elissasmith.ca

My friend just sent me this article I wrote months ago and totally forgot about. It’s short and sweet and to the point!
Youth Challenge Ministers to Act on Climate Change or Human Settlements will Perish!

If you have any ideas on how to create an anti-oppression policy for an NGO please help me out. I’m drafting one for the Canadian Youth Environmental Network.

I notice lately that all the people I admire are skilled at expressing their ideas, they don’t even have to have mind-blowing, revolutionary ideas- just that they are able to express them.

I wish I was better at verbally and manually expressing my opinions. I just know in my heart that we’re destroying our planet and default our species. I don’t remember a time when I didn’t know this. Our forests are being cut down at the rate of 56 million acres a year, that desertification threatens 8 billion acres of land worldwide, that all of the world’s seventeen major fisheries are in decline and stand a decade away from virtual exhaustion, that 26 million tons of topsoil is lost to erosion and pollution every year. Maybe better communication skills will come with time- but there is such a sense of urgency, I feel that we don’t have time.

It so easy to just avert your eyes, it’s even encouraged by the media/government/corporations. The trio provides lots of other things to keep your attention; sports, fashion, movies, the latest music videos, wedge political issues… while they go about making their billions. I understand why people choose to look the other way, I sure want to sometimes. I think we all know deep down what’s going on- even the land-rover-driving-capitalist-pigs. We’re all just in various states of denial. Actually I know someone who is currently writing a book on this topic- George Marshal. I can’t wait to read it once he is done.

Before I didn’t really have a reason for our behaviour. I’ve only come to understand lately, that the reason we’re destroying our planet is because using the planets resources in a short period of time makes 350 residents of earth the billionaires, and 3 million millionaires. Their total net worth is estimated to exceed that of 45 per cent of the world’s population. They have all the power to use up the earth’s resources, market it to us as useful, create pollution and waste, and increase the enormous inequalities within and between all nations of the world. I worry that maybe I’m just pointing all the blame on someone because its easy.

Here is a really cute photo of my cousins on the Feagan side of my family swarming my grandmother on her 80th birthday.

My friend Cameron introduced me to this site today. It’s all about the idea of primitivism. One article I read really spoke to me “Five Facets of a Myth” by Kirkpatrick Sale. It does a good job at reflecting how I’ve been feeling about progress lately.

After an interview with the editor of the “Bundeskoordination Studentischer Ökologiearbeit”, a German environmental students newspaper, this article was written. It’s an oversimplification of the environmenal youth situation in “Kanada”. My favourite part is “ass-embly”

www.bsoe.info/fui
It’s the last issue entitled “Ausgabe 4/2004 Schwerpunkt: Internationale Umweltbewegung” scroll down to the 45th page.

Sea to Sky’s KYOTO RAP (C, Am, F, G)
Written by Tim Turner, Sea to Sky Outdoor School, Gibsons, B.C. This is the funniest rap I’ve ever heard. It’s sung around campfires.

I come with a message, my name’s Homey Yo!
Ya like it in brief? Okay – KYOTO!
This word of five letters just means simply this –
Keep Your Options Tomorrow Open or no doubt you will miss

Choices the future will deliver so long,
as we learn some restraint and stop doin’ what’s wrong.
There’s way more to this story if you open your eyes,
then wackier weather or sea levels that rise.

On a planet where everything’s interconnected
if something goes down the whole world is affected.
What’s causing this ruckus, what’s creatin’ this fuss?
You don’t have to look far ‘cause it’s all about us.

Convenience and ignorance with a dose of ‘don’t care’
and presto! A gas blanket that warms up the air.
Molecular garbage that’s easy to hide,
like C02, methane and nitrous oxides.

From the tailpipes of cars and people you meet
come these gases you can’t see creatin’ sponges for heat.
So they heat up the air causing glacial retreat,
ice pack starts shrinking while polar bears freak.

* chorus * * chorus *
These icecaps allow bear to hunt for their prey –
when they’re forced to the water it’s a very bad day.
Now summer’s are hotter and the rain doesn’t fall –
Wha’ dup for the salmon who re-spawn to their call?

