Post COP21 - What Next?

Post COP 21 – Now what?

For those of us who have been working hard on climate concerns everyone has an opinion on the outcome of COP21.  Personally, I am relieved that they did as well as they did.  I respect the challenge of having so many players all pressuring to have input and having to build consensus on how to move forward.  I congratulate the Canadian Government and Climate Activists on a wonderful job.  Of course, it is not perfect.  Perfection does not exist in such a process.  But as far as I can tell, it is the turning point I’ve been looking for.  Climate issues and policies are part of the daily discussion.   We have committed to leave some oil and gas and coal reserves in the ground.  The Canadian public is much more aware of the need for policy turnaround and that it will mean changes. 

The problem is, the vast majority of people around the world have no idea what that means.  In order to get this far we have had to simplify the message.  We focused attention on 100% renewable energy as something people could understand.  People have a vague awareness that we need a price on carbon.  They may know we expect green jobs but they probably don’t know what those look like.  Naomi Klein as popularized the notion that Capitalism isn’t working, and that we need some fundamental systemic changes, but what does that mean?  Now is the time that we need to help Canadians visualize concretely the kind of world we want to move to.

Our new federal government has made a good start by promising to bring the country’s top leaders to the table to negotiate new climate targets and to make a plan to move the economy forward toward a low-carbon future.  The process will be democratic.  They have also sent a signal that they will be looking for innovation and infrastructure development as major directions in the search for solutions. 

I agree with Naomi Klein that Capitalism has shown that it is fundamentally flawed when its fundamental motivator is greed and it operates in a social context where the moral standards of society have been eroded.   We need some fundamental changes in the philosophical ground of our society.  For me this would require that in addition to rights to make a profit companies would also require to have responsibilities toward their workers, toward the communities that sustain them, and toward the earth.  Some call this the triple bottom-line of people, planet and profit. 

There have to be some limits to pure selfishness and greed.  I am looking at companies that pull the rug out from under communities by moving key jobs to Asia.  I am looking at Monsanto that expects to control seeds after it has allowed its GMO seeds to contaminate organic crops.   I am looking at a pharmaceutical company that jacks up the prices of essential life-saving drugs by 700- 5000% just because they can.  Companies owe something to the communities that provide them with educated workers, virtually free clean water, and so on.  They must not be allowed to operate their businesses without planning for the costs of cleaning up their messes and then externalize those costs to the public purse. 

Secondly, I think that it is time that we have a serious review of what we now view as legal property rights.  We need to reconsider as a human society what we can own.  Can we own land, or do we use it and share it with others?  This is the message from our First Nations neighbours.  Can we own the building blocks of life?  DNA?  Or is it a sacred substance that belongs to God.  How long should innovation be subject to patent before ideas can be shared and made accessible to all?  If we are going to have the kind of innovation we need to solve our current problems I believe we need a very free exchange of ideas all around the world.  We need people to freely experiment and create the solutions that don’t exist yet. 

At the same time, eliminating the private sector is not an option.  It’s great strength is the freedom of people to implement their ideas and turn them into viable businesses.  Monolithic public sectors are too sluggish and subject to corruption to operate without a vital private sector.

I foresee an explosion of creativity, innovation, new businesses, and ideas in all sectors of the economy as we search for new ways of living in relation to each other and the earth.  We will be looking for the electric car, new methods of electricity storage, new methods of heating our homes and conserving energy so we need less.  We hope for much better public transit within cities and between cities.  Power generation will be revolutionized from huge centralized systems to localized, distributed systems that are suited to particular ecosystems and local circumstances.  We need to unleash our creative capacities symbolized for me by a Nigerian School Girl who learned how to make electricity out of her own urine for her science project.

I also hope that we will see much greater awareness and more conscious living amongst Canadians.  I’d like to see a return to making quality clothing that lasts more than one season, and planning for manufactured goods, electronics and computers that are expected to last ten years or longer before they need to be replaced.  Employment needs to be less focused on the production and distribution of stuff, and more focused on increasing knowledge, and on services to improve the quality of our lives that don’t take such a toll on the natural world.  Agriculture will need to have a serious review of its energy-intensive practices and more people will be working to either grow or gather food, both in rural areas and in the cities.  We have to really think about the pollution caused by our middle class fetish of flying all over the world to personally experience every ecosystem and culture. 

