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Apr 09 0 comments
From the Navigator

Occupy This

 

Guest Contributor: Emma Weisbord

Not many people experience Cuba. The real Cuba. Sure you’ve been to an all-inclusive and maybe had a few day excursions out of the compound. But even having lived and worked in Cuba for six months, I still don’t feel that I’ve done more than scratch the surface. This is because foreigners constitute the wealthy 1% of the island, while contributing approximately 30% of the country’s GDP. As a foreigner, it is very difficult to relate to a Cuban whose average monthly salary is equal to the average meal cost for a tourist couple in Havana. Not everything is as it seems in communist Cuba. What I’ve learned is that along with tourists, there is a powerful “1%” of Cubans with a higher standard of living, more resources, and more than average power and access to opportunities. All of this at the expense of those with less economic power.

Sound familiar?

In Canada, I am part of the so-called “99%” of the population, frustrated with the system of corporatocracy that financially rewards unsustainable, socially and environmentally harmful behaviour. In Cuba, I experienced being the wealthy 1% and the unfair power advantage this position yields. Unbeknownst to me, I was experiencing the same frustration that was causing people to take to the streets in the rest of the world, but from the opposite viewpoint. Like in many other countries, the Cuban media is controlled by the powerful and wealthy. For six months, I had no idea what was occupying the media’s attention back home.

I returned to Canada in time for winter and started catching up on the headlines that I had missed for the past several months: Keystone pipeline, Syrian civil war, massive unemployment and bankruptcy in Europe, environmental disasters, celebrity gossip and of course, the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement. This movement seemed to be the embodiment of the same thoughts I had been formulating in Cuba about how the growing global economic inequality is affecting everything from global biodiversity to political processes.

While I was rekindling my relationship with the World Wide Web after months of estrangement, I came across The Canada Expedition (TCE) website and became intrigued by the project. In response to my query about how to get involved with TCE, Dr. Hoffman asked me if I would be willing to write an article about the Occupy movement in Canada. The past few weeks have been my search to understand the who, what, where and why of OWS in our home and native land.

What is Occupy?

As most everyone now knows, and as I recently learned, the Occupy movement is now an international direct action protest against socioeconomic and environmental injustice, designed to be inclusive and horizontally structured. The movement gained global mainstream media attention at the Occupy Wall Street protests in the fall of 2011, though occupations can be traced back to when Spanish youth occupied Madrid’s central square in May 2011 and the occupation of Cairo’s Tahrir square in January 2011.

Occupy Wall Street seems to be a symptom of a broken system, analogous to the camel’s back, broken from one straw too many; the economic crash, the bailouts, rising unemployment, the Arab spring and intensified by increased international connection through social media. OWS might just be my generation’s Woodstock, Vietnam war protests, Cuban revolution or Tiananmen Square. And in my opinion, it’s about time.

Last summer, Adbusters featured a full-page photo of a dancer on the iconic Wall Street bull with figures emerging from the smoky background, a presage of what was to come. The tagline was an age-appropriate hashtagged “occupy wallstreet” and instructions to bring a tent. Within one month of the Wall Street occupation, the movement had spread, facilitated by social media, around the world.

Kalle Lasn, the Adbuster who initiated OWS, described these protests as reminiscent of those in the 60’s:

“It was that sort of deep-down feeling of a black-hole future building up,” he said in an interview in December with the Washington Post, “It was a certain number of months after Egypt and Tunisia, and it was fueled by the fact that people are losing their homes and jobs and some 30 percent of young people can’t find a job even if they have a PhD.”

At the heart of the protests is the fact that nearly half of the world’s income is distributed amongst the richest ten percent of the global population, while a measly one percent of income is distributed to the world’s poorest ten percent. There is an astounding base of scientific literature linking economic inequality with social problems, health, and environmental degradation.

Reading about the background and suspected causes of the movement, like the 2008 economic crash, allowed me to learn a lot about modern economics, CDOs, BOEs, COGS, EBTs, IPOs… it’s enough to give someone ADD and OCD.

Reports reveal that Canada is following the trend toward inequity, with a significant increase in income inequality in the first half of the past decade. Canadian income inequality is higher than in eleven of its socioeconomic counterparts, including Australia, France, Germany and the Netherlands. In the past twenty years, earnings in the top income bracket increased by over 15%, while earnings for those in the lowest income group dropped by over 20%. Add to these statistics the growing unemployment rates, the bank bailouts, home foreclosures, and the increasing disregard of the Harper government for environmental issues, social problems and blatant disregard for our country’s First Nations. This is part of what the Canadian Occupy movement is about.

Incredibly, it isn’t just my generation that is taking up the cause. From what I’ve seen, the 99% that is fighting for fairness spans many generations, income levels and ethnic backgrounds.

Who are the 99%

The Occupiers I’ve met, read about or listened to represent a broad range of people. They describe themselves as the 99% and on a grey afternoon in Montreal, I walked into a warmly lit student hang out near one of the English universities to find out why. Through the wonder of social media networking, I had contacted a student to talk about his experience in the Occupons Montreal movement. He invited me to chat informally at a locally owned resto-café with a few other occupiers. Jamie Klinger has been a participant since he first stepped into the media tent at Occupy Toronto in October and then brought his passion and positivity to his hometown’s movement in Montreal.

“We were just a group of people looking for each other,” said Klinger, “who found each other… a group of people to work towards social justice.”

“We are not they, but we aspire to be them,” he said about the 99%, “We are asking what people want, and we are trying to do right by them. The more people join us, the more opinions we reflect coming to a more and more representative consensus. Nobody said democracy was supposed to be easy, but Occupy is not a system, it is a process.”

I contacted Occupy Vancouver through their website and within a few short hours, I had someone offer to speak to me. Stephen Collis has been involved in the movement from early on, mainly in media and communications. I met him on a typical rainy Vancouver day at a coffee shop in the downtown area. Stephen is an author and a professor of English literature at Simon Fraser University and has taken time off to write another book. He says he has always been an activist and that the Occupy movement came at the right place and the right time for him to participate in this cultural phenomenon.

Collis listed a few of the causes he felt sparked the movement: the 2008 economic collapse, the outrage over bank bail-outs, years of unheeded warnings and talk about environment problems and the media saturation of seeing ordinary citizens of all ages in the streets standing up for their beliefs. He compared the huge global psychological shockwave to the effect of the fall of the Berlin wall.

