Ever since the Globe and Mail imposed a subscription fee for their online articles, I begrudgingly made the switch to National Post, even though it gives me stomach aches. Take this article for example:

http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/05/31/mountain-of-change-in-store-as-canadas-national-parks-aim-to-attract-mass-tourism/

They delivered the story on mass construction on Canada’s perserved parks as great news! A victory even. There are budget cuts, they need more revenu, so now there will be more “commercial or mass-tourism friendly amenities” in our National Parks! Now us hardworking tax payers can actually enjoy the wildlife we’ve been paying to perserve! Can any thinking be so narrow? How can we “enjoy” the parks when you just said that there will be “commercial” amenities? Could that mean more wal marts? The writer didn’t expand on that point. We just heard about the cool things that will happen like a lift on the ban for hang-gliding. Did she explain why there was a ban in the first place?

This quote really sickened me:

“Parks are for people, it’s not a preserve,…Canadians pay a lot of money in taxes to support those parks and they should be open and accessible to all Canadians.”

Ya, the thing is, those parks are perserved because they are part of an eco system that enables humans to live and that kinda includes trees, and the animals, etc. I know this scientifically proven concept is beyond the scope of Harper fans. Yes, so lets build a capitalist friendly hot spot, cut down trees, shoot down bears, remove the wildlife from their homes, I’m sure they will figure out a way to adapt! The rocky’s will become a nice deserted wasteland that we can later on use to drill for some oil!

So what’s the logic here? Lets “enjoy” nature while its here, but let’s not do anything to “perserve” it?

Here is a suggestion, how about you enjoy the land you already live on. Chances are it used to be a lush green paradise too. What’s stopping you from getting back there? With the advances in technology, there is no excuse. We need to cut through bureaucracy and the politics and find ways to incorporate clean technology in our day to day lives so that we can live harmoniously with nature. We need to have an electric communal transit system, with a focus on a pedestrian oriented community. We could even start with something simple such as sacrificing a parking spot, remove some concrete and plant a tree or two and composting. Then there is getting the government to clean the lakes, make business accountable for pollution.

Humans have been living in nature for most of its existence. We have a yearning for nature in our day-to-day lives. We are programmed for it. Bringing green back into our lives is not a fad, its a human need. And we need to restore it.

We can’t even maintain the beauty of the land we already invaded, why should we invade more? Is there any place in Canada that can be spared from cigarette butts and empty Tim Horton cups?