2006 Nov 22: How democracy fails the environment

Professor Lynn McDonald from the University of Guelph will  speak on “How Democracy Fails the Environment (and what we should do to reform it)”.

Toronto Peak Oil Discussion Group November Meetup
Wednesday, 2006 November 22, 6:45 pm
Frankland Community School
second floor, community room C
816 Logan Avenue (two blocks east of Chester station)
PWYC

Here’s a quote from an article she wrote in the Toronto Star:

An oil company that takes out the oil, sells it, makes enough money so that all concerned can live in luxury, then leaves the land and water systems polluted, can do so with impunity. Its executives, indeed, are featured in business magazines, given the Order of Canada and praised as pillars of the community. They even call what they do production, as if they had made the oil and gas in the first place.

Instead of dealing with this, the great political and constitutional issue, we debate federal vs. provincial rights over resources. And our policies encourage flagrantly wasteful use, such as cheap deals to sell ever more flights, use up more fossil fuels and cause more global warming.

…

The president of the Royal Society in Britain recommended the undertaking of a massive campaign to develop green energy to replace reliance on fossil fuels. In scope he said it needs to be like the Americans’ Apollo program.

I suggest that we need a similar massive rethinking of our political, economic and social systems.

After the meeting, the group moves a block east to Cafe Frappe, 519 Danforth Ave.

You are invited to RSVP.