Stephen Collis describes the 99% as “literally everybody; elders with their issues, students, labour unions, hipsters working in a café…” As the professor explains it, “the label 99% isn’t about representation, it isn’t a voting tactic. It is an open invitation. Come on down, show up, bring your issues” and you will be heard.

Structure

The movement uses various horizontal organization methods, including general assemblies, hand gestures, and the human microphone, which work to increase participation and promote self-empowerment. The hand gestures allow for inclusive discussions, without the discourse becoming about hearing those who speak loudest. The human microphone is like the adult, working version of the kids’ game “broken telephone”, without the whispering. Imagine a varied group of one hundred people discussing how to overcome gender and ethnicity biases. The original statement is repeated one phrase at a time by the crowd, rows of people transmitting the message to those out of earshot in the back. Within seconds, a middle-aged white man is repeating the comment of the speaker, telling people behind him that he feels marginalized for being a black woman.

The absence of a defined figurehead or leader seems to be one of the many strengths of OWS. When asked about this facet of the movement, Jamie explained that leadership manifests as responsibility rather than power: those who play bigger roles in the movement do so because they have a go-getter attitude. The people I spoke to were very clear on this topic. They are not spokespeople, or leaders; they are participants in their democracy. One occupier was quoted as saying “we’re not leaderless, we’re leaderful.”

Evictions

"You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists". –Abbie Hoffman, political and social activist

Globally, the longest lasting occupation was St-Paul’s cathedral in London, which ended February 28th with an eviction from the British High Court. For the most part, Canadian occupations lasted over one month from mid-October until November, when according to occupiers, most protest camps were illegally evicted from public property. Their property. Our property.

Klinger said the eviction of the Montreal occupation changed the protester’s view of their relationship with police. For 42 days the encampment had maintained a working relationship with the police, negotiating the presence of various elements and structures, including 180 tents. The morning of November 25th, police arrived at Victoria Square to hand out the eviction notices and forcefully removed the protesters. No one was charged with interfering in the process, though Occupons-Montreal went on record to say that the eviction illegally violated their right to free assembly and free speech.

According to Collis, the difference in Vancouver was two-fold. First, much of British Columbia territory is unceded First Nation land and this creates an interesting situation for any occupation, including Occupy Vancouver movement. Second, the city of Vancouver obtained a court ordered eviction notice, giving them legal clout, with the threat of thousands of dollars in fines and jail time. This “legal” eviction, Collis argues, is unfounded, based on the First Nation land ownership. Currently, lawyers are working pro-bono on behalf of Occupy Vancouver making the case that the tents were political structures. On eviction day, protesters marched carrying their tents in the streets, circled the block and set up their new camp on the property of the Vancouver Law Courts that had ordered their original expulsion. This new camp lasted only 24 hours and the protesters were again forced to leave, tents in hand. The Vancouver eviction can be viewed on youtube under “Moving Day” on the Occupy Vancouver channel. As Collis puts it, “the French had their red flags and barricades during their revolution, we now have tents.” This is an interesting connection between the current situation in the United- States where 1 in 7 American homes are empty and 1 in 402 Americans are currently homeless. Will tents become the new economic bubble? Low environmental impact, no mortgage, no rent.

The mostly peaceful end to these two Canadian protests was worlds apart from evictions that occurred in the U.S. when the movement was afforded total media saturation. Until then, the mainstream media ignored or disparaged the protesters and coverage had relied on each occupation’s media-team. “It literally took white girls getting pepper-sprayed in the face for people to be interested”, said an OWS participant in an Al Jazeera report called Fault Lines – History of an occupation.

The sheer volume of video footage of police brutality during occupation evictions in various cities makes it difficult to ignore how well covered the movement is by its own participants and how much excessive force the police used. If the powers-that-be thought the evictions would shut down the movement, they were sorely mistaken. The evictions not only brought more attention and sympathy to Occupy, but it also forced protesters to reevaluate their plans. As the OWS battle call states: “You can’t evict an idea.”

The way forward

Though the media seems to be ambiguous about whether or not the Occupy movement has died along with the leaves on the trees, the occupiers I spoke to are of one-mind. Occupations will begin again in the spring. The evictions and the winter frost allowed participants to move inside and focus on their long-term plans.

According to Collis, during the occupations the teams and working groups had little time to focus on their long-term visions, as they were constantly involved in the day-to- day tasks of maintaining the camps and complying with regulations. Now that they have had time to organize, the upcoming spring melt will show what has been growing under cover of winter. As Jamie succinctly put it: “last fall was just pre-season, you ain’t seen anything yet!”

Klinger sees Occupons Montreal as a transition to a more sustainable, self-sufficient society. “I see it large, I envision a long-term, self-sufficient, sustainable future with lower living costs.” When I asked why Occupy Montreal hasn’t made any official demands, he responded by explaining that official demands might alienate people and give media a way of dismissing and forgetting about movement. “It gives the media a story once, and never again.” Occupy Montreal’s working groups can be found on their website and range from environmental issues, on-site sanitation, legal aid, health, economy, education and human rights.

In Vancouver, the strongest working group seems to be the environmental justice group. Collis used the analogy of Russian dolls to describe this group with climate change opening up the tar sands problem, opening up the pipeline concern, opening up to First Nations issues.

Collis hopes that the upcoming occupations will continue the education and action that has been occurring in equal parts. The action side of the movement is obviously direct action by occupying a space. “This movement is entirely dependent on age old elements: bodies and space” said Collis. According to Klinger, the movement would be impossible without organization through social media. Collis agrees that social media is important,

but as “a tool for organizing something quickly. We still need face to face direct action.” Collis hopes to see two things change this spring. The first is that protesters will respond to the question “what are you doing?” by explaining the reasons for the occupations. The second is that they will respond to the question, “when are you leaving?” by setting clear start and end dates geared to specific issues, whether it be climate change, housing or economic issues.

It may seem redundant, but OWS is about occupying Wall Street, it’s about finance. Collis hopes to see Vancouver focusing on its local problems. He envisions Occupy Vancouver as the capital for environmental occupation and thinks it may be useful to have focal nodes with different cities focusing on city-specific issues.

