By Ali Siemens (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: June 6, 2012
Flyers come to our doorsteps by the dozens, bright and bold, with the latest deals on electronics, furniture, food and clothing. Big company businesses like Wal-Mart and Costco always seem to have the best deals on toilet paper, soup and underwear. It’s hard not to swoop in on these cheap buys, especially in this economy, where we’re all trying to save a buck.
I recently visited Nelson, British Columbia, a small city surrounded by mountains, lakes and mom-and-pop businesses that seems to be thriving. While I was in there, I noticed there was hardly any franchise big businesses. The people in Nelson were happy supporting their local venders, going to local restaurants, and shopping at the resident-run grocer. Their city is sufficiently running off people supporting people.
The “Global Footprint Network: Advancing the Science of Sustainability” launched a footprint calculator in 2010, allowing people all around the world to take a test that tells them how sustainable their lifestyle is. The website is linked with facts such as, “If everyone lived the lifestyle of the average American, we would need five planets.”
Upon reading that fact, I was hardly shocked. It’s not news to anyone that we live in a consumer society; we like buying things, and most of us don’t have trouble throwing away items when we are done with them, even if they are still useable.
The “Global Footprint Network” has partnered with Calgary to do specific research on Calgary’s ecological impact. They found that the average ecological footprint was 30 per cent higher in Calgary at 9.86 global hectors (gha) per person. Canada’s average is at 7.6gha per person, and at that rate, we will need four planets to keep up with our habits. What has been uncovered is that humans need to reduce their footprint to 1.8gha in order to live sustainably.
We need to return to the days where we support mom-and-pop grocery stores, buying what we need, and fixing what is broken. As students, this seems like something we should all be able to accomplish, because none of us make much money, yet we all still find the ability to buy the things we don’t need at the big department stores and franchises we all have learned to love.
There are places all over the world that have worked to reduce their ecological footprint. Rather than placing blame on political parties, oil companies, or Wal-Mart, we have to take the right steps ourselves.
We are educated individuals, living in a first world country. It is time to quit using excuses and return to healthy living, for us and for our Earth. Rather than heading to Target for the latest deal and supporting some CEO, support local, and help pay for the owner’s children’s swimming lessons. We need to become a society that helps our neighbor, which in turn helps our planet and us. What may seem like a good deal in the newspaper is only detrimental to the Earth we need in order to live. We need to live within our means, and support what matters.
