Earth Day (Day 18)

The environment, according to one of the founders of Greenpeace, we take it for granted.  I ended up going to a discussion today about Earth Day and what it is.  The discussion was held at the public library. The talk started with a man by the name of  Philip Van Huizen, he talked about the history of earth day and how it originated.  How it started in the states, and made it's way to Vancouver, opening up and starting groups like SPEC and Don't Make Waves.  How a lot of BC environmental groups started in the early 1900s, with a Mountaineering society and a few others.

How parks were setup and land developed.  How the Social Credit Party ended up developing a lot of the land in BC with hydro electric plants/dams, natural gas explorations, etc.  It was a cool talk, I didn't know that much about the history of the environmental movement here, but it's good to know a bit of history.

The second talk was by Dr. Terry Simmons, he was one of the original members of Greenpeace, which was known as "Don't Make Waves". The meaning behind that name was that originally there was nuclear testing just off of Alaska, and they thought that one explosion could send a tsunami to the western coast of BC/WA.  The Greenpeace was their first ship.  Anyways the Dr. started talking about how we can't really trust people who call themselves environmentalists, or even trust the word organic.  He also told us that we don't appreciate the world around us enough, and that there are a lot of loop holes in the current enviro policy.

An interesting talk, he left me wondering what they would change.  I asked, but they just told me a more environmental friendly way to get energy.  I personally agree we need that, however we do need something a bit more feasible. Glad to have learned a bit more about this province!