It was the November morning after the Memorable Margaret Atwood Birthday Event in Sudbury, for which see the two blog entries at www.yearoftheflood.com. Having cruised around for an organic coffee and got one at the Old Rock, which also sells really home-made muffins – this is not the Sudbury of 1948! – we made our rendez-vous with Spartan Youth Radio, of Espinola – the only Canadian radio station run by high-school kids.
With the staff of Spartan Youth Radio
The interview was arranged by Jayson Stewart from Spartan Youth Radio, and my interviewer, Madeline Lemire, was a credit to radio. She did a fine job of it: well-prepared, poised, and a million times friendlier than my first radio interviews back in 1969. “When do you find time to write, what with all the housework?” “Why do you hate men?” “I’m not going to read your book. In 25 seconds, what’s it about?” Etc. What was I supposed to say? “I share your pain?” That is not what I said. It was my reaction to such head-butting aggression that once got me the reputation of being ferocious. But now I’m a kitty-cat, as long as the tail is not stepped on.
Soon after that, we were upon a rooftop with documentary-maker Ron Mann and his crew, and also John Gunn from the proposed Living With Lakes Centre. We were looking down, not only on the first-ever Canadian forest ranger cabin, but on the planned site of the Centre, which will be entirely off the grid: solar and geothermal, with blueberries growing on its rooftop.
Up on the roof with John Gunn
The shallow saucer-shaped vista we were overlooking has a dramatic history. Long ago, a huge meteor slammed into the earth’s surface, liquefying the rock. An enormous bubble arose and burst, and the sides slid down to form a crater, with vertical layers of metals. Much later came the loggers, and then came the miners, and that crater – once overgrown with forest – became a desert of black rock on which nothing grew. Then came a C&W balladeer called Stompin’ Tom Conners, who sang a song called Sudbury Saturday Night, in which the gals were playin' Bingo and the guys were getting' stinko, 'cause they all worked for Inco. Then came the rejuvenators, who, over a period of 40 years, stuffed the cracks in those barren, acid rocks with soil and limestone, planted seedlings, and restored life.
Now there are trees and birds and fish in those once lethal waters. “Sudbury,” once used as a unit of pollution, as in “Two Sudburies, five Sudburies,” now features in Jane Goodall’s new book, Hope for Animals and their World, as a symbol of renewal, and its new ambition is to become known as a unit of restoration. There’s even a picture of Jane slipping a trout into one of Sudbury’s now-pristine streams. Not only that, as John told me, the miners who cleaned up their act reaped large financial benefits as well. Having been told for years that it couldn’t be cleaner because it would cost too much money, Sudbury refused to take no for an answer, rolled up it sleeves, and did the job – and proved the financial no-sayers wrong.
That’s a good story to keep in mind at this moment, when Canada is being called the “dirty old man” of climate change and pollution. If Sudbury can do it, so can everyone. Ten Sudburies, here we come…
