Climate change is but also isn't a global problem. Every nation is experiencing it but both the pace and severity of the impacts vary widely. We're not all in the same boat.
As a general rule, the closer a nation is situated to the equator, the worse the impacts. "Climate Departure" for example is predicted to set in over the next few years in the tropics. The more temperate countries will have two, perhaps three decades before they taste the lash. By the time Climate Departure reaches Vancouver, parts of the tropics could already be transformed into uninhabitable wasteland.
So there's a latitudinal divide that separates more vulnerable states from somewhat more advantaged nations. But there's more to this divide than just latitude. There's also wealth. The poorest nations tend to be more tropical, equatorial. The nations that really count, the wealthiest, are the developed nations, the industrial giants, that are in more temperate zones.
So we're not in the same boat. Our lifeboat is reserved for first class passengers. Steerage will simply have to look out for themselves. We hear they're pretty good swimmers.
It doesn't have to be that way but it probably will be. The rich nations of the north could dig down deep and help the poorest and most vulnerable but that would be, well, inconvenient. We would have to restructure our economies. We would have to embrace - in a meaningful way - notions of fairness and equity, the sort of ideas that Jaysus preached. What's that line? "Sharing is caring." Only that's not really in our nature, is it?
It's not like we don't also have to shoulder our burdens. We know that we're responsible for most of the greenhouse gas emissions that have fired up the atmosphere to turn the tropics into ovens. We know that we're largely responsible for the plight of the poorest and most vulnerable. We have to live with that guilt but, hey, we'll get over it. Everyone is just going to have to move on, provided "those people" don't get any ideas about moving our way.
Jason Kenney isn't going to lose any sleep about "those people" but, then again, neither is Justin Trudeau. Sure, Jason's open-pit mega mine and Justin's new and expanded bitumen pipeline are only going to worsen the considerable plight of those impoverished little brown people but, well, somebody had to do it to them. If it wasn't us gifting them a hellish near future it would be someone else. Besides we've already promised a "climate emergency." We've gotta keep our word. What, that wasn't a promise? That was a declaration, a proclamation? You could've fooled me.
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4 comments:
"Sure, Jason's open-pit mega mine and Justin's new and expanded bitumen pipeline are only going to worsen the considerable plight of those impoverished little brown people but, well, somebody had to do it to them."
About sums up the way we run this country. Neoliberal all the way, baby. And domestically, "somebody" treats citizens really no better when the right wing teeth and fangs come out in full. Jason is having trouble scraping up his $4.7 billion tax cut for the truly deserving, so tens of thousands will feel the consequences, with lost jobs and reduced pay giving reduced service to the general public. Austerity. Insanity. It burbles forth from bland lips possessed by someone interested only in their own power, and regular folk don't wield influence and favours like the fat cats. It's the same brand of total unconcern as shown with overseas brown folk. Just faceless ants to be treated as badly as possible a micron this side of revolt, the inconsequential turds.
Someone said recently, "A good look at a country's foreign policy and actions gives you an idea what a government thinks of its own citizenry." We seem to enjoy propping up Latin American dictators and being known as running the nastiest overseas mining companies all over the world; those companies are what our government supports to prop up autocrats - why waste money bettering the life of locals who turn into that human design error - socialists? A Munk lecture on that intellectual topic please, soonest, dear Peter. And please include working conditions and environmental indifference. More brown people under the thumb from our glorious miners to add to the carbon haul.
Then we have the First Nations mistreatment here. Honourable, this country's government is not, and I fear none of them ever really has been, when the rose-tinted specs are removed, and real scrutiny is given. We don't get taught that reality in our schools, so the public hasn't a clue. Being incurious and a third not even bothering to vote about sums up their vacuousness. Lemmings to the cliff. Lambs to the slaughter.
Same in Blighty. People without a clue voted Boris in. There seems to be an emotional hypnotic quality of wonderfulness that leads people to commit living suicide from voting in right wing crasp artists, because it sure isn't logic.
BM
If Canada buys into the purchase of F35 sneak bombers that are ultimately tied in to USA exceptionalism ! we will indeed see where our foreign policy lays.
It is difficult living next to the elephant in the room particularly with a buffoon in control.
That said we ,Canada, have to show at least a little backbone and independence.
TB
We are losing the plot, BM. In recent conversations I've had with quite intelligent, educated acquaintances, I get the same message, albeit in different forms - it's broken. The wheels are coming off the wagon. Some might see that in atrophied electoral politics. Some might see it in climate change, species migration, etc. Some see it in governments' inability to come to grips with the challenges of the day. It's hard not to see it.
Usually at this point the conversation ought to turn to fixing problems. People weigh in with proposed fixes, solutions, even if they're sometimes harebrained. The important thing is that they believe what's wrong can be remedied. I'm not getting that any more. Some degree of fatalism seems to have set in.
I think of myself as a realist although I'm sure most would consider me a pessimist. That said I believe we still must press for solutions even if the best were long ago foreclosed by our apathy and neglect. It troubles me to see others so willing to throw in the towel.
All you need do, TB, is examine Canada's voting record in the General Assembly whenever there's a resolution pertaining to Israel and/or Palestine. We stand nearly alone with the United States and a small gaggle of "bought and paid for" central Pacific island states against the rest of the world.
Then like an errant puppy we wag our tail and hope the world will still love us enough to give us a seat on the Security Council.
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