Final Comments

The Occupy movement embodies the frustration and the hope of today’s world. Now that I am once again a ninety-nine-percenter, I see the movement as our cry and action for a sustainable future. This movement also embodies many of the principles of sustainability set forth by The Canada Expedition (TCE). Occupy is about people pointing out the flaws in the system and working together to improve it. As TCE explains, “The old promises have been broken. We need real prosperity for everyone. It is time for a real wealth initiative.” I firmly believe that the Occupy movement is the initiative that is going to develop strategies to ensure that socioeconomic and environmental sustainability becomes a priority for people and their governments. The working groups in each city are collaborating to create socially responsible visions of how the country should operate. Amongst other mandates, this involves transitioning towards a sustainable economy, decreasing violence, ensuring an accountable, effective government and encouraging self-empowerment of the general public. These elements are very similar to the topics described in The Canada Expedition’s True Wealth Initiative Agenda.

Critics of Occupy point to the need for a comprehensive, unified message to send to the public, in order to involve the average Canadian. I argue that the message is already clear: people are upset with the current reality. In a world where attention spans are being reduced to ten-second sound bytes and 140 character tweets, I believe it is important to preserve some thoughts and not distil them to their faintest essence. If you are interested in learning about the movement, speak to someone, read about it, grab the bull by the horns and get out there. Democracy needs people to make it work and Canadians need to pay attention to how our majority government is acting. We, the people, need to ensure that our elected officials are representing the people’s interests, and not those of corporations. Similarly, the government needs to pay attention to the demands of who it
has been elected to represent.

In the same way that spring 2011 was the Arab spring, I believe that spring 2012 will be the North American spring, with reoccupations in major cities, towns and various government and corporate offices. I foresee the average person who has never pictured themselves protesting in the streets taking part in this movement, fighting for our future. With people realizing that they need to protect and fight for their democracy, mediocrity and the status quo will no longer be acceptable. This is dramatically apparent in Montreal, where students are taking to the streets in the hundreds of thousands to have their voices heard. The Maple Spring is off to a strong start with historic demonstrations.

In response to the increasing number of protesters, the mayor of Montreal is looking into methods to legally limit the power of the people by placing restrictions on their rights to protest. In the U.S., a bill was amended that would make it easier to criminalize protests on public grounds. Canadians need to step up and protect our rights to direct action and protests. Occupy might not be the panacea that some people consider it to be, but if enough people occupy their democracy in whatever way they can, we will build a better world.

To those who argue that we are lucky to live here, that we have more than we need and that protesting just inconveniences the general population, I will borrow Collis’ analogy: building a better future is like road construction, it may cause a few people to slow down, but if the end result is positive change, then it’s worth it to change the world.

The occupy movement is open to all and it easy to get involved or just to find out more for yourself, check out your local movement. “It’s easy to get involved, easy to transition into and do what you want. Things are only going to happen if people participate. This movement isn’t about representing people who aren’t there.” –Stephen Collis, Occupy Vancouver

http://www.occupons-montreal.org/
http://www.occupyottawa.org/
http://occupyto.org/
http://occupyvancouver.com/

 

Emma Weisbord was raised in the Canadian Laurentian Mountains north of Montreal, where she developed her close connection and profound interest in the natural world. She recently graduated from the McGill School of Environment, where she focused on natural resource management and the effects of socioeconomic elements on the environment. Outside of university, she has worked in the environment and development field with international NGOs including the YMCA, Aang Serian, GIFTS of Health, and with Canadian government agencies such as Environment Canada and the Canadian International Development Agency.

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Sep 29 0 comments
Uncategorized

EXTRA! EXTRA!

(Ottawa, September 23, 2011)
Canada takes bold step to introduce Basic Income Guarantee:
Every adult in Canada will receive $24,000 each year, beginning January 1, 2012. The Government of Canada, breaking with ideological traditions while insisting that a Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) will be a cost-cutting measure in the long term, has decided to scrap employment insurance programs and a variety of other welfare provisions. This will insure that everyone 19 years of age or older will henceforth receive an annual payment of $24,000, regardless of income. And as public services payroll expenditures drop the treasury will be bolstered.
“BIG is an idea whose time has come,” states a Government spokesperson. “Our Government recognizes that Canadians are facing the same pressures of a fragile global economy that is being re-structured before our very eyes. We know that full employment is a thing of the past, no matter how much a person may wish paid work. So we have bit the bullet and are doing the bold, right thing.”
$24,000 per adult: is this too good to be true?
Background documents explain that the Government will be phasing out the bureaucracies that now support employment insurance and various income subsidizing and ineffective training programs. The dollars saved in staffing and program costs will be re-directed back to each adult in Canada. This Basic Income Guarantee will help maintain dignity for all while having the money re-enter the economy. Individuals able to work as the job market changes will of course pay income tax.
But there is a downside. Thousands of public servants will be phased out of work. When they come off the government payroll and aren’t replaced they will be like everyone else in the country, looking for work to supplement what they receive through BIG. And the Government is taking tax measures to penalize people who do not contribute to their community. Indeed, there is also serious consideration being given to instituting community service programs for all young people, not unlike some European countries. If that idea gets a positive nod after country-wide consultations we will see all young people age 18 to 21 either doing an unpaid  stint in the Royal Canadian Armed Forces Reserves or working in community service.
NOT!
.  .  . but why not

Sep 16 0 comments
From the Navigator

IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE . .

Or (nods to Pink Floyd) have you become comfortably numb?

Apr 26 0 comments
From the Navigator

Party Platforms offer Canadians little in real wealth

We tested the election platforms of the Conservative, Liberal, NDP, and Green parties against our Real Wealth Index and although the NDP received the highest score (45%), all failed. Ironically, the Conservative platform got a miserable grade of 26%, the party that has been saying it is most capable of taking care of Canadians’ economic needs. The Green Party (43%) came a close second to the NDP and the Liberals (42%) a close third.

The Canada Expedition has defined real wealth for Canadians as having freedom from want; freedom from fear; sustainable production and consumption of goods and services; healthy relationships with fellow human beings, a healthy relationship with the natural world; and opportunities for people to develop to their full potential. What we find in the platforms are some policies that hit some of these objectives, but mostly we find the same old policies that will not do the job.

