Think Globally Act Locally | The Power Of R

"I am often telling people about Zac Whyte and what a great speaker he is, however, every time he presents, he never ceases to blow my mind. The students are simply captivated, resting on his every word.”

In late April I was invited to speak at Valley View Elementary School. My presentation  addressed issues of garbage and actions we could take locally to shift the growing consumer trend that has doubled our per-capita garbage output by 100% in only 10 years. I spoke about our responsibility as an educated and capable nation of individuals to lead initiatives that 'better the planet' in every sense of the phrase.  The presentation really resonated with the youth and teachers in the room that day because what happened next... well let's just say that it makes me proud to be surrounded by such an incredible group of community leaders.

The entire school rallied over the next two weeks to fulfill the schools 2009-2010 theme of "Making A Difference." Hours upon days of debate and discussion followed the presentation about the issues addressed in my talk. The school decided to hold a penny drive. " I thought the kids would raise about $80," teacher Andrew Ferneyhough told me after the fundraiser, "I was taken aback when they raise almost $100 per division." The week following the penny drive united the school in further discussions about the Comox Valley, Canada, and the rest of the world on the whole, as they rolled a staggering $1500 worth of pennies together. Students were led by teachers and explored the history of pennies, properties of copper, the significance of Queen Elizabeth II, and the origin of money among other topics. It was "applied learning, the best type of learning" Grade 6 teacher Jay Bridges commented.

On May 13th the students invited me back to the school because they had a surprise for me. I was presented a hand crafted cheque for $1400 and a wagon of neatly rolled and boxed pennies to endorse it. "We used a $100 to celebrate with pizza," one of the kids blurted out. "Was it fun to celebrate your accomplishments and make a positive difference in the world," I asked. The room collectively cheered "yes!" It was energizing. The school had chosen to donate the pennies to fresh water, education, health care and alternate income projects in Kenya through a Canadian child rights organization called Free The Children.

These are the moments that I love. I love to see the shift in the eyes of kids when they make a connection or realize the individual power they have to direct positive change in their world. It gives me chills, good chills. What's interesting, is when it happens for a majority of the kids - it's not during the talk, during the fund raising,  or during the learning, penny rolling (in this case) or in the camaraderie they feel with their friends united together in their common goal - it's when they reflect on their journey and see how their journey has impacted the world. Actions like this are outside of ourselves and I am grateful that today the earth has found over 400 new harbingers of her true spirit.

Congratulations Valley View Elementary on taking ownership of your home and becoming a powerful part of your global community. Let's celebrate that everyday from now.

We live in one of the most beautiful regions of the world; full of natural resources, wealth and opportunity. Rethinking our day to day routines and actions is difficult because we aren’t required to think about basic essentials like food and water on an hourly basis. On April 30th however, my belly was grumbling and food was at the forefront of my mind. I joined about 25 students from GP Vanier in the 30 Hour Famine in support of World Vision. The day was remarkable in more ways than one.  

I was invited to speak at the event by Sylva Wiedeman. Sylva is the student government minister of social justice and the environment, and she is now sharing in the success of raising $1845 with her friends. “I saw the amount of money we raised I was very humbled,” Wiedeman told me, “as we got hungrier and hungrier many of us became much closer and just super stoked about all the money we could donate to World Vision.” This kind of energy, passion and excitement is what, I believe, makes good people. They define their own goals, change their behaviors and revel in their defined successes. Many of the young adults at this fundraiser felt their own flavor of success on Friday and that puts a smile on my face.  

Earth Day was a real production for me this year. I had the unique pleasure of delivering a keynote presentation for over one thousand people at Mark R. Islfeld Secondary School. It was an intense morning but everything went well. The presentation wove together the relationships between marketing, consumerism, and our personal definitions of success.  Big business tells us what to think, how to act, and what to buy to become who we think -  they think - we should be. "What a headache." In my experience, defining my success is about values and has nothing to do with what I buy, how much money I have, or even who I'm with.

