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See what tomorrow brings

September 18, 2020   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

Wouldn’t it be great if anyone knew what is going on and how to fix it? Well, scientists are pretty well agreed about the big picture – it’s a global disaster on so many levels and no one in power agrees to do anything about it. The Dutch are leading a world that barely cares in workable, green solutions to the terrifying times headed this way because of us beating up the planet as we are – with no signs of stopping.

One of America’s shining lights, always on the hunt for justice, Michael Moore, beloved of green supporters, was pounded for producing a doomsday movie, Planet of the Humans, which essentially said all efforts being made to go green are insufficient and going in wrong directions and that we’re finished, missed our chance to save the world. Done for.

Not the usual Michael Moore film, where his gig normally finds the faults – pokes a little fun at them, while laying the dangers open for all the see. Usually, he offers a way forward. So, if Michael is the Doom Meister, things are dark indeed.

In many ways, it’s hard to disagree. It is really hard to be okay with the Canadian government’s ostensibly buying into laying more pipelines, buoying up the gas and oil industry with tax payers money, never admitting that there has to be a major overhaul.

Recycling paper, someone told me, takes a lot of water. “If they stopped fracking,” I suggested, “maybe the water for paper would not be considered wasted, if it also reduced the level of logging being done – for more paper – for toilet paper.”

Coal and crystals and lots of energy go into making solar panels, which, after all return the favour by reducing harmful consumption of gas and oil to produce electricity. Making solar panels is a changing industry, with the advent of Organic Solar Cells or Organic Photovoltaic Cells, which are much more efficient and powerful. According to www.renewableenergyhub.co.uk, “It has been noted that the future of solar technology lies in organic power.Organic power has almost limitless possibilities thanks to the exceptional properties it possesses.”

We allow thousands of new houses to be built, chewing up some of the best farm land in the province, with nary a thought to the environment; no thought to good design; no concessions made to the excellence of material or the longevity of the buildings. Homes that are built down to the lowest standard. Yes, these are glad deals for developers and builders but hard times for consumers paying ridiculous prices and a continuing hard time for the environment with a citizenry, still mainly interested in profit. From the way the province, townships and municipalities do business, at the top, where the responsibility lies for caring about the environment, the monkeys are still in charge- still showing that only money matters. 

There are so many clear warnings, scientists issuing one dark fact of loss after another; yet, green gets little more than lip service by the powerful. We barely shake our heads and look sad. 

We are also restless, tired of not knowing whether our kids could and should go back to school, wanting to get together with our friends in a normal way, not to be frightened at every encounter, no hugging – just a friendly fist punch. Young people, naturally rebellious against authority and “the old guys,” do congregate without caution and the next day, the numbers are up and shop owners tremble at the idea of another close down.

Young people might be inclined not to believe it until they are coronavirus’ next victim, with the dangers to everyone older that they love, suddenly at risk.

Even this pandemic has not slowed industry down from travelling that same old road; has not encouraged governments to finally say, “Stop – change your tactics – begin moving on, away from fracking and drilling in tender regions.”

Imagine drilling and actually extracting oil from the Arctic – it’s unbearable but the plans are on many drawing tables. 

It is not so much a matter of Michael Moore’s film being yet another downer, it is the hopelessness with which ardent environmentalists regard the lack of progress, at the top. With far too little attention, there are thousands of steps in the right direction, brilliant inventions for disposal and regeneration, for sustainable farming and housing. Gardens on roof tops and all that. 

These are the news items that need to be spread; need to be main stream and demanded. Hype accounts for most buying behaviour; data is the new gold but how is it being used to persuade the people it spies on to spend their money? If consumers understood the importance of boycotting products and companies; if they cared, their resistance to being told where and what by the insidiousness of data management could turn the flow of the economy.

Big or small, our wallet voting is very powerful. It has to start with huge numbers of us demanding change in a very real way – by what we will and will not buy.

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