The politics of climate change
From swapping light bulbs to skipping air travel, individual actions are an important piece of any plan to combat climate change.
These small steps can empower us to take bigger ones and inspire our communities to make more sustainable choices. As the old adage goes, every little bit counts — especially when millions of people take on the challenge.
Still, it’s abundantly clear that no matter how many changes we make at home, experts predict that our climate will continue to drastically warm unless governments around the world take bold and urgent action to limit fossil fuel emissions.
In Canada, each successive federal government has claimed to have the best solution. And now, heading into the October federal election, each political party insists it has the best plan to tackle climate change.
Federal candidates will soon take to TV, social media and the streets to make a case for their party’s political agenda. And all signs point to climate change being a top talking point.
To help you decipher whether your riding’s federal candidates are up to the task, the Star checked in with four Canadians for whom climate change is constantly front of mind.
> Steve Easterbrook, computer scientist, climate change communicator and director of the University of Toronto’s School of the Environment.
> Deborah Harford, executive director of ACT (Adaptation to Climate Change Team) in the Faculty of Environment at Simon Fraser University.
> Dr. Courtney Howard, ER physician at Yellowknife’s Stanton Territorial Hospital and president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.
> George Benson, a 27-year-old planner, writer and the cofounder of the Climate Migrants and Refugees Project, a nonprofit that creates strategies to help people displaced by climate change.
Here, they highlight what any politician must know about our warming climate — and provide examples of when a politician is skating over the scientific truth.
What is the most important thing that politicians must know about climate change?
Easterbrook: “The bottom line according to the science is that we have to get off fossil fuels as fast as we possibly can. One excellent study says we must halve global emissions every decade from now on. In my mind, if a politician supports any further investment in fossil fuel infrastructure, then they don’t understand the scale of the problem.”
Harford: “They need to know that they — that all of us — are going to be seriously affected by climate change. And so are their children, but even more so. And so are their grandchildren, but again, even more so. They also need to know that you can’t have a good political plan without building climate change into it. Canadians care a lot about jobs and their health and the health of their children. Our changing climate will have an enormous effect on those things. Finally, they need to know that this is urgent. In order to avoid unmanageable levels of climate change, we need to reduce our emissions more dramatically over the next 12 years; we have to cut our global emissions by 45 per cent by the year 2030. Every government counts going forward; there should be no partisanship here.”
Howard: “Climate change impacts our health and health systems. It increases heat waves, leading to heat stroke and deaths, particularly for vulnerable elderly people. It’s associated with more severe wildfires. It is leading to the rapid spread of Lyme disease. These and other impacts will increase in severity as Canada warms another one to two degrees in the next 20 years, as predicted by ECCC’s Canada’s Changing Climate Report. They may also worsen beyond the realm of healthy adaptation within the lifetime of today’s children if we remain on our current highemissions pathway, which will see 6.3 degrees of warming in Canada by 2081-2100. As well, global undernutrition, migration, and conflict (from this extreme warming) will also destabilize global systems that impact Canadian health and healthcare.”
Benson: “Canada’s young people are already feeling the impacts of climate change most intensely. Whether they are onreserve Indigenous peoples or young people living in cities, we are already feeling grief and anxiety about current and future impacts of climate change. Leaders must understand that this is the defining paradigm of all younger generations — to minimize it or ignore it is to fail those generations.”
What questions will you ask of your federal candidates?
Easterbrook: “I want to know if they are on board for the target (of halving fossil fuel emissions every decade) and what policies they would push forward to help us get there. The other question I have is: How do we ensure a just transition (to a clean economy)? As we wind down our fossil fuel economy, how do we make sure people whose jobs are threatened don’t lose out? How do we ensure they will have new jobs, how do we provide training for them?”
Harford: “How are you going to lead Canada into this changing world? How are you going to protect Canadians’ safety and prosperity, now and into the future, by strategically planning for adaptation and emissions reduction?”
Howard: “How will you protect Canadians’ health and our health structures from the increasing impacts of climate change? How will your government help health providers prepare for the health consequences of the climate change impacts we can’t avoid?”
Benson: “What is your plan to ensure that young Canadians today and future generations are protected from the impacts of climate change, particularly if the world does not succeed in limiting global warming to two degrees?”
What is a possible red flag answer that would reveal a potential MP will not provide bold action on climate change?
Easterbrook: “People talk a lot about natural gas as a transition fuel because, per unit of energy, it has a lower carbon footprint than coal or oil. Some politicians would like to build more natural gas power plants and extract natural gas through fracking. My response is that if you want to build anything that is emitting carbon dioxide, you do not understand the scale of the problem. We cannot afford to build anymore infrastructure that depends on fossil fuels, whatsoever.”
Harford: “There can’t be any more status quo. They can’t talk about keeping everything the same; the world is changing (due to climate change). For example, we often hear that Canada is a resource extraction country. But we are also a country well known for its innovations in technologies and communications. We could be a world leader in developing the new technologies that will help solve the problems stemming from climate change, such as finding ways to desalinate seawater or creating clean tech to replace carbon-emitting fuels. We could also be a leader in protecting and restoring Canada’s substantial ecosystems, which will play a key role in managing local and global climate change.”
Howard: “If someone says the links between health and climate change are still being debated, their statement doesn’t correspond with the literature or the lived experiences of Canadians. I would then tell them: We know that we’ve had severe wildfires across the west and the north of Canada for the past few years that have led to increased levels of asthma exacerbations. We had approximately 100 heat-related deaths in Quebec last summer. We see Lyme disease rates increasing in Ontario. My 5-year-old has been exposed to (wildfire) smoke, four of the five summers of her life. I would then ask them: Is there a way we can have a conversation together where we can discuss this further and help you to better understand the situation? The literature shows talking about human health is one of the best ways to communicate the impacts of climate change.”
Benson: “If anyone says that Canada will be a net beneficiary from climate change, or that we still have lots of time to adapt, you should conclude that they are not taking the issue seriously. I believe anyone running for government must see climate change as a holistic and foundational issue for young people. They should say: We will take action by investing, by regulating, by co-ordinating, and whatever else needs doing across every part of our society and economy. We know that everything from our mental and physical health, to reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, to the success of our businesses, depends on mitigating and adapting at hugely increased speeds.”