What’s Next for Climate Activists?

It’s possible that I am too trusting, to quick to believe without proper rigorous analysis. Likely, in fact. How else to explain my long-standing dislike of fossil-fuel powered transportation dating as far back as early high-school when my powers to examine evidence could in no way have been as well developed as they are now, and yet I was already willing to structure my personal lifestyle in such a way as to fit with a low-carbon economy? More likely, I suppose, is that I’m willing to employ common sense and listen to reason in governing my life, and to me it’s always been reasonable that affecting the composition of the atmosphere could have a dramatic impact on the planet. Action-reaction, cause-effect, knowing pollution-consequence.

In Grade 10, my public speaking presentation happened to be on the topic of climate change, in which I floated such fear-mongering examples as major cities such as New York being largely underwater (I distinctly recall first-aid specialists being called in to revive people).

Since that time, I never felt the desire to get my hands on a car and a driver’s licence like most everybody else my age. Simply wasn’t a priority. Cars just didn’t fit with the way I felt people ought to live life. So, I’ve done ok utilizing the public transit option, and predominantly, my bicycle. They’re choices which are only now starting to pay benefits, as I explore social networks centred around the car-free lifestyle and healthy eating and localized food production. Not to mention the fitness I gain, as my metabolism starts to slow down and my intake of calories is harder to control.

In fact, now that Copenhagen is almost universally deemed a failure, and a few less than flattering leaked e-mails have wreaked literal havoc with the momentum toward economic transition away from fossil fuels, the option seems to exist for me to throw in the towel, accepting that humanity has chosen its fate, and as James Lovelock says it’s best to do, get prepared for the inevitable warming instead of trying to stave it off. How best to prepare? Possibly by using a vehicle to increase my efficiency.

However, having gotten accustomed to alternative transportation by wanting my choices to be in line with what I thought public policy should be, I’ve realized it’s worth sticking with in any regard. To spend $500-$1200 a month on a car is frighteningly common, and still, how many people do you know who don’t have some kind of altercation involving ICBC that they can point to? Those who can structure their lives to avoid the automobile will have a huge competitive advantage over those who remain tied to them. This goes for everything, from the place where you live, to the location and means of accessing the workplace, to the property you own.

People who use their own power to get around, or use mass transportation will be far healthier also; they will save the time in the gym to get their cardio, and on mass transit, they will be able to do constructive activities while travelling, from talking on the phone to writing reports or other documents, (not to mention sleeping while someone else is paid to drive).

A month or two ago, I made a an agreement with a skeptical friend of mine who was sending out e-mails that claimed to “debunk” climate change, or at least anthropogenic climate change. The deal was that we would both rigorously analyze the evidence, responding and examining each point made by both sides to come to a final conclusion.

Neither of us has done a damn thing.

I haven’t had the time to spend multiple evenings poring over arcane scientific reports, seperating them from the reports meant only to deceive, sow doubt, protect the fossil-fuel industry, and create confusion. If someone like me, who is pretty damn near convinced that things have gotta change and fast doesn’t have the time to pore over every last shred of evidence, what hope is there for the average working person who simply wants to enjoy his life and not get hung up on things that don’t affect him/her beyond next week?

I stand by my maxim that the risk of doing nothing if climate change is anthropogenic is far, far, greater than the risk of creating an economic transition if it turns out that anthropogenic climate change is false.

I believe it was Exxon who authored the leaked report that said that their product now was doubt. Create doubt, and the people would do nothing and government action would be rendered ineffective. Evidently, that strategy has been wildly successful, something I’m a little bitter about.

Still, I’m not caving to the pressure to become vehicle dependent – not yet, at least. I still see too many benefits, mostly financial ones, but also physical and social to not operating a car, and too many drawbacks to doing so. I still wholeheartedly support policies to regulate carbon emissions, as it just makes sense to derive revenue from activities we don’t like, and thereby encourage the ones we do, such as earning income. Lower income taxes in favour of taxing things that create pollution, whether they’re affecting the climate or not. Revenue stays the same, which means so do services, but activities that harm society are made less competitive.

What must we do? We must continue to press our governments, peers, and business leaders for meaningful concrete action in the off chance that so doing will minimize the damage. Today’s youth can hardly be said to be responsible for what may happen, since by the time I and my peers are in a position to have meaningful influence, the moment for action will have long passed, and as somebody famous put it, we will be in an era of consequences, not the current lull.

So to the young people, don’t sweat it; advocate for and support legislation such as the carbon-tax recently floated at the federal level, but don’t get too down if governments do not respond. It’s really not your fight.

No, the fight has been in the ball-park of today’s decision makers, and boy, have they ever dropped this ball. Your fight is to make sure you’re ready for the changes that are coming, and that in the future, decisions are not so horribly influenced by the moneyed and empowered elites whose primary interest is the status quo rather than the common good.

Once more…

An ad-hoc academic roadmap for me, because as I’ve desperately been trying to convince myself, having that Bsc Geog. has definite value. Had I the choice over again, I would not enroll, but being halfway there, it’d be the height of foolishness not to finish.

By studying summers and having a full schedule for two years, three at the absolute most, I can put this episode behind me once and for all. The choice is clear enough; either I forfeit two years of work, or I push through, take each day as it comes, learn to prepare simple, raw, foods, run and work-out often, do the homework, and get to know my bio-region, in the knowledge that it will be worth it to have the letters after my name, but that so much of the required drudgery is inane, repetitive, frustrating, and represents skills often better acquired through on the job experience then through distant and real-world removed theoretical application.

Focus, focus, focus. Suck it up, man.

Becalmed

So it’s not really a secret to those who know me and see me around the campus frequently that everything’s not quite all right with the good ship streamrambler. I attend most of my classes, but just allow my mind to wander all over or do nothing at all instead of focusing on the subject matter.

Outside of class, it’s rare to find me concentrating on any particular assignment for more than five minutes. I’d hoped it would be different this semester; that I’d recapture the drive and motivation that propelled me to upper-echelon grades all throughout my elementary, high-school, and early university years.

As it is, I can’t pinpoint why academics is going so badly; sure I can be a little scatterbrained and unfocused, but not enough to provoke such complete and utter dereliction of my academic duties. It’s only because I’m stubborn as hell that I’m still hanging around this university; well, that and the intellectual environment, and heck, throw one in for all the ambitious young ladies gallivanting around the place for factors that keep me around.