We can face the future with fear because we don’t know where the work is going to be or how we will be living, or we can vision the future we want and start creating it.  For me this is truly a great time of hope and opportunity.  Canadians can come alive and create a new relationship with the land, with our First Nations neighbours, and with each other.  Let us empower ourselves to rise to the challenge and build a civilization for our children and grandchildren that we can be truly proud of.

But that’s for the New Year.  For now we all deserve time to celebrate and take a rest.  Merry Christmas to all and all my best to you for a good year in 2016.

Prayers For Paris, COP21

9 am

Today I send my prayers to the universe.

First, I prepare myself by fasting.

I fast with my sisters and brothers in ClimateFast

And Fast For the Climate

All around the world.

We fast for the earth.

We fast for the children for the next seven generations.

We fast for the enlightenment of the consciousness of our species

That we may understand

That all the plants, animals, birds and fish

And all the crawlers and the pollinators

And everything that lives

Are our brothers and sisters, our relatives,

And that the destruction of their habitat

And the pollution of our earth, our water, our air

Is a crime

that must stop.

I focus my mind on the world I want to see.

A world with reverence for life as its core value.

A world where every form of life has rights

To share in the bounty of the earth,

And where every person,

And every corporation,

And every level of government

Has a responsibility

To care for the earth;

To care for the community that sustains it;

To care for its workers;

And to ensure that we live with one another

With justice and compassion

For those who are more vulnerable.

I send my prayers to the leaders of the world

Who are meeting in Paris.

I pray for my leaders from Canada,

The Prime Minister, The Premiers, the First Nations,

the Religious Leaders, and Civil Society

And for all the World Leaders.

May they be filled with a vision for sustainable living on this planet.

May they be inspired to find ways to move forward with that vision.

May they be free from personal ego and desires for power.

May they be grounded, and humble, and respectful.

May they attend to their own personal physical needs for well-being.

May they listen well to all the voices, all the needs, all the fears, all the hopes.

May they open themselves to the spirit of love and justice and transformation.

May they find a path to wholeness

For all the people and all life on the planet.

And I send my prayers to the people of Canada,

And to the people of the world.

May you inform yourselves of the importance of this time.

May you become more aware of how we are living in relation to the earth,

And how we want to be living.

May you feel the urgency and the need for action.

May you be prepared for change as we make this transition to renewable energy.

May you be ready to contribute your gifts, your energy, your creativity

To helping to make this change.

May you be ready to provide support to those who are most vulnerable

And who have the most to lose

Out of a spirit of justice and compassion.

Let us join together as one people

And move toward a vision of living on this planet

Based on Reverence For Life.

Let us pass a legacy of a healthy flourishing planet

To future generations.

So may it be.  All Our Relations

What is This Election About?

I've moved my blog to my website.  Please have patience while I try to learn to integrate these two blogs.

What Is This Election About?

Canada Going in the Wrong Direction

Today we learn that reports show that growth in the Tar Sands is negating all progress in reducing Canada’s contribution to greenhouse gases.  The report recommends we buy carbon credits abroad to offset our own pollution.  I can’t think of a stupider solution to this problem. 

Activists have been telling Prime Minister Harper for years that expanding the Tar Sands is a wrong-headed policy and today’s news proves it.  It is not possible to be a legitimate world citizen and expand production in the Tar Sands.  They are simply too dirty.  We have to leave the vast majority of Tar Sands oil in the ground.  In fact, we have to leave a great deal of conventional oil and gas in the ground – let alone unconventional sources that are even less efficient.  (See Canada’s carbon budget in extended data table 3.)

How can it possibly help Canadian economic development to buy carbon credits from other countries, in effect financing their conversion to renewable energy, while we stay stuck in this old, dirty technology.  How will Canada ever compete in the twenty-first century with a carbon-based energy system? 

The only way forward for Canada is to plan a quick transition to renewable energy.  All investment towards oil and gas exploration, tar sands expansion, and fracking should be redirected toward developing the technology and infrastructure to run our factories, heat our homes and run our cars on renewable energy. 

