Published November 27, 2009
by dbazely
The front page of today's Globe and Mail has a story about how staff and Board members at the Toronto Humane Society are facing various criminal charges for cruelty to animals. The story broke this past summer and I was appalled to learn how animals were being treated and how they were not being euthanized, even if they were suffering. An article today, relates how some Board members were unaware that they might be facing charges and were surprised. Having sat on two non-profit daycare boards, I learned early on about my very serious responsibilities as a board member, and what their implications were, vis-a-vis my liability. The buck has to stop somewhere. For me, this story is as much about cruelty to animals, apparently perpetrated by self-described animal welfare supporters, as it is about yet another segment of society unwilling to take responsibility for its actions.
Last week, I heard an amazing lecture by Dr. Daniel Krewski, from the University of Ottawa about assessing public health risks. It was the Morris Katz Memorial Lecture at York University.
Dr. Krewski made many excellent points, but one that stuck in my mind had to do with perceptions of responsibility. He explained that when the public is polled about who should take responsibility for such crises as BSE (Mad Cow) and other health threats, they invariably respond that, it's "all of us" who bear responsibility for action. I saw this in the IRIS survey on climate change. BUT, BUT, BUT - Dr. Krewski told us, that when the public is asked whether government, or the agency charged with acting to protect the public interest is doing enough, a majority invariably responds, that not enough is being done! Ahah, so ready to blame someone else.
This observation does not surprise me because, these days, I am very accustomed to having students blame their poor academic performance directly on me, their professor. There has been a significant shift in the last 20 years, in terms of how much responsibility students are willing to accept for their own actions. A very high number of students (not all, by any means) really just want to blame someone else. I see this tendency in my own children, and it's clearly become an entrenched societal norm. So - what does this mean for taking personal action on the environment, climate change and sustainability? Well... what do you think?
PLEASE THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND WHOM IT IS AFFECTING! Without that reflection, how will people truly be motivated to downsize their carbon footprints? On the other hand, if you are reading this, then you already know what I am talking about!
Dawn R. Bazely
Posted in: Blogs | IRIS Director Blog
