The Time has Come

Strong words from the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, about the latest document from the International Panel on Climate Change. “an atlas of human suffering and a damning indictment of failed climate leadership,” and he added that “the world’s biggest polluters are guilty of arson of our only home.” 

 Bill McKibben’s latest essay in the New Yorker contends that the time to act is NOW.

 · There is a relation to the war in Ukraine.  Fossil fuel has given Putin the money to finance this atrocious invasion.

· John Kerry called the Glasgow climate talks our last best hope to which Greta Thumberg responded, “blah blah blah”.

·  If the US bans Russian oil – that’s just the beginning. We have to ban oil everywhere.

·  Our species has learned to depend on combustion. Now we have to unlearn it. We’ve focused on the pandemic, but we didn’t note this fact. In 2020, fossil-fuel pollution killed three times as many people as covid-19 did.

·  What we have forgotten is the fire that we can access from elsewhere without drilling for it – the sun.

·  We have the resources to replace burning fossil fuels. Early predictions of production of wind and solar energy production were pessimistic, but that is changing.  McKibben notes that Iceland, Costa Rica, Namibia, and Norway—are already producing more than ninety per cent of their electricity from clean sources.

·  Cost matters.  Here is another quote from McKibben. “ By  2013, the cost of a kilowatt-hour of solar energy had fallen by more than ninety-nine per cent since it was first used on the Vanguard I. Meanwhile, the price of coal has remained about the same. It was cheap to start, but it hasn’t gotten cheaper.”

·  People have believed for a long time that the cost of changing from coal is prohibitive.  Since that is no longer the case, it is beliefs and attitudes that have to change.

·  There are huge implications for Canada, according to McKibben. “A third of Canada’s natural gas is used to heat the oil trapped in the soil sufficiently to get it to flow to the surface and separate it from the sand. Just extracting the oil would put Canada over its share of the carbon budget set in Paris, and actually burning it would heat the planet nearly half a degree Celsius and use up about a third of the total remaining budget. (And Canadians account for only about one half of one per cent of the world’s population.)”

·  But we have a huge potential for renewable energy from the sky. Do we want to leave that in the air rather than thinking about what we can take from the ground?

·  Much of the world is an importer of coal – and the ships that carry it there do so over and over with fuel to transport it. Wind blades have to be transported too – but one shipment of them lasts for fifty years.

·  We are going to need more electricians.  That’s a retraining decision that has to be made by governments. They will ultimately be well paying jobs.

·  We’re still up against those who want to keep burning things – including one member of the US senate who holds the power to do so while benefiting from coal production. We pretend that natural gas is cleaner, while forgetting that it still involves burning something. Natural gas, McKibben says, is a bridge fuel to nowhere.

·  Wood burning is also seen as an alternative. But wood takes years to replace and all the tree planting in the world can’t keep up.

·  Carbon capture is raised as a possibility – but it costs more than solar power.

·  Utilities will fight hard – charging huge rates for changing systems to discourage changes. Governments need to regulate.

·  After pointing out that those who cause the least energy damage are the ones to suffer most, McKibben quotes Naomi Klein on inequities and the need for environmental organizations to think beyond themselves: “ Winning will take sweeping alliances beyond the self-identified green bubble—with trade unions, housing-rights advocates, racial-justice organizers, teachers, transit workers, nurses, artists, and more. But, to build that kind of coalition, climate action needs to hold out the promise of making daily life better for the people who are most neglected right away—not far off in the future. “

·  The haves of the world have to pay more to the fifty five have-not countries to help them pay for transfers to renewable energy.  So far, these have been empty promises.

·  We need to learn from our indigenous cousins who know the value of using small fires to prevent larger conflagrations – something that they have known for hundreds of years.

Subject - not Object

In a plenary session of a course this week, a participant observed that she watched a news report with an interview of a Russian soldier. He commented that he didn’t know who to shoot - because “they look like us”.

There is something obscene in this report. Is it all right to shoot someone who doesn’t look like the speaker? Is it all right to shoot anybody at all? Not only are we being asked to reflect as we stand by and watch the needless slaughter of others. We have lived in a dream world too long.

