By Hilary Crowley

Sound Off

Time to get Serious about Environmental Degradation and Climate Change

Feb 13, 2020 | 8:00 AM

The recent Government report on use of plastics has identified that 80,000,000 tons of plastic exists in the ocean. This is all caused by us Humans and is causing death and destruction of our marine wildlife and the ocean itself. 9% of plastic is recycled in Canada and 80% goes to the land-fill. 1% winds up in the ocean but even this produces 29,000 tons of plastic annually. 50% of plastic waste is single use plastics. How can we all be so wasteful and complicit? Here in Prince George, the powers that be are seriously considering welcoming a petro-chemical plant into our midst. We are meant to be diminishing fossil fuel emissions and preventing expansion of the Tarsands as well as drastically reducing plastic waste getting into our oceans and environment. These goals do not fit with embracing a petro-chemical plant in Prince George. We are the current stewards. It is our responsibility to promote a healthy planet for future generations of not only humans but also of wildlife, which share the environment with us.

The manufacturers and providers of our food and products must be responsible for the products they produce. We can all stop using single use plastics. It always amazes me when people provide plastic plates and cutlery for community functions. We can all carry our own plates, cups and cutlery to functions in case the only other option is plastic. Organizers of these functions should be made responsible for the plastic they provide. Governments at all levels should be encouraging innovation in renewable energy. This could become a large employer. We can also simplify our lives so we need less cash. As we move to solar energy, our fuel and heating bills will reduce. If we grow our own food, we won’t need to buy processed unhealthy foods enclosed in plastic.

Electronic innovation allows for meetings at a distance negating the need to travel to meetings, which is excellent. Tele-health has also made great strides allowing for diagnosis and therapy from a distance. As we gradually embrace these innovations our need to travel should decrease. Many people now operate businesses from their home. It is important that municipalities consider the importance of community design enabling pedestrian access and negating the need for commuting.

Governments need to catch up to these trends. No more expansion of the Tarsands or promotion of LNG for export across the ocean. Does signing climate agreements mean nothing to our politicians? Lobbyists and corporate interests cannot be allowed to continue to run our country. This is meant to be a Democracy but giant logging companies make huge profits destroying our forests and then close community mills and put forestry workers out of work as well as jeopardise the viability of resource communities.

We need our forests in order to combat increasing carbon emissions. The boreal forest is an important carbon sink. The forests also retain water so that it is released gradually rather than rushing down a denuded hillside carrying precious top-soil and silting up our rivers. Wildlife of all descriptions need the forest for food and shelter. Bio-diversity is decreasing at an alarming rate and so many species have already gone extinct and many are threatened.

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Logs should be milled in the nearest communities to where they are harvested. We witness full logging trucks travelling north and south down the highway to mills hundreds of kilometers away, carrying the jobs with them. Apart from removing local jobs, this is also increasing use of fossil fuels on these ridiculously long journeys.

We, the people, need to speak up and take action to reverse these disturbing trends. When another election comes around, we should elect young people, who will be living in these degraded environments, to enable them to take the important steps required to bring sanity back to our planet. Democracy is “for the people, by the people” but we are not living up to our part of that bargain. We must take a stand and wrench corporate control away from our decision-makers. Indigenous communities also deserve more support.

Conservation North is doing a great job of enlightening us but they are preaching to the converted. We must do more. Let’s make a commitment to use no more single-use plastics, use fuel-efficient vehicles, travel less, buy locally produced products and food, grow our own and urge manufacturers to be responsible for the life of their products. These will be good modest New Years resolutions. We then need to organize and encourage groups, we are affiliated with, to take a similar stand so that eventually we will be the vocal majority, willing to act and make a difference. “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” – Barack Obama. Let’s Be the Change!