Wednesday, July 30 2008

My Pet Goat

Here's looking at ewe, kid

For those who aren't residents of British Columbia, you're missing a couple of great things. Not only do you have to admire the incredible natural beauty of one of the most special places on earth from a distance, you also miss the wacky bloodsport that is BC politics. Recently our Premier, the Honourable Gordon Campbell decided to buy a round for the province. No, no, he actually changed the tax structure in an interesting and impossible to understand way.

The upshot is, everyone is getting a cheque for $100 to spend on 'Climate Action'. That sounds vaguely naughty to me, so I had a look at the options they suggested for using the tax rebate: energy-efficient light bulbs, shopping locally for produce, or purchasing eco-friendly upgrades for the home, etc. I already do all those things, use a fuel-efficient car, compost like a madman, and carry my own fabric grocery bags to boot.

So I thought about the positive impact this money could have, not just right in my neighbourhood, but in my bigger neighbourhood--the whole planet. There's no 'away' any more. because we're crowded enough and we travel fast and far enough that all people are my neighbours. When it came right down to it, I wanted to find a way to make this cheque more helpful and impactful in a way that could really spread out.

So I bought a goat.

I got the idea from reading a story in the New York Times, about an organisation named Heifer International and a little girl named Beatrice. It works like this: Heifer takes your donation, buys a dairy goat and places it with a poor family. The milk nourishes them and their children, and the cheese and yogurt from extra milk generates enough revenue for the kids to go to school--sometimes the first generation ever to do so. The goat comes with an obligation: they must gift the first female kid the nanny produces to another family, and so on, forever.

The amount of revenue generated by the milk from a single goat is peanuts to anyone with the wherewithal to be sitting at a computer with the leisure time to read (or write) a blog, but it can transform an entire family, and eventually their neighbours as well.

Smile, and the whole world smiles with you

Imagine, a gift that can help lift people out of poverty, and help them to lift others out as well. So this morning my climate action dividend went to Heifer and somewhere out there a cross-eyed, smelly, squalling nanny is on its way to a family in need. Now that's a dividend I can put in the only bank that matters.

Posted by Tim AT 4:58PM

2 Comments

Post A Comment

Email