What does "the Environment" mean to you?

This weekend, the circus has rolled into Montreal. The national Liberal party is choosing its Master Ass to lead its way into battle against the Master of Asses himself, Mr. Stephen Harper. One of the candidates, a Stéphane Dion, stressed that "the environment" mattered more than anything. He was right in more ways than he could have ever thought.

A slum is an environment.
A sweatshop is an environment.
A broken home - how many of any are fixed? - is an environment.
A schoolyard full of bullies is an environment.
A war zone is an environment.

"The environment" does not simply mean the ecosystem. For all of us, "the environment" in which we live bombards us with images of the ideals to which we should conform. "The environment" is making us ill because we have made it ill, and it's high time we did things differently.

Finally. A politician said something right, even if he wasn't aware of doing so.