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Can COP26 save the world?

Will our government take urgent action without prompting from us? And what can we do to make sure effective change comes out of this climate conference?

First thing to do: Take a few minutes and read this blog. This is urgent business for all of us!

As you may know, 190 countries are meeting in Glasgow starting next week to discuss getting to a low-carbon economy, something that is looking a lot more urgent as we all experience the worsening effects of climate change. Here is a quick backgrounder on what COP26 is. You’ll find a more in-depth guide here, from the Globe & Mail.

Here are the specific goals of the conference, briefly:

Get the planet to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 – meaning that when you add new emissions, and subtract new things that retain emissions (carbon sinks), they would add up, in effect, to zero emissions.
Work on adaptation- protecting people and the planet from rising sea levels, worsening storms, extreme heat, droughts, etc., now and in the future.
Finalize rules set up at the 2015 Paris Conference, and get rid of loopholes.
Mobilize governments and corporations to finance all this since most countries are poor, and can’t afford to make the necessary changes on their own.

As an aside – Are you wondering about where wildlife is in all this? You may not have heard much about another conference on this topic that happened earlier this month, since there wasn’t much coverage of it. The COP15 Biodiversity Summit took place in Kunming, China, and ended with a declaration calling on all countries to take urgent action to preserve biodiversity. More info here.

But will all this lead to action? As Greta Thunberg said recently, there is a lot of blah, blah, blah – “Words that sound great but so far have not led to action.” Of course we can sit at home and cross our fingers, but if enough of us take action, we do have the possibility of getting through to the politicians, and getting them to listen to us rather than fossil fuel interests, which got $18 billion in subsidies in Canada last year. Here are some things you can do now:

Action 1

Page 198 | royalty free government building photos free download | Piqsels — *Image/Piqsels*

Write a letter to the federal government demanding that they take a strong environmental stance at COP26 – Canada should be a leader, rather than lagging behind others as we are at present. Here is a CBC editorial on this. Since parliament is not in session, and the conference starts soon, it’s probably best to write to the prime minister, here. Yes, it is great that our new Minister of the Environment is a former Greenpeace member, but we still need to tell them that we support urgent climate action right now. Our emails can give them credibility for bolder action. Also, sign some of the many petitions that are circulating.

Action 2

This Friday, October 29th, there is a worldwide demonstration against financial institutions which invest in fossil fuel companies. In Canada, these demonstrations are focusing on RBC (formerly the Royal Bank), which is number five in the world in highest investment in fossil fuels and is funding the Coastal Gaslink Pipeline. To find a demonstration near you, click here. I hope to see you at RBC Headquarters in Toronto at King and Bay, at 2:00 on Friday. But if you can’t make it to that demonstration, there is one on the weekend 10 days later:

Action 3

Climate Justice Now! Real Action @ COP26 Saturday November 6th 1pm Queen's Park Our Demands: - Respect Indigenous sovereignty - Phase out fossil fuels - Just transition for communities and workers - Global Justice Website: nov6toronto.org Email: info@n

This demonstration, (see poster above), also a worldwide effort, takes place in the middle of COP26. World leaders may need some urging to greater action at that point! You can find more info and other locations here. We really need to join with other people to get our voices heard! Again, hope to see you on November 6th.

Thanks for reading. This matters, since we really need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% in the next nine years to keep the planet livable. Let’s do this!

How can I vote for the planet?

We are having a horrible climate crisis of a summer, here in Canada and around the world. These disasters are right in our faces, and yet we are still not seeing the urgent government action we need to keep this planet habitable. This federal election is our chance to be heard, not just by voting but by telling politicians and political parties on campaign that the majority of Canadians want serious action on the climate emergency now. We are running out of time to act.

So – a few thoughts on what we can do

Talk to politicians, door knockers, survey-takers – and ask questions about climate action. Demand action on fossil fuel projects, greenhouse gas emissions, preservation of green spaces, and more. Make your concerns heard – don’t just listen to them. Plus, talk to friends, family and anyone about the climate crisis and environmental issues. We can change the conversation!

