Our Own Private Kyoto

The Conservatives have taken a lot of heat lately over their Clean Air Act. Some have gone so far as to call for reinstatement of our obligations under the Kyoto Protocol. To all of the detractors I ask the following questions:

1) Have YOU cut your dependence on fossil fuels by making better use of public transit and by using a programmable thermostat? Public transit ridership data seems to show otherwise. I’m also sure significantly less than 100% of Manitoba homes have programmable thermostats.

2) Do YOU make a conscious effort to buy 100% recycled paper towels and toilet paper? It’s out there – it may not be the Quicker Picker Upper but it still works. In a similar vein, do you make a conscious effort to buy detergents with lower levels of phosphorous? Do you buy products that have higher recycled content than competing products or that use 100% recycled paper and/or plastics in their packaging materials?

3) Are YOU using low wattage ballasted bulbs and recyclable batteries? (Incidentally, we did manage to find the toy in question a week later – in the dryer, right where one would expect it to be. If it wasn’t for the weekly ritual of laundry day, said toy would be lost forever.)

4) If you are a journalist or employee of a newspaper, WHAT PERCENTAGE of your paper uses recycled newsprint? What are the targets to get this number to 100%? Do your advertisers have the same goals for the three tonnes of flyers they include in your daily deliveries to subscribers? Is that bag your sister publication comes in made out of 100% recycled plastic as well?

It is commendable that some expect our government to commit to radical changes. Perhaps we can all start by making micro-level changes in the way we run our OWN households prior to expecting government to solve all of our problems for us. After all, as consumers, we have the power to vote with our wallets. And that is far better than ANY government-led initiative. I’ll be the first to admit that there’s a lot of changes I need to make before I can hold Harper & Ambrose to account for the environment…