I think I've been suffering from a condition I call ECF ( Environmental Crisis Fatigue). Environmental Crisis! The World Is On Fire! The Waters are Rising! Sometimes I just tune out. It's too much to think about. And I'm not sure I can do much about it. Sometimes what's out of sight is out of mind. Am I a bad person? Actually I think I'm pretty average...
"If neighbourhoods transition to become walkable in the ways that Walkable Ottawa proposes, residents of my neighbourhood would be able to walk to almost everything."
I saw this quote the other day. It was the footer on a friend's email.
“Is there some combination of fear and hope sufficient to dissolve our culture-wide conspiracy of denial or must we rely on some ‘staggering ecological disaster’ to wake a world of sleep-walkers.” - W.E. Rees, 2020
After reading this I experienced a wave of guilty feelings. Then I thought to myself; I really appreciate Walkable Ottawa right about now! Because Walkable Ottawa gives us all a third option. We can say goodbye to this fear/hope/denial option, and to calamity as well. Instead we can usher in a new way that is perfect for people like me.
"We can say goodbye to this fear/hope/denial option, and to calamity as well. "
Walkable Ottawa proposes a path to sustainable living that requires little or no effort on the part of the average resident of my neighbourhood. The proposed changes to my neighbourhood would make it much nicer, with more trees, little shops to walk to and a community centre close by. And the result would be that I could cut my environmental impact in half! If neighbourhoods transition to become walkable in the ways that Walkable Ottawa proposes, residents of my neighbourhood would be able to walk to almost everything. And many of us would welcome a new walking lifestyle, not out of guilt or obligation, but because walking in my neighbourhood would be so much better than getting in my car, once my neighbourhood was a lovely completely walkable place.
I want to live in a walkable neighbourhood. I want to cut my greenhouse gas emissions in half without even trying!
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~Rosaline Hill is an Ottawa based architect and development consultant.