Through my last posting I spoke of place, and how many people had lost connection with the hustle and bustle of life today. I think it is essential for people to be exposed to natural environments regularly, preferably close to home, to develop this connection with place. Being aware and connected with ones surrounding should lead to an individual to be aware of environmental sustainability and perhaps act to preserve natural spaces.
We had a speaker earlier this year who spoke of environmental development and design in urban communities. By simply engineering natural spaces, planting trees along a creek and building some walking paths for example, it increases the value of surrounding homes. Everyone wants to raise their family somewhere where the kids can go out and play in the trees, grass and creeks. Waking up and looking out your front window to see rabbits or even deer out in a beautiful, natural landscape is a refreshing experience and seems to make people happier and I would think more conscious of how their actions may effect the environment. This speaker said something even as simple as changing the design of a house 180 degrees to face the landscape instead of the front street increased value by a significant amount, proving that people do value green spaces.
I think that exposure to natural landscapes increases environmental consciousness and sustainability. I have noticed through my move from Saskatoon, SK to Victoria that people are much more conscious and passionate about environmental sustainability. I think this is largely due to the fact that the city is broken up by many natural spaces, rock, trees and ocean. Milder weather increases the amount of time people spend outside and the exposure to the beautiful landscape surrounding them.
Even within the city of Saskatoon one can see changes. The natural area down by the river is clean and well kept, where as the industrialized area's in the north end, without many natural spaces, are littered and dirty. One doesn't see many people walking down the sidewalk here, and if you do they are in a hurry and have their head down. On the other hand, people flock to the trails by the river, and many can be observed walking leisurely, looking around and smiling.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Week one
PLACE.
Some of us get a chill when we hear this word, during my last semester of classes I did as well. However my opinion changed as I felt a real chill, sitting out on the ice, during a cold winter day in central Saskatchewan. As the wind howled out side my shack I sat in silence, dancing my jig and minnow in attempted to attract a walleye and coax him to take my lure.
It was here when I started to think and reflect. Place. Many lectures, speakers, friends and books that I had been exposed to through the last four months of my life, as a student enrolled in an Environmental Science program, touched on this topic. A speaker from the Arctic, Shiela Watt-Cloutier talked about it. How a loss of connection with place, the land, the animals and the tradition, was effecting society today. Suicide rates have risen and it seems individual happiness has fallen as tradition fades.
I will skip over some of the other examples to a recent experience that triggered me to revisit the concept of place. I had a deep conversation with my Grandma, now 87, about the past depression. Times were tough, life consisting of long, hard, physical days and wages of $5 a month in the early 40's. It was mind blowing to think of how little they lived off that back then, before I enrolled in school I was making $30/hr, which seemed hardly enough. The following day she made a statement, "people have too much money these days. A few decades ago they were much poorer, however happier."
This lead me to think of when I lived in Alberta, I worked the patch as did many of my friends. Everyone was making good money, 80 to 100g/year, although I saw it multiple times. People were unhappy and many turned to alcohol and drug in pursuit of happiness. Everyone was in a hurry to get somewhere, to make more money, to spend more money. The streets of Lloydminster, a booming oil town, were full of big trucks, with lifts and rims, all driving fast. If anyone slowed down a minute to look around, to think for a minute, they were bound to be honked at and flipped off.
I wonder, when was the last time people went ice fishing? Sat down and thought of place? When did they last hear the wind howl, when did they last sit and watch the birds, when were they last in touch with the mother of our earth?
Some of us get a chill when we hear this word, during my last semester of classes I did as well. However my opinion changed as I felt a real chill, sitting out on the ice, during a cold winter day in central Saskatchewan. As the wind howled out side my shack I sat in silence, dancing my jig and minnow in attempted to attract a walleye and coax him to take my lure.
It was here when I started to think and reflect. Place. Many lectures, speakers, friends and books that I had been exposed to through the last four months of my life, as a student enrolled in an Environmental Science program, touched on this topic. A speaker from the Arctic, Shiela Watt-Cloutier talked about it. How a loss of connection with place, the land, the animals and the tradition, was effecting society today. Suicide rates have risen and it seems individual happiness has fallen as tradition fades.
I will skip over some of the other examples to a recent experience that triggered me to revisit the concept of place. I had a deep conversation with my Grandma, now 87, about the past depression. Times were tough, life consisting of long, hard, physical days and wages of $5 a month in the early 40's. It was mind blowing to think of how little they lived off that back then, before I enrolled in school I was making $30/hr, which seemed hardly enough. The following day she made a statement, "people have too much money these days. A few decades ago they were much poorer, however happier."
This lead me to think of when I lived in Alberta, I worked the patch as did many of my friends. Everyone was making good money, 80 to 100g/year, although I saw it multiple times. People were unhappy and many turned to alcohol and drug in pursuit of happiness. Everyone was in a hurry to get somewhere, to make more money, to spend more money. The streets of Lloydminster, a booming oil town, were full of big trucks, with lifts and rims, all driving fast. If anyone slowed down a minute to look around, to think for a minute, they were bound to be honked at and flipped off.
I wonder, when was the last time people went ice fishing? Sat down and thought of place? When did they last hear the wind howl, when did they last sit and watch the birds, when were they last in touch with the mother of our earth?
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