Their ticket to home is a freshwater flow,
but with creek levels down there’s nowhere to go.
Spring comes too soon and Fall sticks around
til the pesticide winter, can-not be found.

Then out come the beetles that cold air killed off,
but not any more cause winter’s gone soft.
So the pine trees are hit by these teeth that can chew
and the forests die off – it’s a ‘bye bye for you’.

So we’re messin’ with Climate, that’s capital C!
There’s nothing that’s bigger that affects you and me
One of us each year produces 5 tonnes of gas –
those pesky GHG’s that make climates change fast.

So give up a tonne, take a carbon weight diet –
you’ll like what it does, for the world – so go try it.
To lose 1000 kilos just think Power of One
the belief that one homey can shed a whole tonne.

* chorus * * chorus *
It begins with desire to use a lot less
of old-school-fossil-fuels that make such a mess,
Of all those good things that can’t take the heat
so step number one – move more with your feet.

Then think about turning over a new leaf,
not having a cow by saying ‘no thanks’ to beef.
Or deciding its time to ride public transit
and instead of buying new decide you can fix it.

Since transporting goods creates GHG’s,
buying local, second-hand or in season is key.
So lower the thermostat replace incandescents
with bulbs that are twisters called compact fluorescents.

Tune into efficiency of fuel that you use
so that weather disasters take less of the news
And shorten your showers then go plant some trees
on your way to off loading a tonne, if you please.

So whether you’re here or whether you’re there
just activate what is under your hair.
Cause those choices you make can add to the heat
or get Canada much closer to goals we must meet.

* chorus * * chorus *
To drive down those heat trappers below 6 percent
from nineteen-ninety levels ‘cause that’s our intent.
But right now we’re too high – by some 26 percent
The amount we must lose to meet our commitment.

Now 95 countries have joined in the fight
to shrink their emissions, to downsize their bite
of the energy pie that’s just not renewable
and spend some good coin on clean power that is doable.

Like hydrogen, wind, hydro and solar –
if we just get movin’, see green and go forward
Act now with resolve and de-termin-a-tion
and be done with the waiting and pro-crasti-nation.

So Homey you see KYOTO’s a good thing –
where the phrase “less is more” has a real nice ring.
So sister listen up and look at me bro
there’s stuff that needs doing so the future can grow.

Hey! I’ll say what needs saying not to see some folks squirm
but to speak for the P bear and hope we can learn.
Our home’s overheating, there’s lots we can do
So the question keeps comin’… If not you homey – who?

* chorus * * chorus *
Chorus:
I say homies – everywhere, Home’s a hurtin’- do you care?
I say homies – you and me, Home’s a hurtin’ can you see?
I say homies – thems the facts, Home’s a hurtin’ – will you act?

MDG Youth Report Now Available for Review: Feedback Requested!
www.mdgyouthpaper.org

I would like to invite you to provide feedback to the Interim Report “Youth and the Millennium Development Goals: Challenges and Opportunities for Implementation”. The final draft of the document is expected to be completed in February 2005 so that it can be used as a lobbying tool and guideline for the 5-year review of the MDGs.

The goals of the report is to overview youth participation in the MDGs as it currently exists to
a) outline ways that youth are involved and affected by each goal;
b) demonstrate ways in which young people are currently contributing to the goals;
c) provide ‘Options for Action’ that governments, the United Nations system, donors and other actors can take in order to support young people in making significant contributions to achieving the goals.

For any questions contact Emily Freeburg at emilyf@youthlink.org

“People say they don’t care about politics; they’re not involved or don’t want to get involved, but they are. Their involvement just masquerades as indifference or inattention. It is the silent acquiescence of the millions that supports the system. When you don’t oppose a system, your silence becomes approval, for it does nothing to interrupt the system. People use all sorts of excuses for their indifference. They even appeal to God as a shorthand route for supporting the status quo. They talk about law and order. But look at the system, look at the present social “order” of society. Do you see God? Do you see law and order? There is nothing but disorder, and instead of law there is only the illusion of security. It is an illusion because it is built on a long history of injustices: racism, criminality, and the enslavement and genocide of millions. Many people say it is insane to resist the system, but actually, it is insane not to.”

