To kick off Earth Week, I presented “Our Disposable World” to students at Upper Canada College in Toronto. Below are highlights from my presentation — told in visual essay style.

We throw so much garbage in the ocean, there’s a floating island of trash in the Pacific that is as big as Texas! (See the Trash Vortex animation by Greenpeace.)

“In stark contrast to its cuddly international image, Canada is the dirty old man of the climate world,” The Guardian, November 30, 2009

What’s Canada’s Report Card?

Since I was speaking at a school, I shared Canada’s Report Card with the students and said, “If this was a student, the school and parents would be very, very worried!”

Conference Board of Canada: Environment GHG Emissions Per Capita

WWF and Allianz have put Canada in LAST place among G8 nations for their performance on the environment. (Download pdf)

I used this population chart to illustrate the enormous challenge we face. Over the course of my lifetime, the world’s population is expected to triple. That to me is astounding. It’s obvious that our planet is going to be under tremendous stress as the population explodes.

So what hope could I offer the students that society can change? I showed several examples, including our changing attitudes to smoking, and how we handle trash. In 1979, we threw everything in trash cans. Now in 2010, we sort all our garbage into 3 different bins. (Granted, Toronto is greener than many cities. The USA has very few curbside pickup programs across the whole country.) Watch the short video clip to hear two other examples.

Since I was speaking at a school, I gave the boys…

Then I asked the 700 boys for a show of hands. How many had answered “Yes” to any of the green conscience questions? Thankfully all hands were raised — proving that they do have green consciences, even if they (like me) don’t always listen!

The second half of my presentation focused on telling them about the fun things that have happened to me since I started listening to my green conscience: selling our only car in 2007, challenging City Hall for the right to build a green driveway — and then building it as a long weekend DIY project — plus writing a book about it all, and spreading the message further.

I showed them examples of students doing artwork about what’s bothering their Green Conscience.

4 cars bothers my green conscience

I asked them:

We need more people to do the hardest thing first — and then brag about it to their friends and family. We need more people to be proud of being green — that’s how we’ll convince others to join us in this adventure. But doing the hardest thing first is very personal. What is hard for me, might be easy for you! And vice versa. Below is a student from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, talking about her Green Conscience artwork and the challenges of recycling in her town.

Recycling is the hardest thing…

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I got this feedback from one UCC student:

“Doing the hardest thing first is interesting. We usually go with the low hanging fruit.”

And that is exactly the temptation humanity needs to resist. Because it’s getting late.

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VISUAL ESSAY CREDITS:

“Our Disposable World” © 2010 Franke James

Photographs, illustrations and writing by Franke James, MFA, except as noted below in order of appearance:

“Far Away Impact” features sculpture from COP15 (photo by Franke James). Background landscape is © istockphoto.

“Sewer Sky” illustration features Tar sands photo © Jiri Rezac / Greenpeace

“Some who lobby to pollute” features Tar sands photo  © EM / Greenpeace

Trash Vortex  ©Greenpeace Canada

Research reports:
Conference Board of Canada: Environment GHG Emissions Per Capita

“Canada is one of the world’s largest GHG emitters. Canada ranks 16th out of 17 OECD countries on GHG emissions per capita and scores a “D” grade. In 2005, Canada’s GHG emissions were 22.6 tonnes per capita, almost double the 17-country average of 12.4 tonnes per capita. Canada’s per capita GHG emissions were also almost four times greater than Norway’s, the top performer.

While Canada’s GHG emissions per capita have risen since 1990, Norway managed to decrease its GHG emissions per capita by 30 per cent between 1990 and 2005.” For more details go to report.

G8 Climate Scorecard by WWF and Allianz:
Animation overview. Or download the pdf report.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 22nd, 2010 at 11:27 pm and is filed under Global Warming, My Green Conscience, environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.