Environmental sustainability every ones responsibility

Well I guess the holiday season is truly over and its ,time for everyone to buckle down and get back to the very important tasks that will keep us busy until we do it all over again next year. Vancouver-Hastings own Shane Simpson has wasted no time in the new year grabbing at headlines. Most recently I see that he has come out in support of a survey released by the Sierra Club claiming that a staggering 82% of British Columbians want the province to enact legislation setting clear targets for green house gas emissions. I would say that the only surprising outcome of this survey is the number. You'd think that it would be more. But, considering that the Sierra Club has Victoria almost completely under water within the lifetimes of our grandchildren, I would take their survey results with a grain of salt. Shane Simpson, the NDP Environment Critic supports the survey results by saying that "British Columbians want action on climate change!" Action!!!

Of course most sensible and reasonable people want to see measures taken to protect the environment. For us, our grandchildren and their grandchildren. My problem with this is not that I disagree that we all must become better stewards of the environment, but I question the stance that both the Sierra Club and the BC NDP have taken and I think that their decision to target the provincial government, while politically expedient, really ignores the biggest group of offenders.

There can be no doubt that governments, at all levels, must begin to consider and implement environmentally sustainable practices into all aspects of their planning processes, no one is arguing that, but I question just how much the 82% of people identified by the Sierra Club are doing to make a difference in their own parts of the world. I'm sorry, but blaming government is just too easy and, in my view blaming anyone is not an acceptable method of problem solving. Collectively, we are the ones destroying the environment! We have created the demand for more energy, we have made choices as to the cars we want to drive, we are the ones consuming at increasing and alarming rates and we are the ones throwing our junk out the window as we collectively call the environment someone else's problem. (Using an example that is close to my own crusade, Canadians throw away 50 billion cigarette butts annually) We choose to blame our government because we can't fess up to the fact that we are not a part of the problem, we are the problem! All 82% of us.

Shane Simpson accuses the BC Liberals of having an "absolutely atrocious record on climate change." He says that "We should be long past arguing that climate change is an issue worth discussing, we should be working on getting some real results." He's right, this is exactly what all of us should be doing but we need to start this discussion at the ground level with our friends and families. That said Mr. Simpson's view that the BC Liberals aren't concerned about or aren't doing enough to protect the environment is dead wrong. Here are just a few of the positive things that have occurred in this province within the past year:

• $40 million committed to the creation of bike paths, walkways and greenways over the next 4 years with the Green Cities Project.
• Increased incentives to help local governments make the move toward the use of hybrid vehicles.
• A promise to ensure that all new vehicles leased or purchased by the provincial government will be hybrids by the year 2007.
• Further incentives to encourage individuals to purchase hybrid cars and trucks.
• $2 million committed directly toward bicycle infrastructure in various communities throughout the province.
• $10 million set aside for the development of the worlds first fleet of hydrogen powered buses.

So then the question remains, where was Shane Simpson when all of these environmentally positive plans were announced? Where was the Sierra Club? What was this 82% of the population doing and where were the press releases from the opposition saying "These are great ideas and we support them?" Shane Simpson says that "Sustainable development is extremely important to British Columbians" and I agree, but lets not lose sight of the fact that while we have a responsibility to hold our governments accountable to our environment, we also have a certain responsibility to make sure that we are being held accountable.