Archive for June, 2024

 “We need courage, not hope, to face climate change. But the scale of climate change engulfs even the most fortunate. Courage is the resolve to do well without the assurance of a happy ending.” 

Kate Marvel, climate scientist 

Our determination to set in motion a community-based ecological transformation can be discovered in a plethora of ways. The arts, farming, meditation, a liberal arts education, scientific avenues, religious practices and political conversations are all possible entry points to discussions that include Nature as our focal point.

On June 13 I attended a two-hour gathering in Sherbrooke’s Baobab Café community space facilitated by Observatoire estrien du développement des communautés [OEDC](Eastern Townships Signpost for Community Development), a nonprofit organization that has been engaged with our population since 2006. [https://oedc.qc.ca] 

The first of a series of workshops, the gathering brought together people of all ages to better understand the direction our community is striving for. Through a series of fifteen multiple-choice questions, each with three or four possible responses, we were asked what we collectively need to drive the values of our societies. Do we remain in an technocratic, capitalist, anthropocentric sphere, or do we transition towards a more democratic, social justice focused, ecocentric community? OEDC wishes to help its members, both individuals and organizations, to ferry themselves along that transition.

After two hours it was very clear that the Township citizens wanted to initiate actions that were firmly tethered to an ecocentric transition. We need to examine our role in this dangerous age of advancing climate breakdown and biodiversity loss and accelerating pollution. At the end of the workshop we discussed briefly local questions such as “Are we aware of the ecological issues in Sherbrooke?” Although I found some of the questions and particularly the answer options to be too vague, limited and overlapping, this was the first community meeting and I would expect future conversations to delve more deeply into collective actions that urgently need to be taken if, as they suggest, a “better way of life” is to be achieved. Although we wore name stickers, there was not enough time to get to know the other people present, or to discuss the questions in depth: that will come in future workshops. But what was abundantly clear was that OEDC got 35 strangers together and wish to help foster collective action. 

Tragically, it is also clear that Nature activists around the world are being relegated to the sidelines in the quest by governments, corporations, institutions and individuals to grab more extractive resources to the extreme detriment of Nature and non-western societies. By pushing at a feverish pace, corporations sing the praises of consumerism, but by in doing so they are sending democracy into a downward spiral that will undeniably place many of the promising achievements to protect Nature in utter jeopardy. This is not a harbinger of prosperity, but a death wish. Trump, Putin and company have made no secret of the fact that they wish to dismantle decades of protection. 

Even in the European Union, the 2024 parliamentary election could see the rescinding of the positive green biodiversity legislation of 2019, which would be lamented as a sought-after but failed attempt to enshrine eco-centric policy firmly in EU law. Those Earth-focused laws were at last to permeate all future activities and result in a long-held commitment to end, and thus heal, humans’ war against Nature that is best epitomized by our relentless use of fossil energies. 

In the UK, outgoing Green Party MP Caroline Lucas has long been a staunch advocate for Nature, but she warns us that we now risk shoring up the status quo by not challenging more vigorously the anthropomorphic economic and political rulebooks of most governments and corporations. This is not the time to give into malevolent populists.

We don’t want to see the heady rise of youth participation and protest fizzle out. The days of half a million climate protesters in Montréal need to transform into an increasingly invigorated activist-driven Earth agenda that can take the form, for example, of individuals coming together to refuse to pay for services that contravene health and ecologically safe practices, as demonstrated in unsafe water and sewerage policies. [https://tinyurl.com/water-actions]

A massive wave of invigorated Earth-saving climate activism is called for. Youth Climate Lab  [https://www.youthclimatelab.org]  brings the world’s young activists together to stitch a powerful network of effervescent unstoppable voices into an eco-centric movement.  “We enable young people to become leaders in the climate space by empowering them with skills, financial access and policy knowledge through the creation of tools and programs.”