After the presentation at Isfeld  I was zipped over to GP Vanier Secondary to deliver three back to back  1 hour presentations that essentially mirrored my keynote from the morning. There were discussions with students that lasted until the end of the day and then teachers until dinner time. Everyone was really charged up about the  material in the presentation which makes me happy to know that it struck a chord with most people.

GP Vanier was given a grant of $5000 for their Earth Day celebration. The day brought a keynote from Spirit Bear activist Simon Jackson, and dozens of speakers from environmental clubs, associations and action groups in the Comox Valley. There was an incredible lunch put on with 100% local food. Nothing says Earth Day like a twenty-mile diet and it was really tasty.

This  February and March I had the distinct pleasure of teaching an entire Social Studies 11 Environment Unit to Jouska Lockquell’s Mark R. Isfeld class. This experience was a real honour and thrill for me because I was able to work with youth for six consecutive classes and cover an intense survey of international, regional and local environmental issues involving solid waste, water and pesticides. By the end of the unit, we were taking individual action to better the planet in some way. There were letters written, phone calls made, projects planned and positive strides being made to heal the earth. The experience was amazing and I’m having a hard time finding the words to describe it. After looking over the feedback from the students, I think they say it best. Here are some comments.

“I thought your presentations were very effective and fascinating. There were many things that I learned that changed my point of view in many ways. The presentations definitely made me want to look at ways to make a change. I liked your sense of humour and the fact that you had everyone involved in the discussions.”

 “Your presentation has made me a bit of a paranoid angry mess, and I love that. I have never been so aware of what is going on around me. I have been recycling like mad, and spending my time more wisely. By that I mean not shopping when I’m bored or to make myself feel good. Thank you so much!!!”

“Your teaching style ensured that I will remember this for a long time.”

“I felt that your overall class lessons were superb.”

“I enjoyed the unit because it was presented in a way that made me understand. You definitely know how to get us thinking and get us excited to change something.”

“I enjoyed this unit immensely, thanks so much for coming! I quite enjoyed learning where my clothes were made and how I can shop smart and reduce cotton poison in India.”

“Thanks for sharing your knowledge and stories with us! I thought you did a great job sharing/showing all the different things that go on that we don’t know a lot about. I don’t really think there is much you could improve on. You were really easy to talk and listen to! It was really inspiring!”

“I really like how you could connect with us and keep us engaged. After your presentations I always feel like I have the power, and your personal experiences and movie clips you made showed me that everything is attainable.”

“You were really interesting; you have a good style of teaching.”

“I really enjoyed the story about the Air Jordans. It made me realize how even simple changes in our lifestyles can change the lives of people all around the world.”

“I very much enjoyed these presentations. Your passion is contagious, and many conversations with my friends have opened from the issues you raised in this unit. I can honestly say that I am more knowledgeable now…”  

It’s the middle of December and I'm infatuated with lettuce. Romain, Green Leaf, Red Leaf, I’ll eat it all.  In fact, I try to eat lettuce on a daily basis because it’s healthy, full of fibre, full of vitamin C, and fun to eat! It’s crunchy and it can hold an infinite number of other vegetables or dressings in salads. I can roll up my lettuce leaves to make quazi taco’s, or put it in a sandwich. There’s no questioning that lettuce is awesome and I am obviously pretty amped (excited) about it,  but lettuce is also on my mind for other reasons lately. I'm rethinking how I go about things. How I waste, what I waste and what I can do to stop wasting natural resources. At lunchtime I thought about how amazing it was to be eating fresh lettuce in December with snow on the ground.  I can't grow lettuce at this time of year and yet, I'm eating it. Then I thought about how insects like to eat lettuce and that my lettuce leaves were flawless. They were actually so perfect that my attentioned then turned to the plastic box my lettuce came in. I knew right then that this would be no ordinary lunch and rethinking a simple head of lettuce was about to get complicated.