There is little action that will penalize the practice of unsustainable production or provide incentives to live sustainably; and there is very little on the environment in some of the more critical areas such as protecting Canada’s fresh water. There is virtually no creative thinking about how we are going to deal with the real and growing problem of chronically unemployed people who are willing and want to work. The Liberal’s “education passport” sounds good and so does re-training, especially when it is tied to “greening the economy”. But most of the government provided training programs that have been tried over the years have either been criticized by frank-speaking people as a “farce” or they simply don’t connect to real work at the end of the re-tooling period. Somehow we have to come to terms with that fact that full-time, well-paid meaningful work is not going to be available for a significant portion of the workforce and that we need to consider work-share programs, a basic annual income guarantee, and rewards for community service.

We were looking for more, and we are on record as saying we didn’t really think the election promises of any of the parties would lead to real wealth as we have defined the term.

The Canada Expedition will be holding a series of post-election symposia exploring “real wealth”. Efforts to prop up the current flawed economic model will not suffice. We are committed to finding practical solutions for a sustainable humanity, starting in Canada.

For more information contact: Renee Gendron rgendron@ciian.org

See The Real Wealth Initative for more information…

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Apr 08 0 comments
From the Navigator

Promises, promises, promises.

But will this election deliver real wealth to Canadians?

We doubt it. But we would love to be proved wrong. With so many people who want to work still unemployed, with the cost of living getting higher by the day, and with the fact that six out of ten Canadians are living paycheck to paycheck, a big shift in thinking about the economy is needed. We see it as a need for “real wealth”. We’ve defined “real wealth” in terms that ordinary Canadians can relate too. If we had real wealth each Canadian would have freedom from want; freedom from fear; produce and consume goods and services in a sustainable way; have healthy relationships with their fellow human beings; healthy relationships with the natural world; and be able to develop to their full potential.

Of course, all of the federal political parties are campaigning with a list of promises that they say will keep the Canadian economy strong, create jobs, make life better through improved health services and child care programs, and save those people whose skills are no longer needed in the workplace by re-tooling them. There is less talk about the environment, global warming, saving the planet. The economy seems to have trumped all other considerations.

The more we look at it, however, most of what is being put forward is based on more of the same. That is, behind all the promises, even those that are about “greening the economy”, is a belief – indeed a hope – that growth as measured by GDP, fuelled by more people consuming more things, will improve. And the economy will grow and grow and grow. Until the next crisis, until the next bubble bursts, until the next crash.

The Canada Expedition has concluded after a year of searching for practical answers to support a sustainable future—a future for our children and beyond them – that “real wealth” is not found in this direction. It is found elsewhere – in new thinking and new policies and practices from the individual level to the government and back again.

So we doubt very much that this election, regardless of who wins, will deliver real wealth to ordinary Canadians. But we want to test our doubt, and by engaging in this way, help move Canada toward the shift in thinking that is necessary for real wealth.

To do this we have developed a REAL WEALTH INDEX and we will be testing it during the election. We plan to score several of the key election promises on the REAL WEALTH INDEX. Let’s see which Party is heading in the direction of Real Wealth for ordinary Canadians.

Stay tuned.

See The Real Wealth Initative for more information…

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Jan 18 0 comments
From the Navigator

Hello there!

Ben here. Carol is doing well in Belgium, working on her second MA, this time on environmental philosophy. Meanwhile, back at ranch we have been working on a couple of papers based on the Expedition’s findings in “Phase 1″ and we are about to announce an exciting “Phase 2″. Stay tuned!

Jul 13 131 comments
From the Navigator

Dear Carol, how do you FEEL about your future?: Q and A with our Founder Dr. Ben Hoffman

What does one think about the future?

“Your blog is reading well. Do you see themes emerging? Are the answers to be found in grass roots movement or from the top down? Have we overstated it that humanity is at risk? How do you FEEL about your world and your future in light of what you have learned?”

The other day I received this as an email from The Canada Expedition’s founder, Dr. Ben Hoffman. These particular questions are of great importance to The Canada Expedition’s mandate, to my job as the Expedition Navigator and to Ben, personally.

They are also questions that I have stealthily avoided writing about, despite Ben’s encouragement.

For the past year and a half the issue of “sustainability” has become my main preoccupation: breakfast, lunch and dinner. And while I’ve been waiting on a break-through moment, my eco-epiphany, the journey has been rather prosaic.

There is an expectation, I feel, that comes along with the Expedition Navigator title. I was hoping to have gained some important insight at this stage, some steady and rigorous advice, at least. But everything I’ve learned about the road to sustainability is simple, and intuitive, the stuff of life.

So, Ben, to answer your first question:

Yes, I do see themes emerging, lots of them. I see the theme of corporate and industrial abuse. I see the theme of mass disillusionment and disempowerment. I see the theme of disinformation, of maintaining the status quo, of corporatocracy, greed, destruction and violence.

I also see the theme of human resilience. I see the theme of leadership and initiative, of tirelessness and bravery and insistence. I see the theme of creativity and heroism.

There is the overall theme of hopelessness too, which weighs down the hope of progress. But for every shard of hopelessness there are already a handful of citizen-led initiatives formed in positive response.

Which leads me to your next question: “Are the answers to be found in grass roots movement or from the top down?”

This is a difficult question and the answer is bound to reflect the experience of the speaker. I would suggest that it is important to engage on both levels.

However, the grassroots movement is vibrant, quick to respond and flexible in a way that politicians, bureaucrats and policy makers cannot afford to be. That is not to discredit the hard work of the good leaders we have out there, but these figures are expected to act in response to public demand and political will, which I think can be powerfully expressed and generated at the grassroots level.

There has been an unprecedented rise in the non-profit, non-governmental sector as people look to find venues other than the traditional political sphere to enact change. The momentum is great in these movements with better organization, networking and coordination than ever.

Because these movements are largely altruistic and not profit-driven, I would look to them for the answers for our future. My vote is with grassroots involvement with a mind towards politics; to use this movement, its creativity and passion, to effect real political change,

Grassroots activism is like eating your organic vegetables: just plain good for you.

To the question of humanity being at risk: Ben, I don’t think we have overstated this. There are a range of opinions on this topic, one suggesting humanity has about 100 years left before extinction (thanks Renee Gendron for that article). And while I don’t agree with this forecast specifically, I do think that we are facing an affront to some of the things we hold most dear about humanity.

The Canada Expedition chooses to view sustainability not just as an ecological movement, but as a holistic guidepost that we can understand or measure humanity’s success with. We value the aspects of our social, political and environmental existence that sustain us and some of these have come under threat.

