Poli-ticking: The Clock is Tocking
Dec 25, 2013
Poli-ticking: The Clock is Tocking
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A Letter to Trusted Politicians for the Eyes of Community Activists:
Today I received a very disturbing but, sadly, scientifically factual letter from Avaaz.org--a very credible organization actively dealing with the effects of climate change.
N.B. [Please be aware of the phenomenon of "cognitive dissonance" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance) while reading my communique to you, as you probably believe this information is true but consciously resist working through the frustration of the dissonance it evokes because you feel helpless to act. Have courage. You are not alone. We are all in this together.]
Their spokesperson wrote the following:
"Scientist Julienne Stroeve has studied Arctic ice for decades. Every summer she travels north to measure how much ice has melted. She knows that climate change is melting the ice fast, but a recent trip surprised even her. Vast areas of Arctic ice have disappeared, beyond our worst expectations.
This is what the experts warned us about. As the earth warms, it creates many "tipping points" that accelerate the warming out of control. Warming thaws the Arctic sea ice, destroying the giant white 'mirror' that reflects heat back into space, which massively heats up the ocean, and melts more ice, and so on. We spin out of control. In 2013 everything -- storms, temperatures -- was off the charts.
We CAN stop this, if we act very fast, and all together. And out of this extinction nightmare, we can pull one of the most inspiring futures for our children and grandchildren. A clean, green future in balance with the earth that gave birth to us.
We have 24 months until the Paris Summit, the meeting that world leaders have decided will determine the fate of our efforts to fight climate change. It might seem like a long time - it's not. We have 24 months to get the right leaders in power, get them to that meeting, give them a plan, and hold them accountable."
But what I'm really asking of you in this letter is to support and promote, in the chambers where you represent us, the simplest, most effective program to a ffect a reduction in carbon emisions: a revenue-neutral "Carbon Fee and Dividend" which, as Julia Lansing oof Citizens Climate Lobby Ottawa wrote in an Op Ed for the Ottawa Citizen:
"Carbon fee and dividend is attractive because it offers a fresh approach that 'anti-tax citizens;' conservatives and progressives can all agree with. It will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, diversify the economy, and protect low-income citizens without expanding government."
Again, as the Avaaz.org spokesperson wrote:
"Fatalism on climate change is not just futile, it's also incompetent. The hour is late, but it is still absolutely within our power to stop this catastrophe, simply by shifting our economies from oil and coal to other sources of power. And doing so will bring the world together like never before, in a deep commitment and cooperation to protect our planetary home. It's a beautiful possibility, and the kind of future Avaaz was born to create."
Avaaz.org offers a five point plan which they state will "take heart, and hope, and also all the smarts we have." (to which I've affixed my own comments regarding Canada specifically and the organization I work with--Citizens' CLimate Lobby Halifax--in italics.). They write:
"1. Go Political: Elect Climate Leaders -- three crucial countries have elections in the next year. Let's make sure the right people win, and with the right mandate. Avaaz is one of the only major global advocacy organizations that can be political. And since this fight will be won or lost politically, it could be at some points just us vs. the oil companies to decide who our politicians listen to."
We have until 2015 to elect a federal government in Canada based on cooperation and single-mindedness (such as Canada had in WWII) to solve this, even direr, crisis. In Citizens Climate Lobby groups all over North America, our actions are based on our responsibility to create the political will to encourage politicians to see that we must have a low carbon economy to survive. We would hope and, yes, pray that every politician in Canada today is a "Climate Leader!"
2. Make Hollande a Hero -- French President Francois Hollande will chair the Paris summit - a powerful position. We have to try every tactic and channel -- his personal friends and family, his political constituency, his policy advisors -- to make him the hero we need him to be to make the summit a success.
We need climate change heroes and heroines in Canada. This will require courage in a milieu which has polarized the debate on what is really something we must agree upon: our common fate! We desperately need leaders who will promote a carbon fee and dividend solution, as well as shift policy toward a low carbon economy as many countries already have put into place. Canada is way behind and we must have politicians who will play catch up quickly.
3. Take it to the Next Level -- The scale of this crisis demands action that goes beyond regular campaigning. It's time for powerful, direct, non-violent action, to capture imagination, convey moral urgency, and inspire people to act. Think Occupy.
In Canada, the Idle No More movement is one such worldwide movement that fills this description. Since it burst upon the scene in the "Round" a year ago, its members and allies have been organizing and planning for that "next level." The push by foreign corporations' and our present federal government's tunnel vision focus on fossil fuels (leading us into the vortical abyss) is creating crises such as in Elsipogtog in N.B. and Northern B.C. pipeline controversy, which are only going to escalate to a scale unseen since the "million man march" and the Viet Nam protests in the U.S. if we don't shift to a low carbon trajectory taking us to "a future." Governments with no vision, imagination and only tried and false "pi" in the sky solutions (for their infinite lack of wisdom) only benefit the rich, who cannot seem to accept the scientific reality of the mess we're in and the need for creativity to solve it.

4. Out the Spoilers -- Billionaires like the Koch brothers and their oil companies are the major spoilers in climate change - funding junk science to confuse us and spending millions on misleading PR, while buying politicians wholesale. With investigative journalism and more, we need to expose and counter their horrifically irresponsible actions.
We, in Canada, have our very own, "mini me" oil baron puppet: our present PM. Everyone knows who is pulling his strings and his maniacal zealotry for absolute power knows no bounds. Let's hope Nova Scotia continues to research, develop and commercially put into production clean alternatives while increasing its percentage of protected tree-covered land (To clean the air). Hopefully, gargantuan Acadian reforestation projects will be the norm.
5. Define the Deal -- Even in the face of planetary catastrophe, 195 governments in a room can be just incompetent. We need to invest in top quality policy advice to develop ingenious strategies, mechanisms, and careful compromises so that when the summit arrives, a critical mass of leaders are already bought in to a large part of the deal, and no one can claim that good solutions don't exist.
Nova Scotian and other provincial leaders must work with their federal party counterparts to implement the above by listening to the best scientific and economic and, yes, artistic, minds to envision wholistic strategies for transition to a low carbon world.
Sincerely,
Joanne Light
Group Leader
Citizens' Climate Lobby Halifax
(See our group page on Facebook)
P.S. On a personal note, if you have the financial means, please consider personally donating as: to not heed this warning from scientists is, I'm afraid, fatal. On my current take home income of around."
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