On Friday, I, along with 100,000 other people, took part in the strike for climate action here in Vancouver. I closed my office at noon, and I’m so glad to say that all of my office staff, along with my partner Penny, took part.
The turnout was beyond my wildest expectations! The crowd stretched from City Hall at 12th and Cambie, all the way down Cambie Street and over the Cambie Bridge to downtown. When we finally made it off West 10th Avenue and onto Cambie, it was so exhilarating to look north toward the mountains on such a beautiful day and see the street literally filled with people of all ages — babies, dads and moms, teens, grandparents — as far as the eye could see.
Creative signs were everywhere with a multitude of powerful messages: “The wrong Amazon is burning” “No Planet B”; “Be a good ancestor now”; “The future will be green or not at all.”
I really do think Vancouver’s climate march, combined with the simultaneous marches around the world, has changed the channel of public discourse.
The media is now full of substantive coverage of the crisis. On CBC’s The Sunday Edition, Michael Enright hosted a panel of young people discussing how business as usual is no longer acceptable. Some, like 17-year-old Rebecca Hamilton who organised Vancouver’s Sustainabiliteens, are so young they can’t even vote yet but their thinking is clear and eloquent. Michael Enright also did a feature on how the politics of the environment were once nonpartisan, and should be again. And Duncan McCue’s Sunday afternoon show Cross Country Checkup was devoted entirely to the climate crisis.
After meeting with Greta Thunberg, Justin Trudeau admitted that much more needs to be done. I doubt that a while ago Mr. Trudeau would have even made the time to meet with this amazing climate activist.
In the midst of our federal election campaign, three of our major political parties — the Greens, the NDP and the Liberals — have all come out with major planks on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Today, the climate crisis ranks first in many polls asking Canadians about their most important election issues. The environment is finally getting the attention it so desperately deserves!
Now we need to decide which party will give it the attention it deserves in the October 21 federal election. Both the CBC and The Globe and Mail have excellent analyses of the parties’ platforms on climate policy.
The Liberals have promised to get us to a carbon-neutral environment by 2050, plant 2 billion trees, and protect a quarter of our land and ocean habitats by 2025. Is this enough? Can we count on them to follow through, especially when we don’t see a lot of detail on their carbon-neutral plan?
The NDP offers a seemingly more effective plan with quite a bit more detail on how they intend to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including their goals of ramping up the current federal plan to cut emissions by bringing them 38 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, and by offering free public transit.
The Green approach to the climate crisis really intrigues me by the way it so fundamentally differs from the Liberal and NDP plans. First, the Greens have the most detailed plank on climate, including stopping all oil and gas expansion and banning internal combustion vehicles by 2030 (something BC’s NDP have already done with a goal of 2040). What’s more intriguing, though, is Elizabeth May’s suggestion that Canada should approach the climate crisis the same way we did the war effort during World War II. She would establish an all-party committee in the House of Commons to make this a truly non-partisan effort.
The People’s Party has no federal plan, and I have deliberately left the Conservatives out of the above list as their proposals are so weak.
They’ve proposed scrapping the carbon tax already in place nationally as well as the Clean Fuel Standard, plus the Conservatives fully support expanding the oil and gas industry. Ironically, a carbon tax has already been in place provincially here in BC for years, and has proven to be a very successful initiative in reducing emissions without having detrimental impact on BC’s economy. The Conservative plan also lacks any metrics, including a specific timeline for reducing and then eliminating emissions.
Seven million people around the world marched on Friday for the climate. Let’s make sure, now that the strike is over, that we don’t go back to our old ways but keep up the momentum in the fight of our lives — the absolute need to bring greenhouse gas emissions to zero as quickly as is humanly possible.
Here in Canada we have an amazing opportunity with the upcoming October 21 federal election to make sure this issue gets the attention it deserves. And it’s not just speaking out or marching — it’s learning about the political parties and their plans for climate action, supporting the ones you believe in, and making sure you get out to vote.
Are you registered to vote? Want to check when and where to fill out your ballot? Elections Canada’s website has you covered!
Daily atmospheric CO2 [Courtesy of CO2.Earth]
Latest daily total (Sep. 29, 2019): 408.22 ppm
One year ago (Sep. 29, 2018): 405.35 ppm
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