Post #1: Why I'm Here

Hi, Lauren here. This is the first posting of my blog for my Environment and Resource Management course, so I’ll briefly explain who I am. I was born on January 16, 1990, so I’m 17 years old, and currently in my final semester of grade 12. I am going into Journalism when I graduate, possibly at Fanshawe or Ryerson or – preferably – McGill. I am not sure what type of Journalism I want to pursue, but I am mostly interested in rock, broadcast or environmental journalism. Right now I write for a local newspaper – the Banner, and I have a bi-weekly student column (alternating with Mark MacKichan) about current events or issues pertaining to teens.

I am taking this course because I am interested in the environment and helping to preserve it. I took World Issues first semester of last year, and it really caught my attention. It discussed humanitarian issues, but also looked at environmental issues as well. We spent a day in Toronto: we took the train, and walked everywhere, with the exception of one very short subway ride. Throughout this whole course, however, I had one consistent thought: are we really doing so little to save our world? There are genocides and impoverished countries, but the biggest problem on this continent is our environmental degradation. You can insert any cliché here that you want: we only have one planet, our children will inherit the earth, etc, but they’re all true: there really is only one planet and if we take advantage of it, we’re going to lose it.

I understand that there’s no way that we can completely eliminate all environmentally-unfriendly products from our lives, and I know that not everyone is willing to give up the life that they have always lived in order to fix our problem, but I think that there are things that can be done that won’t take away from our daily lives and will still help.

Last weekend I watched "An Inconvenient Truth" – http://www.aninconvenienttruth.co.uk/ – a film made by Al Gore about the dangers of global warming. He used a lot of undeniable evidence that really brought home the effects of what humans are doing to the environment. He debates the idea that global warming is only a political issue, and puts to light the fact that it is becoming a moral issue that can’t be denied. I really hope that this course answers a lot of my questions, and I think it will be a very worthwhile semester!

Stay tuned,
Lauren