La nature d’une nouvelle entreprise

Intéressante réflexion de David Suzuki inspirées de son pèlerinage annuel dans le sud de la Colombie-Britannique.

Once, productive soil generated a cornucopia of good food. Now, much of that land has been converted to accommodate big houses and boutique vineyards often run by absentee owners. I doubt that any local politicians in 1979 would have opted for the kind of places their communities have become today. Yet this is happening all over the country, as people seize the short-term benefits of an economic shot-in-the-arm from opening new developments, filling in wetlands, diverting streams, and so on. In the process, the communities that attracted people in the first place are disappearing.

The problem is that agendas based solely on economics and politics are, by definition, short-term. That is the very nature of these activities. We have few mechanisms to define what people like about the communities they live in, what they hope will still flourish when their children grow up and start having children of their own.

It seems weird to me, living in the wonderful neighbourhood of Kitsilano in Vancouver, that my children will not be able to afford to live in a house like the one they grew up in. That’s not a sustainable, stable community. We have to keep the big picture in mind and make sure we don’t sacrifice the very things that made a community attractive in the first place. And we must protect the things that keep the planet and our local surroundings rich, diverse, and healthy.

The annual pilgrimage that we started so long ago provides me with a perspective, and context to consider where we are and where we seem to be going. All communities need that, and I guess it resides in the elders, folks who have a long history and experience in a place. They can define the pace of change and consider whether it is what people want and need. Source: Cherry-picking offers lessons in life.