this time ~ this space

Right now I’m really struggling with my vision, with my blogging motivation and with depression. Committing to another year of blogging about the environment when all there is to report is ignorance, inertia, corporate greed and political immobility is more than I can do.

National Plans for Climate Change
Most North Americans choose holiday destinations in warmer climates so is the news of warmer temperatures at home truly an unwelcome scenario? It’s an important question to ponder because, without doubt, things are heating up.

We are fully adapted to and dependent upon carbon-based lifestyles and economies. The average person lives in a home heated with petroleum products, with electricity generated by gas, oil and hydro power, and a car fueled by gasoline.

Our workplaces, schools and recreation centers are huge consumers of oil based energy. Long after we have gone home they glow in the dark because lights, heating systems and electronics are left on for convenient and instantaneous “boot-up”.

Sports, soap operas and reality TV shows are the mind numbing drink we suck back in huge quantities to anesthetize ourselves from listening to any more bad news and there’s plenty of it to be heard.

We have become desensitized by the news of unfolding and impending natural disasters that have bombarded us for years and years on end. And we longer have faith in politicians or bureaucracies.

Feeling powerless and electing governments that do nothing have resulted in few environmental problems being addressed and resolved. They are simply subsumed by the issue of the day.

In both Canada and the US we have witnessed right wing climate change denying “leaders” reluctantly professing to be born again greens while putting the economy first.

Action speaks louder that words. And, what we do not see is political will being directed toward the immediate development of integrated national plans for environmental restoration, mitigation and adaption.

Canada, Kyoto and Economic Collaspe
On April 19th the Canadian Conservative government released a major study predicting that compliance with the Kyoto Protocol would bring an economic apocalypse. The Environment Canada study says the Kyoto emissions-cutting targets for Canada could be met only by introducing a massive $195-per-tonne carbon tax, which would wipe out thousands of jobs and undercut Canadians’ quality of life.

Environment Minister John Baird said every Canadian family and business would have to cut greenhouse gas emissions by one third starting in eight months. Baird told the Senate environment committee:

“There is only one way to make that happen - the government would need to manufacture a recession.”

He also said the federal government remains committed to the principles of the Kyoto treaty. Although it was announced last week that Canada may want to join the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (AP6), a six-nation coalition focusing on voluntary emission-reduction steps and technology transfers.

Environmentalists oppose AP6 out of a fear that it may undermine political support for the legally binding Kyoto treaty. Unlike the Kyoto Protocol, the Asia-Pacific Partnership is voluntary and technology-based, and permits each country set its own goals for greenhouse gas emission reductions, rather than legally binding them to a greenhouse gas reduction target.

Opposition critics and environmentalists claimed the Environment Canada study is flawed because it excludes the benefits of cutting emissions, such as reduced energy costs and a more stable climate, and because it limits access by businesses to international emissions credits.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the real issue is whether any of the opposition parties “have the guts to face reality. The reality is this: You cannot reduce greenhouse gas emissions by one-third and have a positive effect on the Canadian economy. This party has no intention of doing anything that is going to destroy Canadian jobs or damage the health of the economy.”

The Conservatives are trying to add credence to the report by also releasing an opinion from Toronto-Dominion Bank chief economist Don Drummond that effectively backs their findings. Drummond his letter dismisses meeting Kyoto targets and Bill C-288 as unworkable, saying,

I sincerely hope no serious consideration is being given to implementing the policy.This shock would represent a huge loss to Canadian competitiveness. Exports would plunge and imports rise.

He warns that such a hefty carbon tax, designed to drive down emissions, would substantially hurt the economy even if Ottawa funneled the revenue collected from the levy back to Canadians via personal and corporate income-tax cuts.

The Faulty Three-Legged Stool Model
Without doubt putting setting economic concerns as a priority above the environment will forestall taking effective action on climate change and the short-sightedness of doing so grieves my heart - it’s false economy.

The Stern Report clearly suggests that global warming could shrink the global economy by 20% but taking action now would cost just 1% of global gross domestic product and delaying will cost the earth.

The economic model we have embraced is the “3 legged stool” (economy - environment - society) is a faulty model. The ground for all is the environment and humans are an integral part of it. Without it we have nothing - no economy - no society. Yet so many have bought into the faulty model that I cannot help but despair for our planet, our generation and generations yet to come.

Democracy isn’t working because we have adopted a faulty model. We expect our “leaders” to demonstrate the “three pillars of good decision making” ie. balancing social, environmental and economic concerns. What we fail to recognize is that the environment, of which we are a part, is grounds for all.

We have established governance that only allows the true stakeholders - citizens of earth - to participate on the fringes of decision-making in a very superficial way. Corporate kings shape all government decisions. The result is that we are living in times of violent corporate assaults being waged against earths’ ecology and against humanity.

The invasion of the environment is as real as that of any jackbooted army. The conquest of the environment for profit at any cost will continue to erode democracy and has corrupted the role of governments and international trade organizations. They act only as agents and promoters of amoral transnational corporations that are rapaciously devouring the earth’s resources and polluting the planet that must sustain us all.

Until we recognize that the crisis in the way we humans govern ourselves is due to viewing ourselves as being separate and apart from the environment that sustains all, no real changes will be made.

Millions of people and hundreds of thousands of species are going to die as earth burns due to our reluctance to take swift and effective action to restore the environment, and to mitigate and adapt to to climate change. It’s already begun.

On the eve of Earth Day I posted an “I’m on vacation for 2 weeks post” on my environmental blog and exported the contents to my own computer. Knowing that whenever a door closes a window opens, I am choosing not to continue posting to my environmental blog. Instead I intend to focus on this time ~ this space

References:
Dire federal forecast for Kyoto compliance meets with skepticism
Ottawa rolls out ‘validators’ to bolster anti-Kyoto stand
Canada joins anti-Kyoto bloc

See also:
The Faulty Three-Legged-Stool Model of Sustainable Development by Neil K. Dawe and Kenneth L. Ryan (2003), Conservation Biology 17 (5), 1458–1460. doi:10.1046/j.1523-1739.2003.02471.x