As part of the 35th Mayors’ Dinner, workers in the field of employment counselling, settlement support, shelter and homelessness supports, and workers involved in climate change and environmental projects were invited to share their experiences, stories and perspectives.
Canada’s fair share of climate action is greater than what our governments are promising, let alone doing. In fact Canada’s fair share of climate action is greater than our society’s capacity. The amount we would need to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions to be fair to other nations is greater than our ability to do so, technically and physically. The gap between what we should do and what we can do becomes what we owe – our climate debt – to those countries whose fair shares we are, in effect, borrowing.
Windstorms follow any discussion about how the Western world can generate economic growth. Possibly this is because of the omnipresence of climate change’s unmistakable toll in the form of wildfires, forest fires, hurricanes, heat waves, floods, and mud slides. Mother Earth is clearly rebelling and it is easy to see that excessive use of resources, excessive burning of fossil fuels, excessive dumping of chemicals is at its limit. A system devoted to economic growth continues to make the problem worse and change is desperately needed.
Increasingly the growth model is not adding up. Often economists recommend efficiencies to exploit opportunities to generate growth and jobs, all of which seems necessary to pay for increased government services. Yet, this very activity will increase the use of resources, carbon, and chemicals. The dilemma of this score card is real. How can we make different choices.
We can regenerate our soils. If we want healthier soils – and therefore healthier food, healthier bodies, healthier minds, healthier waters, and a healthier climate – then we can have them. Choices abound for us to do right by that which sustains us. In our backyards, on our farms, and within our whole food system options are available that protect and nurture the soil. In this final article of our three part series we explore just some of these methods and systems. While the threats to soil health are great, the opportunities for regenerative practices are equally so. The choice is ours.
To save our soils is to save ourselves. We all know that in order to live we need to eat, and in order to eat we need good soil. But soil means much more than good food. Soil is also essential if we want clean water, a stable climate, and physical and emotional health. Soil is a critical part of our wider ecological community, living in reciprocal relationship with humanity and the rest of nature. In our first article of this series we explored the critical dimensions to good soil – soil organic matter, soil structure, and microbiology. In this article we will explore the ways soil relates to the rest of nature, and in turn to us as human beings.
The decade of the 2020’s will be momentous for turning away from the endless growth economy by learning to walk more gently on the Earth. If we don’t, these coming decades will be characterized by attempts to hopelessly navigate around the climate and ecological barriers that are directly in our path.
Walking gently is a new priority. If we don’t start revising society’s relationship to the living world, the next generations will inherit a world that will not be recognizable – and eventually not habitable.
Soils deserve our attention. This has been one of the most important lessons at the Working Centre’s Market Garden over the past decade. Every year at the Garden as our community plants, weeds, waters, and harvests we have seen how caring for the soil leads to stronger, heartier, more fruitful plants. We’ve learned and explored different methods for caring for the soil. Soil is capturing our imagination. As the power of soil to store carbon is seen as an important way to reduce our emissions.
What was normal before COVID-19 was a world of ecological, economic, and social woe: climate change, the sixth great mass extinction, extreme wealth inequality, rising xenophobia, drug addictions, epidemic anxiety, depression, and loneliness. In a COVID-19 world what we need is not only a vaccine and a bail-out package – we need a new normal.
We now have less than a decade to avoid catastrophic climate change. As has become common knowledge, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned that to keep average global warming below 1.5 degrees humanity needs to cut our carbon emissions by 50% by 2030. This is a tall order. To do this requires a deep transformation of our whole society and of ourselves.
Our economy is burdened and vulnerable to increasing debt. The COVID-19 shutdown has people deeply concerned about the economic effects. Before the virus arrived alarm was already being raised that the growing debt burdens of corporations, governments, and households was becoming increasingly unstable. It wasn’t just the size of debts but their size relative to the rest of the economy.
The Integrated Circle of Care is a fluid and collaborative approach followed by workers from different agencies weaving through St. John’s Kitchen. Within this approach, staff members from each agency are aware of their specific personal roles. However, the high level of collaboration between workers means that people can approach any worker, without knowing their agency association or specific role, and still receive support – either that worker will support the person directly, or they will introduce the person to another worker who can support the person more appropriately.
This approach makes relationships more natural and support more accessible. Workers from different agencies are easily approachable, meaning that people build relationships with multiple workers. Having relationships with different workers is important to a person’s support – it makes support from a trusted source easy to find, and means that people have a choice of worker to approach in any given situation.
In order to maintain a circle of care around a person, workers from different agencies ask for consent from the person for information to be shared between workers. Continuous communication between workers helps to ensure that people do not fall into gaps between services, and also that services are not duplicated.
