Message-ID: <mailto:199506161500.MAA08045@Fox.NSTN.Ca> Date: Fri, 16 Jun 1995 12:00:55 -0300 From: Andrew Pape <mailto:apape@SFU.CA> Subject: Youth Respond to G7 on Environmental Issues To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L
Youth Respond to G7 on Environmental Issues=20 "We are borrowing the Earth from our Children"
During the P7 "People's Summit", which was held in conjunction with the G7= =20 Summit in Halifax, NS, members of the organization World University=20 Services of Canada agreed to form a national coalition to support=20 environmental initiatives in their individual communities. The coalition=20 will distribute information between community groups in St. John's, Halifax,= =20 Montr=E9al, Kitchener and Vancouver, and will attempt to expand to other=20 regions through the distribution of a newsletter and establishment of a=20 Internet Worldwide-Web site.
Members of the workshop were angered by the lack of interest by G7 leaders= =20 towards environmental issues, and agreed that immediate environmental=20 conservation is critical to ensure continuing supplies of resources,=20 liveable social environments, and sustainable economic growth and job=20 creation in the future. Each delegate was committed to pursue an initiative= =20 in her/his own community to work towards environmental sustainability:
- Participants from Vancouver and Montr=E9al will work on public education= and=20 legal programs to help reduce automobile usage in the urban cores of their= =20 cities, which causes significant smog and CO2 emission problems. - Participants from St. John's will pursue the establishment of a municipal= =20 recycling program in their city. The fact that other similar-sized Canadian= =20 cities have such programs can act as an incentive to start such a program. - A public education program and government lobbying mechanism will be=20 developed by youth in Halifax and St. John's to induce action on marine=20 pollution problems, a result of inadequately treated raw sewage emissions,= =20 affecting fisheries and urban quality of life. =20 - On the cod-fishery that recently collapsed in eastern Canada, youth=20 agreed that an effort towards increasing the general public's knowledge of= =20 environmental science could have a positive effect on environmental=20 policymaking, providing an additional voice on critical resource issues. - A foreign student will work on changing people's attitudes towards=20 materialism, as he felt that, "Canada is the epitome of materialistic=20 values", resulting in environmental impacts due to garbage and excess=20 resource consumption within that consumer market.
On a philosophical note, the youth agreed that the concept of "environment"= =20 is overwhelming and all-encompassing, "needing to be further understood=20 within the context of people's everyday lives". Also, they felt that youth= =20 are in a unique position to be involved in environmental protection as a=20 unified global movement, as "our futures are interconnected=20 through the environment".
It is important here to invoke an Australian first nations adage: "We are=20 not only inheriting the world from our ancestors but borrowing it from our= =20 children."
Contact: Andrew Pape (in Halifax during the Summit 902-835-1546) Energy Research Group. Resource and Environmental Management Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, V5A-1S6, (604) 291-3068 email:=20 mailto:apape@sfu.ca
**************************************** Andrew Pape School of Resource and Environmental Management Simon Fraser University Burnaby, BC, V5A-1S6 Canada
(604) 291-3068 (604) 338-8574 home (summer, 95) (604) 291-4968 fax