Green: within our grasp
Montreal Star / Peggy Curran / 17 April 2010
[...] While national governments and politicians sputter and dither about what is to be done, many environmentalists, scientists, town councils and business leaders have already moved on, looking for practical, eco-centric ways to mitigate the extent of the damage and adapt to the inevitable.
"You couldn't help feeling angry, burned-out and crestfallen after Copenhagen," says Fenton, an organizer for Climate Justice Montreal and an outreach worker for the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition. "If Copenhagen proved anything, it's that we can't rely on our leaders. Instead of top-down, we need to be looking at bottom-up solutions." "Ultimately, you can't wait for the main central governments to act," said Christopher Bryant, a professor at Université de Montréal, where he runs a team focused on sustainable development and territorial dynamics. "At Copenhagen, we saw it's not easy. Even getting people to agree on a watered-down statement, it's not easy." "Everyone agrees that on the national and international level the results have been worse than disappointing," says Aylett, a senior research associate with the Sustainable Cities Network whose blog at WorldChanging.com focuses on cities (openalex.blogspot.com).
"So it would be easy to feel that it was self-defeating. To say, I changed my light bulbs, I put out my recycling every Tuesday, why should I bother?" Yet Aylett and others say progress can - and must - be made by individuals, communities, local and regional governments and other key stakeholders.
