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Happy Earth Day!
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Truth!
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Seen around town: Three of the signs posted on BC Premier Christy Clark’s constituency office earlier this spring by about 200 university and high school students rallying to oppose the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline. The pipeline is intended to transport bitumen (i.e. heavy oil) west from Alberta’s tar sands through British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest to the province’s ecologically rich coast before being shipped to Asian markets.
The pipeline is currently going through a federally mandated joint review panel process, but there is an incredibly diverse movement growing here in BC to stop the pipeline and speed the transition to a climate resilient, clean energy economy. Here are two recent examples: Yesterday, green groups sued the federal government to protect four endangered species living along the proposed pipeline and shipping route. Today, the province’s local governments passed a resolution opposing oil tanker expansion on the BC coast. Interesting times in BC, Canada, and on this planet we call Earth.
Related:
- ‘Pipeline to prosperity or channel to catastrophe?’ (Globe & Mail)
- ‘Great Bear Rainforest: Pipeline through paradise’ (National Geographic)
- Dr. David Schindler: ‘The Canadian oil sands: economic saviour or environmental disaster?’ (key points) (YouTube)
- ‘First Nations warn of civil disobedience if Northern Gateway pipeline goes ahead’ (Times-Colonist)
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NotesTools for Change: ‘The Story of Change’ (Video)
Can shopping save the world? The Story of Change urges viewers to put down their credit cards and start exercising their citizen muscles to build a more sustainable, just and fulfilling world.
More here.
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Notes Canadian scientists: 'Take direct action on climate inaction' (Nature)From Nature (subscription req’d):
We are scientists recently arrested in Canada for blockading a 125-car train carrying coal destined to release 26,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. We joined 11 other Canadians in this act, despite the personal risks and potential negative impact on our careers.
Time is running short and our dialogues on climate change with Canada’s conservative government have been futile, which is why we undertook this extreme action. We were following the example of NASA climatologist James Hansen, who has been arrested three times in the past three years for civil disobedience in protesting against the mining of coal or development of the Canadian oil sands.
If the rate of carbon emissions does not decrease soon, the 2 °C threshold for serious consequences of climate change could be broken this century (M. New et al. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 369, 6–19; 2011). Yet many nations, including Canada and the United States, remain more concerned with building infrastructure to extract and transport fossil fuels than with seeking alternative energy solutions.
Civil disobedience has a long-standing tradition of inducing social change when those in power fail to act. Governments are neglecting their responsibility to future generations. Because science is built on professionalism and objective evidence, media coverage of our arrests will ensure that they, and the voting public, receive a forceful message.
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Notes"Leading scientific groups and most climate scientists say we need to decrease global annual greenhouse gas emissions by at least half of current levels by 2050 and much further by the end of the century. And that will still mean rising temperatures and sea levels for generations.
So why bother recycling or riding your bike to the store? Because we all want to do something, anything. Call it “action bias.” But, sadly, individual action does not work. It distracts us from the need for collective action, and it doesn’t add up to enough. Self-interest, not self-sacrifice, is what induces noticeable change. Only the right economic policies will enable us as individuals to be guided by self-interest and still do the right thing for the planet.
Every ton of carbon dioxide pollution causes around $20 of damage to economies, ecosystems and human health. That sum times 20 implies $400 worth of damage per American per year. That’s not damage you’re going to do in the distant future; that’s damage each of us is doing right now. Who pays for it?
We pay as a society. My cross-country flight adds fractions of a penny to everyone else’s cost. That knowledge leads some of us to voluntarily chip in a few bucks to “offset” our emissions. But none of these payments motivate anyone to fly less. It doesn’t lead airlines to switch to more fuel-efficient planes or routes. If anything, airlines by now use voluntary offsets as a marketing ploy to make green-conscious passengers feel better. The result is planetary socialism at its worst: we all pay the price because individuals don’t.
