Bambi would like to weigh in on an article by Ms. Zoe Hunter recently published in the Argosy (Mount Allison University’s student newspaper), which is entitled “Divest holds protest during open house”.
To begin with, Bambi has already written on this story on February 28, 2020:
Now, she would like to comment on the above article and perhaps even more specifically on the picture below.
A quick question to students with signs like “Divest from colonial violence”: What is more violent: blocking railways and hijacking the economy of a whole country OR proceeding with a project that got the approval of 20 First Nations AND that would allow many Wet’suwet’en Nation members to earn a decent living?
Why can’t the Wet’suwet’en Nation be prosperous? Doesn’t it deserve this like the rest of the world?
Another question specifically to Ms. Helen Yao who said: “Divestment is the beginning to a sustainable future… It entails shifting our economy and our lifestyle towards a living one, towards one focused on sustainability, not profit”.
Bambi’s question is as follows: How is divestment the start of a sustainable future? How would you have a future if you do not have an economy anymore? In an ideal utopic world, it would be nice to dream of a sustainable future with a renewable form of energy but this is not realistically possible yet. All what we would be shifting is the source of that fossil fuel, either a Canadian product or a product bought from Saudi Arabia, Iran, or other. Period.
Plus, what about sustainable profitability? In other terms, can’t sustainability co-exist with profitability?
According to the Argosy article, Ms. Yao added: “We need dramatic and radical change because we only have 10 years to address the climate crisis before we reach a point that we don’t want to think about,” said Yao, referencing the UN’s warning in 2018 that in order to keep global warming from rising to a dangerous point (a maximum temperature increase of 2 C), immediate action must be taken within 12 years”.
This is where Ms. Yao completely lost Bambi who does not buy this apocalyptic view/prediction.
To conclude this post, thanks to Ms. Hunter and to the Argosy for keeping us informed. Please keep up the good work (Bambi is a faithful reader :))!
