Well, good evenin'
This just in - Conservatives defeated in Alberta Election!
Know who the real winner - the new Premiere of Alberta - is? Apathy. Mr. and Ms. "I'm too lazy and complacent to get off my ass, take 15 minutes out of my day, and exercise a right I have automatically, but many have fought and died for" won the election in a landslide. Can you believe that shit? 950,000 people voted, out of 2.3 million. That to me is absolutely f#&king shameful. It's infinitely more depressing to me that we could have made some real change happen in this province, at a time when I think we really need it, than it is that the tories are going to run the show (and run it with even more swagger and impunity than they had last term) for another 4 long, likely painful years.
I'm not giving up on democracy (or change) though - I plan to get a little more creative in the ways I participate. Because you know, democracy doesnt begin and end with an X on a ballot. It's what we do in between elections that now has become our only source of redemption. First thing I'm gonna do is write my new MLA a letter, and let him know that, even though I (along with about 40% of the people who voted in my riding) didn't vote for him, he is now my elected representative, and that sumbitch better effin' represent! I don't wanna give away too many surprises - I'll read the letter to y'all on march 13.
Last week's show was all about climate change and what we can do to engage ourselves in constructive discussion about it. Here are the tunes that framed it all in (below are a tonne of resources):
1. i know why the caged bird sings - buckshot lefonque feat. maya angelou
2. kindred - akrobatik feat. chuck d (!) & brenna gethers*
3. take it all in & check it all out - bill withers
4. the wiff - daddy rings*
5. garvey meade - ring craft posse
6. people can be so stupid - andru branch*
7. talkin' world war iii blues - bob dylan
8. cabidela - mombojo*
9. el microfono - mexican institute of sound*
10. tibiri tabara - cafe tacuba
11. je ne t'aime plus - manu chao
12. horses - cqmd
13. le chauffeur - urbs
14. a l'oree des bois - plants & animals*
15. we must destroy - jane vain & the dark matter*
16. stingray blues - the grass*
17. how electricity really works - mike ladd*
18. heatwave - buck 65*
So, this dude Mishka Lysack came in and told us about some really cool things that are happening to try and get people to give a shit about something, anything - but specifically in this case, climate change - here's some of the suggestions he had for tapping in:
Mishka was talking about a teach-in that happened on campus back a little while ago. The idea is to get normal people with varying degrees of scientific understanding of the issue to talk about climate change and how it effects them. It comes from an initiative called focus the nation that is growing and holding teach-ins all across the world. The group was started by this dude, who wrote a book about it.
Another grassroots group working to raise awareness and engage debate related to climate change is called step it up - they've started a new chapter in Calgary, and one of the main cogs in the global wheel is a dude named Bill McKibben.
One other group to check out for the more sciencey side of things - the intergovernmental panel on climate change.
Here are some books that Mishka recommends if you want to inform yourself:
Flannery, T. (2005). The weather makers: How we are changing the climate and what it means for life on earth. Toronto: HarperCollins Publishers.
Goodstein, E. (2007). Fighting for love in the century of extinction: How passion and politics can stop global warming. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont Press.
Kolbert, E. (2006). Field notes from a catastrophe. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
McKibben, B. (2006). The end of nature. New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks.
McKibben, B. (2007). Deep economy: The wealth of communities and the durable future. New York: Times Books, Henry Holt and Company.
Monbiot, G. (2006). Heat: How to stop the planet from burning. Toronto: Doubleday Canada.
Woodbridge, R. (2005). The next world war: Tribes, cities, nations, and ecological decline. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
And here's one I would add - about the kind of paradigm shift we need to start acting on these issues - it's called dancing at the dead sea, by Alanna Mitchell.
This totally aggro dude called up right after Mishka and I got off the air, demanding to know when we were going to host a "real scientist", and wondering why media is so biased towards those who believe that climate change is actually an issue. He recommended that we all look into a fella called Dr Tim Ball - here's an interview with him, and he's also speaking at the university soon (although I couldn't find anything on the website about it...) - who is dying to tell us all why we're not actually changing the climate.
Anyway, I guess me and Mishka were naively assuming that we've all moved beyond the "is climate change even an issue?" debate, and on to the "what are we gonna do about it?" quagmire - I wonder if my caller wasn't partly expressing his frustration and hostility about the world moving on and leaving him behind. In any case, as I said last week, regardless of whether climate change is (in your opinion) a symptom of the stupid things we're doing to this planet or not, the FACT remains that we humans do some really incredibly phenominally dumb things to this planet, mostly stemming from the misapprehension that we're never going to run out of anything.
So, the tories won the election. So, there are people in this town (that listen to CJSW) that still don't think there's a problem with how we're treating the planet. So, almost no one gave a shit enough to go vote this monday. Does all this mean that democracy and hope for humanity are dead? I'd say it's up to you, and I can only speak for myself, but I'm not ready to give up. If anything, the last week's experiences have strengthened my resolve to hop up on the highest perch and let you all know why you must, at least, give a shit about something.
I'll let you stand on my box if I can stand on yours (I think Bob Dylan said that...)
A la prochaine,
greg
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