Trent grad returns with stellar lecture

It must have been a joy for professors Alan Slavin, Bob Paelke, David Morrison, Lynne Davis, Stephen Hill and Ray Dart to hear the impressive talk given at Trent’s Stohn Hall on March 5 by Dr. Keith Stewart, a Trent graduate from 1990.

He had been their student and mentee during his four years at the university. And a brilliant one, it is clear.

Entitled “Naming the Moment,” the lecture was a scintillating and comprehensive talk about Stewart’s adventurous life in the environmental “trenches” since graduating in international development in 1990. It was also an inspiring account of his journeys, both in activism and in the academy.

After an hour and a half, because an evening class was due to come in to the 200-seat auditorium, the dialogue continued in the foyer, Socrates-style, with Stewart up a few steps and questioners gathered below.

The joining together of study, teaching and active participation in public politics is a combination not often accomplished by thinkers. It has been driven by Stewart’ s passion for the environment, deep intelligence and humble commitment to keep learning.

Now 56 — a senior energy strategist for Greenpeace Canada, and a teacher at the University of Toronto — Stewart has been called by various Canadian magazines the “best green activist in the country” and “a green giant.”

He said he learned activism here in Peterborough, working with OPIRG and other community groups. He recalled a turning point in his thinking when, in 1990, Linda Slavin suggested he go hear Stephen Lewis speak.

His second awakening was in 2013 when he chained himself to the front gate of Kinder Morgan, the giant oil and gas pipeline company. He spent 12 hours on the damp ground, since the RCMP arresting him didn’t have proper shears to cut the chains. Oh, Canada!

In the face of the environmental crisis to which he gives his life, Stewart asks “How did we get here? Where is the open space for forward movement?”

Here, the scholarship kicks in. Stewart quotes Antonio Gramsci, the leftist philosopher in the ’30s in Italy, who described society as thoroughly capitalist, and was once arrested by dictator Mussolini. Another favourite is Paulo Freire, the Brazilian popular educator.

“The present system works for oil executives: white, heterosexual men from the north.” Stewart said he takes inspiration from novelist Ursula le Guin who said “Capitalism seems inescapable, but so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings.”

In practical politics in Canada today, Stewart said Alberta and Saskatchewan are “owned” by the fossil fuel industries. He knows Steven Guilbeault, our minister of climate change and a former Greenpeace activist, well. “I am glad he is around the cabinet table. He needs our support.”

But the Liberals as a whole in his opinion are too timid. The Conservatives have no climate policies at all. “The ironic thing is that the Conservatives, as a market-loving group, should love the carbon tax.”

The speaker advised his audience to watch again Charlie Chaplin’s film “Modern Life,” where the hero finds cracks in the system and widens them. He quoted Rebecca Solnit, an American writer who has said “Hope is a discipline.”

Stewart referred to the 82 per cent of Canadians who are worried about the warming climate. About 300,000 Canadians were driven from their homes last year by wildfires. Solar power is now cheaper than any other source. Heat pumps are gaining ground. Activists have forced the fossil fuel industry to engage in politics (loads of lobbyists to cope with), and to advertise its “greenness.” Demand for oil worldwide is going down.

Thanks to Trent for arranging the stimulating session.