SUSTAINABILITY ISSUE

McGill red tinged with green

BY NEALE MCDEVITT | Green is the new black, or so one would assume judging by the McGill media these days. Last week, the McGill Daily put out it’s "Green Issue," looking at everything from sustainable architecture in NDG to car dependency in small-town Ontario.

This week it’s our turn. Despite having been scooped by our cousin publication (face it, students always have the jump on us when it comes to issues of sustainability), the McGill Reporter is going to take a kick at the recyclable can.

The good news is that we won’t be repeating anything that appeared in the Daily. Good news, because it shows that McGill has its fair share of green initiatives—at least enough to fill two newspapers. The bad news is that, even with all this coverage, a lot of dedicated people and creative projects will be left out.

Increasingly, the world is becoming the world’s hottest topic—literally—as polar ice crumbles and relentless droughts turn croplands to dust. More and more commentators are painting the bleakest possible picture of our future. It seems as though we’re clear-cutting ourselves to oblivion, strip-mining the planet’s soul. No fossil fuel is as toxic as greed and self-interest, no reactor meltdown as devastating as neglect and indifference.

But, if you listen to McGill researchers, employees and, most importantly, students, you realize, as precarious as our situation may be, all is not lost. Not yet, anyhow. But if we are to slow down and even reverse the inexorable march of our own folly, we must take action now.

The following pages highlight people in the McGill community who pay more than just lip service to sustainability. They live it, research it and teach it. Let’s hope we learn the lessons well.