Some lettuce comes from the USA, Mexico or other countries warmer than Canada during the autumn, winter and spring months of the year. Amazingly, lettuce can be harvested, refrigerated, shipped thousands of kilometers, and put on the shelf for us to buy in one week or less. It’s incredible really and it’s all because of oil. Burning oil is the reason we can eat lettuce all year round. Big ships can carry tons of lettuce quickly. If we tried to ship lettuce from Mexico without burning oil or gas, it would be rotten before it left the country. Even if we could ship it by bicycle, we would only be able to carry a few heads at a time. That means that burning oil is essential to my consumption of lettuce over 250 days each year. Crazy. That equates to over one hundred thousand kilometers of gas burning transportation and tons of global warming gasses in the atmosphere just because I eat lettuce almost every day.

All around the world lettuce is difficult to grow because critters, insects, slugs and molds love to eat it too. That means farmers are forced to use poisons and pesticides to keep it looking perfect so we’ll buy it in grocery stores. Anyone who’s grown lettuce in their own garden knows that it can become a leafy hotel for earwigs, spiders and all sorts of whacky bugs. Most of these bugs don’t eat the lettuce but they do enjoy living on, in or around it. Bugs are natural though. It seems really strange to put poison on our food to get rid of those bugs, doesn’t it? Sure a few bugs might be creepy at first or holes in the lettuce might seem imperfect but really, poison, is that the only solution?

Recently I’ve been purchasing organic lettuce. It’s more expensive than regular lettuce but I trust that there’s no poison on it.  When I was making a salad the other day, I noticed that my head of lettuce had six dried up, crusty, dead lady bugs in it. At first I was taken aback, but then I thought it was pretty cool. Lady bugs are predatory. They eat other bugs – especially aphids. That means that the organic farmer who grew that lettuce was using insects instead of pesticides to keep the lettuce protected from other insects. Wow! Lady bugs are cool. I still wash my lettuce well before eating it but I feel good knowing that lady bugs are in my lettuce instead of disease causing pesticides.

Organic lettuce is now being packaged in fancy plastic containers or bags. Plastic is made from oil. I’m happy to see that the plastic boxes that lettuce comes in is recycled but something still seems weird about taking an organic product and wrapping it in oil based packaging. Doesn’t it? Sure the package keeps my food clean, the label looks really fancy and the lettuce comes out of the box all fluffy and delicious but ethically, I still feel like I’m hurting the earth when I eat it. The box goes into my blue box recycling bin; I eat the glorious lettuce, and then I feel bad for eating it. Why does lettuce have to be so complicated?

When I go to the grocery store I am still mystified that the grocery store looks almost exactly the same in December as it did in the July. The fruits and vegetables that I love are all there. Rethinking how I shop has become an interesting project. I want to reduce my eco-footprint every day so now I rethink the things I buy. I am rethinking food that’s wrapped in plastic or wrapped in non-recyclable packages. I am starting to use reusable containers for store bought bulk items. I am purchasing more locally grown produce and meat because it’s not packaged in plastic and it isn't shipped great distances before I eat it; that alone saves the atmosphere from tons of greenhouse gas. Naturally, I walk or ride a bike to the store to buy food whenever I can to reduce waste, energy use and keep my car off of the busy roads. I am looking for lightweight biodegradable bags made from organic materials to put my vegetables in - do you know where I can get some?  I'm doing what I can to lower my eco-footprint but even lettuce has become intertwined with my demanding "want it now - get it now"  lifestyle. I’m used to eating it all year round because it’s available all year round. Something doesn't seem right about that.

Lettuce isn't really that complicated but our lifestyles certainly have changed how we grow, transport, package and purchase foods like  lettuce.  What do you think? How are you rethinking actions in your life to reduce your ecological footprint? Send me your stories, suggestions and ideas about local solutions to global problems. Email powerofr@gmail.com and put “RETHINK - Beyond The Blue Box” in the subject line.