Really I can only speculate as to what is happening. My grades in the last while tell the real story. Perhaps the biggest shame is all the time that I spend behind a computer screen in an effort to put some thought and study into my classes, but really, I’m too academically demoralized to even bother putting in real effort. Too long have I put aside activities which would improve my creativity and skills in favour of putting time into academics, only to idly wile away the time, hoping, ever hoping, that my mindset would change. Superficially I am intensely interested in the proper derivation of statistics and the characteristics of streamflow and the like, but in reality I am past actually caring about them.

In reality, I want to write, and play with words and languages, hike and learn to woodwork, play the banjo and cook superbly, live simply and work towards sane economics. These things and more of course are promised upon graduating, but reality doesn’t often work out quite that way if the current crop of asset-laden retirement challenged baby boomers is any indication. I have to shape my reality, but perhaps I have lost faith in the ability of merely an undergraduate degree to allow me to do that, and the prospect of four more years of university is absolutely terrifying. The year that I delayed following high-school now seems soooo lacking; in it I worked to save for post-secondary and did streamkeeping work, but in hindsight I was not nearly ambitious nor keen enough in how widely I engaged myself.

It’s now to the point where I feel as if every moment that I’m writing a reference list, compiling a graph of data, filing a report, etc. etc. that I’m sacrificing a moment that I could be using to learn to repair my car and bike, be a better cook, pluck the strings on my banjo, or read the rest of Snyder’s writing, for instance.

It’s long term thinking you need, streamrambler. But all those (insert mildly disparaging word here) who keep remarking to me that I must be almost done by now aren’t doing UFV any favours.

If they want to hang on to my tuition money for the final years of my degree that is.

And we still ask why….

Snuffed.

My emotions are a little raw today.

I’m deeply attached to our local waterways. They sustain our water, our wildlife, our salmon. In short, they sustain us.

I was on the way to Aldergrove on the Edith Griese Line today (the #21 Abbotsford-Aldergrove) when I got a call from a Salmon Stalker. There were dead fish all over the creek she said. Little ones, big ones, they’d gone belly-up in the most literal sense.

Before I got back to Abbotsford, I’d received another call from a Stalker who’d seen salmon fry dying at her feet this morning.

I took the #1 Go-Line up to Stoney Creek and got off on McKee, and walked down to Bateman Road. Sure enough, dead coho salmon fry as well as cutthroat trout and even some eel littered the banks of the creek, little white smudges on the rocky streambed. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of them.

More info to come. But ought we really to be amazed when our salmon runs continue to diminish?

Something’s Gotta Give…

What did you do this weekend?

Did you go to a concert? Have friends over for a drink and a night of DND or board games? Work? Go for a hike?

Because I didn’t do anything like that.

No, I spent almost the entire weekend campaigning for the implementation of a Connector route between Chilliwack and Abbotsford. Obviously, I have no life.

With the help of Students for Sustainability, the Student Union in 2008 passed a referendum to implement a Universal Bus Pass, in effect since September of 2009. At the time, I was heavily involved with Students for Sustainability, and we endured criticism for supporting a U-PASS (which everyone pays for whether they like it or not) that doesn’t involve a connecting route between Chilliwack and Abbotsford.

We were letting the government off the hook, they thought, by enabling the transit agency to receive the benefit of guaranteed revenue without providing the service that UFV students and others needed. The benefits for UFV students however, far outweighed the drawbacks, so we supported the proposal. And promised to campaign for a Chilliwack – Abbotsford connector.

This weekend we picked up 387 signatures on this petition, bringing the total up to between 5 000 and 5 500. It took Edith Griese of Aldergrove 6 000 signatures and inhuman persistence to bring some common sense to our government and get a bus service between Abbotsford and Aldergrove. Any self-respecting politician should accept that the same number should do the same for Abbotsford – Chilliwack.

The signatures were collected from the Chilliwack Home and Leisure Show. I heard countless people lament the inability of their son, daughter, nephew, niece, or cousin to attend class at the UFV campus they had to be at to attend their program of choice. I heard from others who commuted for years, but would gladly have jumped on a transit service had it been available. Perhaps an even more common refrain was a lament for the lack of a passenger rail service between Chilliwack and Surrey.

All told, I spent 21 hours this weekend at the Home show, when I could have out doing who knows what. Snowshoeing somewhere. Working on photography skills. Web-design. Schoolwork (sigh….the poor books…) What I did get out of the Home Show was a chance to see dozens of entrepreneurs hard at work, hawking products they themselves had made, designed, or imagined. Offering services many of us could undoubtably use. Cleaning products galore. Fudge around every corner it seemed. An infrared cedar sauna.

And then there was the guy next to my booth. The fellow who didn’t want to pay for public transit he would never use, being quite happy to leave the fair town of Chilliwack to the automobile, to allow it to continue to sprawl out over the hillsides while all its citizens drive to every last one of their destinations. The one I ignored for the first day, but couldn’t resist engaging on the second. Four hours later….we’d established exactly nothing, my contention that public transit with a government subsidy was a necessary and logical thing, given the ecological challenges we’ve created, making no inroads into his hard-line free market worldview whereby public transit should only exist on its own merits, without a helping hand from the government. Part of it is the old myth of the man, his castle, and his chariot, whereby everybody works to earn his own transportation and living quarters with which to care for his family.

With 2.5 million people in this Valley, we simply can’t do that any longer. Would I like to have my own little paradise, to shape, decorate, and landscape as I will? Without a doubt. Can we all do that, and still have any kind of a home left? Not a chance. It goes back to Thoreau’s prescient maxim, namely, “What good is a house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?”

Is the campaign worth my entire weekend? Probably not really. At some point, I’ll probably accept that the people of this region seem to want their very own little world, without any interference from their neighbours or the government. Or if that’s a little harsh, at least that they want the freedom to pay for and park their very own vehicle, just like everybody else, when one vehicle among twenty would probably suffice for inter-regional transportation, and the use of the bike or one’s own feet would suffice locally. At that point in time, maybe I’ll build myself a shack on an island and leave the people to their individualistic pursuits.