The glaring problems associated with climate and water are two obvious examples. And certainly these issues have immediate consequences for the future of humanity. Even if we don’t heed the worst predictions regarding climate and potable water, we still can imagine the relevant impact of both issues on our global health and security. The immediacy of these issues is of special concern to the global south and developing nations.

So while the sustainability of humanity is perhaps less easy to speak to when we imagine something as extreme as extinction, the general complexities, dangers and insecurities associated with unsustainable living are unavoidable. What is our aim, to survive, or to thrive?

Ben, your last question was “How do you FEEL about your world and your future in light of what you have learned?”

In all honesty, I feel like I live on a pendulum, wavering constantly between optimism and pessimism. And I feel like my generation has its work cut out for it. I would describe this era as a dirty slate. It is difficult to maintain one’s optimism when each new direction, all progress and evolution, requires a tremendous un-doing of the inadequacies of the past.

It is a sordid inheritance no doubt. I’ve had a good deal of frustration at this arrangement. I have felt the exhaustion of this burden, as I know others have as well.

I wonder if it might be easier to forget it all, the problems of deforestation, global warming, poverty, racism, plastic pollution in our oceans, fossil fuel dependency, political corruption and violence, and the toxification of drinking water to name a few.

But, really, in the moments when I have truly considered if it would in fact be easier, I recognize that the difficulty of ignoring these issues is far greater than facing them. And so I carry on, comforted in knowing that doing something requires more bravery and artistry than doing nothing.

I must say, however, that the greatest source of encouragement are those around me and especially the amazing individuals I have had the opportunity to meet and interview for The Canada Expedition.  Many of them have been at it a lot longer than I have and, with a veteran’s charm, they tell me to keep at it. And so I do.

These people, Dr. William Rees, Jim Hoggan, Jan Vozenilek, Milt Lauenstein, Erik Assadourian, Kevin Vallely, and many others remind me that I don’t have to wait for a better future, but that I can actively create that for myself now. If I doubt the integrity of that statement I can just look up and see what others are doing around me.

Perhaps that has been the most valuable lesson of all: surround yourself with good people.

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Jun 24 2,895 comments
Film and Documentary, From the Navigator, Interviews, Resources, The Great Showcase

Plastic, Plastic Everywhere: Our Oceans, Our Mistakes and Our Champions

Midway: Plastic Island, a photo by Manuel Maqueda (Midway Journey flickrcreativecommons)

It is September 2009 and Jan Vozenilek is on Midway Atoll staring at the corpse of a decaying albatross. This is why he is here. Nowhere on this island will he find a more striking, a more perfect image. The remains perform two tasks: announce the prevalence of plastic matter in the Pacific Ocean, and the devastating effects it has on the interactive species and ecosystems of the area.

Jan Vozenilek and one of Midway's dead albatross. (Midway Journey flickercreativecommons)

‘Ah,’ Jan think sadly as he sets down his camera and sits beside the swollen mass. The rot is fresh still, seeping. It has been a long day already, and the sun is near setting. Jan takes a moment to acknowledge this death, this one little death among thousands, before he begins the arduous task of carefully documenting it.

The Albatross

Boasting one of the longest wingspans of all extant birds, the albatross enjoys a noble reputation. It is a glider and plays upon oceanic wind currants effortlessly as it scours the water below for prey. The albatross must, after all, hunt deftly and quickly, saving its energy for the long flight home. Back upon its island shores the albatross loyally feeds its lone chick.

The family rituals of the albatross are a patient task. Taking a full five years to reach maturity, the albatross still has years to wait before its lifecycle of mating begins. The young bird must introduce itself to a colony, learn the rituals and ‘language’ of the colony before it can perform the basic steps of the mating dance. Eager as a teenage boy, the albatross’s desire is tempered by its inexperience. Only once it has taken in the lessons of its elders will it catch the eye of a mate.

The albatross pair will dance as a sophisticated duet, elaborately mimicking and perfecting each other’s movements. Only the most well suited couples will in turn mate, the others continue their search for a companion. Once the birds couple, they mate for life, forever recognizing their own movements in their partner’s dance.

The pair will lay one egg a year and spend a second ushering the hatchling to its fledgling state. It proves an arduous task, protecting, teaching and feeding the chick until it can fledge.

In the old poem Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the albatross is considered a good omen, bringing good weather and fortune to the Mariner and his sailors. When, in an act of great folly, the Mariner kills the albatross, the crew’s good fortune comes to a tragic end. The confused and angered crew forces the Mariner to wear the dead albatross around his neck, a remembrance of his mistake.

“Ah! Well a-day! What evil looks

Had I from old and young!

Instead of the cross, the albatross

About my neck was hung”

Not since then has the albatross been so significant, such a harbinger. At least until now.

The Widening Gyre

As Jan Vozenilek studies the carcass of the dead albatross before him, he notices it is young. “A fledgling,” he thinks to himself. He shifts his camera angle to get a better shot of the beak and eyes.

A team member points to Midway Atoll on a globe. (Midway Journey flickrcreativecommons)

On Midway Atoll the dead albatross is almost a more common sighting than a live one.  The epidemic is caused by an infamous trash gyre, a mass accumulation of plastic in the Pacific know as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch or GPGP. The span of plastic particles adrift is rumoured to be twice the size of Texas. In certain areas water samples have yielded more plastic on a parts-per-million basis than plankton. A remarkable feat, or rather, tragedy for this area.

“Plastic, plastic everywhere” the poem would now read. The water is teeming with shards of everyday plastics from bottles, food packaging, lighters and toys.

A collection of Great Pacific Garbage Patch lighters. (Midway Journey flickrcreativecommons)

When I spoke to Jan in mid June, he was preparing for his second visit to Midway.

“The last time we were on Midway there wasn’t a single live albatross left….This time we are including the baby albatrosses. It will be profound to actually seem them and meet these little guys.”

The presence of plastic has completely disrupted the albatross life cycle on Midway. The adult birds are attracted to the brightly coloured plastics circulating in the garbage gyre, which is caused by constantly moving ocean currents. Returning to their nests with a mouthful of indigestible plastic pieces, the adults feed their chicks, mouth to mouth they transfer the catch.