Indigenous education centres reconnect and reaffirm humanity’s place in Nature. The Ulnooweg Education Centre in Nova Scotia is “Inspiring Indigenous communities through a holistic educational approach through initiatives in science & innovation, agriculture, and health while revitalizing Indigenous culture and language for the benefit of all youth and communities.” [https://ulnoowegeducation.ca] 

In the political domain, will climate scientist Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo’s success in the  Mexican presidential election translate into climate progress? Mexico can and should transition away from its dependence on fossil fuels.

Meanwhile, Extinction Rebellion’s world agenda keeps it in the news by celebrating non-violent protest. [https://tinyurl.com/climate-worldwide-actions]

An article in The New York Times brings home the contradictory values that underpin many of the elite universities’ overwhelmingly progressive student perspectives. “Introspection is required when we speak of progressives. Symbolic progressive actions are many times a smokescreen to do nothing… Land acknowledgments—when people open public events by naming the Indigenous peoples who had their land stolen from them—are the quintessential progressive gesture… The lesson for those of us in the educated class is to seriously reform the system we have created or be prepared to be run over.”https://tinyurl.com/Educated-elites

Can our Earth actions be rooted in/derived from our subconscious? “First and foremost we have to challenge our own memory, our own forgetfulness, our ancestral memories…” [https://tinyurl.com/nightingales-song]

Whether we once more go out into the night to listen to the nightingales, or to the birds of North America, our actions will be shaped by our depth of connection to Nature.

“The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it emotionally.”

Flannery O’Connor

“It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents men from living freely and nobly.”

Bertrand Russell 

Last Saturday in Paris a woman placed a blood-red poster over “Les Coquelicots” (“Poppies”) by the French impressionist painter Claude Monet, saying: “This nightmarish image awaits us if no alternative is put in place.” The nightmare is runaway climate heating and biodiversity loss. The painting, depicting Nature’s beauty, is not the first to have been defaced. Young activists point to Earth treasures that will be lost. Of course these actions are meant to shock. If the portrayal of Nature is so revered, why do we allow Nature, which inspired the painting, to be desecrated? People need to accept that having less, especially in the global north, but also demanding less, will rejuvenate Earth. 

I approached Teresa Bassaletti, director of Sherbrooke’s centre for women immigrants, a few weeks ago to ask her whether immigrants, including refugees the centre supports, feel traumatized when they hear the sound of fireworks. Her answer was swift: the fireworks sound like bombs going off and the women she knows want those massive explosions, which happen frequently in summer, to end. Furthermore, there are readily available alternatives that don’t recreate the sounds of war. As a result of our conversation, Teresa and I, accompanied by seven women from the centre, went to speak to Sherbrooke city council at their public meeting on May 21. Teresa told the council that the fireworks affect the women’s lives by bringing back nightmarish memories. Many refugees suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Although chair of the meeting councillor Raïs Kibonge and mayor Évelyne Beaudin welcomed the testimony and empathized with the refugees, it isn’t clear whether the council will support a ban on fireworks when they sign a new contract with La Fête du Lac des Nations in the coming months. Will the pro-fireworks lobby be too much to withstand? A strategy is now coming to fruition for the Sherbrooke council to be in no doubt as to how immigrants and other Sherbrooke citizens are affected by those war-like sounds.

Two weeks ago I mentioned in an article that smoking ads are widely prohibited and that climate offensive products should be too, including advertising for pick-up trucks and other large vehicles. One major city council in Scotland has done just that. You won’t see any advertising for fossil-fuel-powered cars, or indeed for cruise ships or airlines, on city buses or land owned by the city of Edinburgh, because the council believes that the high carbon emissions associated with such activities are incompatible with net zero ambitions.

https://tinyurl.com/Edinburgh-bans-ads

Scotland’s capital is not the only city in the UK to ban advertisements that promote irresponsible fossil fuel use. Advertisements that show cars driving up roadless pristine mountains or forging rivers are no longer to be tolerated. Toyota’s ad campaign “Born to Roam” (all over every corner of the planet) has been banned by the UK’s regulatory Advertising Standards Authority.

https://tinyurl.com/SUV-off-roads

“SUVs are being sold on a false promise of rugged adventure exploiting imagery of the natural world,” said Adfree Cities’ co-director Veronica Wignall. “In reality, SUVs are harming Nature, polluting our air, clogging up our cities and causing tragic loss of life.”

