Climate lockdown must not be delayed

We are in danger of getting side-tracked from the greatest threat of our time by other important matters that feed into, but are not of the very essence of, the all-important reduction in global warming.

These urgent matters may be easier to tackle, and are long overdue for social justice, but do not in themselves pose a near or complete catastrophe for most life forms.

Black lives, Indigenous lives, and those of other disentitled minorities without a doubt matter as much as those of the straight white anglo male. It is true that the awful inhumanity of such problems deeply intersect with the economic, health, political, and educational structures and with each other and with climate change.

Nonetheless, we must keep our efforts strong and sustained directly on measures to reduce our greenhouse gases and our reproduction rates, geographical footprint, and pollution. We are amongst those most profligate with the unsustainable and the unsustaining resources of the Earth.

We are also among the better equipped with the least detriment to ourselves to lead by example, and not merely catch up with Costa Ricans, Europeans and others. We should do so on personal as well as at state, provincial, and municipal levels.

It will help us better culturally adapt to present and forthcoming problems.

Fewer cars and planes, a guaranteed livable income, more mixed and modest housing, food sovereignty and ecosystem protection with an eye on climate change mitigation will aid social justice and equality as much as any thrust even less likely to appeal to those class-superiority obsessed within our all too powerful and impractically envisioned elites and leaders.

We need a climate lockdown and we need it now.

Glynne Evans Saanich