The chicks eventually die of starvation, their bellies bulging with a collection of unchanged, unmoved plastic particles. The pieces are brightly coloured and in the final stages of decay they shine like a ball of confetti, a miniature firework set neatly within the bird’s frame.

Albatross remains reveal the plastic culprit that led to their starvation. (Midway Journey flickrcreativecommons)

“They tell us that 60% will die because they won’t even make it off the island, the starve because their bellies are full of plastics. If they do make it off the island they can’t take off from the water and they just drown. This is what we will witness when we get there. A good amount of them are able to fly away, but most of them won’t.”

Jan adds, “At this time of year there is actually a sign in one of the bays where the young birds land that says ‘no swimming.’ That is because there are so many sharks there, waiting for these birds to drown.”

The birds are weak and become flightless, weighed down by malnourishment and heavy plastic. This has evoked new ecological patterns, with sharks accustomed to this easy prey the plastic moves up the food chain.

“Our goal is to go back again two or three times to film the babies in their different stages of development so we have the full story of what happens at that critical moment when parents come back and regurgitate toothbrushes and cigarette lighters. It is important to capture this.”

There has been some controversy and skepticism surrounding the authenticity of the footage that was captured during the last Midway trip.

The team surrounds the remains of a decayed albatross. (Midway Journey flickrcreativecommons)

“People were saying there is no way that all that plastic could fit into the body cavity of a bird. That broke my heart. We have a strict code of ethics: we are not allowed to add or modify the shot in anyway.”

So now the Journey to Midway team, which includes photographer Chris Jordan and his writer wife Victoria Sloan Jordan, returns with renewed resolve, determined to expose the process in its entirety.

Jan understands the disbelief, however. He experienced it himself.

“I have always been, I don’t know if you would call me an environmentalist, but I’ve always been passionate about this world and protecting nature. If you asked me where my favourite place is, it is working alone in the forest, that’s the happy place.

So when I had the opportunity to meet Chris Jordan at a conference about a year ago and we spoke about this issue that’s where the connections was made. I was invited to join the expedition. I didn’t know what to expect so I did some research. But never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that it was going to be as bad as it was, leaving this life impression on me.”

Jan Vozenilek. (Midway Journey flickrcreativecommons)

I asked Jan if that is something that is easy to communicate and does he have an audience for it.

“Actually, yes,” Jan says pleased. “We worked hard right away during the last trip, putting up the footage we collected on YouTube and the audience grew really quickly.”

Halfway into their time on Midway Jan got an unexpected email: “I got an email from a group in the Okanagan, asking if I could share my experience with the people there when I returned. To be honest my heart sank. I chose a profession where I didn’t have to speak publically. I liked being behind the camera.”

But Jan will tell you, he hasn’t turned down an invitation to speak yet.

“I had this profound experience when I was up early one morning. I was filming this dead albatross and his feathers were blowing in the wind and then this squall came up and it began to pour. The rain was flooding in sideways and I had to scramble to collect my equipment. It was then that I thought to myself, ‘how can I be so selfish? People need to know this. All of these products came from us.’ It was this weird profound moment.”

A common sight on Midway. (Midway Journey flickrcreativecommons)

When Jan returned from his trip he began sharing his experience, despite his fears. Putting together presentations on the topic, Jan mapped out the route of plastics, showing the great links between local waterways and ocean shores.

“I linked this trash to our own backyards.”

Accumulated plastic washed up on the shores of Midway. (Midway Journey flickrcreativecommons)

In total Jan has spoken to over 1500 people. “I’ve tied in solutions as well, which I think is important. It is important not to overwhelm people. I try to find a balance and not to leave people in that shocked space. I know what it is like to walk up to an environmental table at an event, my brain just shuts down. I feel so overwhelmed by all of these problems. So I’ve been trying to target a clear message: single-use disposable plastics.

I want people to know they can make that one change and see the connection. They can go on with their lives and I haven’t overwhelmed them.”

Jan speaks mostly to elementary and high schools, which suits him well.

“My other passion is education and kids and this is really a kid project, it’s a natural fit. The more research I do the more I realize they are our target audience. They have to be educated at an early age. They have to make better choices than I made, than our parents made.”

Speaking to a middle age school audience can be daunting though, and Jan was feeling intimidated before one presentation. “I was terrified because I heard the middle school age crowd can be really tough.”

But Jan makes his presentations accessible, giving practical examples from his own life. “At this school I shared a little story of what I do in my own life to make a difference.”

Jan recounted an experience he had recently had in a mall food court. “The Chinese restaurant caught my eye so I went over and my very first question was, ‘do you have anything that you could put this food on that is better for the environment?’ The woman said they provided paper plates instead of Styrofoam. But when the woman began dishing out the food, she put it on a Styrofoam plate and when I asked, she admitted that she actually didn’t have any paper plates.

I said ‘no thanks’ and told her about the effects of Styrofoam on the environment. I told her I would come back when they had something better for the environment.”

To Jan’s surprise, the entire audience burst into triumphant applause. Not bad for such a tough crowd.

“We gave them this power, this hope and choice. I don’t know it its just the rebellious nature of the group, but in the end, you are giving them the power to make choices as individuals.”

But, Jan admits, “this is all new to me.”

Before leaving the school, Jan saw two students staring dumbfounded at the vending machine. “I’m trying to buy something not wrapped in plastic,” one of the students said looking towards Jan. Eventually the student decided to not purchase anything from the machine. This episode happened, luckily, in front of the group of teachers Jan was speaking with.

“It was really worth my time being there that day. That’s how the torch gets passed.”

And the passing of the torch will continue as Jan and his teammates prepare for their return journey.

“In terms of the next part of this project, going back, we have a sort of pipeline of people who care about this. Between Facebook followers and the Plastic Pollution Coalition, its been exciting to see this grow and go back through that media”

“That’s actually one of the key factors that inspired Chris Jordan to go there in the first place. There wasn’t anything available on the Internet to see what was happening out there. People spoke about this floating island of trash and they thought you could dock your boat there and walk on it.”

But the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is more insidious than this. It is a consistent circulating patch of plastic shards, debris and particles that are dispersed throughout the water, shallow in some places, deep in others. The larger pieces may be easy to pick out, but as the plastic breaks down it begins to mix with the water on a particulate scale. Because of this, it is beyond any known clean up method.

