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Maybe Cranbrook could save the planet?
“Perceptions,” by Gerry Warner
Op-Ed Commentary
Allow me to make a “modest proposal” a la Jonathan Swift.
Let’s ban plastics in Cranbrook.
O.K., that’s probably shooting too high. Let’s make a more modest “modest” proposal for our fair city. One that’s realistic and quite possible and might even give us a more progressive image amongst Canada’s finest towns. Instead of banning plastics, let’s make a practical and strategic effort to reduce the use and consumption of plastics in the Key City.
Who knows? It may even lead to a new industry and it certainly wouldn’t hurt our image. It may even do a lot to improve it and help save the planet.
That’s right – save Mother Earth or at least the oceans, which is really the same thing. Don’t believe me? Well consider the following facts about plastics, which I gleaned from a recent National Geographic article.
Did you know that scientists are predicting the total weight of plastics washed into the oceans will soon outweigh all marine life in the sea? That’s right. More than all the fish, cuddly seals, plankton and the Great Blue Whale, the largest creature ever to have lived on Earth.
It has gotten so bad that there’s now something called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a vortex of slowly rotating garbage in a gyre (current) three times the area of France. Most of the gyre is made up of micro-bits of plastic that are non-biodegradable and consumed to one degree or another by every living creature swimming in the sea. This makes them sick and often leads to early death.
Think about this a minute if you dare. Sick fish, sick ocean, sick planet! Where does this leave the human species or all other species for that matter? Up the creek without a proverbial paddle and a very bleak future considering that ten percent of the world’s population depends on fisheries for their livelihoods, and 4.3 billion people are reliant on fish for 15 percent of their animal protein intake, according to UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) statistics.
We humans may be the top of the food chain, but are we so ignorant to believe that we can stay on top – or even survive – if through our wasteful indifference we destroy the food chain supporting us? If that’s the case, humankind has got to be the most arrogant species on the planet.
Which brings us back to plastic. Let’s get real. Cranbrook is a small community, one of thousands in the world, but thanks to the World Wide Web we’re connected to almost every community on Earth.
If we were to engage in a project that dramatically decreased our use of plastics in the city, the world would find out about it in a nano-second thanks to the Net. Other communities might try the same thing or something similar and we would lead by example and be known for something other than our notorious “Strip.”
Our sister city Kimberley built a “sun mine” and even though they’re now selling it they reaped a considerable amount of favourable publicity from doing it.
Canal Flats is now in the process of converting a shuttered saw mill into a high tech, data centre servicing the needs of the saw mill industry and providing 100 new jobs to replace the 75 jobs lost when the saw mill shut down. It’s new lease on life for the isolated East Kootenay hamlet.
So, what could Cranbrook do? There must be something. We’ve got bright people in this town. We’re on two major transportation corridors. We have an international airport with an 8,000 ft. strip, 300 feet longer than Kelowna’s. We’re close to both the American and Alberta borders. In other words, we have the human capital and physical infrastructure to do most anything we want despite our small size.
So that’s the challenge. If we can build a marijuana factory here, surely we can come up with ideas to reduce our plastic consumption and maybe sell the idea to the world. If you’ve got any ideas, I’d be glad to hear about them. Maybe we’ll both become rich.
– Gerry Warner is a retired journalist that believes someone has got to save the plane
