Friday, September 20, 2019

It's the Day of Global Climate Strike.


Another day on the hustings. Maybe it'll be a 'small town' day for the Conservative and Liberal leaders. That way they may be able to avoid embarrassing confrontations with Global Climate Strike protesters in major cities.

Every morning before I reluctantly drag myself out of bed I use an Amazon Echo Dot (the little one) to cycle through a few news summaries - CBC, NPR News Now, BBC World News. I like getting a preview of what the day may bring.

BBC had a discouraging report on the spread of coal-fueled power generation in China, especially in India, and in smaller countries where China loans its excess reserves, often for construction of coal-power plants.

India and China in particular are moving into renewable energy but that's not the same as abandoning fossil fuels. Even China is still building coal-power plants. And, yes, that is a major setback in the effort to avert catastrophic climate change.

Sparks will fly at next week's UN climate summit when each nation will be expected to present concrete proposals for slashing greenhouse gas emissions. The Paris Climate Accord was non-binding, aspirational. Think of it as a global game of Liar's Dice.

The kids are watching.

The past year has seen a remarkable youth protest movement spread across the globe. The kids deserve a voice. It's their future we're destroying. Shout Out to the Trans Mountain pipeline. Our tax dollars invested in messing up our grandchildren's future.

So far the kids have been quite orderly. The measure of their civil disobedience has been restrained. How long will that last? They're watching but what are we showing them? What are they seeing?

I doubt they're seeing their future as a continuum of our own. There's really no reason they should. We are the engine of the climate catastrophe they're left to inherit.

Look at it this way. If our future over the next ten or twenty years was what their future will be in forty or fifty years, we would be treating climate change much differently. There would be no Jason Kenney or Scott Moe or Justin Trudeau or Andy Scheer holding court in our legislatures. We would, to use Theodore Roosevelt's phrase, have 'hunted them out of office.'

I think our indifference to their fate will radicalize those kids. They might just turn on us and what greater and lasting incentive can they have but their own survival, their right to some viable future?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dude quite a few of us already are. I'm an eco-fascist.

Anonymous said...

The "free market" doesn't much care about humanity's fate: TSX hits record high, now within striking distance of 17,000 points as oil rally continues.

And while the CBC is covering the worldwide student climate protest on its news site, as of 14:15 EDT, apparently nothing has happened in Canada, or at least nothing CBC News cares to cover.

Cap

rumleyfips said...

Didn't do any marching , but the solar panels powered the house all day and I mower the lawn for a couple of hours on a battery ride on charged by solar.

INVEST WITH $200 AND GET A RETURNS OF $2,000 said...
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the salamander said...

.. I wonder when the thought will enter the heads of political animals.. that just maybe Canada does not want or need to chase or emulate the USA in any damn way.. and instead start getting serious about protectkve adaption regarding climate change. Thus, pass on the F-35's, the evergrowing of the economy.. the extraction of bitumin. Instead, jump alertly into enhanced marine border control, salvaging our fresh and salt water fisheries, our forests, our agriculture, protecting our water and air.. and in general, get ready for the onslaught.. cuz its going to be shocking .. we should start cleaning up politics ASAP, break up the entrenched political party systems, start renovating governance. We need to invest in urban agriculture, and remediation not war machinery and arms, irrigation for the nation.. The Times They Are A Changin whether we like it or not, whether we're ready or not.. Further - as you hint.. the older folks & the ones in charge currently.. have no idea how our growing youth may rate or measure 'scumbags'.. That's right.. what we think they think is probably not what or how they think.. or perceive us or our actions or derelictions or blindness

.. BTW - the boss uses the t dot I gave her in a similar way (though she tends to explode out of bed with her two savage little yorkies) She has sound on 24 - & I kid you not. All night her fave sports talk shows on on her clock radio, Eveings she has tv on as well, PBS, BBC, TVO, here n there CBC. Nature shows of course. When not a run day, she utilizes Alexa to bob and weave around advertising while she works out. I utilize headphones to enjoy live music performance via Youtube or my own music mixes on my ipod. I bike and TTC a ton, but don't use headphones biking.. why die ? I will at times wear them as a pedestrian or on TTC & certainly when housepainting all day. She walks home from work daily - 1.5 hours .. that's her 'quiet time' & how she winds down from an insane job. She too is an expert pedestrian.. you have to be, in Toronto,

The Mound of Sound said...


Oooh, Sal, an iPod? I have an iPod and the kids laugh at me. I'm a dinosaur. It seems iPods went out a decade ago, maybe more. We're foggies, Sal. I have an optical drive in my computer. They find that weird. Weird.

the salamander said...

.. hope yo aint gettin scuzzi on us Mound.. I gots layers of defenses if so.. I was on the Internut before Mosaic.. Command Line Interface.. as was the Boss. Hell she started Alt St Louis Blues, probably pre teen.. and she and her oldest bro were phreakin on phones and pranking before anyone was prankin. I a slow learner.. but like the turtle get there on time and probably cuz I head out early.

My son and I ran 4 identical mac towers running Final Cut Pro plus my word travelling back MacBook.. enforced a regime of every software bought paid for.. all 5 had identical systems, signins and software versions of oh mebbe 25 applications.. All were needed to produce & encode high end medical, docus, promo, propaganda, travelogue.. on time on spec on budget.. and so we did. But like typographers, the bottom dropped out.. and I no longer travelled the world shooting Fairmont hotel & Resorts iconic places.. and their settings.. no more real estate or design, architecture .. no more large format..

the Boss gave me an iPhone 6S & a waterproof Canon point n shoot and booked us to the Turks n Caicos .. Her career rolls on, managing an iconic Canadian recording artist.. and I paint houses.. its OK .. mebbe poetic.. as I started by painting barns and building silos..

Now, my son - is a crack editor fiend at a top drawer ad agency.. (they loved his reel) Well, he flunked outta Queens Film Studies with his buddies for too much fun .. on my dime. Amen.. He a great kid & zero regret. But he said, 'Dad, I learned more on any of your shoots and edits than I learned in two years at Queens..' And when he and his exceptional buds who I booked as shooters for good reason on my sets .. deserved the big bucks I paid the other pros, well, I did.. we basically broke open the whole Canon 5d full frame DSLR revolution - shoot and post production with old school 'double sound' via digital including clapboard.. Clients were wowed

Our systems have fallen into disrepair.. or been donated to the needy or schools.. My little iPod is bulletproof.. systems out of date, Its all I can do to comment here sometimes.. but we finds ways.. Boss no help.. she went to the dark Amazon android side.. But then she been programming and writing code.. being subversive longer than me.. and far more informed.. she has an entire cabal that meets and consumes alcohol in public places & schemes darkly. I have no cabal and a backtrail that keeps most guessing.. which is the general idea.. do folks think my backtrail is that simple ? I lay it, I watch it, I circle it.. get up early, farm early, to warch my backtrail.. I got my ears on, 'lever action' is my CB call sign for 45 years and ipod hums .. the music is fab, I play it loud

I suspect you aint much different ..