On February 25 and 26 I attended the 1st annual “Sustainable Communities in the North Conference” (Thunder Bay, ON) with members of the Dryden Envirothon Team.  The main issue that the conference addressed was peak oil and resilience of communities.  Conference pre-requisite: watched the documentary – “The End of Suburbia”.

“It is necessary that all the people of this region are given a forum to celebrate our strength and character and to feel safe and comfortable enough to take the long, hard and honest look at the challenges we face in an era of great uncertainty.” – Alex Boulet, SCN Chairperson

Dr. Mirella Stroink (Lakehead University) was the initial speaker at the conference.  Her ideas were from a psychological perspective.  She identified one of our main barriers to sustainability as mental assumption.  It leads us to assume that the marketplace is a more important ecossytem in which to seek survival than the biophysical environment; an assumption that affects our environmental behaviour.  She proposed that communities will be more secure environmentally and economically if they become more adaptive and resilient.  With the community of Dryden in mind, it is not resilient to be extremely dependent on one sector.

How do we achieve resilience?

• Diversity: (people, business, energy, sources of food, land use planning, communities, connections…etc.)  Each community must examine it’s own resources to achieve resilience.
• Modularity: Become interconnected both locally and broadly.  Modular systems can self-organize in the event of shock (since they already have patterns of interactions within their communities).

Localization is our first priority.  We must build the capability to produce locally what we CAN produce locally.

Building Resilience:

• land use planning
• business development (www.livingeconomies.org)
• energy and food production
• change behaviour
• education (change content and approach since it is currently designed to prepare people for the “marketplace ecosystem”)
• teach hard skills (farming…)
• unplug (replace the TV with stimulating community events to develop a community identity)

.

During the conference, solutions were discussed during the youth forum and were shared during the conference visionary session.

The Marion Drysdale Contest

I would like to share with you some great news!  I submitted a video entry to the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation Student Achievement Awards.  The award contest that I entered was established by the provincial assembly in 1984 in honour of Marion Drysdale for her dedicated work, and so is known as the “Marion Drysdale Award.”  Each year a new theme is determined.  This year the theme is “Suppress Excess: Living Within Our Means.”  The video that I created and titled “Making a Difference by Way of Waste Reduction” won regionally, as well as provincially (the video is available to watch on the “contact” page.)

My video features the “problem” (waste in landfills) but it is mostly about how I have personally acted to make a difference; since one person can truly make a difference.  The video is positive and inspirational, showing how our actions to reduce waste add up.

On Tuesday February 16, 2010 I met with Mayor Anne Krassilowsky at City Hall to show her my video; demonstrating my initiative regarding work with environmental causes.  I began with a short introduction to my campaign.  Next I showed my video.  Then I asked her a couple of questions… obviously asking her to reconsider my plastic bag ban request.  From her response, I can tell that my campaign is still necessary.

What does carrying the Olympic Torch mean to you?

“On January 1, 2008 I made a New Year’s resolution to raise awareness and discourage the use of single use plastic shopping bags.  Being anonymously nominated to carry the Olympic Torch means that I have raised community awareness and I have also become an inspirational role model. I am honoured to be recognized for my youth activism.”

Following this experience, I realized my responsibility as a community role model and accepted invitations to deliver inspirational presentations.  My message to schools of children was to, “Have big dreams.  Set big goals.  Speak for what you believe in.”  I spoke about my experience as a torchbearer and the most important events that lead to that opportunity. One person can truly make a difference.