Reflections, Observations, and Analyses Pertaining to the Canadian Political Scene
Saturday, April 5, 2014
Apocalyptic Scenes
While the fossil fuel companies and the governments that protect them continue to draw in record profits and conspicuously blockade any amelioration of carbon output, the real world pays the price:
Lorne, this is frightening. I watched it on the NBC last night.
Here in Maritime we never had that much snow. There is 8 ft of snow on my lawn and we are expecting some more today. Just incredible. A building collapsed because of too much snow on its roof. Luckily no one was inside at the time. We are headed for a major calamity in the near future.
Sorry to hear how severe things are in your part of the country, LD. It is still cold here in Southern Ontario (-2 with the windchill), but most of the snow is gone. I think that we all are starting to pay a very heavy price for our collective folly.
@ LD, yes we are entering an era of calamity only we haven't assessed our fragility to these impacts. At the very least we should have already begun adaptation measures yet we haven't even made much progress on assessment or planning. An international conference of experts on disaster management met in Toronto last year while Calgary was deluged. One expert said that Canada needs to spend upwards of a trillion dollars on infrastructure repair and upgrading to meet climate change and that it would cost the economy far more if we failed. That's a lot of expense but it would be stimulus spending, true investment, that would spread from coast to coast to coast. Yet it seems we would rather squander our national wealth on subsidies, tax deferrals and grants to the fossil fuelers. It is truly sickening.
@ Lorne - It's now almost a full month since my last blog post. I have managed to check out ProgBlogs every day or two and it's been eye-opening for me. I usually tally the posts per day and see how many have anything remotely to do with issues such as inequality, climate change or global security. You and LD post some climate stories but there's pretty slim pickings otherwise.
You might have thought that self-proclaimed 'progressives' would be invested in these existential threats but that's not the case on these aggregators. I'm not even sure I'm in the same philosophical Venn diagram with these people.
As for me, I'm off delving into war studies and the nature of war in the 21st century; the pathology of modern arms races in the era of sweeping technological change; and the security dimensions of globalization especially in the context of climate change. Even for an old Cassandra like me, this is very weird stuff. Weird and chilling.
One of the many things I miss about your blog posts, Mound, is your comprehensive coverage of climate change. I do try to keep up with the topic by subscribing to Google alerts, something you suggested to me some time ago. I suspect, however, one of the reasons for the less than stellar coverage of climate change in the Canadian blogosphere is twofold and related:
Much coverage is given to the Harper regime, a topic I must confess a certain obsession with. I think because an election is coming next year, much energy is being devoted to exposing his cabal's myriad crimes and hypocrisies because we hold the very real hope of regime change. We thirst for something positive in the relative short-term, even though I am fully aware that either a Trudeau or Mulcair government would offer little or no substantive policy change.
Concomitantly, climate change, although the most pressing threat we face as a species, is such a large problem that resists mitigation. The fact is that successful amelioration would require unprecedented co-operation on a global scale, co-operation that seems highly unlikely given both our natural antipathy to ceding authority to other bodies and regulators and our endless capacity for denial and cognitive dissonance. Add to that the failure of our 'leaders' to inspire in people the willingness to make the sacrifices necessary to avoid catastrophe. Ousting the Harper regime in the next election, by comparison, seems like child's play, and a much more realistic goal.
Lorne, this is frightening. I watched it on the NBC last night.
ReplyDeleteHere in Maritime we never had that much snow. There is 8 ft of snow on my lawn and we are expecting some more today. Just incredible. A building collapsed because of too much snow on its roof. Luckily no one was inside at the time. We are headed for a major calamity in the near future.
Sorry to hear how severe things are in your part of the country, LD. It is still cold here in Southern Ontario (-2 with the windchill), but most of the snow is gone. I think that we all are starting to pay a very heavy price for our collective folly.
DeleteYeah? Well I wish you two had to go out and cut the damned lawn - AGAIN!
ReplyDeleteGrrr.....
Delete@ LD, yes we are entering an era of calamity only we haven't assessed our fragility to these impacts. At the very least we should have already begun adaptation measures yet we haven't even made much progress on assessment or planning. An international conference of experts on disaster management met in Toronto last year while Calgary was deluged. One expert said that Canada needs to spend upwards of a trillion dollars on infrastructure repair and upgrading to meet climate change and that it would cost the economy far more if we failed. That's a lot of expense but it would be stimulus spending, true investment, that would spread from coast to coast to coast. Yet it seems we would rather squander our national wealth on subsidies, tax deferrals and grants to the fossil fuelers. It is truly sickening.
ReplyDelete@ Lorne - It's now almost a full month since my last blog post. I have managed to check out ProgBlogs every day or two and it's been eye-opening for me. I usually tally the posts per day and see how many have anything remotely to do with issues such as inequality, climate change or global security. You and LD post some climate stories but there's pretty slim pickings otherwise.
ReplyDeleteYou might have thought that self-proclaimed 'progressives' would be invested in these existential threats but that's not the case on these aggregators. I'm not even sure I'm in the same philosophical Venn diagram with these people.
As for me, I'm off delving into war studies and the nature of war in the 21st century; the pathology of modern arms races in the era of sweeping technological change; and the security dimensions of globalization especially in the context of climate change. Even for an old Cassandra like me, this is very weird stuff. Weird and chilling.
One of the many things I miss about your blog posts, Mound, is your comprehensive coverage of climate change. I do try to keep up with the topic by subscribing to Google alerts, something you suggested to me some time ago. I suspect, however, one of the reasons for the less than stellar coverage of climate change in the Canadian blogosphere is twofold and related:
DeleteMuch coverage is given to the Harper regime, a topic I must confess a certain obsession with. I think because an election is coming next year, much energy is being devoted to exposing his cabal's myriad crimes and hypocrisies because we hold the very real hope of regime change. We thirst for something positive in the relative short-term, even though I am fully aware that either a Trudeau or Mulcair government would offer little or no substantive policy change.
Concomitantly, climate change, although the most pressing threat we face as a species, is such a large problem that resists mitigation. The fact is that successful amelioration would require unprecedented co-operation on a global scale, co-operation that seems highly unlikely given both our natural antipathy to ceding authority to other bodies and regulators and our endless capacity for denial and cognitive dissonance. Add to that the failure of our 'leaders' to inspire in people the willingness to make the sacrifices necessary to avoid catastrophe. Ousting the Harper regime in the next election, by comparison, seems like child's play, and a much more realistic goal.