Last week, the IPCC report on climate change came out, warning the world we had about 12 years to limit global warming to a maximum of 1.5 degrees Celsius or risk extreme heat, drought, floods and poverty throughout the world.
The Washington Post’s Margaret Sullivan issued a challenge to journalists: “Climate change,” she said, “must be kept front and center with the pressure on and the stakes made abundantly clear at every turn.”
When you seriously think about 12 years, that is not that far away. I’ll be 85 years old, while my youngest granddaughter will be a mere 21 years old — just starting out on the great adventure we call life.
Canada’s minister of environment and climate change, Catherine McKenna weighed in on the report, stating: “There is a lot of work to do. We need to be doing things like phasing out coal, like making historic investments in public transit which we are doing with cities, and making investments in clean solutions and technology.”
Climate change is the number one issue
In Canada, municipal elections are about to take place in B.C., while Ontario has already elected a climate denier. But many politicians, current and former, are now beginning to put more of a focus on climate change, and it is about time.
“The number one issue has got to be climate change,” said Donna Macdonald, who lives in Nelson, B.C., and was a city councilor for 19 years, according to CBC News. “There is lots that local governments can do and have been doing … We can influence a lot.”
Mark Jaccard is a professor at Simon Frasier University’s School of Resource and Environmental Management and a contributing author on IPCC reports, and he is calling for drastic measures which I agree with. He says it’s time to “put politicians feet to the fire” on environmental issues.
“We should put 100 percent [responsibility] on our politicians,” he told Stephen Quinn, the host of CBC’s The Early Edition. “Canada has some good policies in place, but we need to really make sure those policies do unfold.”
Jaccard says it is not possible for individuals to make significant changes without political prompting. “You really need to do it with a policy to make sure that everyone does it because it’s rather attractive to burn gasoline in your car and natural gas in your home and so on,” Jaccard said.
Politicians would rather hand climate policy off to someone else
And in many ways, this may be true. But what if the politicians aren’t interested in policy, or even worse are climate deniers? Jaccard says, “The opposition politicians who see a chance to get into power by killing climate policies, those are the ones that we, as voters, have the responsibility to defeat.”
I hate being the devil’s advocate here, but Ontario Premier Doug Ford ran on getting rid of the carbon tax and keeping the price of gasoline cheap for vehicles. Where is that helping to reduce automobile emissions and cut carbon?
Ontario and Saskatchewan are strong allies in the fight against the federal carbon tax. I’m proud to stand up for families and businesses with @PremierScottMoe and challenge this unfair tax that is designed to make everything more expensive. pic.twitter.com/7l3tGYV0vY
— Doug Ford (@fordnation) October 4, 2018
And it isn’t easy to change the mainstream thought processes of politicians today. This is true in Canada and in the U.S. While Hurricane Michael was ripping through the Southeastern U.S. last week, the media couldn’t avoid talking climate change this past weekend.
According to Grist, CNN’s Jake Tapper and CBS’s John Dickerson asked Florida Senator Marco Rubio directly about the impact of climate change on storms like Michael. ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked White House economic advisor, Larry Kudlow if the president would act on global warming.
Florida Senator @marcorubio Rubio tells @jaketapper on #CNNSOTU that human activity is contributing towards climate change. October 14, 2018
But the most surprising interview was on 60 Minutes with Leslie Stahl. She asked President Donald Trump point blank: “Do you still think that climate change is a hoax?” Well, he walked back his hoax theory but still hemmed and hawed around.
The same could be said for Marco Rubio’s answer to the question about Hurricane Michael and its impact on the Florida Panhandle. Rubio suggested that policies to address climate change were a danger to the economy. A danger to the economy? We won’t have an economy to worry about if something is not done now.
In Canada, you have the same wishy-washy attitudes being presented. “The challenge with [some energy saving infrastructure] is that it has a higher upfront cost and sometimes citizens tend to react strongly to that,” said Jill Merrick, who has spent the past four years as a city councilor in Prince George.
But Merrick adds, “it’s a local government’s job to look long-term and strategic in its investments.” Herb Pond, the former mayor of Prince Rupert, agrees. He said that change needs to come from the local level. “At the municipal level, it’s where the rubber meets the road,” he told Carolina de Ryk, the host of CBC’s Daybreak North. “Particularly around adaptation and mitigation matters, this should be top of mind for politicians.”
Tonight, President Trump discusses climate change, tariffs, NATO, North Korea, Russia and Justice Kavanaugh's confirmation in his first 60 Minutes interview since taking office. Watch at 7:30 ET/7 PT. pic.twitter.com/u34o1Wf3s4
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) October 14, 2018
Our politicians are killing us
I know, this is a bold statement, but it is true. All a politician has to do to destroy our future is ignore the science and the facts on global warming. And ignoring that evidence will lead to thousands of deaths, folks.
The IPCC report wasn’t kidding, and it wasn’t a bunch of scientific mumbo-jumbo. One of the reports lead authors, the geographer Adelle Thomas, said, “the scientific consensus is really strong. It’s not just a political slogan: ‘1.5 to stay alive.’ It’s true.”
I like the way The Guardian sums up the climate change fiasco we are having with politicians: “If a bricklayer builds a wall that falls over 12 years later, killing someone, the bricklayer can be sued and even jailed.” The same holds true with a doctor that prescribes something that has proven to be a health risk.
So why can’t our leaders, our politicians, be responsible for their failure to do something about climate change? They sure as the devil haven’t been doing such a great job so far in taking care of us, have they?
