10-10-10

This last week has been a busy one. Last Sunday, on Canadian Thanksgiving, this year's 10/10 Climate Awareness event was held... events, I should say, because there were more than 7000 different events took place the world over.

The event we held in Ottawa was a great success, with maybe 50 people making it out on that most special of family days here, to listen to two mayoral candidates (the mayoral election is on the 25th of this month), a speaker on how climate change is affecting people of the First Nations, and make pledges on how they will cut their carbon emissions. We enticed them in with the promise to give people a black walnut (Juglans nigra sapling in the spring, free coffee (!) and nibbles provided by Credible Edibles.

I can't help wondering why many people chose disposable cups for their coffee, when there were real mugs sitting there as well. Certainly, the disposable ones shouldn't have been put out in the first place, but... baffling?

Both mayoral candidates made a lot of sense, and the first - Clive Doucet - made some telling points. How can we expect change if we continue to vote for the same old same old, for the people who have huge donations made to them by big business? What can we do to ensure the sane people assume roles of power when it seems most people are happy trusting the people who are most capable of reassuring them - in a game where the leaders are the people with most confidence, but a blind aversion to risk?

Sure, many of those people fail, their enterprises fail, but... still, the people most likely to be at the reins of the things that do succeed are those maniacs with blind confidence in whatever it is they believe in. There are shades of grey, but it is only seen as weakness to admit it.

I must admit my personal empathy with the charitable organisations that spearhead these campaigns is low. One email from the Fearless Leader of the 350 campaign spreads doom and gloom; the next, explaining why they cut ties with the 10:10 campaign (well, ok, the exploding people video might have been a bit much... Or, it would have been ok if it was a bit more humorous).

And it all feels like a bit of a money grab. Charities wage corporate war on each other to gain "market share". Maybe the government should oversee all charitable giving, to ensure it goes to the right place and doesn't get wasted.

Er. Well. Maybe not.

Anyway, our landlord/housemate got back from a trip to a conference on sustainability in Denver and promptly turned on the heating system, so I'm now warm and cozy at 21 degrees C. The weather has turned from bright and cold to wet and cold, so the fact I broke the washing line trying to get the last bit of solar power for this year is at once less important but more ironic.