A brief report on the July 29 Climate Action in Toronto-Davenport
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:
Some very wet demonstrators!/photo MCM
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.
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!
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.
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:
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!
The view over Da Nang, Vietnam on a sunny day. Yes, that is pollution! Photo MM
A walk in the rain forest in Borneo Photo/LTS
I’ll be up front about it: I am a very imperfect environmentalist, and the worst damage I do to the planet is traveling in planes. (Anyone I know on Facebook is well aware of this!) I have always wanted to travel, ever since high school when I started studying a lot of French and Spanish. I worked for an airline and travel agencies. Now I’m retired, and one of the main things I want to do is travel! But there is no doubt it is bad, as we see in the news every day. Here’s today’s update on global heating. Anyway, this blog is the result of much guilty thought and research .
In this blog I am going to try to find some basic facts about greenhouse gas and other emissions from travel, and look at some ways to mitigate the damage. I’m trying to be brief here, so there will be links to articles with more detail – for those who want it. But there are some big issues here, so the blog may be longer than usual!
The first part is easy to figure out. Biking and walking don’t create greenhouse gases. It’s that simple. We should walk and bike as much as possible – which will be very different for people in different circumstances. However every bit counts, as this article points out. But it won’t get you to Europe from North America!
Bikes are good once you get there, though! Photo/Flickr
Note: New research is showing how damaging particulate air pollution is for city dwellers – you can monitor air pollution where you live with this app, (highly recommended!) This article shows that you can substantially reduce exposure by taking side streets and going through parks.
Emissions from flying are much harder to calculate (See this academic article for principles) due to differences in plane models, what’s on the plane at takeoff, how many passengers share responsibility for the emissions, the flight path, even the weather, and possibly who runs the site you get your data from. But here are some basic facts (I hope!) and links.
Photo/NYPost/Shutterstock
Flying requires huge amounts of energy – which we tend to forget because it’s so common. Think about this: two or three people can push a car out of a ditch. They can move it! Now think about how many (very tall!) people it would take to lift a 767 full of people, bags and fuel, etc. You burn a lot more fuel, and the emissions go directly into the upper atmosphere, where they do the most damage.
This, from the BBC online magazine Science Focus, gives a decent comparison:
A Boeing 747 uses 7840kg of aviation fuel for the take-off, climb and descent portions of the flight and these account for about 250km. For journeys longer than that, the plane will use 10.1kg for each additional kilometre under typical cruising conditions. So to fly from Heathrow to Edinburgh (530km) uses 10,668kg of fuel, which releases a little over 33 tonnes of CO2.
Whereas a Ford Mondeo 1.8 TDCi emits 151g of CO2 per km and covers 650km to reach Edinburgh. That works out to be 98kg for a single passenger, compared to 79kg per person for the Jumbo, assuming it carries its full complement of 416 passengers. But you could drive 336 cars to Edinburgh for the same CO2 as one plane.
Again, tons of variables. Even electric cars can be better or worse, depending on the source of your electricity. (Niagara Falls or a coal-fired plant?) But the 336 cars they mention in the quote could each carry four or five passengers, with much less emissions per person .
Here is a comparison, showing emissions per passenger per kilometer traveled (BBC):
Short haul flight 254 g per passenger per kilometer
Long haul flight 195 g
Car, 1 passenger 171 g
Bus 104 g
Car, 4 passengers 43g
Rail 41g
Coach (long-distance?) 27g
New high speed train 6g
That is a huge difference! Here’s a Guardian overview of the issues, showing that one trip London – New York – London would add more than 10% to one Uk citizen’s annual emissions. The trip would also emit more greenhouse gases than an average citizen of Paraguay (or 55 other countries!) would in a year. The world has 100 000 flights a day, a number which is increasing rapidly. Not good.
What should those of us who travel or want to travel do?
Some ideas
Stay home. Make home a place where you want to be more, building community, cleaning up, finding exciting things to do in your home city. Pledge to be flight free.
Fly less. And get governments to force the aviation industry to invest more in creating electric planes and generally reduce emissions. They have done very little towards that.
Take the train. See everything you could possibly need to know about train travel anywhere here. Or take a bus. The Site Rome2Rio shows pretty much every mode of transport anywhere.
How to get to Europe from North America (or vice versa): Unfortunately cruises tend to be vacations and aren’t useful for getting from point A to Point B. The Queen Mary does a regular Brooklyn to Southampton trip, but it’s 7 days, very expensive, and formal wear for dinner! Fly, then take the train when you get there, even though internal European flights are unbelievably cheap. ( I thoroughly checked freighters and repositioning cruises, and found nothing remotely useful for just getting from North America to Europe.)
Flying anyway? Research flights at Skyscanner and it can show you flights that have lower emissions. Take a non-stop because taking off and landing is by far the the most fuel-intensive part of any trip. Once you’re across the ocean, Rome2Rio can help you get to even the most remote place by bus or train.
Calculating emissions or footprint Here are some of the many sites that help with this.
Offsets? There are lots of companies that will calculate your emissions, and offset them. It would be important to do some research on that one to be sure they actually do the carbon capture, tree planting, etc . If you do the comparison research, do tell me how the different sites compare!
Other offsetting I wanted to offset our recent trip by donating to green organizations I knew something about. When I was in Malaysia, I asked around a bit and found a local organization working to stop rain forest destruction from the creation of palm oil plantations, and made a donation. (Here’s their info on why you should be boycotting palm oil.) I also donated to a fantastic organization called Treesisters. I heard about them in the issue of The Guardian shown below. Its main article on the benefits of tree planting is here. I also donated to Rainforest Action Network.
I first heard about Treesisters in this Guardian issue here.
