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| My old iPod wallpaper |
I recently changed the wallpaper background photo on my iPod from the
supplied ‘planet earth viewed from space’ to the close up of aspen tree trunks
in a forest glen ablaze in fall foliage. Arguably this is evidence of the arcane
information people put on their blogs. But for me it provided a new perspective
on ‘sustainable development’.
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| My new iPod wallpaper |
I was asked to give a talk on the ‘big picture’ of sustainable development at
the last Globe Forum in Stockholm. I started the talk with Chief Seattle’s
oft-referenced – “Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in
it. Whatever he does to the web he does to himself.” Any seasoned sustainable
development practitioner should be able to recite this by heart. On the agenda I
spoke after a First Nations leader of the Iroquois Tribe. I hadn’t used the
quote in years but it seemed like an opportune time; however it’s not a typical
‘Bank’ quote.
For me this was coming full circle as I had used the Chief Seattle quote at
my first public speech back in 1987. I had just read ‘Our Common Future’, and
was full of vim and vigor trying to implement the ideas of the report as the
City of Guelph’s Waste Management Coordinator. ‘Save the planet; start by
recycling that bottle and newspaper in your Blue Box’, was my mantra. Just by
taking better care of our garbage we could strengthen the web of life and get on
with sustainable development, I argued.