It won’t change until a regulatory system compels us to pay our fair share to limit pollution accordingly. Limit, of course, is code for “cap and trade,” the system that helped phase out lead in gasoline in the 1980s, slashed acid rain pollution in the 1990s and is now bringing entire fisheries back from the brink. “Cap and trade” for carbon is beginning to decrease carbon pollution in Europe, and similar models are slated to do the same from California to China.
Alas, this approach has been declared dead in Washington, ironically by self-styled free-marketers. Another solution, a carbon tax, is also off the table because, well, it’s a tax.
Never mind that markets are truly free only when everyone pays the full price for his or her actions. Anything else is socialism. The reality is that we cannot overcome the global threats posed by greenhouse gases without speaking the ultimate inconvenient truth: getting people excited about making individual environmental sacrifices is doomed to fail.
High school science tells us that global warming is real. And economics teaches us that humanity must have the right incentives if it is to stop this terrible trend.
Don’t stop recycling. Don’t stop buying local. But add mastering some basic economics to your to-do list. Our future will be largely determined by our ability to admit the need to end planetary socialism. That’s the most fundamental of economics lessons and one any serious environmentalist ought to heed.
"A long, but important quote from an opinion piece by environmental economist Gernot Wagner in the New York Times, ‘Going Green But Getting Nowhere’.
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Infographic | Climate Change and Fossil Fuels: What Do You Think is More Likely?
(Source: I Heart Climate Scientists)
* I’ve got one quibble with the infographic. It’s actually 97% of climate scientists, not 90%, that agree that human activity (i.e. burning fossil fuels, deforestation) is driving global climate change.
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NotesBill McKibben: ‘Notes on the Climate Fight’
From The Terry Global Speaker Series @ UBC:
Though many have come to accept the scientific consensus around climate change, political realities still stifle the hope of real climate action. To help address this political impasse, Bill McKibben will share his invaluable experience mobilizing global grassroots activism. He will share stories from the front lines of the climate fight – from every corner of planet, including our own backyard. Of particular interest to Canadian university students, he will address the Keystone XL pipeline and Alberta Tar Sands development. Some stories are hopeful, some are not, but one thing is certain: we finally have a movement, and Bill would like you to be a part of it.
You can read about his UBC talk and visit to Vancouver here.
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I’ve added some bold-facing to the post below for emphasis in addition to a couple of quotes that get at why we all need to speak up about building a future in which we can thrive:
“The problem is that the policy makers the world over are paying more attention to the fossil fuel lobbyists than they are to the well being of young people and nature, as my colleagues and I have described in the paper “The Case for Young People and Nature”.
Until the public demands otherwise, the policy makers will continue to serve their financiers.”
~ NASA climate scientist James Hansen
“… climate-related legislation is one of those things which will create a large mass of winners with relatively little present-day political clout (us, our children, and our children’s children), alongside a small number of losers with extremely deep pockets and extensive lobbying arms.”
~ Reuters blogger Felix Salmon in his article, ‘The Depressing Politics of Climate Change’.
Tomorrow is Moving Planet. If you care a lick about preserving a climate that allows for a healthy, safe, peaceful, and prosperous future, you should get involved. With thousands of events in 171 countries around the world, the chances are there’s something going on near you. Here’s blog editor Ben Jervey’s take on why mass climate action is still absolutely necessary and more important now than ever.
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Plant a Garden: Reason #9
Help someone out -
- Plant a row for the needy
- Drop off extra produce at the food bank
- Share food...
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Third Year of Drought Threatens Southwestern Oklahoma! Meanwhile … O.K. Sen. Inhofe still says global warming’s a hoax @ State Impact
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Young Monk! by Mardy Photography
Siem Reap, Cambodia
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As our numbers increase, so space for other animals and plants decreases. Our skills and technological ingenuity seem to know no bounds. Having...
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The New York rapper’s political and layered rhymes have been pegged as “conscious rap,” a label that has now become pejorative. His latest album...
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Mather Work Incentive Poster
1929
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Energy harvesting pavement powers its own streetlights.
London-based startup Pavegen has developed tiling that can harvest...
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New York City’s Sea Level Rise Task Force...