The plastic to varying degrees becomes food for many species, not just the albatross. Small and large fish species, crabs and other birds all feed on the plastic matter. In this way the plastic floods the entire food chain, right through to the species we commonly eat.

As Manuel Maqueda, a writer and social media expert who joined the team on Midway, puts it in one of his blog posts, “And like the albatrosses on Midway, we carry the garbage patch inside of us.” (www.midwayjourney.com)

Like the Ancient Mariner, we wear our folly literally, a new take on an old curse.

Hope 2.0

“You would think one of the world’s remotest islands would be the cleanest,” Jan muses during our phone conversation.

“Probably the most moving thing on Midway is the stark contrast between the death and the life. Amongst all of these thousands of decaying albatrosses all over the island are other bird species that are flying up in the air, in the trees. The place is still teeming with life. While we were on our bikes the white terns would hover overhead and make chirping sounds, almost like angles. It was almost spiritual, this hovering overhead, giving us strength.”

Jan photographs a white tern on Midway. (Midway Journey flickrcreativecommons)

The team plans to make a documentary about their experiences on Midway Island.

“It was amazing to see this, alongside this species of bird that is basically going extinct. We want to have a scene in the movie about this experience – what does hope 2.0 look like? Where are we going from here, when, in just a short sixty years since plastic has been around, look what we’ve done?”

Plastic shores. (Midway Journey flickrcreativecommons)

I asked Jan is he was feeling apprehensive about returning to Midway.

“That’s a good word for it. Yeah, I am excited to return again, to see it again. But I am afraid of what I am going to see. We’ve been talking about this with Chris in the last few weeks, the psychological impact Midway has. I know what it did to me last time.

I look at the world with a whole new set of eyes. I was the one who liked to go to Starbucks for a frappuccino, with a plastic cup, lid and straw. Now I see what happens.”

Bright blue plastic, defiant in Midway's sand. (Midway Journey flickrcreativecommons)

Jan’s awareness, and his outspokenness about this issue, is bringing people out of the woodwork. He is experiencing firsthand the growth of this movement, a movement to ban plastics from shopping centres, municipalities and regions. It is a movement to personally avoid single-use disposable plastics and to eventually move to non-plastic and reusable alternatives.

The Journey to Midway team is preparing to travel back to Midway on July 1st, 2010. They will be continually updating their blog with photos and video footage.

But the torch doesn’t stop there. This is a movement that is largely dependent on viral exposure and they need all of the media attention they can get. So while you are checking in on the team’s progress, be sure to share the news. After that, look into your local policies on plastic use, use reusable bags and cups, buy bulk and reuse your plastic bags.

If we have created such a mess in the last sixty years through carelessness, imagine what the next sixty years could produce if we were thoughtful, diligent and careful.

Resources:

www.MidwayJourney.com

www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org

Midway Journey on Facebook

Twitter: @midwayjourney

Jan’s Wordpress Blog

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Jun 07 0 comments
Books, From the Navigator, Interviews, Resources, The Great Showcase

The Jury is In, Actually: James Hoggan on the Campaign to Deny Global Warming

James Hoggan author of Climate Cover-Up: The Crusade to Deny Global Warming

The first time I met James Hoggan was in March 2010 at a panel discussion entitled “Climate Change and the Media: Scientists, Scribes and Spinmeisters” hosted at the University of Victoria by the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS).

James was decidedly out of place on that panel. Alongside him were Lucinda Chodan editor-in-chief of the Times Colonist, Victoria’s local newspaper, Tom Pedersen, dean of Climate Studies at the University of Victoria and Peter Calamai, lead reporter for the Toronto Star.

Recently, Mr. Hoggan published a book that sent waves through the scientific and journalistic communities in North America.  Climate Cover-Up: The Crusade to Deny Global Warming has had both “climate change experts” and reporters aghast and pointing fingers. Just one of the reasons behind the panel discussion taking place at UVic in March.

But Mr. Hoggan is neither a scientist nor a journalist. He does not specialize in climatology.  He doesn’t teach journalism or vie for the journalistic integrity of the CanWest news world.  So, what was he doing there?

As a leading Vancouver PR guru, James Hoggan specializes in spin. Well, not that he uses those rakish tactics himself, you see. Sure he knows the ins and outs of corporate public relations spin as well as the rest of them, or perhaps even better, but he is morally opposed to it. And besides: it’s bad for business. All of this is helpfully outlined in more detail in Hoggan’s other book: Do the Right Thing: PR Tips for a Skeptical Public.

And doing the right thing is exactly why Hoggan was invited to sit in on the climate panel at UVic. Recently in print, and hitting the climate racket with riotous force, is Hoggan’s Climate Cover-Up. The book is a culmination of years of journalistic sleuthing and the collaboration of reporters regularly contributing to Vancouver’s famed DeSmogBlog. (www.desmogblog.com)

Hoggan, founder of DeSmogBlog, in partnership with journalist Richard Littlemore, set out to discover why, despite undisputed consensus within the scientific community, there was a raging ‘debate on climate change.’ What Hoggan discovered was that this phony debate was the careful creation of PR architects and media experts, who, in short, were doing the wrong thing and doing it with oil and gas funds.

“This is a story of betrayal, a story of selfishness, greed, and irresponsibility on an epic scale. In its darkest chapters, it’s a story of deceit, of poisoning good public judgment – of an anti-democratic attack on our political structures and a strategic undermining of the journalistic watchdogs who keep our social institutions honest” Hoggan begins in the book’s preface.

“It is ultimately a story that drove me and those closest to me to outrage and to activism. And although it is not my purpose to make you angry, I hope that you may through the coming pages, come to understand the sense of indignation and injustice that brought me to write this book.”

What Hoggan uncovered is a public relations scandal not seen since the inglorious fall of the tobacco barons and their louche campaign to hide the ills of second hand, or airborne, cigarette smoke.

I began reading Hoggan’s Climate Cover Up when I was about 106 pages into Lawrence Solomon’s 2008 The Deniers: The World-renowned Scientists Who Stood Up Against Global Warming Hysteria, Political Persecution, and Fraud* *And Those Who Are Too Fearful To Do So.

I had begun reading Solomon’s diatribe against global warming ‘orthodoxy’ to do my due diligence on becoming informed on both sides of the climate debate. But what I was to soon realize, through Hoggan’s book, is that this is exactly what the ‘Deniers’ wanted me to do.

