AN AUTHENTIC GREEN LIFESTYLE

Brishen Hoff of northern Ontario responded to Professor Boyd Cohen's challenge to submit an application to be selected as Canada's Greenest Citizen. Only his was not the conventional feel-good, do-good Green set of answers. Hoff responded instead by addressing the root causes of our crisis rather than the trendy nostrums of Professor Cohen. That is, change your individual lifestyle and forget about the population explosion.


7. Was your home/apartment/shelter built with any green design features?

It's only 568 square feet and has a passive solar sunporch great for starting seeds.

8. Please indicate how many of the following services are within walking distance (i.e. within 8 blocks of where you live)?

I don't go to school, I never eat at restaurants, I only get groceries once per week and grow my own eggs, vegetables, fruits and soon meat and milk. I don't go to parks because I have my own acreage.

9. What else can you say about where you live that you believe contributes to a sustainable/green lifestyle?

I can grow my own food because we have 160 acres.
My father and I can heat our home with wind fall trees from our own land without cutting down any living trees. We have a well and septic system which means no need for energy intensive urban water treatment and sewage treatment systems. Since we have space and resources to grow food on our own land, unlike city dwellers who have to have food shipped to them, we have a lower footprint.

13. If you have a car what kind of car do you have?

Pontiac Firefly with OVERPOPULATION AWARENESS bumper stickers

14. What type of organization do you work for?

OTHER: Retired, I am too green to pay high income tax that the government will just use to promote economic growth

16. What do you eat?

I was a vegetarian for 6 months and lost 40 pounds. I now eat meat in moderation. If there weren't so many people on the planet, eating meat would not be an environmental problem. I am committed to a zero-child life and that is more green than any hybrid owning, granola muching, vegan hippie who raises a family of his/her own.
Humans evolved to eat meat and even vegans have a huge environmental impact because of the sheer number of them (much of the Amazon has been converted to soybean monocultures to provide vegans with tofu) All human beings must consume resources and produce pollution in order to survive. 12% of greenhouse gas emissions come from the air we exhale. My greenest trait is my dedication to wake others up to the reality of overpopulation and the need to reduce the population to a sustainable level, which you can read about here on my blog: http://ecologicalcrash.blogspot.com


19. How do you make a difference not only by reducing your impact but by helping your community or the world?

I have started a blog that shows how population growth and biodiversity loss are directly correlated: http://ecologicalcrash.blogspot.com
I have been writing for this blog for over 1 year.
A real litmus test for anyone who thinks they are green is to find out whether they recognize the following formula:
Environmental Impact = Population X Per Capita Consumption
Most fake greens have dropped the population factor in order to be politically correct. In societies obsession with per capita consumption, they are overlooking the elephant in the room: the sheer number of human beings. What is the point in halfing the average persons consumption and then doubling the number of consumers?

20. Personal Statement: Speak Up!
Here you get a chance to write up to 250 words to describe why you should be considered to be one of the greenest people on the planet. Be creative but please be sincere!

1) I will never bring a child into this already overpopulated planet
2) I will educate others why overpopulation is the root of all environmental problems
3) I will educate others why immigration is the driving force behind overpopulation and must be stopped.
a) immigrants to Canada, once they arrive, not only have higher fertility rates than the Canadian average, but also the global average
b) almost all immigrants to Canada come from a low footprint life and change into a high footprint life
c) immigration allows humans to efficiently spread across the globe converting complex biodiverse ecosystems into monocultures of homosapiens (eg: Toronto), which serves to maximize global overpopulation
4) I will educate Canadians that unending Economic Growth in a finite planet has become the most idiotic religion ever conceived. Canada is growing its GDP by increasing the number of consumers (70% of this growth from immigration) and will consequently double its economy and population in only 70 years to 66 million, leaving each Canadian poorer with fewer space and resources per person and less biodiversity and less quality of life.
5) I will change our culture so that immigration-driven-population-growth is viewed for what it is: an environmental problem. No longer will critics of mass immigration be labeled racists, misanthropes or xenophobes when they are really altruistic people who care about the future of quality of life for all Canadians and recognize ecological limits (the higher the human population in a finite space, the lower the biodiversity).