As I mentioned in a previous blog, I am presently living in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada on a research visit at Memorial University.  "The Far East of the Western World", so it's called.  Being from Newfoundland, originally, I am thrilled to be living here again (especially now that the winter is over!).  So, the subsequent environmental criticism doesn't in any way mean that I don't respect or recognize my roots.  Culturally and in other ways, St. John's is a wonderful city filled with friendly folk ready to open their hearts (and homes) to anybody wishing to visit.  

St. John's has a relatively long history (with respect to European colonization of the Americas - some 500 years).  It is a place where the streets were designed for horse and buggy, not SUVs, where the people are as colourful as the houses they live in and the Sea is not just a way of life, but its salts grow deep in our bones.   Newfoundland is where the winds buffet the landscape and ancient rocks are exposed more often than they are buried under a thick layer of soil.  Our people are equally rugged and healthy, proud and bold, unique both culturally and through our geneology.  I'm proud of my history, but I also don't want to look back some day and be ashamed of the decisions we are making.

Like most of the Western World, and increasingly, the East (esp. China and India), St. John's is using more stuff, consuming more stuff, and throwing more stuff out.  The Big Box stores are slowly, but surely sucking the life out of downtown.  St. John's seems to be at a breaking point, in fact.  It was recently deemed the least sustainable small city in Canada. It has no curbside recycling program, not to mention municipal composting, food travels nearly the longest distance of anywhere in Canada to arrive at our grocery stores, and to top it all off, there is the "St. John's Bubble".  This bubble is at the same time both real and metaphorical.   Metaphorically, it is a demographic bubble.  In the past decade especially, the population of the St. John's metropolitan region has boomed, along with increased investment in the oil and gas industry.  In lockstep with this demographic bubble, of course is a consumption bubble.  One that is stressing the complex systems of society, overshooting the ability of the region to sustain itself. And, in here, lies the reality of the bubble.  What does one do with all that extra waste?  St. John's has decided to simply pump all 120 million litres of it every day into our tiny, historic harbour, creating a large, visible sewage bubble down at the docks.   My wife and I walk past the Bubble every day on the way to the bus and marvel at its brown hue and the hovering gulls and floating ducks squawking and quacking over what bubbles up.  It's really incredulous!

So, what is to be done?  Well, thankfully, solutions are on the way.  For several years now, the city has responded to public outcry over this eyesore, and the general pollution of the harbour by constructing a sewage treatment plant.  It is apparently millions of dollars over-budget and still will not be completed for some years, but at least this is a step in the right direction... or, more acurately, a bandage, a technological fix.  In a global perspective, this remains our collective solution to society's woes; technology.  Technology is good.  The plow is technology, the clock and our ability to clothe ourselves are technological developments.  But, we should be weary of technological fixes to some problems.  It doesn't get to the root of the problem, our overconsumption lifestyles.  The easiest solution is to reduce our consumption.

So, I challenge you.  On this Earth Day, start a resolution... to step more carefully on our Earth. Stop and breathe the wind, drink the water, sow the right seeds and you'll reap her harvests.  

Peace,

Grant