“We have a long history, particularly in the settler, colonial tradition, of distancing ourselves from the wilderness, taming nature, paving it over,” she told Global News in an interview last fall. Cue the manicured lawn, which, Lister insists, is the antithesis of biodiversity., a major United Nations conference that’s all about protecting the planet’s natural ecosystems. The high-level goal of the conference is to protect 30 per cent of the world’s land and oceans by 2030.
“Canadians are understanding at a deep, instinctive level the importance of nature for our well-being,” says Gauri Sreenivasan, the policy and campaigns director at Nature Canada.COVID-19 That recognition of protecting nature as a cornerstone of well-being is something the business world has a reckoning with as well. Mike Lyons, a managing director and partner with Boston Consulting Group, says more companies are realizing that cutting their environmental footprint makes good business sense.
In Canada, Indigenous Peoples have known for centuries that steamrolling over nature without careful consideration comes with extremely negative consequences.