But for the time being, meeting an old classmate from way back in elementary, an old supervisor of mine, a fellow Geographer, and bandying words with a good old fashioned private enterprise loyalist, all while having my entrepreneurial spirit raked over the embers by all the business owners present was quite worth the loss of a weekend.

But then, what did you expect me to say? As human beings, is there anything we can’t rationalize?

Mouths of Babes

In a particularly memorable strip which several hours of reading C&H online didn’t uncover, Calvin snidely but oh so accurately replies to some snivelling easy to please character (I don’t think it was Hobbes) who tells him that things could be a whole lot worse by saying that, “Things could be a whole lot better too!!”

It’s a line that perfectly describes how more people SHOULD respond when someone tells them that Canadians still have a much better quality of life than many in other parts of the world. Is that true? Yes. Does that mean we should be satisfied to leave it at that? Not at all.

I’ll expand on this topic in the coming weeks and possibly months, but it’s clear to me that even as retirement plans fall on their derriere’s, young folks increasingly feel the economic pressure to contribute to their parent’s situation as well as prepare to raise families, and poverty continues to co-exist, as it inevitably does, with excessive wealth, that things are not as rosy as people too often make them out to be.

Walking on Granville yesterday, it warmed my heart to see a trio of young folk actively petitioning the Canadian government to increase its level of foreign aid to some overseas nation. I happily signed the petition, though heavenly onlookers can debate until the cars leave the roadways whether my primary motivation was the plight of the affected people in whichever nation it was, or whether it was the charming smile of the young lady holding the clipboard.

Knowing what it’s like to approach strangers with a petition, and being a fervent and eternal admirer of unabashed idealism, I scribbled down my details before going on my way. I still play with Thoreau’s concept of giving away the 90% instead of merely the 10% as well as with the Biblical admonition to do good deeds away from the eyes of men and not broadcast them, and then – knowing that money is tight, I stay well away from my chequebook, lest I do a Chris McCandless and fill into the box the entire amount (and then feel compelled to likewise vanish to roam the continent rather than face up to those whom I owe money….)

Her tag-line is to “Give me liberty, or give me more liberty,” and truly it is liberty that will save our souls; whether this frail physical body will permit it is another story altogether. Perhaps those who tell you that we Canadians are better off than many others think they have liberty. Unless they are part of the elite few, most of them will be wrong in the material sense, as daily they are forced to trade their life energy for a worthless electronic figure, and even the ones who are correct materially speaking, are almost certainly erroneous in the spiritual sense. As it takes most a lifetime to realize, money speaks…

If you think that as a Canadian you have liberty, ask yourself why you cannot take the time free to assist those who you know are in need of help, whether it would be with your physical body, or with the money for which you traded your life energy? Ask yourself why do people still unwillingly search for a place to lay their heads at night, if our society does not automatically create one or more losers for every winner?

As Canadians, I have no doubt that we can do better than this; that we can transcend the blinkered worldview that says that because there are people that are worse off that we have nothing to worry about; that poverty and social inequality are inevitable; that eternal growth is imperative lest we face economic or cultural Armageddon.

The coming years will see a parade of spending cuts, increased deficits, and more and more taxes that will be cleverly presented so as to make them appear inevitable and those who oppose them selfish.

Try to ignore the clamor of voices that decry the cuts on the one hand, and decry higher taxes on the other. The left hand knows not what the right is doing (yes, been a Biblical parable kind of day for me).

Find and observe both hands, and then show that you’ve the smarts to understand and the courage to try to change things.

The Long Haul or Just Visiting?

Welcome to 2010, blog dogs (as Garth would say).

This park commemorates Abbotsford's struggle against the Sumas Energy 2 power plant.

Most of you who read here are from the eastern Fraser Valley or have spent some time here, so apologies to those whom this post means nothing.

Two years until the end of the world, according to some. Best get out and enjoy it – although a certain book says the end of the world, when it comes, will come when nobody is expecting it, so I think that rules out 2012.

Shucks. Would have been nice not to worry about credit card balances, RRSP’s, the price of real estate, student loans, or the amount of time left on the mortgage, wouldn’t it? If somebody’s going to kick your can anyway, it sure would be nice to know in advance so you can rack up some nice debts and not worry about, wouldn’t it?

Unless, that is, you actually care about your creditors, in which case you’ll be in a bit of a bind if you want to avoid screwing over the people who’ve lent you money, in case whoever assures you the game’s up is just plain wrong. Then again, maybe somebody will remind you that the planet as a whole is in 52 trillion dollars of debt, and how exactly does that work, anyhow? If nobody else is in the black, why should you be?

To bring things back to my backyard, yes, 2010 has hit your community. If you live in the Eastern valley, what do you want to see here in 2010? The economy here hasn’t done too poorly, buoyed in large part by a housing market that merely coughed while other markets, particularly in the States, nose-dived. It’s meant that things have generally been business-as-usual here. Population growth remains a hallmark of the region, with seeming growth in the homeless population to match. Big-ticket entertainment has come here, as the WHL Bruins in Chilliwack have been joined by the AHL’s Heat in Abbotsford at our posh, pricey, new Sports and Entertainment Centre.

A new gas tax proposal to deal with underfunding of road budgets has been bandied about in the local papers, mostly drawing furious splutters which I felt just by reading the newspaper….

Yes, Abbotsford’s becoming a big-city. The buses still stop running at 10:00 p.m. and at 6:00 on Sundays, and only Tim Horton’s and a few dreary, forced-fun bars are open after 11. The development of the Discovery Trail, a cross town paved route meant for recreation, continues, cutting a sword-like swath through some natural areas, but also increasing the options for Abbotsford residents to work on their fitness. Eventually it’ll allow people here to walk, run, roller-blade, or cycle from Fishtrap Creek right over to McKay Creek and the Sumas River on the other side of Sumas Mountain. I’ll certainly use it, while wincing at the further intrusion of urbanity on wild areas.

In fact, the entire South Fraser region is fast becoming more interconnected, a fact which the Discovery trail is only a small symbol of. Judging by media reports, the momentum toward reviving the InterUrban and creating a slick passenger rail system that would connect the communities all the way from the Surrey skytrain stations to Chilliwack seems to have stalled. Will Rail for the Valley make a revival and once again push passenger rail into the forefront of people’s consciousness?

