LED lights, draft proofing, identifying insulation problems are examples of measures that all result in energy, money and carbon savings. Reduce the energy consumption of your home.Buying local can result in dollars spent in the local economy being amplified by 220 per cent (called the local multiplier effect) but have as little impact as 30 per cent if a product or service is purchased, manufactured or sourced from across the globe. Spend your money on products and services that do not exploit the natural or human world.Examples include credit unions and socially responsible investments. Bank accounts, investments, pensions, loans, credit cards and mortgages are provided by a multitude of organisations that support the transition to a sustainable world. Move your money to places that support the vision of the world that you ascribe to.But your choices do make a difference, and beyond the standard “reduce, re-use and recycle” mantra, there are ways to make a real impact. Of course, it feels overwhelming and often futile to exert your individual effort towards being sustainable when even our elected governments are not truely onside. As Tom Robbins says, “If you fail to pilot your own ship, don’t be surprised at what inappropriate port you find yourself in”. If we do, we are allowing ourselves to be swept along with a tide that is headed somewhere none of us want to go. Linkīut we can’t afford to wait for the government or rest of the economy to catch on. Compare that to building retrofits for energy efficiency (7), mass transit services (11), building the smart grid (4.3), wind (4.6), solar (5.4) and biomass power generation (7.4). This is because $1 million worth of oil and natural gas output directly creates 0.8 jobs, and $1 million of coal produces 1.9 jobs. If we actually want jobs then renewable energy and clean technology is the way to go. Globally, clean technology – meaning any technology that lessens the impacts of our current way of doing things or meets our needs with fewer impacts or sometimes even positive ones – is the fastest-growing sector of the global economy. While the economy hangs over our heads like a nasty threat in so many conversations about making the changes necessary to stabilise our climate and keep mass-extinctions at bay, we don’t hear nearly enough about the business case for green investments. If we are backing pipelines and other fossil-fuel infrastructure, we simply will not meet the commitments made in Paris. Now most countries have made both international and domestic commitments to cut carbon emissions, and we are either going to do what it takes to get there, or we are not. Yes, pipelines and wind turbines can co-exist, but these things are not compatible with our global pledges. Yes, they are working towards being more sustainable, but they are not making the change anywhere close to quickly enough. Our leaders, whether in government or in business, are simply tinkering at the edges of our existing system. If Trudeau believes he is “green,” then he is suffering from a typical case of cognitive dissonance, and he is not alone in this. Yet, a little more than a year later, his government has given approval to a multitude of big fossil-fuel projects, including pipelines and fracking/LNG, that will lock the economy to the extraction of fossil fuels for decades to come. One of the first actions of the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was to get Canada back on track to fight climate change by ratifying the Paris Accord and committing to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030. So, who is it that will lead us down this path? Many of Canadians were buoyed with optimism following the last federal election. We must find ways of meeting our present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs. Whether or not we like the word, the need to shift into a more sustainable way of life is no longer an option it’s a necessity. Even with such alarming things as the fact that the North Pole has recently been 21 C above average or that current trends indicate that we can expect a 50-per-cent reduction in species across the planet by 2100.

It’s just a simple truth that when it comes down to it, the planet and the environment don’t feature as top priorities in most people’s decision-making. If our species continues on a path of business as usual, our planet is not going to be a very comfortable place to live. Has the word lost its meaning? And if it has, does it even matter?

Beyond the horizon 2017