Raison d’être

This website has evolved out of personal frustration arising over the past two years – frustration with:

After several months of reading, discussions with friends and colleagues, and thinking (generally in the early hours of the morning), I felt compelled to express my views in written form.  Thus, the emergence of the “British Columbia Institute of Social Ecology.” 

The two main purposes of the institute and its website are:  to provoke discussion, and to provoke action.  I do not expect everyone to agree with my views or the views of others who may wish to contribute, but if what we have to offer makes you think, provokes a response, motivates you to write or act, then the website has done its job.

The Economy:  Maybe it’s just me but, over the past 30 months, I often had the sense that Canadians in general, and British Columbians in particular, were being treated as dummies when it comes to our economy.  We were (and are) expected to trust those elected representatives in charge as those best equipped to deal with the enormous complications associated with a recession.   I sensed too much double talk, too many incorrect predictions, too many conflicting interpretations, too many distortions of the facts, and too much of the “wait and see” attitude (stay the course, things will recover) for me to sustain any level of trust in the capabilities of our elected representatives.   I have concluded that our governments cannot effectively develop and manage an economy – they seem to have difficulty with an annual budget never mind something more long term such as our economy.

Climate Change:  Anyone who has a real grasp on what the ecological, social, and economic costs resulting from the impacts of climate change recognizes that we need some fundamental shifts in our lifestyles, our rates of consumption of natural resources, and our respect for and treatment of our natural environment.  Too much of our society has lost the connection between our natural environment and our survival on this planet.  It is very hard not to come to the conclusion that we are too late, that we will face severe hardship in many parts of the world, including British Columbia, because of changes in our global climate and in the decreased resilience of our ecosystems to deal with not only those impacts but also our continued over-use and abuse of them. 

Individual and community-based actions (e.g., promotion of local food production, recycling, discontinuing/discouraging the usage of plastic bags and bottles, and use of alternative fuels for automobiles) are commendable, but are only a very small part of the major lifestyle shift which has to occur.  Such personal and community commitments require dedications of time, effort and thought, and illustrate the willingness of citizenry to sacrifice time, energy, and resources to a common, noble goal.  I don’t have the same sense about our elected representatives, who purport to support balanced views of the bigger picture but, in my estimation, that ‘bigger picture’ is only economic or political, or both.  Government efforts to deal with the impacts of climate change have to this point been cosmetic and superficial.  For example, has the implementation of the gas tax in British Columbia had any impact on anything except provincial revenues?

Environment:  As a life-long practicing ecologist, I have seen my function as an advocate for ecological values, to protect the integrity of ecosystems and landscapes so that the flow of ecological benefits (e.g., clean air, clear water, clean habitats) could continue.  While there have been some successes over the past 25 years, our provincial performance has not been what it should have (and could have) been.  While we may wish to blame climate warming for the mountain pine beetle epidemic and the demise of the Pacific salmon stocks, each of these issues is characterized by long-standing concerns related to mismanagement and/or lack of management. 

Clean air and clean water are in diminishing supply in British Columbia.  Unfortunately, both ecological services are not completely under our control.  Air currents transport pollutants from as far away as China and dump them on British Columbia in the medium of snow or rain.  Industrial, urban and agricultural developments have polluted surface and ground waters for many years in several locations in British Columbia.  Air pollution is a problem in many urban centers and in rural areas in which there is a large concentration of industrial activities (e.g., gas wells).  For the most part, these air and water pollutants are invisible and, therefore, easily ignored.  That has to change if we wish to sustain biological life.  We recognize the risks of greenhouse gas emissions but we don’t seem too willing to concern ourselves to the same degree over air pollution.

Sustainability:  The term “sustainability” has been over-used, misused, misunderstood over the past 25 years.  Too much emphasis has been placed on ‘sustainable development’ which has been interpreted by many sectors to mean only economic growth.  Over a number of years, this has resulted in the overlooking (and subversion in some jurisdictions) of ecological and social sustainability.  We need to re-think our strategies for sustainability to bring them more in line with the biological context of the word, and we need to understand that we cannot sustain our lives in isolation of environmental health.

Wait and See:  In my judgment, the ‘wait and see’ attitude is not an appropriate action plan to deal with the quicksand in which we now find ourselves.  In southwestern British Columbia, the real estate market has remained buoyant over the past several months, in essence buffering us (hiding us) from reality.  We are suffering under the delusion that everything is OK and recovery is underway.  Waiting to see what the United States decides to do on a number of issues is also not what I consider to be a wise action plan, given their issues and problems.  I believe this course of action is a threat to our sovereignty and integrity as a nation and our well-being.

Thank you for your indulgence and for using the website.  I look forward to your input to the public discourse.

Daniel Lousier, PhD