And there’s still no transit connection between Abbotsford and Chilliwack, short of the Greyhound which really doesn’t cut it. Once again, go here to sign the petition to support at least getting a city bus route to connect Abbotsford and Chilliwack in the way that Mission and Aldergrove have connections to Abbotsford.

Look closely, and you'll see a new set of bike lanes, a transit bus, and a gas-guzzling pick-up. This picture nicely illustrates Abbotsford's transportation dilemma.

UFV and the Abbotsford International Airport continue to be two of Abbotsford’s major institutional players and economic drivers. UFV of course, was only recently known as UCFV, or the University College as opposed to its present University status. I must say, it’s been nice to claim attendance at an actual University. Perhaps in 2010 Abbotsford will finally run a frequent transit service to YXX (the airport). Also, UFV has the opportunity to establish its very own research forest, on an area of Sumas Mountain with some forested land that is fast achieving old-growth status. Will this land merely be logged for its wood to possibly be exported raw for processing, or will it be set aside for the people of Abbotsford to appreciate, and for students of UFV, in Biology, Geography, and other programs, to learn from?

Here’s hoping that even as the community of Abbotsford broadens its links to its neighbouring communities through public transit, that its citizens draw together to eliminate the poverty gap and support its less fortunate. Making poverty history is a goal that is entirely within Abbotsford’s grasp, and will be a key part of moving the city toward sustainability. In fact, I’d venture that sustainability won’t be achieved if we can’t deal with the social ill of poverty first.

This is, of course, only a smattering of the issues that Abbotsford and the neighbouring communities will want to address. They’re some of the ones that jump out at me. Doubtless there a great many more that I’ve missed. I hope that the city’s managers can find the creativity and sense of cooperation to rise above the current budgetary disagreements, and create solutions even where the money might be lacking.

Abbotsford, thou epitome of suburbia, welcome to 2010. Will it bring more of the same, or make Abbotsford a place that youth, elders, First Nations, the workers, and all the others will be proud to call home?

Just for fun - a pic of a landscaper's tool.

Sheathed

Let no one ever remark that I do not care anymore. It is said that idealism precedes experience which is followed by cynicism, and that may be the typical progression. But seeing as I have already reached cynicism, what is next? I cannot spend the rest of my life there, but neither can I spend much more of my life opposing the forces of poverty and ecological degradation in minimally effective and relatively inconsequential ways. The cost in life energy is simply too high in relation to what is achieved.

So I will change the way I do things, somewhat. Sure, I will still cycle places. I will still tend my garden in an effort to produce some food from my backyard. I will still walk my creek to get an idea of how many spawning salmon return to it. But I will try to limit how much time I give up to these things; perhaps 5 hours per week is reasonable.

What I do not want is for people to encounter me, and to shake their heads sadly, remarking that “he used to care so much – what happened?” The passion will still be there; the policy opinions and analysis of how things stand, and my purchasing habits will continue to reflect that(I am a sucker for greenwashing). Now and again I will have a lapse, and burst into a tirade directed at those who think they have to get into their cars for every little errand and buy whatever they happen to want without any kind of conscious evaluation of what they are supporting by where they direct their money. But I will try my best to clam up and not be too self-righteous in that regard, while I try to carve out for myself a means of self-support, in the knowledge that one day I will want to have a little piece of turf with a comfortable, modest house, a whole slew of birdfeeders, and an expansive native plant and vegetable garden, and if that is ever to become a reality, I’d better start now. Because the way things are going, we’ll have a workable transit system, and we’d better, because I won’t be able to afford anything else.

It is similar to how some Liberal M.P.’s took it in the breadbasket for initially opposing the Harmonized Sales Tax, and then voting for it when push came to shove, whereas the ones who never spoke out against it escaped more or less unscathed. In my case, because I’ve been a vocal supporter of policies that are sustainable (or at least moreso than the status quo), the withdrawal of my voice will be all the more noticed.

By so doing, I will hope to avoid simply becoming one of the “thousand that hack away at the branches of evil for every one that strikes at the root” (H.D. Thoreau).

Don’t worry. I’ll still be on Stephen’s speed dial. I just wish he would stop doing the exact opposite of what I tell him…

Your own voice

It’s apparent that this city could use and in fact needs another voice or two; a place to air a few more rumblings of discontent then the Abbotsford News and Times seem to provide.

Periodically, a new publication seems to arise that quickly gets the attention of Abbotsford and gives voice to some of the people who actually dare to criticize the local state of affairs.

First it was the Abbotsford Post, which sat downtown on Gladys Avenue. It happily published some of the editorials shunned by the more established papers before being snapped up, turned into a Culture mag. stuffed into the back of the Times, and eventually withering into oblivion.

Today a mag called Abbotsford Today, the brainchild of Vince Dimanno (who some will recognize for his vocal opposition to excessive and ill thought-out spending), is making the rounds. It boasts to have 7 000 people visiting its website each month, and has managed to make that site extremely user-friendly and comprehensive, in my view.

It’s focus to date seems to be on taking to task the spending and taxing decisions of Abbotsford council, which says something for not being owned by the Canwest/Blackpress folks and the editorial freedom that bestows.

Now this post is certainly not intended to be a shill for Abbotsford Today. When one man’s (Dimanno) fingerprints are all over a publication, that can’t be very healthy from a diversity of viewpoints perspective, and if we still labor under the delusion that our newspapers don’t have a bias, well, the publication’s eagerness to give voice to people like Maureen Bader of the Canadian Taxpayer’s Federation and others who are inherently going to criticize puts this illusion to rest. I don’t always agree with what Dimanno has to say, either. However, it has to provide a sense of optimism whenever something/somebody is able to arise and succeed without being under that multimedia conglomerate umbrella.

The publication is still in its infancy, judging by the size and amount of content in its November edition. Still, I find it’s website to have a smorgasbord of useful information compared to the Times & News, which is surprising given that it’s staff is undoubtedly smaller than the other two papers. But it’s a smart decision, given how the trend is obviously toward accessing news online instead of from the printed paper.

