I love to travel - I always have.  Living out of my suitcase is something I could do for the rest of my life, as long as I could visit my family frequently.  In fact I would say it is my family that keeps me in one place ~ I hate leaving them.   Although, one day I hope to say I have seen the world! I want to go everywhere!  I appreciate every place I have seen – all for different reasons.  I want to see and visit more and more ~ I love learning about people, culture, language, social norms, eating different foods and experiencing different landscapes.  The more I travel – the more I long to travel. Although, an aspect that is difficult to accept while traveling is observing how we destroy lands through clear cutting forests, littering, seeing dirty canals, waste dumping the list goes on- I don’t understand – if you enjoy the land- why wreck it by doing such atrocities?

Here is a little blurb that I wrote I didn’t finish it, although, I don’t think my thoughts on the environment will ever be finished – I can go on & on about the environment so don’t get me started!

Environment ~ Environment ~Environment

It consumes my thoughts.  I don’t understand how people don’t care about it.  Do people not comprehend – the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, the natural materials we turn into consumption are all part of the environment?!

We push the government to take our environment seriously. In fact I worked at an environmental advocacy group called Pembina ~ we lobbied the government ~ and one form of lobbying was sending Jean Chrétien thousands of signed petitions to push for the Kyoto Accord.  Nothing happened- nothing mentioned.  After he left office and Paul Martin became Prime Minister, Chrétien’s farewell speech was filled with the importance of not going to war and of course the environment- all of which he ignored while in power. Today our government mentions implementing environmental policies over the next couple of years and this program will last until 2050.  Right now our government is having talks about when we are going to start talking about doing something.  We need to take action- yesterday!  We know what needs to be done- we don’t need to talk about it talking about it- we need to implement.

Protecting our environment does not go hand in hand with a consumer capalist society.

We make products that don’t last.  We constantly consume.  We create mounds of garbage and waste.  Our generation is sooo very wasteful. 

We believe that because we have technology we are more advanced.  I see us as less advanced.  We care about what we own, not what’s within.  Each individual consumes & wastes daily.

We protest to the government to ~ ‘Stop Big Business’ ~ What about the individual???

Hey all you individuals out there are part of this mess too!

The waste in my office is appalling, gut wrenching!  When I speak up in regards to the waste- I get the response of anger & annoyance.  What is that?!  I don’t understand how one could not care.

Individuals work for big companies- at the end of the day it is up to EVERYONE to take part.  And there are so many ways in which you can make a difference.  Hey just because you recycle doesn’t mean you’ve done your part.  Recycle time is not enough; what about smarter consumption, less waste, energy alternatives, ect.

In the hall way of my office is a bin full of boxes of thrown away paper, books, envelopes- a new colour was added to the logo and instead of using up the rest of these materials they are being thrown away- perfectly good unused material- and the worst part about it- will the consumer or the person receiving that letter really notice the new colour in the logo or even care?  Decisions like these leave me speechless.  Thinking is backwards.  Cut backs in so many areas, - yet we can afford this waste?!#$#^*!!

Individuals need to feel they are responsible for the environment- speak up & take action.  People need to realize that a bunch of one’s together does make a difference.

Yes YOU- the individual- you either add to the problem or help the problem - what is your choice?

In terms of weather and global warming – I am dumfounded by some of the comments that come out of some people’s mouths. A co-worker boasted about the mild weather and then added ‘I love global warming’.  I responded to this individuals comement -

“Then you wouldn’t mind floods, hurricanes, massive havoc with mother natural around the world all at once?  Did you not see what happened with Hurricane Katrina, or the tsunami, other floods, & storms around the world these last few years?  Did you not see all the state of emergencies happening at once?  Do you not understand that this could happen on a larger scale with global warming.  The melting of the Artic & Antarctic could cause major floods & we could have major droughts on other parts of the world and there may not be enough armies or resources to help everyone.  That is a very questionable consequence of global warming tied up in a nutshell.”