Re: "My point … and I do have one: Green with anger," by Max Silverman (15.09.09)
Having worked as a journalist, I understand the need to find an angle. But I found Max Silverman's "Green with Anger" sacrificed a great deal for a cynical, tired, and unhelpful "back in my day" attitude.
While I agree that much more needs to be done, Silverman ignored many initiatives working to "change our disastrous course," instead choosing to focus on the pitfalls of ill-researched "green" behavioural change. If you're talking about direct action, burning paper maché globes isn't exactly grand compared to the Rainforest Action Network's 70-foot Tar Sands banner hung from Niagara Falls on September 14 or the Greenpeace action that shut down a Shell Tar Sands operation the same day. Globally, Avaaz's ?TckTckTck campaign will host over 1,000 "Climate Wake-Up Call" actions on September 21, and 350.org's International Day of Climate Action already has over 1,500 actions planned in 114 countries for October 24. In the lead up to this December's UN climate negotiations in Copenhagen, millions of people around the world are making their voices heard. Or, closer to home, Silverman could have mentioned the 30-plus student groups at McGill that work on green issues from composting and local food to developing faculty sustainability policy and integrating sustainability into the curriculum (see www.ssmu.mcgill.ca/environment for more details). Or that McGill students are among key organizers of our nation's biggest ever youth climate event, Power Shift Canada (October 23-26 in Ottawa).
Certainly some companies greenwash, and certainly environmentally-conscious decisions need to be made carefully. But how does telling people that nothing is being done - and that their attempts to do their part are bound to be ineffectual - contribute to the task at hand: doing what we can to mitigate climate change and developing adaptation strategies for what we've already set in motion? Come off it, Max. Environmentalism isn't dead just because it's more politically acceptable - and since you've already got that canvas bag, you might as well make use of it.
Maggie Knight, U2 BASc Environment & Economics
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