So hooray for independent media – even if they’re just in it for the windfall they’ll get when Canwest or Black Press decides to bite the bullet and buy them out. It is, after all, Black Press’s turn to apply the blackout and stifle that pesky Dimanno and his upstart Abbotsford Today, seeing as Canwest did it last time.

The nerve of the man. Voicing his own opinion. Doesn’t he know that’s what blogs are for?

Of Specks and macro-cosms

I don’t these days have a great deal of time for reading; really much of my reading is done while waiting for or on buses, or when I’m simply too distracted to focus on my assignments. When I do find the time to do some reading, I’ve been sticking my head into E.F. Schumacher’s “Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered,” and putting more time into it than I should be as exam season nears, not because I have so much time, but because it’s a topic which resonates so powerfully with me at the moment. It’s more the “Small is Beautiful” than the Economics….part that attracted me to this title, as I’m not necessarily looking for economic insights; rather for philosophical ones. I wouldn’t even be able to pinpoint how this book came into my consciousness; it was suddenly just there and I ordered it. I knew it existed and who wrote it, even though I hadn’t recently saw a review of it or had a friend recommend it, or anything like that. I think I had marked it into my subconscious as an important title to read, and it spontaneously arose recently.

Why is this title so intriguing to me? I was led into wanting to further explore this concept by Arundhati Roy’s “The God of Small Things,” a book I didn’t even finish, but gleaned some pretty important stuff from; one central insight in particular. In her novel (and it’s a unique accomplishment for her to weave a philosophical plank into a work of fiction), a chaotic, disorganized, random (read realistic) story is woven of a complicated set of family relationships, violence, overlaid by political and economic theory. [SPOILER ALERT]Some very disheartening things take place, extremely regretful things, and one of the twins in the novel becomes mute as a result of the turmoil. Towards the end, characters are intentionally withdrawing themselves, retracting, from the chaotic interplay of macr0-events beyond their control, and focusing just on the things that they can control: the small things that are really important in life; laughter about the little things in the knowledge that they pale in comparison to the world outside; that terrible things are happening and have happened, things that involvement in brings too much sadness.

My life to date has been a relative cakewalk. I’ve had things extremely easy, even in comparison to other people in my community sphere who by all accounts are fairly well off. There was no family turmoil; the bills were always paid; and I wasn’t shuffled from school to school or family to family. Even so, as I learn about the way that the world works and I realize how incredibly fortunate I have been to live where I do, I see how convoluted this world of 7 billion of us really is, and how much deceipt, corruption, and half-truth is ingrained into the system. I see how desensitized and apathetic so much of the populace is; how uninformed and overworked so many are, and sometimes, I do despair of this state of affairs. It is a difficult to hear of how Thoreau’s haunts in Maine are being turned into subdivisions as I write; how the Pacific Coast’s salmon stocks appear to be heading down the exact same path as the Atlantic cod stocks (do we humans never learn? are we capable of resisting the relentless momentum to grow, grow, grow, expand, expand, expand?), how we spend billions lining the pockets of vaccination companies in response to threats which scarcely rival hosts of other, less hyped, mortality threats, a symptom of our fixation with the almighty buck and the corruption that I mentioned.

In light of these things, it becomes extremely tempting to rock out, consume conspicuously, act on nothing more than whims and feeling, and burn out at an earlier point than is possible; either that, or become a beach-comber a la Richard Bach, or establish an independent self-sufficient homestead in some region of the world less influenced by the ravages of modern culture and isolated from the goings on of this crazed culture of ours.

Establishing an independent homestead is, at this point, out the question. I don’t think it’s impossible. It is also against my ideology; we as a species have stretched our resources too far and made our reach to pervasive to further spread ourselves out. If we are going to re-equilibrate in wilderness from time to time, we must do so from urban headquarters where we spend much of our time, with occasional jaunts into a diminishing wilderness. That, perhaps, is the only practical solution to prevent catastrophic resource collapse and climate change, which we need to adopt sooner than later if we want to live in a whole and fulfilling way that is not continually beset by challenging climatic events and scarce resources. I know that Malthus said the same thing many years ago, but the continuing loss of biodiversity has to be abated.

So finding my own personal little piece of turf, several acres or so in size, to call home, while appealing, doesn’t pass the, “What would happen if everybody did this test?” Living self-contained, sustainably, in community with genuine, caring people with access to wilderness tracts to blow off steam does. With which people, though? The people I know have such disjointed, differing goals and dreams in life that the prospect of distilling some cohesion out of them is daunting.

What I’m realizing is that the title “Small is Beautiful” is a double-edged sword. Perhaps “Small is Necessary” is more correct. It’s double-edged because I’m starting to discern that the vast majority lives in a small world, buying what’s put in front of their faces without questioning from where and how it comes; living according to the dictates of what economic conditions say must be done to feed their family and satisfy their desires and cravings. Perhaps I don’t like this pursuit of small-ness after all; perhaps if there were more of us who understood how economics, ecology, and politics really work, the domain of macro-factors, the phrase “Small is Necessary” would be untrue, and that understanding doesn’t come from an engagement only with the small things.

So I don’t pretend to have all the answers, hence the probing and querying nature of this weblog. From “Small is Beautiful” I wanted to leave you with a quotation of a writing by Soren Kierkegaard that is perhaps the entry point to metaphysical questioning:

“One sticks one’s finger into the soil to tell by the smell in what land one is: I stick my finger into existence – it smells of nothing. Where am I? Who am I? How came I here? What is this thing called the world? What does this world mean? Who is it that has lured me into this thing and now leaves me there? … How did I come into the world? Why was I not consulted…but was thrust into the ranks as thought I had been bought of a kidnapper, a dealer in souls? How did I obtain an interest in this big enterprise they call reality? Why should I have an interest in it? Is it not a voluntary concern? And if I am compelled to take part in it, where is the director? … Whither shall I turn with my complaint?”

One only wonders if it is an end point as well.

Autumn motley kaleidoscope

Salmon run is in full swing on Stoney Creek. Both coho and chum salmon have been spotted, with numbers running roughly around 3 chum and 6-8 coho. All the volunteers are enjoying being in and around the creek frequently. The dog-off leash status of Stoney Creek continues to frustrate, but as we tell dog walkers, dogs are not the biggest problem facing Stoney Creek’s salmon; still, they are significant enough to curtail (ahahaha, no pun intended). Here’s photos of creek life:

First stages of decomposition, pointing the way downstream.