Demonstrate to make your concerns heard! 350.org is planning a second nationwide demonstration next Wednesday, September 8th. The theme is “Canada is still on fire! Act like it!”

There are close to 50 actions happening across the country, so there’s a good chance one is happening near you! Click here to get more information, and the map showing where the actions will take place. You can click the one closest to you and sign up to attend. (Hope to see lots of you at Queen’s Park for the Toronto action!) We can make sure that climate is an issue in this election, especially with the UN Climate Change Conference/COP26 coming up in Glasgow in the fall.

Voting is important – don’t let someone else decide your government for you! Here are some basics to help you vote, and vote in an informed way:

The government site which will allow you to check that you’re registered, and figure out where and when you can vote is here. You can vote at an advanced poll, at an Elections Canada Office, by mail or at regular polls on voting day, September 20th.

How do you decide who to vote for?

Probably not from the ads! Here is the WikiHow method – step by step on how to gather information and make the decision. Also, I recommend trying the quiz at Vote Compass/Canada Votes 2021, which compares your opinions with those of the political parties, and comes up with an idea of which matches you the best. Fun and interesting.

For information on the different party platforms, click here: Conservative, Green, Liberal, and NDP. It is worth checking out GreenPac, a non-profit organization which monitors candidates, and in mid-September will be endorsing candidates who have shown environmental leadership.

This site shows national trends based on polls, but will also help you see how things look now in your home riding, to help with your voting decision.

Learn a bit more about the leaders here.

The Toronto Star’s quick explainer on the four main issues is here. (Including the climate crisis!)

Here’s what the Globe and Mail is saying about the campaigns. You can follow politics on the CBC here, including a daily newsletter you can sign up for.

But whatever you do, VOTE!

And pass this blog along to other people!

How did it go?

A brief report on the July 29 Climate Action in Toronto-Davenport

July 31, 2021

More than 35 actions took place across the country. It was a weekday in the middle of the summer holidays, and it rained – and in spite of that, a small but committed group showed up at the office of Julie Dzerowicz, MP for Davenport. We talked with Julie, presented her with a symbolic fire extinguisher, and she signed the pledge, committing to do everything in her power to support her constituents’ calls for:

an immediate moratorium on new fossil fuel approvals, and a freeze on all fossil fuel expansion projects under construction – including the Trans Mountain Pipeline
legislation for a just transition to support workers and communities, especially Indigenous and remote communities as we move towards a 100% renewable energy future

*MP Dzerowicz signs the pledge/photo MCM*

It turns out that this is quite a breakthrough. I believe she is the first Liberal MP to sign this pledge, and it has been hailed by environmentalists as a milestone. I hope we can continue making progress, and that Julie can get her government to act like this is an emergency!

Certainly, they have made little progress so far, making a lot of promises, with little to no follow up. The international Climate Action Tracker rates Canada’s efforts at climate action as insufficient, and contributing to a 3 degree temperature rise, which would be catastrophic.

I don’t think many Canadians are aware of how terrible we are. The National Post wrote recently that we have the worst climate record of any G7 country! We continue to produce a lot of highly polluting coal, and since our government bought it, we are paying to build a giant new oil pipeline from the tar sands. Here’s an update on the Trans Mountain Pipeline , and the potential danger from oil spills in these fragile ecosystems

After signing the pledge, MP Dzerowicz specifically encouraged us to keep coming out and making our opinions known. Our letters, emails and demonstrations support MPs and give them more credibility in advocating for more climate action. In David Suzuki’s list of the top ten things you can do to help fight climate change, number one is: Urge government to take bold, ambitious climate change now. So – we all need to get active, and support the planet!

Time for action – yes, again!

With the pandemic emergency and lockdown, it’s been quite a while since I last wrote a blog. And although it may be temporary, for the moment Covid-19 seems mostly under control here in Canada. (I hope your experience of the pandemic, lockdowns etc. was/is not too terrible!) But the real emergency, threatening all life on the planet, is still the climate emergency. And I am going to tell you what you can do about it this week.

