We can resolve the climate crisis

Image: Fabrice Florin/Flickr

There’s no shortage of solutions to the climate crisis. Rapidly developing clean-energy technology, reducing energy consumption and waste, increasing efficiency, reforming agricultural practices, and protecting and restoring forests and wetlands all put us on a path to cleaner air, water and soil, healthier biodiversity and lower climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions.

Clean energy technologies, including energy storage methods, are improving as costs are dropping. Exciting new inventions like artificial photosynthesis, machines that remove atmospheric carbon to create fuels, and windows that convert light to electricity show what people are capable of when we put our minds to resolving challenges.

It’s critical that we continue to develop, deploy, and scale up solutions, so why are we still mired in outdated ways and business as usual? For decades, experts have been warning about the consequences of rapidly burning fossil fuels, yet greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise as the planet heats up faster.

Europe is in the midst of a record heat wave; Chennai, India, has run out of water; farmers in Canada and the U.S. are seeing diminishing returns after prolonged droughts; refugees are flooding borders as extreme conditions, water scarcity and failing agriculture increase conflict and displace millions — all caused or exacerbated by climate change. Even in rainy Vancouver where I live, the city implemented early water restrictions when the usual spring showers didn’t arrive.

People and organizations from the entire spectrum of society are calling for action. Students are marching in the streets, progressive decision-makers are putting climate disruption at the top of the political agenda, and Indigenous peoples are asserting their rights to protect lands and waters from fossil fuel projects.

In the U.S., more than 70 leading health organizations — including the American Medical Association, Lung Association, Heart Association, and College of Physicians — issued a statement urging political candidates “to recognize climate change as a health emergency.” The Canadian Medical Association, Nurses Association, Public Health Association, Association of Physicians for the Environment, and the Urban Public Health Network issued a similar statement.

To their credit, every major political party in Canada has a climate plan, some more detailed than others, and the current federal government has implemented many strong policies, despite its continued approval of fossil fuel projects. But we’re still not on track to meet our Paris Agreement commitments.

Here and elsewhere, the fossil fuel industry still rules, enjoying massive government subsidies and tax breaks and government and media promotion. If we understand the problem and its urgency — and mountains of scientific evidence amassed from around the world over decades confirms we do — and we have solutions, why are we so slow to act? MORE

How the Green New Deal Is Forcing Politicians to Finally Address Climate Change

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Scientists have understood for decades that climate change is happening and that humans are causing it; recent studies, including a landmark report in October from the U.N., have shown that things are even worse than we thought. Global temperatures have already risen 1°C since the Industrial Revolution; if the planet heats by much more than an additional half a degree, we could see some of the most catastrophic effects of climate change, including the death of the world’s coral reefs and the inundation of entire island nations.

That reality has resonated with the public: more than 70% of Americans now understand that climate change is taking place, according to data from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. A February NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey found that two-thirds of Republicans believe their party is “outside the mainstream” on the issue.

Into this new political reality came the Green New Deal–equal parts policy proposal and battle cry. The resolution, introduced by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts, calls for the U.S. to launch a broad “mobilization” to decarbonize the economy while tackling a slew of other social ills. The response was mixed. People loved it. People loathed it. Others were confused by it. But in D.C., where climate has long been relegated to third-tier status, lawmakers could no longer avoid the issue.

Sunrise Movement activists call for a Green New Deal on Capitol Hill

Aurora Samperio—NurPhoto/Getty Images

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Bill C-69 is our chance to level up Canada’s environmental laws, and we can’t afford to miss it

Canadians depend on the federal government to safeguard our families, our health and the environment from pollution, toxic contamination and other potential harms. But in 2012, our environmental safety net was drastically weakened, leaving Canadians with toothless laws and flawed decision-making processes that put the environment and public at risk.

Right now, we have a chance to rebuild and strengthen these fundamental legal protections, through the legislative changes contained in Bill C-69. The Impact Assessment Act proposed in the bill will be a much-needed replacement for Canada’s existing assessment law—a law that isn’t working for the environment, communities or project proponents, as we’ve seen repeatedly in recent years.

Unfortunately, a small but vocal group of opponents is attempting to kill Bill C-69 as it works its way through the Senate. The majority of criticism comes from groups based in Alberta or connected to the oil patch—such as the convoy that rolled into Ottawa this week spreading divisive messages about everything from pipelines to immigration. Most of the critiques aimed at Bill C-69 are misleading, and many are blatantly false.

And while detractors hint at widespread controversy over the bill, recent polling paints a very different picture. The latest nationwide poll by Abacus Data found that 63 per cent of Canadians who are aware of Bill C-69 agree that it is a step in the right direction. MORE

DEMOCRATS ACROSS THE COUNTRY ARE GETTING HOUNDED BY VOTERS FOR SHYING AWAY FROM THE GREEN NEW DEAL

Democrat Rep. Antonio Delgado speaks to supporters at a watch party in Kingston, N.Y., after defeating incumbent Republican John Faso on Nov. 6, 2018. Photo: Seth Wenig/AP

CALIFORNIA SEN. Dianne Feinstein may feel like she was treated unfairly by young activists who have hammered her for not backing the Green New Deal resolution, but she has plenty of company. In upstate New York, Utah, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania, voters who feel a much greater sense of urgency than their elected officials have been reacting furiously to politicians who say that the attempt to turn the fossil fuel-based economy around in the next 12 years simply isn’t realistic.

Rep. Antonio Delgado, the freshman from New York’s 19th District, was pressed repeatedly by constituents over his half-hearted support for the effort. He doesn’t support the Green New Deal, he told constituents at a town hall on February 16, though he noted that he backed certain aspects of the bill. Delgado said that he’s more interested in solutions that address the issues around climate change that can be solved now and that the bill as written does not sufficiently lay out a path for that kind of approach to the inevitability of climate crisis.

Democrats, especially freshmen in the House, are having to face voters in their districts who find the lack of action on climate change to be a major issue for the new representatives. And those complaints aren’t coming from blue districts — as with Delgado, freshmen Democrats from purple districts are facing resistance from constituents over their hesitancy to endorse progressive programs. Republicans aren’t immune either. On Monday morning, roughly 250 young activists from the Sunrise Movement occupied the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., with 35 getting arrested. MORE

Young People Really, Really Want a Green New Deal

New polling data show that millennials are more enthusiastic than older generations about radical efforts to save the planet and create jobs.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) talks to reporters outside the Capitol Building. (AP Photo / Susan Walsh)

It’s finally here: Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Edward Markey introduced a Green New Deal resolution on Thursday.

Their proposal would achieve net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions by creating millions of green jobs and investing in a new, clean-energy infrastructure. But how receptive will Americans be to such a radical reshaping of the economy?

Our polling shows that the Green New Deal actually polls very well, even when people consider the potential costs. First, in our election survey last fall, we tested a green-job guarantee, which is a core component of the Green New Deal. The resolution released Thursday proposes “guaranteeing a job with a family-sustaining wage, adequate family and disability leave, paid vacations, and retirement security to all members of our society.” Mainstream Democratic think tanks have released differing plans on how the government could achieve this goal, though this push has upset some and neoliberals.

We asked voters if they would support “giving every unemployed American who wants one a job building energy-efficient infrastructure.” Sixty percent of respondents said they somewhat or strongly support the policy, compared to just 13 percent who somewhat or strongly opposed the policy. (The rest were unsure.)  MORE