The situation I found myself in yesterday morning has not happened much recently. I have been out of the office for the past week enjoying the last of summer break with my family. As a result I put the “pen” down. So, I got home from my morning walk, opened my laptop, and quickly noticed there was no post scheduled for tomorrow (today).
Hmmmmm. I did not stress much about it because my friend Derek sent me a link to an open letter to Greta Thunberg from an organization called 10-in-10. I decided it would be good to share it and get some feedback. The letter outlines the incredible challenge that we face acting on the overwhelming accumulation of scientific evidence that we need to begin rapid decarbonization and reduce greenhouse gas emissions!
I encourage you to read the letter and return here and share your response in the comment section below. First let me start… Once again we are moving in the right direction in British Columbia. The BC Green Caucus will continue to drive climate action and true accountability initiatives with our BC NDP colleagues. However, with the slow pace of action globally we should embrace the notion that government’s are not likely to move quickly or deeply enough. We need people power!
Click here to read the letter.
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Be sure to come back and share your thoughts!
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Thank you!
Wow! This is good, some solutions that are needed now.
I believe countries which have the highest Carbon emissions need to by law decrease them as soon as possible and limits need to be agreed upon. The carbon emission target decreases need to be met and if the data of their sequestering shows that the country is not doing enough, they need to be held accountable by being fined. Then the world climate organizations would on their behalf be hired to jump to action hiring people in the countries and places with the most potential to heal the atmosphere and sequester the most carbon using workers who would – stop deforestation of large ancient trees, plant trees, reclaim swamps, shorelines and wetlands, re-wild large tracks of lands and forests for biological diversity, implement wind farms, geothermal, tidal, small scale hydroelectricity and solar power. Perhaps even limit air travel like Greta has done for example. We need to understand what the largest impact would be and implement these fixes immediately. There are innumerable things we can do and the scientist know which are the most effective. We need to apply the most effective strategies now! Believe and implement the scientists work!
Hi Adam……in your prologue you say “once again, we are moving in the right direction in BC”, then go on to say “with the slow pace of action globally, we should embrace the notion that governments are not going to move fast enough”. What?!? I’m not sure how BC is moving in the right direction…….we just gave the green light an then incredulously, subsidized a 40 billion dollar long term fossil fuel project in the north. We’re damming yet another part of a river to the tune of billions of dollars, destroying more habitat, we are cutting down old growth (as well as second growth) as fast as possible, and exporting the hell out of the raw logs, the salmon seem to be going down the tubes. What I do not see are renewable energy projects. To me, BC represents EXACTLY what this article starts out talking about……tweaking things around the edges and acting like that will get us where we need to go isn’t enough…..BC just talks, no need for real change, just tweak and fiddle, and talk about how great we’re doing. I know that you personally, and Andrew Weaver, etc. are trying to do your best, and I am incredibly grateful for that, but please tell me how BC is “moving in the right direction”. BC is moving in the wrong direction.
I agree that from here in Ontario, looking from afar, as it were, that BC NDP is doing a terrible job of destroying the province, and as a Green, it is frustrating that your caucus has not been able to stop the LNG, the Site C, the net pen fish farms, the logging of old growth. These are so critical that they affect the environment and contribute to the climate breakdown. I have not seen (at least in reports I have managed to read and see), that the caucus has not demanded that the government stop the intense carbonization of the globe and switch the subsidies to the LNG to renewable electricity production. The potential for geothermal and tidal electricity creation would be real job-producers and using technology already invented. WE DO NOT HAVE TIME as the author of this article suggested by forming teams of Green Helmets!
Thank you Adam for sharing that. It is the sort of challenge that we collectively cannot ignore.
I have registered as a friend of the green helmets and stand ready to pitch in with action.
Cheers, JohnG
“For a strategy to be credible it must meet three criteria.
It must be practical, that is, we can see ourselves doing it without a requirement for some yet undiscovered technology. It must be rigorous, that is the numbers must add up to a solution that averts dangerous climate change. Finally, it must be affordable, that is, we should be able to raise the capital required to implement the scenario.”
To me this is flawed thinking. It was never practical for airplanes to fly or to put men on the moon. If we start of by debating what is practical and what is affordable there will be no action.
There are several sources, notably The Disaffected Liberal (the-mound-of-sound.blogspot.com) who’ve been commenting cogently on the current state of challenge even as we have frittered away precious time. Many have tried, through small personal gestures, to do what is possible to change course, but it has been woefully inadequate, and yesterday getting the joy of JT and JH trotting out their “Green Credentials” by promising to electrify the death star LNG industry is a surefire antidote to any positive feelings about the prospects of formal leadership shepherding us out of the present state of genocidal consumption and destruction of our own living space, along with all living things. How does this strike you, as a climate leader in a governing body that is still playing politics? Do you feel more constrained because of the need to fulfill a mandate that doesn’t include what’s really needed? Many of fear the consequences of a possible resurrection of the Wilkinson/Scheer brand, and largely because of the Green presence, we’re likely better off than we might otherwise have been, but it’s almost certainly too little and too late. This is not a poke at you or your party. It’s just head-scratching as I watch the level of complacency remain high even in knowledge that disaster is right around the corner. Thanks for the link, and for the blog in general.