More money thoughts!

So...I think that I am just coming to terms with the differing reality of money here where we are now living.

Money can determine so many things.  And is sets the boundaries for maintaining socio-economic classes...if you have money to spare you can maintain a particular image...  Maybe this is what sends so many people deep into the sinkhole of debt.

I have been trying to learn about living green.  Both my DH and I feel like we need to take responsibility for the impact we and our children have on the earth.  If we are to be good stewards of the earth that has been given into our care then we need to be conscious of the impact of our choices.  Along this vein, when we received news of a conference at a local college we both thought that this would be a good place to go and learn about the state of affairs in our region.  Then this morning I was shocked to find the conference fee is $399.  Now, you might think that is not too much to ask...

Here's my thought:

1)  The conference is 2 days long providing breakfast and lunch each day.  No dinner or accommodations are included in the conference fee.

2)  $400 is one month's rent.

3)  Change will happen when a majority of people see that change is essential.  How can we convince people that climate change, care for the environment and personal impact matters if we leave a wide segment of the community behind?

Last week we watched the National Film Board's Refugees of the Blue Planet.  FASCINATING!! I highly recommend it to anyone who thinks that climate change is a myth or at best hyped up propaganda meant to limit our indulgences.  The documentary begins in the Maldives...a country seriously threatened by increasing devastating weather events as well as rising ocean levels...it then goes on to Brazil...a country whose natural resources are being ravaged by multi-national corporations.  Finally, the film turns it's lens on Canada and the environmental refugees who are being displaced at the hands at the government in the name of progress and growth.  One man asks:  What are they going to do? Buy everyone's houses?  And if they do that, where will we all live?

One statement struck me because of it's call to review how we look at economy:

We need to completely rethink econmoics to understnad that ultimately, what feeds us and nurtures us is the soil and the water, is the natural world; so at a certain level there is no distinction between the environment and the economy.  We are dependent, ultimately, on natural resources, and natural resources have limits.  

If we print bits of paper, and call it money and think that they way we are going to solve the world's problems is to look at the flow of paper money or electronic signals we have lost our sanity!  We've got to get back to basics to understand that ultimately everything we need  comes from the earth in the material economic sense.  ~Helena Norberg-Hodge 

Money is a funny thing.  It has only the value that we attribute to it.  It was developed for the sake of convenience.  And now that convenience has become a necessity that controls us instead of freeing us.