ross millar

I just watched two videos from Ted. The first about MIT’s FabLab and the second about sustainability, by the founder of World Changing. Having a look around on the World Changing site I realised that sustainability is the new green. This may sound like a negative thing to say, but that’s not my meaning.

This is a good thing, a really good thing. In order for a real change to happen in the world, some think we need grassroots change, or a revolution. I disagree. We need business and political leaders to believe in change. The “green” that I speak of is the “tree-hugging” variety, the kind that the average person doesn’t take seriously, let alone the leaders. World Changing speaks of a balanced, yet encompassing approch to sustainability. Incorporating technology, politics, business, and conservation – thus, it is sustainable, not green. What we need is evolutionary change, not revolutionary. Leaders are begining to believe in sustainability.

The current Bill C-288 aside – I’ve been following the Kyoto Protocol since the Kyoto Summit. The Canadian Government has shown nothing but complete incompetence. The protocol essentially states: by 2008-2012, Annex I countries have to reduce their GHG emissions by an average of 5% below their 1990 levels, wait a minute, that’s next year! Even if we take untill 2012, 4 1/2 years from now, we have no hope of acheving it. The summit was held in 1997, and the best the politicians can do in ten years is come up with a Bill? Come on.

Getting back to the point. The only reasonable change in environmental concerns is a balanced one, one that creates jobs. Not one that destroys jobs. That balance should include a phasing of current technologies and markets. People have to eat & put a roof over their heads. Simple.