Comparison of a spawned out coho to a pair of shears I used to clear blackberries.

A close-up of a coho that is so fresh it looks like it would just start swimming if you put it back in the water.

Nurse log, busily creating habitat - a beautiful riffle has formed behind it.

Elementary, my dear Stephen

Southwestern BC is getting whacked by a pineapple express dumping lots of water on it today and over the next few days. The headline in the Province today said that 300mm of rain is expected by Tuesday, something that could trigger flooding and landslides. While we expect this kind of stuff here in the Fraser Valley, this kind of storm is also one that is completely consistent with the predicted effects of global warming, as greater variation in temperatures causes more intense storms.

It’s a trend that seems accurate for this area to my memory, though at this point I don’t have hard data on the average rainfall amount for, say, the last 10 years, a statistic which would be very telling. As global temperatures continue to increase, the expected trend is higher river volumes than usual during storms, coupled with more severe droughts during dry seasons; effects which are likely to mean that rivers will create more erosion and will be more dangerous to people and buildings in floodplains.

This comes as world leaders, in advance of a climate treaty negotiation session in Copenhagen, seem to already be scuttling the possibility of a deal by stating in advance that a deal is unlikely. Perhaps that is the politically realistic approach; it’s also the cowardly approach. The climate situation is urgent enough that a global treaty is essentially imperative, and not arriving at a deal should not be considered a viable option.

In the prevailing debate between economists and environmentalists, what Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party have to realize is that without a stable environment, economic stability, except in the very short term, is impossible. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that as climatic volatility increases, the cost of addressing the damage of more floods, more dikes, and more erosion will increase as well.

Our Prime Minister might be a brilliant political strategist, but some things just seem to escape him. He can be called many things, but a genius isn’t one of them.

Fly-by Econ.

“The whole US economy is based on debt,” he said. “In fact, without debt, it wouldn’t work at all.”

The guy doing the talking was my brother. He was something like 16 or 17 years old, I believe, making me 13 or 14. He’d read some kind of book on it he said, so it had to be true. My memory of the time is vague, but the details are definite.

As is often the case, I didn’t really respond in any memorable fashion, just kind of letting the thought and information sink in but not really doing anything with it. I think my reaction was one of mild disbelief; the concept was too abstract at that age to do much with, but still firm enough that I intuitively didn’t like it. How could this be true? How could it be possible for an entire economy to revolve around debt, and for people to still save and get ahead despite this reality?

To tell you the truth, I don’t think I fully believed him, figuring that somewhere he must have missed a few points. Even to a 14 year old, it was obvious that an economist or a politician who designed a system in which the presence of money depended on the absence of it ought to be fired, and it couldn’t be that we need to fire our politicians, could it? So it was obvious to me the guy had a couple of screws loose somewhere; I just wasn’t sure which ones.

Having taken the time to ask a few questions about economics since that time, it’s become clear to me that the basic idea is true. Want to buy a house? Get yourself a death-pledge (just the translation of mortgage, hold on to your horses now) from your local money-lenders. Where does the money come from? At its root, the central bank, to whom you indirectly owe the money back. Here’s the kicker: until you asked for the mortgage, that money didn’t exist. Since you asked for it, it was brought into existence, and now you owe it back. In the meantime, that money which you now brought into existence trickles into the hands of your real estate agent, the builder, and the investor, who then spend the money on groceries and other consumer goods, providing our wages and boosting the economy.

Before you ask, no, the Canadian system isn’t dramatically different from the American one. The same principles apply. The key is that you have to understand the functioning of debt and credit, and understand how you can use them to your advantage, because if you don’t they’ll sweep you under the rug. Is it ideal? Probably not. But since all we seem to want is expansion and entertainment instead of satisfaction and sustainability, the system seems to work for us.

Therein lies the quandary. If it works for you, it doesn’t work for us. If it works for us, it doesn’t work for you, because debt’s everywhere you turn.

Smart guy, the K-man.

Save your breath

I once again venture into politics, briefly, tonight. The Wildrose Alliance in Alberta seems to getting more press these days, and today headlines linking the Wildrose Alliance and the BC Conservative Party appeared. Now I wouldn’t mind if the BC Liberal vote was split a little, but a quote from the Wildrose leader caught my eye in the Globe & Mail today.

It went like this: “Danielle Smith, the rookie leader of Alberta’s Wildrose Alliance Party, say’s BC’s Progressive Conservatives must focus on issues that matter to voters in selecting their next party chief.”

Ummm…I’m confused. Just why did she open her mouth? The statement kinda leaves me waiting for the politician who says, “you know, we’ve talked way too much about things voters care about. It’s time to change that up. It’s time for some glorious irrelevance.”

Seriously. Inane statements like that are why people don’t vote. Oh, wait. That’s exactly what the big parties want…

Have fun

Looking back, it’s evident I’ve long been a complete rebel behind the scenes, and a partial one in my conduct. I disliked everything unfamiliar to me in childhood, from music to vegetables to swimming. I’m paying for that now. As a teenager, it was being human that got my gander. If everybody was getting their first car, I was busy cycling around. If everybody was forming social groups, I wasn’t going to be part of any social clique, and I just did my own thing. If everyone was listening to whatever band was popular back then (and I kid you not, I really have no idea), I was only interested in differentiating between the calls of a black-headed grosbeak and a robin. (ever tried it? it ain’t easy). If everybody was celebrating some cultural holiday, I couldn’t really have cared less, seeing only an orgy of consumerism based on questionable history where others saw an excuse to celebrate. Back in teenage days, sex too, was new of course, and even there I just said, well hey, all 20 billion (or whatever the number is) of us humans who’ve ever graced this planet do that… Sure, I’m sure it’s fun, but what’s unique in that? As a friend of mine quotes on her profile, a quote I rather like, “Human beings are here because of several million years of sexy ancestors.” (G & K Hendricks). Well, I can pick holes all through that argument, but still there’s a lot of truth there.

