The timeline of 12 years has stuck to the point that we're continuing to say it after the first year has passed. We have until 2030, which is 11 years from now. This BBC doc says we can do it!
We've done amazing things, and we have to treat our current crisis as if it's an alien invasion. The entire world has to band together to overhaul any outdated (i.e. dinosaur-dependent) infrastructure, transportation systems, agriculture, and general production methods. We also have to just stop buying crap we don't absolutely need and stop going places for our entertainment like the entitled monkeys we are.
It's the top earners who have the biggest impact: David Wallace-Wells wrote, "If the world's richest 10 percent were limited to that [European] footprint, global emissions would fall by a third." The top 10% globally includes anyone making over $70,000 in Canadian dollars. According to this site: "A $70,000 income in Canada has enough buying power to put you in the 90th percentile globally for per-person income. Within Canada, your income falls around the 50th percentile." That means almost 20 million Canadians need to go on a GHG diet.
Absolutely we have to change policies and politicians. But, at this point, it's a both/and proposition. I don't know about you, but I have significantly more immediate and certain control over my own behaviours than over the type of government that gets into power. I can also protest the shit out of them, though!
For Earth Day, write a letter to your MP, MPP, Mayor, and city councillor begging them to make this their top priority. Here's a poem for inspiration:
We've done amazing things, and we have to treat our current crisis as if it's an alien invasion. The entire world has to band together to overhaul any outdated (i.e. dinosaur-dependent) infrastructure, transportation systems, agriculture, and general production methods. We also have to just stop buying crap we don't absolutely need and stop going places for our entertainment like the entitled monkeys we are.
It's the top earners who have the biggest impact: David Wallace-Wells wrote, "If the world's richest 10 percent were limited to that [European] footprint, global emissions would fall by a third." The top 10% globally includes anyone making over $70,000 in Canadian dollars. According to this site: "A $70,000 income in Canada has enough buying power to put you in the 90th percentile globally for per-person income. Within Canada, your income falls around the 50th percentile." That means almost 20 million Canadians need to go on a GHG diet.
Absolutely we have to change policies and politicians. But, at this point, it's a both/and proposition. I don't know about you, but I have significantly more immediate and certain control over my own behaviours than over the type of government that gets into power. I can also protest the shit out of them, though!
For Earth Day, write a letter to your MP, MPP, Mayor, and city councillor begging them to make this their top priority. Here's a poem for inspiration:
To have an impact on GHGs,
ditch dryers, A/C, and food to freeze.
We have to reduce cars, planes, and meat,
then put on a sweater and turn down the heat.
Basically, anything that burps, heats, or cools
uses a ton of fossil fuels.
Reducing consumption of our unnecessities
can also remedy future generations' obscenities.
But electricity from the tides, wind, and sun
allows us to keep having lots of fun!
3 comments:
An interesting but not particularly convincing video. Yes, mankind can do many things and in short order. The problem isn't what we can do but what we're willing to do and what stands in our way.
At some point necessity will goad us into acting. For the past two days I've been mulling over where we'll be when we reach that societal tipping point. What will our Canadian society look like at that point and what will remain of the rest of humanity, especially the Third World? Perhaps what we'll witness will spur us on to act a bit sooner out of self-preservation, self-interest but the emphasis will probably be on "self."
Where will the Trans Mountain pipeline be in a dozen years? In terms of its 60-year lifespan it will still be a teenager.
It's said the world's stock markets and bourses are now carrying some $27 trillion worth of proven fossil fuel reserves. What happens when that bubble bursts? What lengths will the energy giants and their captured political class go to if only to delay the inevitable?
Monbiot recently wrote that the destruction of the Earth is a crime and ought to be prosecuted. He took inspiration from climate activist lawyer, Polly Higgins, who just died at age 50. I think, eventually, there will be some demand for atonement, perhaps something in the nature of the Nuremberg trials.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/28/destruction-earth-crime-polly-higgins-ecocide-george-monbiot
Of course that's George Monbiot and he would be expected to champion such ideas. In his April column, Monbiot lowered the lumber. Only rebellion, he wrote, will prevent ecological apocalypse.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/15/rebellion-prevent-ecological-apocalypse-civil-disobedience
That same day The Guardian editorial board wrote that it's time to break the machine.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/14/the-guardian-view-on-extinction-rebellion-one-small-step
The following day, Bank of England governor, Mark Carney, joined with the Bank of France governor warned that the financial and industrial communities must adapt to climate change and a zero-carbon future - or else.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/17/mark-carney-tells-global-banks-they-cannot-ignore-climate-change-dangers
What we're talking about here, Marie, is upheaval, an ouster of our political-economy. Have you seen anything to suggest the current prime minister would support that? He's a self-proclaimed disciple of the neoliberal order. And if Mr. Trudeau won't change what are our prospects with pols such as Scheer, Ford, Moe, and Kenney? How do you like your chances? Can you imagine somehow toppling all of those people and their political machines? Do you imagine that the Tories and the Liberals will together get less than 80 per cent of the vote this October?
Yes, we can change by 2030 only we're not yet in the necessary mood for change. Those people named above, they won't move until they're very, very afraid.
Yup. I don't think voting will do squat. Only rebellion will change anything. We have to make them afraid - both by our numbers and by their own - eventual but inevitable - realization of how dire the situation really is. Trudeau has children. That has to count for something.
We used to be able to act collectively, Marie. Now the prevailing philosophy is, "It's every man and woman for him or herself."
Post a Comment