Disasters

Over the last few weeks I was preoccupied with a convoy of trucks. Now most if the news focuses on tanks and rockets and brave people dying. It’s easy to forget the longer term damage now coming to haunt us, that doesn’t care about how we mess up with trucks and tanks. It deals with how the practices of the first world will affect the two thirds who never enjoy our privileges and now will suffer even more. We have never come to terms with the reality that the planet has a one way irreversible journey and forgetting that impacts our own future - but not fairly. Those who already have the least will suffer the most.

The latest IPCC report still offers a sliver of hope. It’s hard to predict that the first world, already so arrogant and sure of its privilege will suddenly show remorse and change. Our track record isn’t good.

The report is immense in scope - 34,000 studies produced by more than 1,000 researchers and scientists and endorsed by 195 nations. There are things we can agree upon. Here are some of the things to recognize:

• Half the world’s population is short of water at some time in the year

• One out of three suffers from heat stress. That will grow to 50 or 75% if we fail to act.

• A billion people living in coastal areas will be exposed to flooding by 2050

• Much farm land is gradually becoming incapable of sustaining crops. A million children in Africa alone could suffer from stunted growth.

• Wild animal habitat reduction is causing animals to move and become extninct

• We don’t protect land, fresh water and oceans. Instead of carbon capture, we are sending more into the atmosphere.

• While the poor suffer most, the first world isn’t escaping. The health of the planet affects us all - physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. As the season of Lent begins, we need to grieve our losses, but not stop there. It’s incumbent upon all of us to act individually, corporately, nationally and internationally. The planet isn’t the stage set . The heart of stone must become a heart of flesh.

Learnings

It’s been a busy week. A week ago, the Emergencies Act came into force in Canada to much censure for overreach by some, and a sense of relief by others. I tended to be in the latter group, and felt justified in its results and withdrawal as soon as an emergency in the City of Ottawa was resolved. Yes, - the Provincial Government might have stepped in and solved it. But it reminded me of a board meeting some years ago when a member commented, “I could have done it, just as well or better'‘. and an astute chair replied, “That may be - but you didn’t”.

What the whole thing did do was bring to light how many of our Canadian citizens are ignorant of our country’s history and governance. We don’t have a First Amendment to guarantee their rights. Our constitution does not guarantee life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Freedom - FREE-DOM chanted loudly and repeatedly - does not mean that others don’t have rights too - for clean air, theability to move in their neighbourhood without harrassment and feedom to adhere to follow the law onwearing masks. Fox News is not a Canadian network that the majority of our citizens use to get their information. I’d also love to know - looking at the protestors and guessing their age - whether they are aware that they were inoculated or vaccinated as babies and toddlers - Did they ever think to ask about Diphtheria, Tetanus. Pertussis. Poliomyelitis, Mumps, Measles. Rubella, Chicken Pox or Hepatitis B. I think I know the answer, but it would be interesting to know if they do.

It was easy to ignore the growing tensions in the Ukraine and be preoccupied with events at home - but no more. Last week the seminar on Non-Violent Communication came back to mind. What both these events have in common are Faux Feelings - interpretations of reality masquerading as feelings. Among the shared interpretations of some truckers and a Russian president are words like = betrayed, ignored, invisible, neglected, put upon and unappreciated. How they will play out in the larger world conflict we are about to see.

O Canada

Encampment of protestors close to Canadian House of Parliament on the 18th day of their blockade

We Canadian are suddenly the centre of attention everywhere after a world wide reputation of being boring. Our fifteen minutes of fame nevertheless are an embarrassment when we become notorious for all the wrong reasons. Every gathering of more than one at a dinner table starts a conversation - and one is then left to reflect on the issues and implications for democracy.

