Sustainable Orillia: To Health And Wellness
By Peter Kizoff – Special to SUNonline/Orillia
“If civilization is to survive, it must live on the interest, not the capital of (the earth’s resources).”
With that simple sentence, Canadian author Ronald Wright in his brilliant A Short History of Progress captures the entire dilemma of sustainability. We are facing the challenge of maintaining fulfilling lives now without sacrificing our children’s and grandchildren’s ability to live their own fulfilling lives.
The earth’s resources Wright reviews include not only those providing fuel for our daily lives (gas, oil, coal, uranium, etc.) and those driving industry (iron, copper, nickel, etc.), but also the ones that are even more essential for survival – clean air, adequate and drinkable water, and fertile land.
Wright also surveys several societies over past millennia which were advanced and sophisticated in their day, but failed to recognize the dilemma of their declining sustainability. Like us, they needed to respond with wisdom and determination to the challenge of sustainability. However, those previous societies, although complex and organized at the time, failed to meet that challenge and so collapsed.
In Canada we can look around and see the hidden contradictions of progress. On one hand, here and in many countries, it’s clear our lives have improved dramatically over the past century. We live longer, our homes are larger and we have many aids from cars to computers and more to make our lives much easier.
But more and more, we are beginning to see there is a cost and a risk to the generations that follow us if we cannot manage our lives, our industries and our enjoyments in ways that respect our global neighbours and protect earth’s resources. A hundred years ago Canadians faced health issues such as inadequate nutrition, over-crowded housing, and tuberculosis. Today we face new and different health issues: more inhaled particulate matter at ground level (from hydrocarbon combustion); ever-increasing dispersal of chemicals in the food, water and air; and signs of a more disjointed society with more social isolation, homelessness and addiction.
Our task, the task of Sustainable Orillia’s Health and Wellness sector at the launch event May 24 and 25, is to identify cost-effective actions and individual, community and government health-focused actions which strengthen our own and our community’s ability to live fulfilling lives while preserving the ability of our children and grandchildren to do the same.
As Henry David Thoreau observed, “in wildness is the preservation of the world,” and we know the restorative value of outdoor activity, whether we walk, play, hike, bike, swim, sail, hunt, fish or photograph, so we can discuss ways to preserve and protect green space, both recreational parks and rugged forest lands, for the good health of all.
At the launch, participants and health and wellness team leadership (Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit staff Brenda Armstrong and Lori Hunter, and physicians Brad Dibble and Peter Kizoff) will review proactive interventions which strengthen and further develop strategies to maintain food availability and safety, water availability and quality, and air quality. During Saturday’s breakout sections we can brainstorm ideas which strengthen community health, focusing on identifying individual and community lifestyle choices to strengthen our health today while protecting the health of tomorrow’s generations.
Author Wright, who provides the stepping-off point of this piece, concluded his thought with, “Now is our chance to get the future right.” Isn’t that what all of us really want? Join us at the launch event.
Editor’s Note: This is the 6th in a series of articles by members of the Sustainable Orillia mayor’s task force in advance of the launch of a community initiative May 24 and 25. The initiative is designed to provide local, attainable, solutions for the effects, economic and quality of life, of climate change. The Sustainable Orillia launch weekend, register here, takes place at the Orillia Community Church (Friday night) and Lakehead University (daytime Saturday).
(Photos by Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia)
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Also see – The Mayor’s Task Force: Sustainable Orillia
Climate Change: A Learning Opportunity
Sustainable Orillia: The Agricultural Sector
