• A long time ago (in a galaxy far, far away)…

  • This month will mark 23 years since I first started teaching AESAC’s ESA training courses; which got me thinking about some of the news-worthy events from that long-ago time of 2002 ….

    Environmental events:

    • The Canadian government enacted the Species at Risk Act and launched the Federal Contaminated Sites Inventory.
    • In Ontario, the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Nutrient Management Act were introduced, partly in response to the Walkerton tragedy in 2000.
    • Saskatchewan brought out their Environmental Management and Protection Act.
    • Alberta finalized changes to their ESA forms and processes for Upstream Oil and Gas sites; and made Phase 1 ESAs mandatory for certain properties.
    • The world experienced several environmental and natural disasters, including: flooding along the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers in the US; major earthquakes in China and Afghanistan; the SARS epidemic began; and the oil tanker Prestige spilled an estimated 60,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil off Galicia Spain, polluting over 1000 beaches along 2300 km of Spanish, French and Portuguese coastline.

    Politics, Business and Technology:

    • Jean Chretien was Canada’s 20th Prime Minister; George W. Bush was President of the USA; and Tony Blair was Great Britain’s PM.
    • The 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development took place in Johannesburg, South Africa to promote environmentally responsible and sustainable development.
    • Scandals and bankruptcies rocked the business world with the collapse of several companies often thought too big to fail, including Enron, Arthur Anderson and WorldCom.
    • LinkedIn was founded, and would officially launch the following year.
    • Apple’s 2nd Generation I-Pod, and the first Sanyo phone with a camera were all the rage.
    • Travel and the airline industry both continued to suffer in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Personally, I witnessed fully-armed combat troops stationed throughout the Denver airport – which was a bit unsettling to see.

    Sports and Entertainment:

    • The Detroit Red Wings beat the Carolina Hurricanes to win the NHL Stanley Cup. The ‘Canes beat my Toronto Maple Leafs (led by Mats Sundin, Cujo and Pat Quinn) in the Eastern Conference Final.
    • The underdog New England Patriots led by Tom Brady beat the St. Louis Rams, for their first ever NFL championship, and first of six Vince Lombardi trophies.
    • The Anaheim Angels won the World Series, and the Toronto Blue Jays finished 3rd in the American League East; while the LA Lakers won their third straight NBA title.
    • Movie goers were treated to multiple franchise films from The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Spiderman to name a few (some things never change).
    • The Billboard charts were dominated by Eminem, Nelly, Ashanti, Ja-Rule, and Nickelback (ugh) - overall, not my favourite period for music.
    • Popular TV shows were led by crime and spy dramas, including: 24, The Sopranos, The Wire, The Shield, and NYPD Blue.

    While a lot may have changed since that (not so long-ago) time, sometimes it feels like not much really has; or as they say in French “plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose” (the more things change, the more they stay the same).

    Bill Leedham, P. Geo., CESA
    Bill is the Head Instructor and Course Developer for the Associated Environmental Site Assessors of Canada (www.aesac.ca); and the founder and President of Down 2 Earth Environmental Services Inc. You can contact Bill at info@down2earthenvironmental.ca