Assignment #3 - This little world of ours

Remember way back at our pre-departure when you had the task of defining a global citizen? In the next few assignments we are going to pull apart some of those definitions to see if they work now that you are on internship somewhere in the world. I thought we would start with a relatively easy piece by looking at environmental issues where you are.

I was working on a project in Sri Lanka that would have those who lost theirlivelihoods in the tsunami use composting as an entrepreneurial endeavor to generate income. In the couple of weeks I was there, I had the most exotic tours of garbage dumps you could imagine. Already a lot of good work was happening with material that held any value being scavenged from the dump, women's groups taking on recycling and composting for revenue generation tied with micro-credit lending and community recycling kiosks where people could drop off their recyclable goods.However there was still an attitude about the environment that was a little shocking to my green sensibility. The litter and dumping in water ways was a disturbing. Many people burned their garbage on the beach just to get rid of it. The cars, buses and tuk tuks belched their black diesel smoke that left a layer of schmudge on my face by the end of the day.

Back in Canada, I recycle religiously, bring my own bags to the grocery store (and smugly feel superior to those who still use plastic), ride public transit rather than drive and carry my own water bottle. But the fact remains, I live in one of the countries in the world that pollutes far more than Sri Lanka ever has. So does that preclude my claim to global citizenship?

For this assignment, I would like to you to take a look around your new reality, wherever you are in the world, and describe for us what the environment looks like. Do people seem to care about environmental issues? Is there recycling? Is there recycling that doesn't include big, blue boxes? Is the government instituting programs to deal with issues? Are there things that we could stand to learn back in Canada to make the globe a little greener?

Look at the world through your green coloured glasses and tell us what you see. Pictures are always appreciated.

Due date - Friday June 13th.