It’s time for Harper to start planning Canadian economic policy in the interest of Canadians in this and coming generations.  It is time for Canada to cooperate with world efforts to respond to the climate crisis, instead of lining the pockets of his buddies in the oil sector at everyone else’s expense.

A Moment of Encounter

A young man sat beside me on the bus.  We chatted about climate change.  I asked him if he cared about climate change, and when he avoided my eye, I followed with --" do you think we can do anything about it?"

His reply: "The baby boom generation don't care about us.  They'll never do anything about it."

Then, this evening I saw a very articulate young man speaking for the younger generation.  He spoke very caringly about the elders whom we all love, but he said the total benefits to be distributed are being loaded toward the elderly and the situation of young people is so hard and so discouraging.  They are feeling they have no chance for a good job and a chance to raise a family.  Longer years in school.  Bigger debts.  Poorer quality lower paying short term jobs instead of hopes of a career.  Incredibly expensive housing whether to rent or to own.

For those who are lucky enough to have a real job, the TFSA's and tax credits will help.  For those who don't make enough to pay taxes, there is nothing.  Just higher costs and precariously low  incomes.  Maybe we in the baby boom had better consider how much we are asking for ourselves and think about how we are supporting the next generation to succeed.  Perhaps we should look at Free University Education to the Bachelor's Degree.  Maybe we should start building the renewable energy future so that they will have a sustainable economy in good relations with the earth and jobs that support a family.

Maybe there should be serious consultation with young people to see what they perceive would be the most helpful to them instead of prescribing solutions ourselves.

This is a time when we really have to step up, and deal with the misguided perceptions of reality in this society.  We have to look reality directly in the eye and face up to our responsibilities.  We cannot let this conversation devolve into who got the most and who got screwed.  We have a lot of changes to make and we won't get there if we don't work together.  Don't let "THE MAN" divide us into young and old, weak and strong, different ethnicities or interest groups.  The political alignments -- Liberal, NDP, Conservative, Wild Rose, Bloc, Green, Tea Party -- even these must not be allowed to divide us.  All of us are needed in the new world.  All of our creativity.  All of our knowledge.  All of our skills.  All of our vulnerabilities.

I fasted on Parliament Hill on Earth Day for ClimateFast.  We were HUNGRY FOR CLIMATE LEADERSHIP AND JUSTICE.

Doreen Stevens, an amazing Algonquin singer and artist sung to the energies of the universe and brought them into our circle.  Here she is presenting ClimateFast with a beautiful butterfly mosaic.  The butterfly is one of the sacred symbols of transformation -- in almost all traditions.  We are amazed at the ability of nature to create these on-going life-long transforming organisms.  They are symbols of our own potential transformation.  Doreen has done our Annual Fast and Vigil great honour in giving us this mosaic.  All the members of ClimateFast express their deepest gratitude to her for this honour.

We do this work, fasting on parliament hill, holding events, and speaking with Senators and MP's because we want our leaders to know that we don't want to be the generation that sucked their children dry.  We want them to succeed and flourish.  But we also want them to work with us to adjust our ways of doing things, especially in relation to First Nations, the vulnerable people, and the environment.  We must live sustainably and share the wealth.  Our young must have what they need to thrive.  And our elders must have dignity and security and compassion as they learn to let go of this one precious life time each of us has.  To find out more about this, check out ClimateFast

End Subsidies on Fossil Fuels

In 2009 Canada promised the world at the G20 that it would phase out subsidies to fossil fuels.  Over five years later we have not finished the job.  To give the Harper Government some credit, before 2009 they did announce plans to eliminate 4 major subsidies worth about $879 (according to a July 10, 2014 Pembina Report.).   Clear Federal subsidies such as ACIT (Atlantic Canada Investment Tax Credit) and ACCA (Accelerated Capital Cost Allowance) are in the process of being phased out.  But there are still about  $1.4 Billion in provincial subsidies to that sector and as defined by the World Trade Organization,

the Federal Government is still heavily subsidizing exploration and development.  The CEE (Canadian Exploration Expense), and the CDE (Canadian Development Expense) are an attempt to support the very expensive and high risk efforts of companies to explore for new reserves (for example in the Arctic). Pembina reports the value of CEE and CDE subsidies at about $711 million in 2008 based on a report by  Enviroeconomics Inc.  

