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| Estonia Independence Day |
Wednesday, February 24, 1999
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David Suzuki had no trouble getting an enthusiastic near-capacity crowd in the Modern Languages theatre last night to see what he sees when he looks at the world. Wearing his trademark jeans, denim shirt, gold-rimmed glasses, beard and thick silver mane, he spent three quarters of an hour "putting air in a larger context."
The lecture, "Taking Our Breath Away," was part of the department of environment and resource studies environmentalist-in-residence program, partly funded by ERS alumni.
Our growing numbers, technological muscle and greed have combined with disastrous effect, Suzuki said. Part of the problem is that "we live in a human-created environment, with a few animals that we've chosen and a few pests we can't keep out. We no longer feel the same connection with the world around us." He said his contacts with aboriginals taught him that "the truth is, there is no 'out there' -- we are the earth."
Take air. "What's the first thing a baby needs when it leaves its mother's body? A breath of air. It will go on needing air, at the rate of every three seconds or so, until it takes its last gasp years later on its deathbed."
Yet we are hardly aware of breathing. "We continue to use the air as a toxic dump." He points out the rising asthma rates. "When I was growing up in the 40s, I don't think I knew even one person with asthma. ... Now, 20 to 25 per cent of children have asthma. And the problem is not going to be solved by giving kids more puffers."
Why is it happening? "We're using air as a sewer, and we are air. It's the same with water, soil, and sunlight. Whatever we're doing, we're doing it to ourselves: we are the planet."
Lois Corbett followed Suzuki's rousing talk with a discussion of how to make change happen at the local and provincial levels. Among other strategies, she suggested pressuring municipal politicians to produce smog action plans as Toronto has done, and to make the plans more than just words on paper by reducing emissions in garbage collecting vehicles and public transit fleets.
"Be outrageous, be an activist. Tell your politicians you want cleaner air and you want it now." She advised using the coming provincial election to push concerns about health and air pollution when politicians come canvassing your vote.
"Display some solutions -- and here is where universities, like UW, can be on the cutting edge of change."
And, she concluded, don't get hung up on guilt and helplessness. ("I drive, therefore I can't do anything.") "Get over the guilt and fill the rest of your life with real action, so that some summer, K-W can boast of having record clean air days."
A series of Skills for the Electronic Workplace courses will be offered in March and April for staff and faculty who wish to improve their proficiency in basic computer literacy, desktop tools, operating systems, word processing, database management, electronic spreadsheets, presentations, or web authoring.
A vivid coral flyer went out this week with details of courses offered this spring, complete with an attached registration form. To register for the free courses, the signature of a supervisor is required. Departments will be charged $50 for an employee registered for a class who does not attend. Temporary or casual employees and employees of the affiliated colleges, the Canadian Innovation Centre and the daycares will be charged $50 per course.
The next series of courses will be offered in May and June. For answers to questions about registration, phone human resources at ext. 2078.
More information about the courses and the course registration form is available on the IST course web site.
From the registrar's office, a reminder that tuition tax receipts will be mailed before the end of February. Students who do not receive their receipts by March 1 should contact the cashier's office at ext. 5583. Duplicate tuition tax receipts cost $5 plus GST. For undergraduate students, Monday, March 1 is the deadline for filing intention to graduate forms with the registrar's office. For students who are not ready to graduate, preregistration for the fall 1999 and winter 2000 terms will be held March 2 to 6.
More great music at Grebel is planned by the college's music department today. Alec Catherwood and Joanne Bender will perform works by Debussy and Beethoven for violin and piano at 12:30 in the Conrad Grebel College chapel. Admission is free.
An orientation session for students intending to declare a major in English language and literature programs will be held today from 4 to 5:30 p.m. in Hagey Hall room 373. Topics will include admission, programs, and careers. For details, phone English professor Brenda Cantar at ext. 3361.
Free pizza is on the agenda of the Students Advising Co-op meeting today at 4:30 p.m. in the multipurpose room in the Student Life Centre. As well, there'll be an update on changes to SAC -- "what's going on, why it's happening and how you can be part of a new group that will better represent and serve every co-op student at Waterloo."
"Is my vote important?" will be the question posed by the UW Young Liberals as part of its Riddles of Politics Series this evening at 7:30 in Math and Computer room 4041. The guest speaker is Sandra Pupatello, MPP and critic for community and social services, children and volunteerism, as well as question period strategist for the official opposition.
The Derek Hines Quartet will bring their "loungey vocal jazz and swing in the style of Sinatra" to the Grad House tonight as part of the Jazz Goes to College series. The evening gets under way at 8 p.m., and the $5 admission includes a glass of wine or pop and finger food. The concert series is "an attempt by the Grad House to inject a bit of excitement into the lives of grads and jazz lovers generally."
The senate finance committee will meet at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow in Needles Hall room 3001.
And if you haven't signed up yet for the Hagey Funspiel on March 20, you have until Friday to register for the annual UW curling event at the Ayr Curling Club. Whether a non-curler or an experienced skip, all are welcome and will be supplied with brooms. A dinner and presentation of prizes will follow the games. For more information, contact Pat Cunningham at ext. 5413.
Barbara Elve
bmelve@uwaterloo.ca
Editor of the Daily Bulletin: Chris Redmond
Information
and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
credmond@uwaterloo.ca | (519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
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