BC's Resources Program

There are a lot of terms out there these days related to the environment. Terms like “thinking green”, “environmental footprint”, and “carbon emissions”. But what do we mean? What do we mean by sustainability? Renewable and non-renewable resources? We cover BC’s major natural resources (fish and marine, forests, minerals and energy) and discuss a few of the lesser known ones as well, and we discuss with the students which industries they think generate the biggest carbon footprint. In terms of exports, we address how the wood sector is decreasing, and ask the students why they think this might be happening. Pulp and paper is slightly less, agriculture and fishing seem to be about the same, and energy is growing a lot! A “time elapse” map of the world highlights our population growth, and we use this to stimulate a conversation on how this is impacting our resource consumption.