ORGANIC-RESTAURANT OWNER GOING TO CLIMATE CONFERENCE
Prime Minister Stephen Harper will be there. U.S. President Barack Obama will be there. And Lil MacPherson, co-owner of the Wooden Monkey restaurant in Halifax, will be there.
Ms. MacPherson is paying her own way to Copenhagen, Denmark, next week for the United Nations Climate Change Conference.
"For me, it's like going to Woodstock," she said.
The conference begins Monday but Ms. MacPherson won't arrive until Wednesday.
She said she has been passionate about environmental issues for six years, since just before the Wooden Monkey opened. Her restaurant serves organic food made from locally produced ingredients.
"I'm all about saving the planet, but agriculture affects climate change, and climate change affects agriculture," she said. "I'm really concerned about the future of food."
Ms. MacPherson said Nova Scotia imports so much food that we neglect our own food production, which becomes a problem when suppliers in other countries have droughts or floods as a result of climate change.
"We've got to take care of ourselves," she said.
Ms. MacPherson said she's going to the UN conference as an observer and hopes to bring back ideas she can apply here.
Accreditation for the conference and accommodations in Copenhagen are hard to come by because of the throngs expected to attend. Ms. Macpherson said she contacted Thomas Rankin of the provincial Environment Department and told him she would pay her own way if there was a spot available for her to go with the government contingent. It turned out there was.
Ms. MacPherson said she's very excited that Premier Darrell Dexter is also going.
"It shows that he cares," she said.
Dan O'Connor, the premier's chief of staff, said Mr. Dexter hopes to share the province's experience with cutting emissions and to increase awareness of Nova Scotia tidal power. The premier will do a presentation at the conference.
Mr. O'Connor said the government wanted to be at the conference because the discussions and negotiations will potentially affect the future economic environment of Nova Scotia, and every other jurisdiction in the world.
If agreements are reached in Copenhagen and later put into writing, "Nova Scotia will have faced the question as to whether we sign on or not," Mr. O'Connor said. "Knowing clearly and first-hand exactly what went into it, what's intended by it, will be important."
Ms. MacPherson hopes the conference leads to real change.
"I know we can lead this country," she said. "Nova Scotia can be the greenest, most sustainable province in Canada, and the world. We can be leaders of this world."
Ms. MacPherson and several other Nova Scotians going to the conference will hold a panel discussion on climate change Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Hub on Barrington Street in Halifax. Click here for details.
Source:
The Chronicle Herald
By VINCENZO RAVINA