*https://toronto.citynews.ca/video/2021/07/20/wildfire-smoke-brings-hazy-skies-poor-air-quality-to-toronto/*

Why now? The climate crisis is not just here, it’s right here in our faces. On Tuesday, July 20th, Toronto, along with much of the rest of Canada, had seriously toxic air – for Toronto, the second worst air quality of any city in the world, identified as ‘unhealthy’. (More info on toxic haze from forest fires here if you need it.)

FYI: I recommend that everyone download the excellent IQAir app to display and track local air quality on your phone along with your weather widget. It is a fantastic app, and very transparent about its data.

*Toronto from my deck today – level 125 according to IQAir, ‘unhealthy for sensitive groups’ Photo/MCM*

My other scary in-person climate crisis moment recently was in Killarney, Ontario in June. In the middle of what should have been the North’s notoriously horrible blackfly season, there were no bugs, due to a drought. This is unheard of. Great for hikers – not so good for the birds!

On a lighter note, I have to include a link to Wade Hemsworth’s funny 1949 song and short NFB animated film about the experience of blackflies in Northern Ontario, here, in case you haven’t seen it. Even nightmarish clouds of biting insects are an essential part of the Canadian experience – cultural and environmental. We need them!

The climate crisis is actually here – now! And our government is carrying on with business as usual. A majority of Canadians see this climate crisis and want action now, before it’s too late. Trudeau talks about problems, but does very little. So we need to get out there in numbers and demand that the government act like it’s an emergency, to reduce emissions and at least slow down climate change.

This week you can join a protest that’s going on across Canada organized by 350.org, an international climate change action group. Their message:

***https://below2c.org/2021/07/message-to-justin-trudeau-canadas-on-fire-act-like-it/***

On Thursday, July 29th, people from every part of the country are organizing and going to their MP’s local office (or one nearby) to present a pledge, and possibly a fire extinguisher to the MP if possible. This means you can join a national protest in your own neighbourhood. What could be more important than that? Click here to find a local action near you, or set one up in your riding yourself.

No one can say this is not their issue, with an endless stream of worsening climate disasters in the news – and in our home cities! And you will feel better when you have done something positive about it, however small. Plus – this is an easy one: just go to this link, RSVP to your closest event, and show up with a sign! (Or sign up at the same link to organize an event in your own riding.) Don’t wait for someone else to do what we all need to do. And do tell all your friends, family and neighbours about this. A large turnout will make this more effective. We all need to add our voices!

Photo/MCM
Image/Sheree Tams

And finally, I have gone ahead and registered and am organizing an action at the Davenport riding office of Julie Dzerowicz, near Dufferin and Bloor. More info here.

So – you should join me if it’s at all possible! And I could definitely use some help preparing for this. Get in touch! As well, I will be handing out buttons like in the photo above.

350.org –
On Fire Art Tool Kit

It’s an emergency – let’s act like it! On Thursday!

Is this the end of the world as we know it?

I hope so – we need things to change for the better!

A crisis (from the Greek for ‘decision’) inevitably results in change, and not always good change, as Naomi Klein showed us in her book ‘The Shock Doctrine‘. The media is full of ideas about how things are going to be different, and what the new normal will be like. Here’s the Globe and Mail’s interesting look at the future for Canada. But there are lots of different thoughts out there, forecasting both negative and positive possibilities.

So: What can we do to help ensure that change is positive and benefits people and the planet, not just corporations or neoliberal governments? How can we remain optimistic, and find the will and the energy to expect and demand that our governments move us in a positive direction? The bottom line: the coronavirus has created this crucial moment, and we are unlikely to have a better chance to make change.

Now is the time!

For those of us sitting at home for the past weeks or months, there has been a lot of time to think about what is essential, and what is not. The list may not be very long – my list includes friends and family, food, shelter and medicine. Much of the other stuff in our lives looks serious less important than it did – and for your average Canadian, that’s a lot of stuff! Maybe those of us who are well off might think that we can have less stuff, and share the wealth more broadly, both domestically and internationally.