We need more trees We should all be planting all the trees we can, in person or by donation. In the Toronto area, an organization called LEAF gives advice and subsidies for backyard tree planting. There will be similar organizations in many cities.Tree planting does seem like one of the best things we can do in the long run. And we should be harassing our governments to do more of it. And of course reducing our carbon footprint so entire continents may be less likely to burn!
Greta Thunberg and George Monbiot have made an excellent short video about preserving nature, suggesting what we can do. In short: protect and restore nature, fund things which protect and restore nature, and stop funding things like the fossil fuel industry. Worth watching! You’ll find it here.
We ALL need to speak for the trees, not just the lorax! National Review Image
Conclusions
It is so tempting to find excuses, and leave it to someone else to reduce carbon emissions. It’s not my fault that the world is in a climate emergency, we think. But of course we do bear responsibility here. So we have to take action . And we have to get other people talking about these issues so that changed attitudesspread. Flygskam, or flight shaming is important enough in Sweden that in 2019 there was a drop in the number of people traveling through Swedish airports, unlike in other countries. We can do this too!
I’m not going to lie – I am not stopping all air travel right now. But writing this has forced me to see the urgency of these issues, and to follow some of my own advice. I’m not cancelling all planned trips, but I won’t travel by plane once I get to Europe in September… And I see a train trip to Vancouver in my future! Also – more donations to environmental organizations in addition to the regular ones I make already.
PS. Here’s a link in case you’re wondering what a tonne of carbon emissions looks like, as I was! And thanks for taking the time to read this to the end! MM
I’ve been away travelling, but I am back – for more environmental action this week. And yes, I confess, I took planes – I’ll be doing a blog about flying, its effects on the planet, alternatives and offsets soon.
The environment just looks worse in Southeast Asia, in a very in-your-face way. You may not be happy with what you see around you in a rich Western country, but you really see the planet (and the people!) suffering in poorer countries, where being green just seems to be too expensive – either that or a government may be lining its pockets instead of dealing with environmental problems. (Of course, that is also a problem in the rich countries!) Here are a few of the things I saw.
The best of times...
Lush rainforest – incredibly green ancient rice terraces – huge plants that only grow in pots back home – take a look at the massive ficus tree at the bottom left – and then zoom in on the bottom right, where Tim is visible, giving you a sense of the scale of this massive tree
But also the worst of times…
Paving over paradise – motorbikes prevailing and polluting in cities with no public transit – bird’s eye view of a sunny but polluted city – a normal beach with the usual amount of garbage washed up by the tide -barnacles on a water bottle
The world is not doing well
No one country is to blame, though richer countries have contributed much more to the problems. And of course we all have a stake in preserving the planet in a livable state – and for taking action on the climate emergency . Plastic washed down storm sewers in Toronto will end up in the ocean. The air quality was so bad that for much of the trip I had to wear a pollution mask!
Another chance to add your voice to a major demonstration for climate action this week
The September demonstration had an amazing turnout, in Canada and around the world: over 7 million people demonstrated for the planet that week. You can see on this map that people on every continent joined in. And quite a few readers and followers of this blog showed up too!
But no one said that one demonstration would be enough. Governments around the world are avoiding any real action on climate heating – possibly excepting New Zealand. Clearly it’s going to be difficult to get the Canadian government to do enough. We all need to get out on the street to demand action, write letters, and support activist groups. Let’s do this!
P.S. I have volunteered, and been trained to be a marshal on Friday. Hope to see you there!
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.
Anthropologist Margaret Meade
Major social change is possible
And can happen relatively quickly. Bonus: you don’t have to cut off heads to get it done! A number of examples of major change in the recent past are discussed in this Australian article, Changing public attitudes to long-term issues. It applies equally well to Canada and other OECD countries. (If you read one article today, read this one!)
The change in attitudes to cigarette smoking is one of his examples that I have witnessed in my own life, and it has been pretty stunning. In 1978, when you went to a party, a lot of people smoked – having a drink without a cigarette was unimaginable to many people. (I really noticed because I developed allergies around that time, and got pretty severe symptoms after an hour at a party.) It was unthinkable to stop people from smoking in your house. When an acquaintance put a no-smoking sign on her front door, it was seriously controversial. Smokers strongly felt that they had the right (as in, a personal freedom) to smoke anywhere. You could smoke in class at the University of Toronto in the 70s! But, for a variety of reasons, attitudes changed, so that by 1988 you have major bans on smoking in public spaces and workplaces. Nowadays, tobacco companies are losing class action suits, and you can’t smoke anywhere on a university campus. A huge change in quite a short time!
One striking thing from the article above is that smoking bans on Australian airlines started with one man’s letter writing campaign. He was persistent in asking for a few non-smoking rows, and it snowballed. That’s what we need to do with climate action.
Whatever you’re doing already – that’s great. But we all need to up our game, in many ways: as a consumer, as a commuter, as a citizen/voter and more, and in supporting each other as we make difficult changes.
Further inaction on climate change is “simply not an option”, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said on Wednesday in an opinion piece where he called for “rapid and deep change in how we do business, generate power, build cities and feed the world.”
On 26 October 2014, Peia Kararaua, 16, swims in the flooded area of Aberao village in Kiribati.
Look out the nearest window right now!
We are all in this together. Drowning Kiribati (seen above), the burning Amazon, the melting Arctic all seem so far away. But whatever you see out that window, whether it’s a back alley, a condo construction project, or a garden, it is all the same planet. We need to look after it better!
Note: This is a huge topic, way too big for one blog post. I hope people will add on, and fill in gaps by clicking on ‘Leave a reply’ below.
Another note Re: links, article references. These are seriously curated. I only use sources which I judge to be reliable, and articles which I think even a busy person would find worthwhile!
Planethugger 
