I am sure many people feel the same way about our urban forest and will do just about anything to protect it. Maybe that’s just wishful thinking. But this way of thinking is why I am so excited to be working for LEAF for this summer as a Program Assistant. At LEAF I am surrounded by like-minded people who are constantly striving to protect our urban forest here in Toronto and surrounding area.
A couple years ago I took the big leap and ditched my 416 identity, trading it in for the much less known 613…Kingston, Ontario. While at Queen’s, I lived on the infamous Aberdeen Street (think now banned Homecoming parties) and studied Global Development and Environmental Science. When I graduated I knew I wasn’t quite ready to be an official adult, so I packed my bags and headed solo to the South Pacific, touring the most beautiful tropical islands (where Microsoft must source their screen savers and backgrounds from), before settling down in Melbourne, Australia. After eight months of living a nocturnal bartending life, I traveled to New Zealand and parts of South East Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia), where I left my heart and many pairs of flip flops.
I was home for a grand total of four jet-lagged dazed days before starting my Masters of Environmental Studies at York University. There I am working towards a thesis regarding the re-imagining of climate change in today’s capitalist society. Climate change presents an opportunity to critically evaluate the legacies of modernity and the efforts required to foster sustainable and equitable futures. Ever since the early 1900s, when Henry Ford produced a vehicle that was widely available to the average citizen, we have been locked in a cycle of overconsumption. Curtailing our consumption binge and recognizing society’s blind disregard for the logic of ordered use we, as a global population, can attempt to foster an environmentally sustainable way of life.
It is necessary that all people are aware of the need for global action on climate change, and for the importance of that need to be conveyed in a form that is comprehensible. I believe one form that is accessible to all, and one that I have a personal connection with, is photography. My interest in the environment was first piqued by Ansel Adams and by Edward Burtynsky, two famous photographers. Both artists illustrate nature and the ways in which man has controlled and destroyed it.
Aside from loving the environment and photography, I also love my yellow lab pup Charlie, and am also a self-proclaimed yogi. Namaste.