I bring these things up because I sometimes lament my lack of rebellion, despite the fact that I disagree with consumerism, growth at all costs, genetic modification, over-harvesting, burning gas so prolifically, eating animal flesh unnecessarily, not cycling places, monopolizing resources, make-up, fashion, over-consumption, capitalism, socialism, and most other “ism’s,” violence of any sort for most if not all reasons, etc. etc. etc. Hell, I’ve rebelled against just about everything we do as a species, just not in overly blatant or confrontational ways. It’s no wonder my psyche was where it was and is where it is, or that lately I delight in flagrantly and hypocritically counteracting my supposed worldview of ideal conduct.

You’ve likely realized by now how easily I put a positive spin on things. We humans are really capable of rationalizing anything, a theme I return to time and time again, and I have only barely gotten started. Fortunately, I’ve held off of acquiring too much history to have to rationalize.

Because I’m no illusionist, as she warned against. No, it’s all laid out for all to see. I realize I sometimes seem to invoke a certain stereotype more often associated with the feminine; that of being “complicated”. Well, first of all, I’ve never liked stereotypes or put much stock into them, but secondly if being “simple” is an attractive attribute, what planet do you hail from?

#3

She said he told her that, “He wasn’t even worth the oxygen that he breathed..” She said she told him to, “get a grip!” (pauses for a swig of coffee, contemplating writing three blog posts in one night. That night, too).

It’s dangerous, this big picture stuff. This (more coffee) rigidity of thinking. As per the title of Roy’s book, perhaps God only goes exist in the small things of life. Perhaps you’ll only truly find that God-essence if you limit your universe. Too much, too early, is suffocating, and de-motivating. To the Beatitudes should be added, “Blessed are they who live in ignorance,” because as has been made cliche, ignorance is bliss. Blissed, then, are the ignorant.

Terrible singing. Self-deprecation. Unwitting embarrassment. Breaking a sweat. Puns, wit, and good cheer. In these are the spice of life; not in tackling humanities’ ills. The proof that we are worth the air we breathe, the food we consume, the space we inhabit, is that we are here. That we were born. I have no explanation for it, but it cannot be random. It simply cannot be. If it is not random, it is meaningful; a conclusion derived from deductive reasoning of the highest illogical order. Last year around this time I wrote that, “It has to be important that we learn collective self-restraint and abandon selfishness by embracing altruism and humility, and we have some level of free-will in determining our path, be it self-destruction or evolution to a higher level of consciousness, I have a hard time believing that all of this can end in the erasing of one of the universe’s chapters, namely the human chapter, with nothing to show for it. That we could simply fuck things up, orchestrate our own demise, and become a mere blip on the radar, a failed experiment on the part of God knows who.”

I stand by those words today. I think of them as consolation to those, like myself, who are prone to devaluing our own existence in the context of the immense, overwhelming, unfathomable, and hidden ways in which our success looms as our failure. Perhaps soon, I will renounce, to the same extent that x cannot equal zero, environmentalism for all except possibly employment, because it is so limiting, and I’ve done my bit. Perhaps, I’ve already done so, in all except habit…

Or perhaps, there are other things which would be better to renounce. Any takers? (more coffee; it’s a good thing I’m driving this weekend, or something stronger might be the order of the day).

First spawner survey

We surveyed the lower reaches of Stoney Creek this morning, the three of us and Slesse. Already there are salmon here; a welcome change from 2007, the first year that this creek was surveyed, when salmon and only coho didn’t appear until mid-to-late November. Today there were 2 chum and 2 coho in just the lower section, with 2/3 of the creek left unsurveyed to date, something that will be done soon.

Stoney is such a great indicator stream to survey; without question one of if not the best in Abbotsford. It’s entire riparian strip remains relatively intact, unlike many streams that flow through farmland or urban environments. At the same time, it’s watershed is quite heavily urbanized, creating high run-off conditions; usually something that is a strongly negative factor in a stream’s biological health. The creek is bordered in multiple places by well-used walking trails, meaning spawning populations and the streambed are heavily impacted by canines of all sorts, from the ones that gambol and frolic joyously in Stoney’s pools to the ones that plod morosely at their human companion’s heels. Lastly, the creek has seen heartening efforts at mitigation of some of our negative influences, with the culvert having been reconstructed to improve fish access during low water conditions, and large amounts of invasive blackberry having been removed and replaced with native vegetation, which admittedly is still too young to give the stream the same protection as the blackberry did, but will do a far better job of that when mature.

Stay tuned for pics and more reports, or better yet, come with us.

One step further…

Writing on the weblog is not something I should be doing just now. Blogging is something I ought to reserve for times when I have something of particular interest to contribute, rather than times of soul-searching and existential crisis. This blog isn’t intended to be a raw, no-holds barred transcription of my life, and it isn’t going to become that either. But often I’m tempted to write that way, and resist for a few reasons, among them that I can’t write about a lot of the most urgent and pressing issues in my personal life without also writing about other people whose anonymity I can’t really protect even by using only initials or aliases, because it’s their relationship to me that’s important.

Perhaps more importantly, it would mess with my psyche to be writing about stuff that isn’t related to sustainability and policy and transportation. To clarify, it’s not that not writing about those things would get to me; more that the other topics I’d tackle wouldn’t sit too well with me, being items rather unsuitable to be made that public.

Suffice to say that at this point and time, despite living in one of the most fortunate places on Earth and basically having everything handed to me on a silver platter until perhaps the last few years, I’m finding the term “basket-case” a frighteningly accurate description of my state of mind; something I’d attribute to being 25% my fault, but also to my challenges being 90% out of my control, offering 0% satisfaction to address, yet feeling like 100% of my responsibility at the same time, with the results being a constant oscillation between being a penny-pincher and wantonly blowing my wad, which is better than being indulgent 100% of the time, but still not so good. And that is as specific as I’m going to get. (I am starting to sound like an economist, what with assigning a value to everything, aren’t I?

It is, after all, Halloween morning. If it was otherwise, don’t you think I’d be out partying?

Return of the Dead, Dying, Mangled, Mutilated, and Rotting

No, I’m not making a zombie movie.

Volunteers around the mobile holding tank

I am bringing back spawner surveys for Stoney Creek, together, of course, with the Stoney Creek Salmon Stalkers. In 2007 we definitively counted 31 spawning coho salmon returning to east Abbotsford’s Stoney Creek, and quite likely several more that we couldn’t verify. In 2008, we were AWOL. MIA. Showing gross dereliction of duty. Clean and dry.

