Kurt Archer

So it’s been 2 months since I’ve returned from an almost 3 year experience in Pakistan and India. So much has changed for me, that even still I find re-adapting to the Canadian culture difficult.

I suppose some of the experiences I had will never leave me, some truths you cannot just sweep under a carpet. Now that I am back in Canada, the hardest part is trying to share those experiences I had in a way that help people understand these truths that I have seen: poverty, exploitation, corruption, dishonesty. I guess this feeling is shared by anyone in the field of sustainability. The question eludes me, while I find myself stuck between a rock and a hard place. The worst of all, for me, is falling on deaf ears to the ones that are supposed to be closest and most beloved to us: our family.

The conundrum, in which I have befallen, is where to cross the line when on one side of it you know you cannot tell another person what s/he is doing wrong and how to live their life, on the other hand you cannot stand idle watching while ignorance is harming innocent people (and the environment) thousands and millions of miles away.

What would you do if stuck in this situation, crying desperately to be heard, to share some tiny morsel of experience, that may trigger an awakening to just how damaging the majority of North Americans live.

I know, I’m being harsh, accusing, judging. I know, but what would you do? What would you do if you knew someone was doing something that unbenownst to them is harming others, often, many others.

“What makes you so much smarter than us” or “who are you to think you know whats best for us” are two phrases I hear in defense whenever I point out the pointless obessive purpose to an electronic pepper mill. I wish I had all the answers, no one has all the answers. I do have a lot of questions though, like these:

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I recently came across this article snippet from the ecologist magazine in UK. The first thought that came to mind was pure terror. This is an example of how solutions can also have unforseen impacts on our biodiversity and global impact. Sure to some these are cotton eating pests that leave holes in our sweaters, but to other organisms they perform a task that is integral to sustaining life and providing a service to us that we cannot imagine. Put this into context, if somehow these GM insects were to infect bees for example, those small little yellow bugs we are all terrified of, then on th e surface it would be a good thing, but what we sacrifice is a world filled without beautifully polenated flowers. Yes, the service bee’s provide to flowers cannot be so easily copied by technology, and why should it? If extinction of a species, even a pest is a solution to climate change, then I am fearful of what repercussions we will have by blindly ‘experimenting’ with what we call ’solutions’. Which begs the question as to whether not there should be international protocols on such R&D.

GM insects

If the thought of GM pollen spreading on the breeze worries you, then watch out – the latest GM products have wings! In 2009, Oxford based Oxitec intends to become the first company to sell genetically modified insects for large scale release. Oxitec has developed a GM pink bollworm (moth larvae) that it claims will mate with natural bollworms (a cotton pest) and render them sterile. However, Oxitec’s plans don’t stop there. This also looks to be the year when it will proceed with a large scale trial release of genetically modified mosquitos also intended to spread sterility in wild populations.