preserve our invaluable resources. For this reason I believe the government must weigh the economy and environment the same. If economic growth comes at the price of environmental degradation I want my leaders to be say ‘no’ to corporations. If the Wall street protest develops further, as I hope it will, this will become the reality.

This leads into my next topic; economics. For my own interest and for this final summative I have begun to research the connection between economics and the environment. What I have found thus far is astounding. From an economic stand point, nature is far more valuable than all countries’ GDPs combined. It is more valuable than any corporation. Once people understand this, desolation and exploitation must and will stop at once. Even in our capitalist society is would be absolute and pure foolishness to do anything but rehabilitate and preserve nature. The way we use resources is already changing, but not fast enough.

That is why the environment can not only be looked at from only those two topics. From a moral and religious standpoint it is not the right of citizens to choose green lifestyles, but our responsibility. It is wrong for us to forfeit our children’s inheritance for a quick buck and an excessive lifestyle. What we are doing is wrong and sinful. This is another change that has occurred in the past few decades the development of an understanding of eco-crimes. In time people may be fined or charged for pouring chemicals down sewer grates.

Finally from a social standpoint environmental issues are actually very important. The UN speculates that the next war in the Middle East could be over water, not oil. Water is becoming more precious, rare, and polluted. If we do not protect our planet our quality of life will inevitably decrease. We are not above nature.

This is what the problem is, our mentality. The mentality that we and our lives are not a part of nature, we separate ourselves from it and the responsibility to protect it. It is a means to an end, the end being to support our economy, meet our social “wants”, and gain political power. We do not understand that our lives depend on nature and that what we are doing is causing the collapse of our economy, quality of life, and political integrity.

It was once said to “Watch your thoughts, for they become words. Watch your words, for they become actions. Watch your actions, for they become habits. Watch your habits, for they become character. Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.” We have not watched out thoughts and have allowed them to be corrupted by greed and ignorance and now we are reaping a destiny of corruption.

The world has, is, and will always be riddled with greed. However, there are stronger emotions than greed. The love for one’s family, for one’s offspring especially, is a far more powerful inherent nature. I cannot stress enough the need for people to not see this planet and its resources as their god-given-right to exploit but as their legacy and as their children’s inheritance. It is written in the gospel of Matthew that even evil men know how to give good gifts to their children. If people could realize that the future is a gift I believe our generation would step up to protect it.

But how do you teach people these truths when they are being constantly bombarded by the American Dream and desiring to provide this for their children? I think David Suzuki got it right, “education has failed in a very serious way to convey the most important lesson science can teach: scepticism.” This is where the ignorance plays its part. Education is the way to destroy this ignorance and empower citizens to question the status quo and not take everything at face value.

Changes in heart and mentality are what I think need to happen. Then technologies will develop and choices will be made to make our lifestyle sustainable. Today’s greenwashing scam will not last but an understanding of what our environment means will. If we continue to focus on the science only and pour out new technologies then when ‘green is no longer the new black’ these initiatives will be abandoned. Yet if we focus only on the heart matters then it will be written off as “hippie idealism”, impossible to accomplish, quite laughable, and will become dreams of the past that will haunt future generations. But with both I believe the changes that need to be made to create sustainable lifestyles will take place.