It all began when some truckers didn’t like vaccine mandates mandated not only in Canada but also in the United States that wouldn’t allow them to travel back and forth without proof of vaccination. But what started as something fostered by a clear minority - 90% of truckers were fully vaccinated and their associations did not support the action - escalated into blockades of others that shut down borders, affected food and industrial chains, and terrorized the downtown residents of the Ottawa and federal parliament in Canada’s capital city. Hundreds of protesters settled in a downtown encampment with blaring horns and maskless invasions of the major shopping centre and nearby market. They parked their big wheelers, blocking bus routes and ambulance lanes on city streets and shutting down all surrounding businesses. Others did the same thing on major international routes - in one case stopping a quarter of Canada/US daily commercial traffic. They want all pandemic restrictions lifted - and some also are openly want to overthrow the elected government. Freedom signs are everywhere. There aren’t any Responsibility signs.

As it happened, last evening I attended a seminar on Non Violent Communication. Its founder, Marshall Rosenberg, seemingly had good reason to explore the subject based on his own upbringing and it has some good features as a model for one-on-one communication. It suggests a path with four components: observing the facts of a situation where one is impacted, examining how one feels about it, how it impacts one’s needs and values, and how one might explore the experience with the person who was involved in it. We were asked to think of a situation where something had happened that we didn’t like - and work through the other steps. We then practised with a partner, listened to each other’s account, and reflected out loud what we had heard.

All of this appears on a chart to help us. Feelings are listed under broad headings; joy and contentment, fear and anxiety, anger and frustration, sadness and grief. Each heading has numerous subsets.

The other side of the chart has headings of needs and values; subsistence, protection, security and trust, participation, creation, affection, identity, meaning and purpose, leisure, freedom, understanding, transcendence. There are subsets here as well.

But what was most interesting was an additional box labelled Faux Feelings. These were interpretations masquerading as feelings: Abandoned, abused, attacked, betrayed, ignored, intimidated, invisible, let down, manipulated, neglected, put upon, rejected, rushed, unappreciated. The descriptor for these reads, “thoughts about what someone else is doing to me.”

The Faux Feelings are rampant on both Ottawa’s encampment and its citizens. I’ll avoid the mudslinging of some of the politicians that everything is someone else’s fault. “Individuals and governments are regulated by laws and not by arbitrary actions, No person or group is above the law.” says Our guide for Aspiring Citizens. It applies in fact to all of us now since when we came as settlers it didn’t occur to us that we could take land occupied for centuries by the people of our First Nations, but that is another matter. Generally most of us believe in peace, order and good government. We are having a good deal of difficulty in communicating with those who don’t share how we interpret it.

We’re now dealing with the first ever imposition of the Emergencies Act - after watching local police forces outnumbered and inactive. Ottawa’s police chief has resigned and is replaced by an integrated force. Following the money from outside the country can now be investigated and accounts can be frozen. But these measures, coming after days of turmoil, has made us a laughing stock and a poster child for protests worldwide. It’s a totally new experience - and about the only thing that was totally predictable is that a certain US news service like Fox and its main supporter, the has-been president would be all over it. Even two New York Times opinion columnist feature it now, as well as an entire feature section. Famous we are, but not in a good way.

Tom Edsall tells us why the former president loves the the truckers. They’re his kind of people. Rand Paul invited them to come to Texas to work - though he doesn’t seem to know that they can’t come in until they are vaccinated. Edsall goes on to talk about the positive and negative effects of social capital. Bowling alone can also be Bowling for Fascism and there is an interesting map showing the US with positive and negative impacts of each. Tribes can reinforce both good and evil. Paul Krugman wrote two days ago When Freedom means the right to Destroy. He calls it a slow motion January 6. I think he is correct in describing both our fears and the speed of our response. It’s not only that we have integrated economies but we have integrated responses to pandemics and other hard stuff. And it emerges in faux feelings on both sides of the border.

Krugman compares the cost of the border crossings to Black Lives Matter protest costs. “The B.L.M. demonstrations were a reaction to police killings of innocent people; what’s going on in Canada is, on its face, about rejecting public health measures intended to save lives. Of course, even that is mainly an excuse: What it’s really about is an attempt to exploit pandemic weariness to boost the usual culture-war agenda.”

We’re still Canadian. We haven’t tear gassed our demonstrators and their trucks yet even though a news panel political commentator noted yesterday “I’ve been tear gassed for much less.” It might be the time we are thinking more about how we take our democracy for granted than ever before. And we’re watching.