The quagmire of climate science and public opinion is somewhat akin to the sordid pairing of sustainability and consumer responsibility. Somehow, in the ruckus, the consumer has become responsible for corporate industrial waste, toxins and unrecyclables. It has become our moral obligation and duty to ourselves, our bodies, and our children, to recycle, to perpetually ‘green’ our lifestyles.

But all this offsetting of responsibility onto the consumer accomplishes is the continual deferral of stricter industrial regulations and heavy corporate taxes. It is a strategy designed to obscure the issue at hand: industrial scale polluters and government inaction.  As long as we feel like it is our responsibility, and it can be solved through bi-weekly recycling programs and green consumerism, the industrial heyday will continue.

In much the same way, the duty to understand and resolve climate change and the more general issue of sustainability has been offset onto the individual, who, for the most part, has minimal scientific discernment. The complexities of climate science are often too much to cram into the measly side column of, say, The Province and so the more difficult issues are reduced down to their simplest and inexact components.

This leaves the “debate” victim to the sharks of the PR world, the media spinsters and the occasional scientist, gone rogue and willing to pocket oil and gas money for an exchange of credentials. The news audience, unwittingly and often too easily assuaged, is an easy target for the denial machine.  Heck, we almost want someone to tell us that climate change is a giant hoax and that we can go on with our Hummer road trips plans and yes, we’ll take that latte to go.

This, unfortunately, is not the case as any reputable climate expert will tell you. But where are these experts or reputation, Hoggan asks? And where are the journalists of integrity, bringing the undisclosed truth to their hungry and dependent readers?  Where indeed?

These are some of the questions Hoggan provokes in his book, alongside his tale of the CO2-stained tailings of oil and gas funds which have found their way into the pockets of some of the world’s most prominent ‘deniers.’

In a recent interview at Mr. Hoggan’s downtown office, I asked him, “So, what can we do to counteract all of this confusion?”

“Demand more of leaders,” came as a quick first response, “political leaders and particularly people in the media.” Alleged climate experts should be questioned about their credentials and qualifications and perhaps more importantly about their funding.

Currently in both Canada and the United States grassroots organizations under certain circumstances do not have to disclose their funders.  This allows donors to give charitably without publicly advertising their affiliations or partisan leanings.  In this instance, it also serves as a discrete conduit for large corporate givers to flood the alleged grassroots movement with oil and gas funded representatives.

“We need to demand politically that there is a change in this policy…these people should be stripped of the right to hide their funding.”

Aside from the policy overhaul, Mr. Hoggan also had this to recommend: “I also think, and this is probably the most difficult piece of advice but I don’t know that there’s any way around it, is that the real anecdote to propaganda and misinformation is understanding.”

So who is on Hoggan’s recommended reading list?  Elizabeth Colbert as aperitif with Andrew Weaver for the main course.  To those in need of more still, he recommends realclimate.org.

“Today, along with poverty and population growth, there is no bigger issue than climate change.  It is the biggest environmental issue of our day” and so, Mr. Hoggan insists, “this is something that is actually worth spending time to learn about.”

For those of us on the lookout, he adds one last caveat: “Keep in mind that you can never overestimate the capacity of [the Deniers] to be deceitful.  It shocks me what lengths they are willing to go to.”

Reading Climate Cover-Up amounts to a lesson in vigilance, vigilance of the mind, of the perspective, of the opinion.  We live in an information-saturated age where even the fittest are outrun by the sheer volume and quantity of published information.  What Mr. Hoggan reminds us of is the importance of the challenge.  The difficultly of acquiring straight information should not discourage us, but only strengthen our resolve.

If it is shocking what lengths the denial campaigners are willing to go to, well, then, I want to be down right scandalous in my efforts.

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Jun 07 166 comments
Books, Film and Documentary, From the Navigator, Resources, The Great Showcase

Waste=Food? Or, How to Reimagine Sustainable Design with William McDonough

The Canada Expedition is all about the search for solutions to a sustainable humanity. For some this search is a desperate one, one bound to failure, one limited by the imminent unsustainability of humanity. But for architect and designer William McDonough, sustainability isn’t about lack, its about abundance. Yes, that’s right, abundance. A word we are all but unfamiliar with these days. In a world of dwindling resources, peak oil and retreating ice caps, where does the concept ‘abundance’ even fit in?

William McDonough copyright 2010 The Henry Ford www.oninnovation.com

Nature, naturally. Abundance is how William McDonough sees nature. With its ever renewing, self-purifying, self-fertilizing and mutually beneficial systems, McDonough sees nature as the veritable structure of sustainability. Abundance and prosperity are the key principles of nature. In addition, natural ecosystems provide for a vast range of organisms while producing no waste.

This was the clincher for McDonough. No waste? Why? How? Well, because in natural ecosystems, one organism’s waste is another’s food. Which lead McDonough to the pared down conclusion waste = food. Despite the slightly unpalatable look of that equation, it is revolutionary. Waste = food. Could humanity become as sustainable as natural ecosystems by honing in on this one principle?

McDonough seems to think so. Working with a German chemical engineer, Michael Braungart, McDonough has re-envisioned the very way products are produced to capture the essence of waste = food. Products, down to their parts per million, are produced in manner that prepares for their eventual re-entry into the earth through biodegradation or for their future recycling. Waste becomes food for the earth. What cannot become food for the earth is manufactured to ensure its recyclability. It is “ecologically intelligent design,” holistic biomimicry.

From this simplified foundation McDonough has built an empire, an ecologically sound empire. He has already been scouted and hired by major producers Ford, Nike and Herman Miller. Most recently McDonough has been hired by China to implement large-scale eco-cities, sustainable living complexes entirely crafted to emulate the efficacy and simplicity of nature.

Innovators like McDonough and Braungart are forging the path of sustainability. Solving the daunting task of eliminating unnecessary waste is monumental in our time. The waste = food system, however also in turn addresses the related crises of energy production, emissions and effluents. With developments like these in our midst, pretty soon we’ll be throwing our used tires into our garden beds for next years fall harvest and spring wild flowers. Well…we’re getting there.

You can read about McDonough and Braungart’s case studies on McDonough’s website: http://www.mcdonough.com/full.htm. Information about a documentary featuring their work can be found at http://thenextindustrialrevolution.org/. You should also check out their book, available on Amazon, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things.