This does not take into account the subsidy we are giving them by refusing to implement an aggressive, fair, equitable, and effective price on carbon that would bring the government or—with a fee and dividend approach, the people of Canada—up to another $34 billion a year.   Such a price might start as low as $10-30 per tonne and be increased over time.  ($34 billion would represent $212 per tonne and would certainly encourage people to find alternatives to fossil fuels.)

If we are going to subsidize the oil companies, we should be subsidizing them to aggressively clean up the tailings ponds in the oil sands and generally clean up their mess after themselves.  Our current fossil fuel energy strategy seems to be to try to get as much as possible out of the ground before they become stranded assets.  Some say the recent fall in oil prices is a cyclical thing.  These things just happen and oil will go up again.  I am not an economist, but as an ordinary citizen who reads and watches closely, I would like to offer a different theory.

In the energy sector there are many changes going on.  There are so many factors in play, all in change, that no one has any idea how this scenario will play out.  There is a very large and successful divestment movement led by 350.org that is having an impact on larger investors.  Recently professors at both UBC and McGill voted to have their Universities divest from fossil fuels.  More and more people are getting off oil and gas and getting on to renewable energy all around the world.  We understand we have to aggressively reduce our use of oil and gas and coal.  Will demand continue to grow?  Or is it slowing and will it start to go down?  If oil producers such as Saudi Arabia, the US fracking industry, and Alberta Oil sands as well as Russia and China all insist on increasing production the price will stay down.  If  committed energy users stay focused on reducing consumption even though oil is cheap because of the pollution current inventories will stay high and prices cheap.  The big question is -- when will EVERYONE, companies included, realize that these energy assets have become stranded assets that must be left in the ground?  

Wouldn’t it be good if our economic system supported real leadership from our oil and gas sectors to recognize the truth of what is going on around them and to stop this last grasping for the old gravy train from this industry.  As happened with the apartheid boycotts, our energy sector needs relief from the requirement to maximize profits.  The world community needs them to stop throwing good money after bad.  We must have a moratorium on drilling in the Arctic signed on to by every nation bordering the Arctic Ocean.  We don’t need any new pipelines to continue to supply our current clients in the oil and gas sector.  And we need them to clean up their mess – and not dump it off on the taxpayer to do for them after they collect on $711 million of tax deferrals, which they will not have to pay because they were unable to bring their assets to er to the market for sale.

Service stations in this country need to transform to servicing and recharging electric vehicles, and Canada needs to develop a leading edge electric auto sector.  We need tremendous research and development into state of the art storage systems for electrical energy, and computer support networks for a complex, interactive, electric grid.  

If the energy sector wants to make money by exporting energy, let them get serious about investing in our technologies and capacities in renewable energy.  We have the renewable energy capacity if we want to develop it.  As a society we need to produce and bring down the cost of geothermal technology to the point where every home can be heated using a heat pump and a solar collector – or some other equally low energy approach.  People and communities don’t have to wait for big energy to take the lead.  All over Canada people are forming energy co-ops like Solar Share in Toronto, or Ottawa Renewable Energy Co-op in Ottawa to build the energy infrastructure of the future.

And our political leaders must begin to plan for the changes that will be required in our cities in order to accommodate this rapid change.  Our lifestyles will change and our cities have to develop in such a way as to accommodate those changes.  All three levels of government will be needed to help the Canadian population change their whole system of heating homes.  We still need much more aggressive conservation and retrofit programs and they must be available to public housing as well as to the private homeowner.  We need to build food stores into every neighbourhood and not assume everyone will have a car.  We’ll be walking and biking more.  The Ecology Ottawa “complete street” program is a prototype for all cities.  And we will need a lot more public transit.

Ontario is to be congratulated for its clear, aggressive, and urgent strategy to bring Ontario into the twenty-first century based on low use of fossil fuels.  They are showing great leadership.  I hope the other provinces will come to the table with equally great strategies and that we can all learn to work together to build a strong Canadian economy in a low fossil-fuel world.  The time to build the Canada we want is now.