Family Environmental History
April 19, 2023 By: Philip Thrum
I was born in Vancouver, BC, at St. Paul’s Hospital. I grew up in Steveston; however, my parents had decided for me to be born in Vancouver as that would be my birth city for my passport. Both my parents were born in Stuttgart, Germany, and immigrated to Vancouver in 1998.
My parents immigrated to Canada from Germany in 1998. Their parents grew up in various areas of Germany, which included East and West Germany during World War II. My father’s mother grew up in Zwickau, a city that was part of East Germany, also known as the DDR, Deutsche Demokratische Republik. My grandfather on my father’s side as well as my mother’s parents grew up in Stuttgart, Germany. For this assignment, I will focus on my parents’ decisions and how they impacted my environmental history since they were the first in our family to migrate outside of Germany.
My parents grew up in Stuttgart. In suburbs that were surrounded by fields where farmers operated. Produce was much easier to obtain in 1970s Germany. A quick visit to the local farmer exposed you to freshly grown crops, eggs, milk, and even meat. Something that I wish was ‘normal’ here In the 21st century, large-scale supermarkets are the norm. Even the term grocery store has transformed into a supermarket as everything appears to be bigger.
I will fast-forward to my parents leaving Germany and immigrating to Canada, as I believe that is what has impacted not only my life but also theirs the most from an environmental standpoint.
My parents came to Vancouver in 1998 for my dad’s work. It was only supposed to be for a few months but has since turned into 25 years. Since my parents left their families in Germany, we began traveling back and forth quite often. Before COVID-19, we went to Germany about four times a year. Sometimes we would leave on Friday, arrive in Germany on Saturday, then leave back for Vancouver on Monday.
There are four of us in my family: my mom and dad, as well as my brother. Going to Germany four times a year for four people on a 10-hour flight each way resulted in 320 flight hours in one year. Over 5 years, this turned into 1600 hours of travel, 10 years, 3200 hours, and over 23 years (my age), which resulted in a total of 6400 hours of travel to just Germany. Now my family doesn’t just fly to Germany every year. My dad would have multiple business trips every year, and we would also take family vacations elsewhere. In addition, now that I am starting to work full-time, I have begun traveling a lot more for work, between Yellowknife and Iqaluit. Therefore, I think it is safe to say that over the past 23 years, my family has flown over 10,000 hours. Though the majority came from travel back to family in Germany.
My parent’s decision to move to Vancouver has changed the way that they interact with the environment, which has then also been passed along to me. Had my parents not moved to Vancouver, perhaps we wouldn’t be flying as much or emitting as much CO2 into the environment. Greenhouse gas emissions are an influential factor in climate change. Ritchie (2020) states
References
Ritchie, H. (2020) Climate change and flying: What share of Global CO2 Emissions Come From Aviation?, Our World in Data. Available at: https://ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions-from-aviation (Accessed: April 19, 2023).