I’m an avid reader of everything I can get my hands on about climate change; the threat that it poses, the causes and effects, what can be done about it, and what we are (or are not) doing. As such, I consider myself reasonably able to hold up my end of a conversation about it.
Our media loves controversy since this is what sells papers, so we continue to read a great deal of controversy about climate change. But let me be blunt and say this: There is no controversy about whether climate change is real and whether it poses a threat. Simply put, it is, and it does.
Lately though, what has been intriguing me about the Climate Change discussion is the prevailing attitude, mostly among our politicians and encouraged by the media, but also in the population at large, that we have a choice.
We need to make a clear distinction here. While we may have choice about how to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, we have no choice about whether we must do so.
We have no choice since the penalty for failure is large beyond comprehension.
Al Gore (the ex next president of the United States) has a new movie coming to theatres near you that talks about just that, called “An Inconvenient Truth.” I’m looking forward to seeing it and encourage as many people as possible to see it as well.
The latest discussions playing out in Canadian media are centered around Environment Minister Rona Ambrose’ statements that Canada’s Kyoto targets cannot be met and that the Harper government proposes an as-yet-unseen “Made in Canada” plan. (This implies that the previous plan was made elsewhere.) Some journalists want Canada to remain in Kyoto while others applaud Ms. Abrose for her honesty, the argument being that the Kyoto targets were never achievable and that the Liberals were just lying about it. Well, I guess I’ll agree with the second half of that statement.
The problem in my mind is twofold.
- First, many people view Kyoto as THE answer, as if it is a minor annoying thing we have to do on our road to progress and once we do it we can put the whole issue back on the shelf and get on with life. The thing is, it was never THE answer. It was merely the first step. And if we can’t make the first step, how can we possibly make the journey?
- Second, many people want to make both the first step and the entire journey without any change to our lifestyles, without any inconvenience, without any sacrifice. If it requires sacrifice, they say, then the targets can’t be met!
We need to recognize Kyoto for what it is. It’s not a number. It’s not a target to be met and forgotten. It’s a target to help guide us in the right direction so that we never go back to the direction we’ve been travelling.
We need to recognize that underlying our addiction to oil, urban sprawl, poverty, and climate change, is our current choice of lifestyle, and Kyoto should be viewed as a tool in changing that lifestyle for something better.
Once we acheive this attitude shift, Kyoto is easy.
