Category Archives: Making a Difference

How I’m Honouring Canada Day

canada-day-moose

I won’t be viewing fireworks or waving flags, but I did celebrate Canada Day by making a donation to the David Suzuki Foundation as a tribute to their passion in protecting the Canadian environment.

As well I will:

  • shop locally
  • read a book by a Canadian author
  • hike a local trail
  • and try (this is the hard one for me) to take a greater interest in Canadian politics to determine which party makes environmental concerns a priority.

This week I had the great fortune to explore two new (to me) local trails. On these hikes I saw a deer with her fawn, 2 beaver, a bear, a woodpecker, free range chicken (!), a bald eagle, a brood of baby ducks and numerous other birds. With each of these encounters I knew I was experiencing a ‘Canadian moment’, and marvelled at how all this wildlife can live in such close proximity to the city and still flourish.

The following quote comes from the David Suzuki Foundation, and reflects on personal values and how they can shape the kind of world we live in. I hope you’ll join me in being conscious of where we ‘direct our light.’

“The good news is that values that support a healthy society and sustainable planet — self-respect, concern for others, connection with nature, equality — also make us happiest in the long term. Each one of us is a value prism, subtly bending the light in a particular direction. As Canadians, let’s be conscious of where we direct our light.”

(Written with contributions from David Suzuki Foundation Senior Public Engagement Specialist Aryne Sheppard)

Meatless Monday

Meatless Monday 2Okay, today is Wednesday, but I just read in the Vancouver Humane Society (VHS) Newsletter that, “If all Canadians went meatless on Mondays, more than 100 million animals would be spared from a miserable life and death in our country’s factory farms.”

Whoa. That’s a lot of animals. I’m guessing this means over a person’s lifetime… but still. That’s just one day a week. What if we had Meatless Monday and Wednesday and Friday? Or everyday?

Pass it On

Apathy

(Photo credit: http://mrsgee.deviantart.com/art/Apathy-Bear-139883010)The greatest danger to our future is apathy. (Jane Goodall)

It’s so true, isn’t it?

Environmental concerns are what keep me awake at night, as do images of factory farming (animal factories) and poverty in 3rd world countries.  I fear for the future of my unborn grandchildren. What kind of a planet will they  inherit? What kind of society are we becoming?

And yet, do I speak up? Not often. I make contributions to organizations that are working to make a difference and I try to live in a way that leaves the least damaging footprint, hoping that I’m leading by example. But I know that is not enough. When I see other people’s apathy toward the state of our planet, or to absurd practises (ie. trophy hunting) I tend to keep my thoughts to myself.  I don’t like to make waves, but I guess that’s yet another form of apathy.

(Photo credit: http://mrsgee.deviantart.com/art/Apathy-Bear-139883010)

Thoughts from two more of my heroes.                                                                                                                    Apathy1Apathy2

A child who reads…

A child who reads

We know it’s important to feed our children nutritious food, to provide exercise and fresh air and to nurture and love them. I would argue that it’s equally as important to read to them when they are small and encourage them to continue to read as they grow older. It is through reading that they will grow to be truly empathetic, compassionate human beings, because, as Joyce Carol Oates says, “Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another’s skin, another’s voice, another’s soul.”

Would there be war, greed and intolerance if we could, indeed, slip into another’s skin?

I don’t think so.

And another quote by an unknown author. “I have never met a bigot who was a reader as a child.”

Neither have I.

(Photo credit: (Patricia Polacco)

The Real News

I found this on Facebook and thought it was brilliant. There are so many items I’d like to add under the What You Should Know About heading. I’d also like to change the YOU in the captions to WE on the left side and US on the right.                    news

Sadly, I’m afraid if the news did tell us what we should know about, no one would read it. It’s just too difficult to hear, unless there was always a how- an- individual-can-make-a-difference component added on. That’s really what we need to know.

Wrapping food the healthy way…

…. for you, your food and the planet. Made from hemp, cotton, beeswax, tree resin and jojoba oil, Abeego is a lovely smelling new food-wrap product.  It’s a reusable, biodegradable and antibacterial alternative to plastic wrap. You simply mold it over a container or around your left-over food. AbeegoFlats

No, I don’t own shares in the product. I simply tried it after reading a newspaper story about the young woman entrepreneur who created it. Now I love it so much that I’m buying it for all my friends. It’s everything it claims to be and I no longer have to feel uncomfortable about using that plastic throw-away (never to decompose) film. Every little bit helps our ailing planet.

http://abeego.com/

You CAN make a difference in a developing country

Hand Up

Loans that change Lives

Over the past few years I have had the opportunity to travel in India, Guatemala and Uganda. Seeing the poverty in these countries, especially in India where tourists are often swarmed by children and adults begging for money, food… anything, is agonizing. It’s hard to know what to do, it’s impossible to help everyone, and you come away feeling  helpless and uncomfortable about all that we take for granted back home. I have sponsored children, helped build schools in developing countries and have given money to various charities knowing that every little bit helps, but more recently I came across Kiva, an organization that uses your money to finance loans to individuals in developing countries. These loans help entrepreneurs to get their businesses off the ground. Sometimes it’s farming, sometimes it’s retail or even maintenance for cars and buildings. These loans are repaid, bit by bit, and you can simply reinvest the money into another individual’s business. Continue reading →

Jane Goodall’s Message of Hope

chimp motherJane GoodallJane Goodall turns 80 next week, yet she continues to give 300+ presentations around the world each year. She is my absolute hero for the work she has done with the chimpanzees in Gombe, but more importantly with her work as a conservationist. I saw her speak at the Vancouver Orpheum last night. After initially relating the story of her lost luggage that has yet to catch up with her she began to share her stories of living among the chimps in Africa.

When Jane began to speak the entire audience leaned forward, captivated.  In her soft British accent she spoke of the destruction of the chimpanzee habitat in Africa, as well as environmental concerns around the world. She wondered how we can send men into space, spacecraft to mars, but still allow the natural state of our planet to be destroyed. She said, “We have lost our wisdom… there has been a disconnect between the head and the heart.”

A disconnect. How profoundly true.

Continue reading →

Real Men Shoot With Cameras

Photo credit: http://walkingwiththealligators.wordpress.com/

“Trophy hunting is not about obtaining wild meat in a sustainable, environmentally sound way. It’s about killing large predators for the purpose of self-gratification and self-aggrandizement.” (The Vancouver Sun)

I don’t get it. Grizzly bears have a ‘special concern’ designation in Canada, they’re threatened in the US and yet trophy hunting is still legal here in BC. What’s with that? And what kind of ‘trophy’ is a grizzly bear head anyway?

It’s not the economic benefits… bear-viewing draws significantly more tourists to our province each year than bear-hunting.  We recoil in horror when we hear of rhinos and elephants being slaughtered for their tusks, but do we boycott establishments that hang bear or moose heads on their walls?

Let’s show the world that we are a province that treasures our wildlife. Ban trophy hunting now, and promote bear-viewing. Shoot wildlife with cameras.