Being climate/biodiversity literate informs us that we need to put into action what we have learnt from science and must go on to divest from many of our global north entitlements. It is not only universities, pension funds and banks that are finally being forced to take notice. Yet many of us wish to rationalize and bargain our way out of any perceived inconveniences. Recently someone told me that because they didn’t have any children they felt comfortable with flying whenever they wished, because having children is one of the major sources of more intensive consumerism and a higher carbon footprint. Comparing apples with oranges? As most of us are aware, children’s lives aren’t solely measured by their carbon footprint, and climate literate parents can inspire their children to have a very prudent consumer mindfulness throughout their lives.

Although it’s true that one of the most efficient ways to lower an individual’s carbon footprint is to have fewer children (notably in the global north), this “educated” person thought it was their right to pollute on an equal carbon level to that of a parent. Of course an Indian child’s carbon budget wouldn’t even get you to the airport. Take a private plane? Sure, they said, even though a private plane pollutes ten times as much per passenger as a commercial one does.

By hook or by crook that person demands their “credits” to add to planetary pollution. It sounds like an insane climate game to keep up with the Joneses—and the endgame is guaranteed climate destruction. That person reminded me of a pouting infant demanding her pound of goodies after seeing the baby next door devouring a corresponding mound of junk. This perverse “argument” promoting essentially rampant individualism is a legacy of capitalism gone wild. If all of us only respond to realizing our own wishes, shielded from consequences, oblivious to others, and refuse to be climate literate and protect the Earth for future generations, all is definitely lost. The 10% of the world’s population that is steadily ransacking the health of the other 90% needs to back off. Being climate/biodiversity criminals is not what humans should aspire to. 

Conversations that centre on degrowth actions by individuals, communities, corporations and governments need to be accelerated. Inspired by John Lewis Gaddis’s On Grand Strategy, the means and ends to fulfill desire or indeed achieve anything not only need to reflect the capacity to do so, but also should be tethered and tempered by a global ethic that mirrors the beauty and fragility of this world. 

Knowingly pursuing a course of action that increases carbon emissions should be a global criminal offence. While Biden is refusing to allow more natural gas export terminals in the United States, Greece, which produces 70% of its electricity from renewables, has emerged as a exporter of natural gas to Central Europe and beyond—but the gas is being imported first from the US! As Canadians know all too well, we have taken part in that extravaganza of gas exporting, which has a terrible climate and biodiversity cost.

Despite the world gas industry branding their production as a “transition fossil fuel” leading to a renewable energy commitment, their actions prove that this is not their intention. The rush to cash in on gas exports after the Ukraine war began has created on a global scale a huge hindrance to moving briskly towards renewable energies, even though solar and wind power are cheaper than the production of methane gas. (“Natural gas” is a slick way of saying it must be good if the gas is “natural,” even though methane is in the near term a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.)

Demanding that the natural world be subjugated so that those super-consumers can have it all must be stopped. Climate/biodiversity literacy starts at home. Ask yourself if you truly need those outdoor lights on all night. Scientists tell us that natural nighttime darkness is essential for insects and other animals to thrive. If we are to help the myriad forms of life to heal, can we not also be quieter? Noise is a major contributor to wildlife stress, including by not giving animals a quiet space from dusk to daylight. Fireworks are a real problem for wildlife, and allowing the use of seismic reflection for ocean oil exploration interferes severely with the ability of many marine species to function. 

World Environment Day took place on June 5, focusing this year on land restoration, desertification and drought resilience. Saudi Arabia is the “host” country for the discussions, even though it is in no small part responsible for worldwide habitat loss, desertification and drought. How could the UN allow one of the world’s largest oil producers to be the poster child for the UN’s oldest Nature education day? Nothing can change until we recalibrate, recreate and recall our seamless integration within Nature.

“In proportion as [a person] simplifies [their] life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness.”

Henry David Thoreau