Where Do YOU Live?

By Pam Hadder

April 22, 2011 marks Canada's 31st annual Earth Day, and it is typically a time when businesses, schools and individuals reflect on their impact on and their relationship with the environment. This week I received a sales-y news bit from Homesense in which they touted their participation in Earth Hour on March 26.

"Earth Hour?" I mused, "Isn't Earth Day in April?" So, I read on, and it appears that at 8:30 p.m. on March 26 Homesense will be turning down the lights at all of their retail locations for (surprise!) one hour. This requires an announcement?

Earth Hour, is an initiative of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and is simply meant to illustrate how little differences add up, and I guess to raise a whole lotta awareness for the WWF.

Businesses and individuals can pledge and post nifty things that they will do in the dark on March 26 at 8:30 p.m. Well, I know I have no personal shortage of cynicism, but is this lame or what? Let's get the jump start on Earth Day and do Earth Hour!

Maybe next year, some other organization will do Earth Minute and steal a little face time from the WWF...mmm... see a pattern?

Self-serving lip service to the environment is just that - we need to care and commit to enviro-friendly choices every day to make a significant impact; don't kid yourself. It's very simple -- this is where we live, in closely-shared accommodations, and the maid just quit. So, DIY everyone - in the dark for one hour and otherwise.

GREEN

"It's not easy being green." - Kermit the Frog

We all understand green thinking - it's about informed, care-filled choices with regard to the use of Earth's natural resources and it's about living with respect to our personal impact within her delicate, intricate ecosystems.

Most often, raw material sources like forestry and mining come to mind. Green thinking may also extend to the indigenous animal and plant species of a particular ecosystem, region or country. We all understand the need to reduce our consumption, cut back on non-recyclable packaging, eliminate needless waste and littler, and re-use material whenever and wherever we can.

But do we fully consider humanity within green approaches? The encroachment of man into ecosystems is discussed as if we are aliens invading our own planet! Researchers remind us of the delicate balance existing in nature - but humanity is part of those inputs and outcomes (positive and negative). We are, as earth-born mammals, an integral part of Earth's living landscape.

Terms like stewardship, management and carbon footprint come to mind when addressing the human side of environmental responsibility - but do any of these terms really describe the intimate, personal relationship we each have with the patch of ground we call home?

At their roots, humanity understood the connection of their people to the Earth Mother, and many of the resulting customs and rituals exist today, marking that vital link. After a hunt, the Bushmen of the Kalahari still express thanks to the antelope for giving its life to feed their families. Many North American Aboriginal hunters show thanks and respect to the Creator with offerings of tobacco. In India, offerings are mande to the Ganges River in thanks for its life-giving power. Green approaches and solutions are incomplete without considering the integral place of man and culture within their structure.

Oh, and the Irish - they give thanks by raising a glass of green beer on St. Paddy's day!

The Invisible Minority - 100 Year Anniversary

By Pam Hadder

Have equal opportunity programs in Canada outlived their value? Did they indeed ever have any true value? "The purpose of the Employment Equity Act is to ensure that federally regulated employers provide equal opportunities for employment to the four designated groups: women, Aboriginal peoples; persons with disabilities; and members of visible minorities." We've all heard the (very politically incorrect) jokes from those dismissed from government job recruits: "Now if only I were a bilingual, Asian-Aboriginal woman... with a limp"!

March 8, 2011 marks the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day, and looking back, at the past 93 years since Canadian women were first allowed to vote federally, the progress toward gender equality was been appallingly slow. It wasn't until 1982 that a woman sat in the Supreme Court of Canada, and the first Canadian Premier was not elected until 1991 (Rita Johnson, British Columbia).

Canadian women work longer hours for less pay than their male counterparts, and where families with children are involved, women manage the lion's share of the domestic chores. According to Statistics Canada, 73% of women with children under the age of 16 years are working full-time outside of the home. This is a figure that has skyrocketed in the past 20 years.

So there is no doubt of the financial contribution of women in Canada. On the up-side, the Canadian government is always diligent in collecting the same percentages of income tax from women as from their male counterparts! (Tax equality = gender equality?) Seems to me that the progress of women in Canada is a highly selective process, and that my XX chromosomal makeup is a serious deterrent.

Why are Canadian women seen as less valuable, less capable, less worthy? Our environment is littered with advertising and marketing that devalues the contributions of women; and most often if I mention this - even to other women - they look at me like I'm some raving loony from an alternate universe. Many women do not recognize what is inappropriate and that they should feel indignant and offended. Maybe both genders have become desensitized.

So, how shall I "celebrate" 100 years of women's progress? Shall I do a hundred of something? Call me crazy, but absolutely nothing comes to mind to celebrate. I just know that I am an equally-taxed, white female minority -- highly engaged, honourable and capable...and, it appears, quite invisible.

Ethos and Ethonomics

By Pam Hadder

ETHOS: "...the character or emotions of a speaker or writer that are expressed in the attempt to persuade an audience...the natural disposition or moral character, an abiding quality..." - Dictionary.com

A week or so ago, I was at the gym, getting warmed up for my latest lesson in physical humiliation. The radio was on, and the DJ was polling the audience - they were asking what the most popular female response was to the question "If you could have any super power, what would it be?" The "correct" answer was mind reading, and it was guessed almost immediately by a fast-dialing young listener (maybe she already had the gift?).

Don't know about you, but if I could have some sort of super ability, I would want something a bit more action-oriented - how about unlimited speed, amazing physical strength, or the ability to fly? Maybe I was just thinking about my own inadequacies: working out = humiliation!

Too frequently, I find myself a bit overwhelmed with a high volume of incoming information. I can't imagine having even one other person's cerebral clutter mixed into my own - no thanks.

Whatever your super power of choice would be, it all sounds pretty cool until you really think it through. But when you're zipping through the air like a comet, how will those thousands of insects (and birds, OMG!) feel hitting your body? Even if you wore a protective suit and helmet, you'd have to stop and clean the gunk off it every so often...major league ick and eeeew!

Everything we do elicits a complex array of additional actions and responses. Whether or not we choose to think about it, both physical laws and personal accountability are part of the evolving equation we know as daily life. Reaction goes way beyond the cause and effect thinking of Newton's third law of motion - even a simple decision can trigger a huge chain of events, some intended and some unintended. Don't believe it? Think Twitter or YouTube.

More recently, I came across the term ethonomics in an online article about marketing trends. The term was used to describe the factoring of social responsibility into traditional economic principles - that is, the systems and management by which we buy and sell; and distribute goods and services. Noble thoughts within a viable vision, or just another enterprising type seeking notoriety? I was curious, hopeful, and cynical all at once.

I thought back to the super power question and the resulting reality check imposed by accountability. If we address the market from a platform of social responsibility, will the fallout be similar to current green initiatives? Dig beneath the surface of many eco-friendly programs and products and you will find limited real benefit to the environment and a mother lode of consumer spin. Too often, companies get on the green bandwagon simply to appease a market segment that is too large to ignore, but too small to require in-depth restructuring.

My inner idealist still dares to come out and play amid naysayers and fiscal restraint, and it wonders "what if"? WHAT IF ethonomics were to really take root and burgeon? The end result might be a planet where resources and their ensuing profits are fully shared in respect of the environment, human needs, and established cultures. Humanity, with each individual's essential needs met, would be more likely to exist and thrive in harmony.

We don't have super powers, but we each have the ability to make hundreds of choices a day that make an impact. Even if we abstain, hide, duck the question, or use other evasive tactics, our inaction in itself causes a reaction.