Friday, October 19, 2012

reduce, reuse, recycle

What I wore: 
Jacket: Thrifted
Shirt: Lilith, Queen St. Toronto
Tights: Betsey Johnson
Dress: turned skirt, Urban Outfitters
Necklace: Hattitude Jewellery 

We saw David Suzuki (Canadian environmentalist) last night at the Western University, with former Chief economist of CIBC, Jeff Rubin talking about The End of Growth. When you get an economist backing up an environmentalist you know it has a bit more punch, or credit with the masses coming from his mouth. 

It was a very interesting lecture talking about how our economy cannot keep growing at the rate we've been growing at. Rubin believes all the dips in the economy in the last 50 or 60 years have been caused by the oil price spikes. How the middle east wars are affecting us, in the west, increasing the oil crisis. Because of globalization we feel the affects when the middle east has a war. Suzuki was saying how silly human beings are that our first priority as humans is not the right to clean air (we're polluting it horrendously with all the factories and 'things' we have to own) and our right to natural food (we're poisoning it with all the pesticides and toxins used) our first priority seems to be all about possessions and how many things we can own. 

In south American they have actually institutionalized a constitution where the animals, fish, plants and trees have rights, just like humans. There was an oil company dumping into a river, and an american couple who was living in this country (in south america, pardon me, I forget the name of it) actually sued the oil company on behalf of the river. The couple of course did not get any money, but they won, and the company had to restore the river to it's natural state. The river in that country is viewed as having just as much rights as humans,  they've put it in their constitution.  Isn't that wild? How did we as humans become so high and mighty thinking we can just keep taking and taking? 
Sure makes me feel good about always shopping from thrift stores! 

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4 comments:

  1. That sounds like a very interesting talk, and it's true how people are screwing up the planet and we need to treat the environment with more respect. For the 5 years of university I rode the bus almost every single day, the university provided us with buspasses as part of our tuition so that helps with our footprint!
    I love this outfit, thats the same dress I was wearing in my last post except in beige! I love it with the sweater and your coat is an amazing colour
    xJennaD

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  2. How interesting that somewhere in South America did that...

    PS Love the shape of the coat.

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  3. You look so cute Hattie! And this post is absolutely inspiring. Makes me proud too that I thrift a lot and rarely buy brand new clothes although I'm probably guilty on buying stuff loaded with pesticides as organic stuff are not readily available here. But I just started gardening so I might grow my own organic produce someday. yay! :)

    Kathy
    http://mypeachdays.blogspot.com

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  4. I love this post! My degree is in environmental policy so I would have loved to hear that talk! The story about suing the company on behalf of the river is pretty much the best thing ever!
    As for your outfit, I loved it even with just the awesome coat, and then when I saw the awesome caramel colors mixed underneath I swooned. I swear you are the best at mixing fun color combinations!
    Hope you're having a great day!
    xo Hannah

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