By: Dani-Elle Dubé
The “green movement” has less to do with actually helping the environment and more to do with lining pockets.
We’re doing it wrong, Canada, and we have been for a while. Actions speak louder than dollars.
How, in any way, shape or form, is throwing money at this problem going to solve the situation?
Instead, we need to stop giving the middleman organizations that claim righteousness authority and take the responsibility ourselves. If money were the go-to solution, Dalton McGuinty’s Ontario needle exchange program would have worked. Providing approximately over 500,000 needles to an estimated 3,500 needle drug users in Ottawa alone just seemed like the logical solution to getting people off drugs. Or not.
So, let’s follow the money trail, shall we?
As of a few years ago, Loblaws began charging its shoppers for plastic shopping bags. These proceeds are donated to the World Wildlife Fund of Canada, an advocacy group that raises awareness in regards to conservation. This donated money is used towards more fundraising, implementation of several green programs and raising awareness.
This is an example of money travelling in circles and not actually doing anything to fix the problem. It’s a case of raising money to raise even more money rather than having the proceeds go towards actual cleanup initiatives.
The ironic part about WWF in particular, is that it offers travel tours where you can globe trot around the world with WWF to help in conservation efforts while a portion of your tour cost goes towards such projects.
That makes a lot of sense — travel on a plane while burning tons of jet fuel into the atmosphere to go clean the Earth. Here’s a solution: Don’t go on these pocket-lining tours and save the world by sparing it the jet fuel emissions.
Congratulations, you have done your part as a conservationist and you haven’t even left your chair
Speaking of hypocrites, former vice-president of the United States, Al Gore, unofficially became the face of the Global Warming movement after his movie An Inconvenient Truth. This movie grossed approximately over $80 million in theatres and DVD sales.
Along with the sales of his 2009 book Our Choice, the combined revenue was donated by Gore to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a non-profit organization similar to the WWF.
Sounds legitimate, right? Well, it would be if Mr. Gore weren’t the chairman of the organization.
Last time a conflict of interest like this happened, Canadians were calling for the resignation of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford.
In the meantime, instead of throwing your money to people and organizations that you think will do the job, make sure it gets done and do it yourself.
Considering only 27 per cent of recycling actually gets recycled in Canada, according to the government, do the recycling yourself and reuse the materials.
Since the major problem seems to lie with plastic products, take time to wash that plastic container. It’ll be useful for something else. The same with glass jars.
And there’s no need to hop on a plane with WWF to clean up, if people see trash on the ground, they should pick it up and dispose of it. Simple.
Instead of picking up one of Mr. Gore’s books that talk about how bad it is to cut down trees, don’t buy it. That way, people are saving the very trees he failed to save in his quest for a pay cheque and they reduce their ecological footprint.
Keeping our Earth clean means getting hands dirty and keeping greasy palms spotless.