Ian Gartshore

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Indigenous Health Perspectives are Needed

January 09, 2022

Robin Wall Kimmerer Increasingly Indigenous perspectives on environmental stewardship is being recognised as the only way all humans will be able to co-exist with Earth. Given that First Nations have thousands of years of experience in the management of plants, soils, water and wildlife, why would they not be able to improve on current trends that are proving destructive of our life-support system? Robin Wall Kimmerer’s popular book, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants , powerfully addresses the western scientific blindness to nature-based science. “Western science is a powerful way of knowing, but it isn't the only one,” says Kimmerer. While science is, in theory, open to new ways of understanding the world, it often isn’t. Kimmerer, like most Indigenous peoples in the western world, have had their traditional forms of knowledge ridiculed and dismissed. (See more about this here: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/tapestry/w...

A Third Approach to the COVID-19 Pandemic; Diversifying our Options

September 27, 2021

The issue A tremendous amount of fear and anger are presently being felt and expressed in our society over the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of us are tired of the restrictions, especially the lack of easy physical proximity and/or contact, and all of us want this to be over. Those who will not (or cannot) be vaccinated are concerned about their health. Those who have been vaccinated but fear being infected by the un-vaccinated also fear for their health, and believe that if everyone did accept the vaccine the pandemic would finally end. Health authorities and the province are putting a lot of pressure on the un-vaccinated to get the jab. The un-compliant are experiencing a great deal of shaming and shunning. Some of these have become angry (shame often does that) and/or depressed ; some have become militant, organising marches on hospitals and other public sites. This only enrages the public. The battle lines deepen. Nobody is winning this battle. Let’s step back for a moment here....

Our Language of Relationship with Earth

January 16, 2021

“It is the theory which decides what we can observe.” ~Albert Einstein Language is powerful. Words form concepts which, in turn, determine how we view, and treat, both people and planet. We are so accustomed to thinking of one another, and Mother Earth, according to their utility or purpose that we easily fail to grasp how sacred life is. For example, when we meet someone new we are likely to ask them what they do for a living, rather than to meet someone and value them for simply being themselves. What would life be like if we instead asked who they are, what interests them, animates them, inspires them? Our language similarly turns Mother Earth into a thing. We call her “the” planet, and the cradle of our existence becomes “the” environment. Ergo, i f “the planet” is a “thing” then there is seemingly no harm in using and abusing “it.” Contrast this with an Indigenous perspective, namely that Mother Earth is a living being with whom we are in relationship, and to whom we ow...

The Convergence of Resistance

January 12, 2021

As one who tries to understand people I have been most curious as to why conspiracy theories are being embraced by those who normally do not see eye-to-eye. How is it that supporters of Donald Trump are joined by those described as “new agers?” Politically, they would otherwise have next to nothing in common. What both presently DO have in common is a distrust of those who are in charge of the medical system and the governments who rely on them. Why distrust the established medical field? When the pandemic emerged very little was known about the virus. Initially it was believed that people could easily become infected through touching infected surfaces, and so playgrounds were closed down and copious amounts of alcohol-based sanitizers and chemically-laden cleaners were put to use. Even when evidence ‘surfaced’ that virtually all infections were caused by the spread of tiny viral-laden droplets, we were continued to be told to sanitize everything. Thankfully playgrounds reopened. ...

Why the NDP has Failed its Supporters

October 19, 2020

The New Democratic Party has made a vital contribution to both Canada and British Columbia. Once considered to be the "social conscience" of politics, pushing for more progressive policies that benefit workers and the general population. Our national health care system and other notable services came into existence largely through its initiative. As more of us became aware that we utterly rely on a healthy planetary home, the NDP began to include this in its messaging. Eventually the NDP became a coalition of sorts, bringing together its labour wing with its environmental wing. While its labour wing has always been more important for financial and other reasons, many earth-friendly people supported or voted for the NDP, claiming that voting Green was "splitting the vote." As it turns out this is about as true as believing the earth is flat. But it is a belief that has been propagated by the mainstream parties, especially the sometimes acrimonious members of the NDP....

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