This year, the Stalkers are back. Weekly, or semi-weekly, we’ll be tramping up Stoney Creek, counting how many spawning chum, coho, and chinook (now there’s a pipe dream) have made it all the way upriver to Stoney. To speak no more of this, a la Peter Donaldson. To mate. To die.

You’re welcome to join us. Requested in fact, even if it’s only for one session, or two, that would help. Will you see salmon? No guarantee of that, unfortunately, but there are guarantees. Fresh, crisp Autumn air. Exercise. Getting to know one of your local creeks. Seeing other wildlife. So join us. Tramp up and down Stoney Creek a few times. Write down what you see, and we’ll get a second year of salmon data for Stoney Creek.

You might have heard that our salmon stocks aren’t doing so well. 9/10ths of our sockeye disappeared this summer. It’s true that coho and chum aren’t sockeye. But they’re still important. They teach us about the cycle of life. Our large predators, bears, eagle, and the small ones too, the larvae and insects, feed on them. Even the trees and plants are nourished by our salmon. They tell us how our ocean is doing. Whether it’s able to produce food for our priceless salmon stocks, or whether we’re overfishing it, or trashing it. In this circle of life, the Stoney Creek Salmon Stalkers will play a small role. One that hopefully enhances community awareness of fragile salmon stocks, and encourages responsible lifestyle choices that both strengthen the community and are salmon-friendly.

We’re working under the auspices of the Abbotsford Ravine Park Salmonid Enhancement Society, in close collaboration with the Fraser Valley Regional Watersheds Coalition. The ARPSES actually started when a guy who had grown up in the Clayburn Watershed, of which Stoney Creek is a part, returned from military service, and noticed that the creek didn’t play host to nearly as many salmon as it had when he was a child. So he started a salmon hatchery to reverse this trend, and every year the hatchery now releases thousands of salmon fry into fragile, urbanized Stoney Creek. Is it working?

We won’t know unless you join us and help us find out.

Goin’ for a bike ride…

Leaving behind for a minute the question of what is money, how do we make it, who makes it, and what is it really worth, let’s accept for a minute that money as we know it is currently the way in all things are valued, and let’s face it, is an unequivocal bottom line, the determining factor for so many of the things that matter. We instinctively recoil at that thought – I know I do, at least – but it’s very difficult if not impossible to get around the fact that without access to funds, it’s going to be very difficult to acquire the things that we need, or establish something of a safety net so that when shit does hit the fan in our lives, we have something to fall back on. Without money, we can’t buy health care, we can’t buy natural health products, transportation is next to impossible, post-secondary is out of the question, and the list goes on, and on a little bit of a larger scale, corporations and extractive industries continue to be able to wield the “job provision” stick in justifying the pillaging of our wilderness.

Now, money is central in our lives, but even more so for regions far more poverty -stricken than here.  Often, just a small sum, is enough to make a start at a business that can mean the difference between continuing to live in poverty and creating some flow of income so that there is hope for the future. That’s what micro-credit finance is all about. Pioneering it is what won Mohammed Yunus the Nobel Prize. The high re-payment rates of loans made on the micro-credit principle speak strongly for its success. It should even make the hardline right-wingers who decry what in my economics class they call, “transfer payments” – social benefits, employment insurance, welfare, GST rebates, child benefits, and the like – happy, ’cause what microcredit is undeniably doing is giving a leg up to those just don’t have a means to get a start otherwise, and not doing so in perpetuity or extended periods so as to create dependence, but just providing a start-up amount so that people can put their ideas and skills to the test.

So that’s just micro-credit off the top of my head. As with everything these days, there is a wealth of information about it online. At Dr. Google. Or…fine…I’ll do some research. Go here: http://www.globalafc.org/blog/press/microcredit-an-agent-of-change/

So micro-credit fits perfectly with my belief in a need for far-reaching reform, but that only a massive shift in how we use money is practical right now. We can use small sums to fight poverty. We can donate small amounts to non-profit groups doing work that we believe in. We can make small sacrifices in the monetary sense so that there’s still some money at the end of the month, and we can contribute to something we feel good about. It’s the path I was on back in 2006, and got away from in a big way since then, and would like to re-capture.

Even better, there’s a program I’m going to do next summer called the Global Agents for Change, in which money is raised by participants who cycle together for weeks at a time. Three rides are available in 2010: Vancouver to Tijuana; Amsterdam to Istanbul, and a Cambodia ride. Now I ask you, was anything ever designed that was more suitable for me? A 2-3 month bike ride, an extremely low-carbon and pro-fitness way of travelling, while raising money to lessen the income gap between rich and poor nations? I was intrigued from the moment I heard about this, so it didn’t take me long to make up my mind that I was going to do this. It’s going to happen. Summer 2010, and I’ll do what it takes to get there. I’ve been throwing around ideas for long distance bike rides or walks for a while now, and this totally fits the bill.

So what do I need? Well, $3000 bucks and a good bike. Not that I don’t have  a good bike. Right now I have an old Raleigh, probably from the ’80’s somewhere. Bright blue. A little faded. No gear slippage. Sturdy, if a little heavy. A good touring bike? Not really. Too heavy, considering I’ll probably want to carry 60lbs of gear. Not customized for my body, and for a 9 week ride, that’s essential. So a new (used?) touring bike is probably essential for this trip.

How am I going to get the bike and the money? Scrounging. Not eating out. Buying and re-selling. Re-developing the focus I haven’t had a semblance of since I had a concussion at the behest of a giant, moving, chunk of steel in March, and leveraging that into having a job while going to school. That, for me, is hard. I’m not a great saver. I tend to say, “screw it, when I decide what I want to do with my life I’ll save. For now? No way Jose.” But to cycle from Amsterdam to Istanbul, it’s worth it. No question. So I’ll do that, with a little help from my good buddies who read this blog who have my permission to give me a good kick in the ass whenever I spend too much…

Speaking of getting some money together, if you like and believe in micro-credit and want to see what it can do, feel free to send some cash in the direction of this important cause – from now until June saving to donate money to this is what I’ll be doing, that much is certain. Although….probably best to wait until I’m accepted before you decide to contribute