Mumia Abu-Jamal

When in the course of human events, a country’s energy choices compromise the health, security and prosperity of its people, and causes global climate disruption, a new path must be taken. The future generations of Canadians have the right to a clean energy future, we have the right to a clean environment and we have the freedom to determine our path to this future. We demand that the Canadian Government make a strong commitment to energy efficiency as well as clean, renewable energy technologies such as wind and solar and phase out dirty energy technologies such as fossil fuels and nuclear incineration. As the majority of industrialized nations make the shift to a clean energy economy, Canada is falling behind and it is our generation that will pay the price.

Whereas our addiction to dirty energy has caused:
-economic stagnation from rising oil and transportation costs, energy shortages and black-outs;
-global warming, which already kills over 160,000 people every year due to more frequent and intense storms, severe droughts and floods, heat waves and through the spread of infectious diseases;
-An unsustainable reliance on dirty energy projects; such as the Proposed Mackenzie Gas Project and its potential fueling of the Athabasca Tar Sands in Northern Alberta, a project that can be expected to produce 70 megatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually by 2010- the largest single addition to Canada’s emissions at 12 per cent of Canada’s Kyoto target.

Therefore, we, the undersigned, demand that Canada:
-Declare Freedom from Oil! Our dependence on oil endangers not only earth’s climate, but out economy and our health. The proposed Mackenzie Delta northwest would open large parts of Canadian Artic to exploration, as energy companies try to replace dwindling reserves and feed growing natural gas markets in Canada and the United States. Canadians must further challenge the auto industry to significantly improve the fuel efficiency of the cars and trucks we drive and lead the way to zero emissions vehicles.

Democratize Energy Solutions! Communities across the country need to be empowered with self-determination. Whether it be a low-income community in a dense urban environment fighting the illnesses caused by the local coal plant or a First Nations Community in the North West Territories determining the future of the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline on their lands, communities deserve a determining voice in energy policy and project decision-making. We must ensure that NO communities or future generations are disproportionately ill-affected by our energy choices and we much declare a policy of clean energy solutions for all!

Invest in clean energy! Instead of spending 250 million a year subsidizing unsustainable energy projects like the Athabasca Tar Sands, our nation must invest in energy efficiency and a new generation of clean energy sources such as wind and solar, which will create millions of new jobs and improve our economy. The federal government should set a national goal to have 20 percent of our electricity come from clean, renewable sources by 2020.

Stop Global Warming! The Canadian Government needs to fulfill its commitment to the Kyoto Protocol. We cannot sit by and expect the targets to be met in isolation. Long-term strategies need to be developed, and implemented to ensure that targets are met and exceeded! Incentives need to be in place for wide spread energy reductions; requirements on efficiency standards and concrete demands for industry must correspond with individual reduction scenarios. ‘In 2001, Canada consumed 13 quadrillion Btu of energy and emitted 156 million metric tons of carbon. The industrial sector was the primary emitter of carbon dioxide and within the sector, six energy intensive industries accounted for 80% of these emissions. Per capita energy consumption ranks forth among OECD countries, and per capita carbon emissions rank third. Failure is not an option when it comes to climate change our future is at stake.

This October we, the youth of Canada, hereby call on the Canadian Government to stop dirty energy projects nation-wide; we appeal to the National Government to intervene in the Proposed Pipeline project and accord the First Nations communities with the ability to determine their future in the project; we call on all representatives of government to invest in clean and renewable energy. We call on Natural Resources Minister Mr. Efford, to back protection of resources, not the sale of them; and we call on all ministries of government to release their plans for getting us off dirty energy, In defense of our and future generations we declare our right to a clean energy future!

energyaction.net & Lindsay Telfor

“In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.”
Martin Niemoeller (1892-1984)