That is the question posed in this Global News report, which offers some interesting insights on the issue. My only quibble with it is that too much emphasis is put on climmate change being a far-off problem when, in fact, it is on our collective doorsteps right now.
Like Potsdam's Rockstrom, my take is that we haven't a clue about the enormity and complexity of the ecological threats we're facing. Climate change is a big problem but only one of several. Rockstrom identifies nine "planetary boundaries" that we must not cross although three of them are already broken.
ReplyDeleteI think Canadians want action on climate change provided they don't personally have to change or sacrifice. This threat, however, is more dire than any our people faced in wartime and that did require enormous change and great sacrifice. Just coming up with funding for essential infrastructure investments, adaptation strategies, will require us to rein in our standard of living. If we don't it will only cost far more in the future. Yet our governments don't trust us to support such policies.
It was telling when Trudeau issued mandate letters to his ministers in November, 2015, that he gave them two co-priorities: economic growth and whatever their ministry dealt with. Catherine Mckenna later opined that she was as much an economic minister as an environmental minister which, in the face of the environmental challenges of the day, is a glaring contradiction. Yet she does seem to temper her environmental agenda with her responsibility to "do no harm" to the economy. Ultimately one priority must yield to the other and we see that today in the form of cognitive dissonance that pervades the prime minister and his government.
Well-said, Mound. I think you have clearly addressed what we are confronting. There is little reason to be optimistic about what lies ahead.
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