The
online newsletter
of the Conservation Council of Ontario
May 19, 2004
Sign up for e-mail updates on our Home Page
View the Online Index at http://www.greenontario.org/news/archives.html
View
the E-mail Archives at http://list.web.net/archives/greenon-l/
1. Announcing We Conserve
2. July 5th Launch a great success
3. Discussion Question: A Movement in Transition: Is environmentalism dead, or is it evolving?
Announcing We Conserve
Welcome to the consultation phase around We Conserve, a new initiative to build a united conservation movement in Ontario. We think the time is right to take the conservation movement to the next level or organization and public engagement. We have strong public and political support, we have a wealth of expertise and programs within the NGO sector, and recent events (particularly around electricity demand and smog days) continue to reinforce the need for an aggressive and united conservation campaign in Ontario.
We're ready to take our movement to the next level. But we want your support and advice.
www.weconserve.ca is now live and ready to receive your comments on how we in Ontario can build a united conservation movement.
Over the next few weeks we will be sending out a new discussion question each week and asking for your comments.
If your group would like to arrange a meeting to discuss We Conserve in detail, please contact me directly at cco@web.ca.
July 5th Launch a great success
Over 100 people turned out for our reception to launch the consultation phase of We Conserve. Our thanks to all who came -- our colleagues and special guests.
Donna Cansfield, MPP Etobicoke Centre and Chair of the Conservation Action Team, pledged her government's continued support for conservation and highlighted work that has been done recently with groups like Reduce the Juice in Shelburne http://powerupenergy.ca/. (Editor's note: I was at the launch for Reduce the Juice and it's an excellent example of community-based public outreach.)
Helen Burstyn, Chair of the Ontario Trillium Foundation, expressed the Foundation's support for We Conserve and the important role non-governmental organizations can play in creating a culture of conservation.
Other comments and expressions of support came from Ontario's Chief Energy Conservation Officer, Peter Love, who noted the need to work together to promote and the leadership role that groups like the Clean Air Foundation (www.cleanairfoundation.org) are already playing in engaging the public conservation; Ontario's Environment Commissioner, Gord Miller, who stressed the importance of getting the conservation message out there again and again so that it becomes part of the common lexicon; and Pollution Probe's Executive Director, Ken Ogilvie, who was pleased to see we had identified increased funding for the movement as a priority.
Our thanks to everyone who made the evening possible, and especially to The Beer Store for donating the refreshments!
A Movement in Transition
(this is the first of a regular series of articles and question for discussion. The full series is posted on www.weconserve.ca, where you can also contribute to the discussion)
Key questions: Where is our movement going?
How do we make conservation a pervasive social value? How important is it to create a united conservation movement?
The Evolution of Environmentalism
Environmentalism is not dead, at least not in Ontario, it is evolving. Over the past fifteen years it has been quietly morphing into a formidable force for social change.
All through the 1990s, after the World Commission on Environment and Development gave high level support to integrating environmental values into our economy and society, our movement has been adapting to meet the demand. Our challenge now is to unite all these organizations as part of a well-funded and coordinated social movement.
From our roots to our future.
Conservation in Ontario is a century old movement, with some constancies, several distinct periods in our evolution, and continual reinvention. It is timeless, slowly evolving, and rapidly changing.
Conservation is timeless, because it has always represented our societys desire to minimize our ecological footprint, to live sustainably and in harmony with nature. The expression of conservation values has evolved over time adapting from being primarily a rural concept of nature and natural resources to incorporate modern environmental values and concerns, such as waste reduction, pollution prevention, climate change reduction, urban design and energy conservation.
The conservation movement has evolved as well over the past century, most noticably with the rise of environmentalism in the 1970s and the sustainable development movement of the 1980s.
One of the largely unnoticed changes in the movement, however, occurred in the early 1990s with the advent of a new breed of organization dedicated to providing conservation services to the public. Green Communities (www.gca.ca) were launched in municipalities across Ontario with provincial seed funding and they have now blossomed into a highly successful national network of local organizations and a lead agent in delivering the federal Energuide for Homes program. Evergreen (www.evergreen.ca) and Autoshare (www.autoshare.ca) are two other examples of organizations and social venture companies that were launched in the 1990s to provide the public and communities with conservation services.
We are changing, evolving one organization and one project at a time.
If you look closely at Ontarios conservation movement, you will find that there are now hundreds of groups that are providing solutions to environmental issues, from protecting natural areas, reducing consumption, and eliminating waste and pollution. Be it Earth Day Canada, the Clean Air Foundation, the Clean Air Partnership, the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association, Ecosource Mississauga, EcoPerth, or the Caledon Countryside Alliance, we are becoming a solutions-based movement. The background paper prepared for the November 25th 2004 Conservation Summit lists hundreds of these groups and projects. (www.greenontario.org/summit/).
The majority of these organizations were founded in the 1990s. For this reason, I would argue that the 1990s marked the beginning of the latest transformation for the conservation movement. We may not have noticed it, given the dominance of downsizing and downloading environmental programs during that decade. In spite of the recent debate around The Death of Environmentalism, (see www.grist.org) our movement has already begun to adapt. We need to acknowledge this transition and embrace it.
Its time to create a social movement for conservation
We are not unique. If you look at other social movements civil rights and feminism for example you can track a period of protests and consciousness-raising followed by a period of integration. Once the public and the political and industrial leaders have accepted your cause, then comes the challenge of integrating your values into society
All nuances and differences notwithstanding, conservation is now at that transition point. We have gained widespread public, corporate and political acceptance. We now need to work on integrating our values and solutions into our society and economy.
This is the need that We Conserve addresses the transition of conservation into a social movement. It does this in three ways:
- coordinating our efforts
- providing the products and services that people, companies, and municipalities need to become better conservers
- raising public awareness and commitment through social marketing and individual campaigns.
For a variety of reasons, we are presented with a unique opportunity to make the transition a reality. The blackout of August 2003 restored conservation as a priority. Other issues, such as smog, climate change and urban sprawl are reinforcing the desire for change. We have a supportive government at the provincial level and the public is calling for action and solutions. And most important, we have the depth of leadership and expertise in Ontarios non-governmental organizations and a widespread network of community groups and volunteers.
I believe we have the depth, the experience, and the support necessary to make the transition to a coordinated, well-funded social movement. And if we cant do it now, then when?
What do you think?
Is the timing right? We made recycling commonplace in the 1980s. Can we do it again for energy conservation? What about other conservation issues, such as pollution prevention, local and organic food, or alternatives to sprawl? What opportunities do you see for making conservation the cultural norm before scarcity and pollution forces it upon us?
