Influence

This past Monday I participated in a conversation with a friend over a summary of Thomas Homer-Dixon’s thoughtful book, Commanding Hope. It was a good way to celebrate Earth Day and it was pleasing to hear that several participants were involved in local initiatives. We talked about the challenges of where to enter the climate conversation without becoming completely discouraged about the lack of inaction.

So it was worthwhile to stop by my local independent book store - it is their day tomorrow on April 27th by the way - and I try to patronize them when I can. It was good to find a book by Toronto’s former mayor, David Miller, who moved on to work with several major cities in the world and tell a positive story of what cities are doing. He reminds me of what a former colleague used to say about the arts. It’s important to act locally where the action is.

After all, these things are the local government responsibilities: planning and development, clean water, parks and recreation, housing, public transit and public health - and more. They affect our lives directly every single day. Miller also looks at how city concerns and responsibilities connect with the major environmental issues; official plans, energy and electricity, existing buildings and new ones, and management of waste. Miller provides lots of evidence of how cities worldwide are dealing with these matters in a positive way. Since these are places that most people in the world live, they matter. The book is called Solved and an earlier edition has just been reissued. It’s a worthwhile read.

I know my local city councilor through his excellent monthly newsletter and I have met him in person. He has my support. A friend remarked that another one never answers calls or responds to questions. There is a solution to that one. VOTE!

Why humanities?

Like anyone who graduated in English Language and Literature decades ago, I read of the growth of STEM and the fading of English and history courses with alarm. Apparently now I am not alone, according the this Saturday’s Globe and Mail, This decline now has an economic cost. Imagine - people have no sense of history, philosophy and literature can’t communicate and art good at the art of the deal. The article tells me that people can’t apply ethical frameworks to machine learning, biotechnology or nanomedicine. I’ll have to look that last one up.

Business leaders are starting to get worried that their workforce doesn’t have a broad understanding of the world. I have every respect for one of the people cited in the article because I met his parents some years ago when they were generous donors to a professional choir and actually enjoyed what they performed. And know he follows their example by attending and supporting the symphony, so he may be not be the best example of the writer’s point in the article.

Learning judgment - weighing evidence. How have we learned these things? Maybe through being read stories at a very early age, and later as children, young adults and throughout the rest of our lives by reading novels, poems, essays, drama, history and philosophy and even theology perhaps. When we don’t have these, the article writer says, we become poorer, “not just culturally but economically”. - oh so that’s the thing - he thinks the arts are really just equipping us to make more money for ourselves after all.

The article does appear in the business section. But isn’t being poor economically but rich culturally a choice that we might want to consider even there? I’ve been the beneficiary of my father’s business career and he went from starting as the thirteenth employee of a mid-sized Canadian insurance company to completing his working life there as the chairman of the board. In his retirement, he finally had the chance to play the piano every day and he painted well enough to have one of his works in the local art gallery - but he did these things all along. He didn’t have the benefit of my liberal arts education, having to go straight to work to support his widowed mother in the depression. Surely the benefit of the liberal arts isn’t to make us become more competitive and make more money. Let’s get real. Studying the humanities is an opportunity to become more human and stand in awe of all the world’s splendor and all its pain.

A worthy successor to St. Francis

“If we consider that emissions per individual in the United States are about two times greater than those of individuals living in China, and about seven times greater than the average of the poorest countries, we can state that a broad change in the irresponsible lifestyle connected with the Western model would have a significant long-term impact.”

Pope Francis Laudate Deum 2023.

Undiplomatic

António Guterres came to the job as Secretary of the United Nations after, among other things, serving as the Prime Minister of Portugal. Usually such leaders learn to be diplomatic. As Bill McKibben observes, he abandons when it comes to talking to fossil fuel providers on climate change. Here are some examples:

“We must end the merciless, relentless, senseless war on nature.” He adds

• We need disruption to end the destruction.

• No more baby steps.

• No more excuses.

• No more greenwashing.

• No more bottomless greed of the fossil fuel industry and its enablers.

• Your core product is our core problems.

Among his fellow straight talkers are Pope Francis Al Gore and McKibbon himself. But my local daily newspapers didn’t join them this weekend. There were marches all over the world, including Toronto asking for the end of fossil fuels. The morning news today contained nary a story nor a photo in print or on screen. Our own party leaders seem not to be undiplomatic - but silent. It’s small wonder that the young roll their eyes at us,

Report Card

The Parish Agreement 2015 was the best one to date on climate change. I still remember the enthusiasm of one person I know on his return from the COP Conference compared to previous ones he attended. There is a great story in the book, Not Too Late called “How the Ants Moved the Elephants in Paris”.

The Climate Vulnerable Form was formed in 2009 and composed of the countries who stand to lose the most from climate change. While rich countries wanted global warming limited to 2 degrees centigrade, in the long term, it meant that the vulnerable would still lose their right to food, health, shelter, and water. They asked for an increase of 1.5 degrees. Everyone would have to work on carbon reduction - and the largest countries would have to work better and faster. One hundred countries had supported them, but the recommendation hadn’t made it into the proposed final goal.

The CVF broke into action - having the Eiffel Tower light up with the the goal “1.5C” and a statement read into the record, which ended , “The parties which stand in the way of recommending a sound decision base on the information available will be remembered by the children of today for the failure of Paris, and we will shout it to the rooftops.” Eventually even Saudi Arabia chimed in and agreed.

It is now 2023 and heading into the next COP conference soon. The most recent report commends what has been done. We can take a minute to rejoice that the rise of greenhouse gases as slowed. In 2015, we were then on track for a rise of 4C degrees if we did nothing. Then we have to face that it is not enough. By 2100, we had reduced the pace to 3 degrees Celsius. Many countries have made promises - largely still on paper. If these are followed through, the predictions are a rise of 2-2.4C by 2100. That takes us back to the fears of the CVF as the real scenario.

The Climate Action Tracker has been created to measure our progress. SCroll down on the tracker to find out progress. Here are Canada’s for the year 2050:

• Our policies and action: Highly insufficient. We’re contributing to a future 4 dgree world

• Our target: almost sufficient for a 2 degree world

• Our target against taking our fair share - insufficient for a less than 3 degree world

• Financing climate change - Highly insufficent.

  Our overall score: Highly insufficient.

  Get angry if you like. But act. Elect people who support the right policies and get the right people on the bus. Keep the wrong people off it. This applies anywhere you have a say - with government, with corporations, in communities and community groups. We have voices. We need to raise them.