*A storage unit sale* https://images.app.goo.gl/bwo71JfrzRrNJKvb8

This pandemic has put the spotlight on a lot of problems that have been easy for many of us to ignore in the past . In Canada, we see much more starkly the inadequacy of affordable housing, long term care homes, labour protection, health care systems, domestic violence, childcare, globalized supply lines and more. And contrary to expectations, air pollution has not gone down much, showing that cars aren’t as big a source as we might have thought. Behind much of it is a very undemocratic level of inequality. We have a small number of extremely (obscenely?) rich people, and a very large number of people in poverty or extreme poverty, even in rich, ‘democratic’ countries like Canada.

https://quillette.com/2018/05/10/two-arguments-inequality/

There are some very strong arguments that most social problems have their roots in income inequality. In the book “The Spirit Level”, it is shown that that overall wealth of a country (among well-off Western countries) is a less important factor in well-being than the size of the income gap. The worse the inequality, the worse off the country is in terms of economic stability, education, social mobility, health, crime, trust and general happiness.

The incomes of the poorest 10% of people increased by less than $3 a year between 1988 and 2011, while the incomes of the richest 1% increased 182 times as much.
Oxfam Report: An economy for the 99 per cent
https://www.oxfamamerica.org/explore/research-publications/an-economy-for-the-99-percent/

In the world as a whole, it is clear that the rich are getting richer. The rest of us are working harder, generally being more productive, and not improving our real incomes. Predictions show that we are heading back to the situation of the Gilded Age, with severe wealth inequality, and the rich running everything for their own benefit. Only a Depression and two massive wars destroyed the power of that inherited wealth and allowed a wider prosperity to grow in the mid twentieth century, according to Piketty.

Eight men now own the same amount of wealth as the poorest half of the world.
Oxfam Report: An economy for the 99 per cent
https://www.oxfamamerica.org/explore/research-publications/an-economy-for-the-99-percent/

Resources There are excellent resources which can update you on the seriousness of the inequality problem. Robert Reich’s film “Saving Capitalism” is available on Netflix. Here is the trailer. The big one is Thomas Piketty’s book “Capital in the 21st Century”, which clocks in at 696 pages. Definitely a surprise best seller when it came out a few years ago! Here is a very short guide to its main points. There is also a recently released film based on his book.

https://www.ecosystemmarketplace.com/articles/20544/

The point is, whatever our hopes for the future, we have to motivate ourselves to take action here to make sure positive change happens, including planet-saving as a priority in all solutions. A lot of this depends on increased funding, and increased taxes on wealth, as happened after the two world wars. Many of us have seen how important governments have been during this crisis, and want more government action. Let’s get them to continue on with the work of making this a more equal society which also treats the planet well. For example, we can support LEAF in their fight for a Canadian Green New Deal, helping people and the environment. Whatever your issue, there is a non-profit organization working to mobilize resources and government support, just a click away. We should also support news media who are playing such an important role in informing us and harassing governments to do a better job.

We can also write emails. I can hear the groans! What difference does one email to my MP or PM make? But that’s exactly why it’s so important that we all have to write lots of emails. That will have an effect. Here are a few shortcut links, but all you have to do is Google it to get a contact for any politician.

Many thanks to all of you who have read this long-ish blog to the end! If there’s one must-read article about the possibilities for change, it’s this – “Hope in a time of crisis” by Rebecca Solnit in The Guardian. It’s a longer read, (available in print or as a podcast here) but with a more thoughtful, historical and philosophical view of disasters and their effects and possibilities. I’ll close with a quote from her:

I often think of these times as akin to a spring thaw: it’s as if the pack ice has broken up, the water starts flowing again and boats can move through places they could not during winter. The ice was the arrangement of power relations that we call the status quo – it seems to be stable, and those who benefit from it often insist that it’s unchangeable. Then it changes fast and dramatically, and that can be exhilarating, terrifying, or both.
Rebecca Solnit, What coronavirus can teach us about hope, The Guardian

Next blog topic: How to overcome our activism inertia.