THE DRIVE PORTRAIT

Margaret Atwood on Global Warming, Greenpeace Coffee, The Detroit River Wind Power, The Auto Industry, Essex County
A memorable conversation regarding the state of our environment with the Queen of Canadian Literature

Her voice is soothingly pleasant, soft, compassionate, but the thoughts her words invoke are as disconcerting as a polluted river.

Speaking in support of the Essex Region Conservation Foundation, Ms. Margaret Atwood, "the Queen of Canadian literature" has as great a passion for the care and preservation of our climate and environment as she has for writing.

Her father was an entomologist and one of the first members of the Earth movement. Both her parents were environmentalists in a time when little concern was given to environmental issues. However, this awareness was instilled in Ms. Atwood from the beginning and the acclaimed author has been an outspoken environmental activist for much of her life. She brings the subject out in all her work.

She has much to say about the climate, the environment, global warming and about our role in protecting and conserving our natural world. Her words should serve as a warning, but while her message may at times appear bleak, the ever optimistic Atwood offers hope for our future. Citing the work of organizations like the Essex Region Conservation Foundation and other examples of environmental success stories, Ms. Atwood believes if we act we can save our planet but she warns that time is running out.

Copenhagen and Greenpeace:

When asked what might be accomplished at the world climate conference in Copenhagen Ms. Atwood was pragmatic in her reply, "I think what they will be experiencing is how much public emotion has now been stirred up, especially in Europe and Britain."

Meanwhile, here in Canada she says we are not so fiery, but, we may change and brazen acts such as the Greenpeace demonstration on Parliament might be a portend of things to come.

"It's a question of national character, we are not huge demonstrators. They've been doing it in England and Europe for a long time ...we don't behave that way. [But] I think we are going to become more boisterous and I think that Greenpeace is just the way of the future."

She says one of the greatest impediment to any kind of an agreement at Copenhagen comes down to everybody waiting to see what everybody else is doing first.

"It's very much a case of after you I'll follow ...I'll do it if you do it. So unless you start cleaning up your local pea-patch, ...if there isn't an international agreement you're still going to be dirtying your local pea-patch. Sooner or later the neighbour is going to have to do it too and isn't it nicer to be a good example rather that a bad example?"

Brushing aside the global-warming skeptics:
"It's not as if we are short of information in this point of time. We have a lot of information. Often it's information we wish we did not have, we would much prefer to believe everything is fine. We were told in 1972 what was happening, we ignored it. We were told again in 1990, we ignored that. It's now not possible to ignore it any more. We-can't-ignore-it!"

Canada's role: "not insignificant" The role Canada plays on the world's environmental stage is "not insignificant," says Atwood. "Canada has the biggest lung on the planet ...it's the boreal forest. It's equal to the Amazon, which they are rapidly cutting down, but the carbon stored in it is huge and also the oxygen produced by it - because the oxygen we breathe comes from plants - so, if you toast the planet so that nothing grows, you're going to choke to death ...it's really that simple. How Canada acts in relation to that forest is going to influence the fate of the entire planet. So, not insignificant number one. Number two, the fresh water, and thirdly, did you know that Canada has just invented a really cheap, solar-driven desalination process? It's called Salt Works - out on the west coast - this is something that is going to be crucial in the years to come. So, do not think insignificant."

What can we do as individuals?

"Well you know what they say, think locally not globally; because nobody lives up in the air. We all live in a place, feet on the ground. Look out the window, that's the Detroit River. It is not some other river somewhere else ...it's not the Thames. If you want a clean river you might as well start with the one right outside your window."

"Sudbury was once the standard of environmental pollution. It was used as a counting standard, one Sudbury, two Sudbury ...ten Sudburys! Traveling through there 40 years ago when I was a kid, it was like the moon!

Nothing grew there. No fish in the water, no birds in the air, no trees, no grass - nothing - just black, acid, rock" Today, the remarkable recovery of Sudbury has become one of the environmental success stories and Atwood says the knowledge and experience gained through those endeavours is invaluable.

"People are coming from all over asking how do I clean up mine? And now they want it to be a measure of recovery, two Sudburys, three Sudburys. The lesson is, you can do it. You can do it! You come back from nothing pretty much ...and it is acting locally."

A simple choice:
"People, individuals think insignificant, we think, what can I do, it's such a huge problem, what can I do? One very, very simple thing everybody can do is to change to shade grown organic coffee. If everybody did that it would make a huge difference.

Coffee is the second most traded substance on the planet after oil. Up until about 34 years ago all the coffee was Arabica and all grown in the shade. Then they developed a new drink called robust (which she says, "actually doesn't taste as good"). "You can grow it in rows out in the sun. It's easier to pick. In order to do that, you cut down the rainforest." "Grow the stuff in rows, spray it with chemicals and you are therefore getting rid of forest cover; killing the insect life and killing the plant life - and killing your workers just as well. So switching to shade grown organic restores forest cover, therefore reducing the carbon, increasing the oxygen, ...[also] better pollination, better for the workers and better for bio-diversity no question.

The biggest drop in our migratory song bird population - it's important for Essex County because [bird-watching] is a big draw - is from sun-grown pesticide sprayed coffee. What we need to do is to switch coffee, if you don't know where to find it there are directories on-line. If you have an Iphone, you put in Organic Coffee Café, it will lead you there."

Wind Power: Not the best solution? "It depends on where you put them." Says Atwood.

Ms. Atwood with her partner and fellow author Graeme Gibson own property and a summer home on Pelee Island. There are plans to install wind turbines off shore near the island. Both Ms. Atwood and Mr. Gibson are the Joint Honourary Presidents of the Rare Bird Society within Bird Life International. Several years ago, Mr. Gibson "set up the Pelee Island Bird Observatory ...which is now, after five or six years an extremely respected bird monitoring station."

Fearing the wind turbines will be a hazard to bird life is just one reason Ms. Atwood is concerned about the proposed location, also there is the question of stirring up contaminants buried in the sediment at the bottom of the lake. She is also skeptical about the effectiveness of wind power. "When the wind stops blowing out go the lights."She says, adding, "when are the days when the wind is less likely to blow? Well it turns out to be the hottest days of summer and the coldest days of winter.

"So there's no magic bullet, there's no magic bullet. And there's no excuse for putting these things in without a proper environmental assessment. So you have to ask yourself why is that happening?"

ERCA: "very challenged"
"The Essex Region Conservation Authority is very challenged." Says Atwood. "Some environmental organizations don't have to climb back from such a low point. A lot of forest got cut down, the forest cover down here is not ...not right. So there are a lot of things to be considered. They are doing a lot of stupendous work - here we are looking out on the beautiful Detroit River which once wasn't so nice - that is a success story. But they have a lot of work to do which they know perfectly well, and it's also getting people's heads turned around." Ms. Atwood added that the economy needs to turn in a direction "in which jobs are actually connected to things that are greener. Had the automobile industry in North America taken that turn a little earlier they would have been ahead of the game rather than behind the game."

"So it isn't like we haven't anticipated what's coming down the road towards us ...we are going to reach and go past peak oil probably in your life time. People need to think about this!"

"They are thinking about it, They are thinking very fast and new technologies are coming on-line all the time. Will it be fast enough?"