Earth Day time to up our game

Last Earth Day, my friend called and I told him, "it’s my special day.., you didn’t wish me a Happy Earth Day!"
He hit back, "every day is Earth Day!" and thus began our tradition of saying “Happy Earth Day” as the first greeting with every phone call on any day.

And to some extent, our little pattern is accurate. Environmental awareness, if not action, has become so mainstream that for more of the population, environmental consciousness is now built into daily behaviour. But as people have changed attitudes throughout the world, the threat of inaction by government and large industry still threaten us all with global catastrophe. (Wow, that sounded harsh.. wish it wasn’t true).

So today it’s back to the political again as was off to Jack Layton’s house to deliver a set of demands with City-TV and CBC tagging along. I was asked by the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition to join in delivering a call to action on climate change, which is being delivered by young people to political leaders across the country today. I haven’t looked into the other 'plant a tree for Earth Day' type activities happening in the area today, but this action is a good one to be a part of.


Other things are happening in my neighbourhood. At Queen’s Park was a rally to kick of a walk to stop a mega quarry in Dufferin County. One hundred kilometres north of the City lies an application by a US Hedge Fund to construct the second largest open pit mine in North America, on the edge of the Niagara Escarpment - would be almost half the size of the City of Toronto ripping out kick ass farmland.

At the same time in about the same place, a strategic action planned by youth is taking place. It’s U of T’s turn for a vote mob and it will be big, with over 1,000 registered on Facebook as we speak. A Happy Earth Day it will be for me if youth get out to vote. Young Greens have chalked lines to the same polling station and are also focusing on getting out the youth vote. Michael Erickson’s NDP campaign is having an advance poll party. Greenpeace is rallying against new nukes.

I’ve been involved in many these youth movements over the last few years, from Sustainable Campuses, Youth Climate Change, Young Greens and now the youth food movement. These have similar goals and sometimes similar people, and have been making a big difference – if not just a kick in the pants, energizing the broader environmental movements and organizations.


Sadly though, it's tough times out there for environmental advocates, but not for a lack of work to be done.

The federal government has done everything it could to rid environmental programs of funding, as reported before the election - but with little fanfare - in Canadian media. Expected cuts were to include a whopping 59% for climate and air pollution programs, the latter being a supposed environmental priority for the Tories.

That adds up to an overall 20% reduction in Environment Canada's spending and a 21% cut for Natural Resources Canada.

While spending cuts are easier to argue in deficit days, the cuts come at a time when barely anything is being done by federal government to reduce climate change, a crisis whose costs will outweigh any small savings of doing nothing, many times over.

In Canada's biggest province things also look bleak. After canceling potential offshore wind because of localized public opinion differences, Ontario's provincial government who has shown support for green energy is facing a challenge from a Party threatening the dismantling of the Green Energy and Green Economy Act. This comes with a base of support from Landowners who have traditionally butted heads with all government environmental policy, including Greenbelt legislation. The same Party under Mike Harris left a 40% cut to the Ministry of the Environment.


In Canada’s biggest city, a mayor has been elected who’s been guiding Council through priorities of tax and spending cuts, with perceived public perception that these issues are critical over pretty much all else. Meanwhile, area grassroots environmental and food movement organizations are growing like gangbusters. With a deep financial crisis, Council will have to find savings of hundreds of millions by next year, and we assume continued financial support for programs like the Toronto Environment Office, Toronto’s Food Strategy, Live Green or Tower Renewal.

These political leaders are all very popular. Harper and Hudak Conservatives could both win majorities. The federal political landscape is split up, and the other parties, according to a new Sierra Club survey, are slipping in their support for environmental issues. There may be a historic opportunity to elect the Green leader who has been involved in nurturing many of our youth movements and could have an impact. But with the NDP on the rise and the Liberals in free fall, where would a Conservative majority leave us?

The environmental movement has to up its game. We’ve reached the attention of many, except for those holding power. We need some deep discussions about where we’re headed and what will work from now on.

One hope is to eat our way out of the mess. The New York Times recently headlined, “Foodies Can Eclipse (and Save) the Green Movement.”

“But here's the good news,” read the article, “the two sides aren't really competing. As the food movement matures and grows, it could end up being the best vehicle available for achieving environmental goals.”

As usual, the advice I can provide is to get involved and learn. Work with like-minded folks and see the broader political context. Be strategic and have discussions – if we reach out and work together, we can win.

Suggested reading:

My past Earth Day articles, 2006, 2009, 2010

Federal Election Party Platform Environmental Report Card, Sierra Club of Canada

Our Generation, Our Future, Our Demands, Canadian Youth Climate Coalition

Foodies Can Eclipse (and Save) the Green Movement, Time Magazine

Take action:

http://www.elections.ca/

http://www.pushfoodforward.com

http://www.facebook.com/no.mega.quarry

http://chocosol.posterous.com

http://tyfpc.ca

http://www.ourclimate.ca/wordpress

http://www.greenpeace.org/canada

Some Earth Day reflections on climate politics, recession, food and good reads

"If the climate was a bank [the U.S.] would already have saved it."
- Hugo Chavez

Earth Day always leaves me wanting to get back to the keyboard to "pen" a few thoughts. Last year, I wrote that solutions exist and that a good society needs to take them up to make a significant difference.

Cleaning up our act

Earlier today I spent time picking up litter in Grange Park in Toronto, somewhere I often have lunch and enjoy immensely as an inner-city park. The Green Party of Ontario organized it, and it was the second cleanup I helped with this week. I used to not be a fan of these types of activities on Earth Day because they can give the impression that litter is a serious environmental issue, rather than focusing on the deeper changes we need. I want people to realize those decisions that will make a difference - getting out of their cars, reducing home energy use, increasing their consumption of healthy vegetables and pulses - not just focusing on largely aesthetic factors. I now realize that clean ups are more of an issue of community integrity and pride, important to go along with strictly "environmental" activities. And how can we value keeping the atmosphere clean if we can't even keep trash out of our backyards?

But we still sandwich in the park clean up between other work, because working on poltical organizing, communications and Green policy development are actions that have the possibility to motivate large scale shifts. It is in politics, along with education and writing like this,g where I enjoy putting my efforts.

Cycling home, the line of cars I and a few others pass reminds me of the causes of declining global trends harming the Earth's life support systems of the atmosphere, biosphere and hydrosphere. Recent global struggles on climate, and biodiversity even more so, have been wildly unsuccessful due to a plethora of reasons including failures of political and economic systems and an environmental movement unable to capture the change it desires.

Recession and a Carbon Tax

Global recession has caught the attention of the world well stronger than the climate and other earth crises, because the recession is affecting the developed world and is noticeable right now in people's day to day. Most people don't look down the road, and many don't have the ability to make decision based on tomorrow because of the needs of survival. As the recession has diverted much attention away from the Earth, governments such as the French are pulling back from effective policies like carbon taxes because of declining public support. In Canada, a significant policy presented by Stephane Dion was turned down by the public due to a Conservative Party who saw fit to simplify and vilify a strong opposition proposal, and an NDP who forgot about inter-generational and global equity.

The irony is that the recession has slowed economic growth, making good on energy reductions that governments have been unable to achieve. A recession if it continued, and it perhaps could due to rising oil prices, could bring down atmospheric carbon and prevent the climate going out of control.

But the economy need not be like this. In preparing an economic system that uses low fossil fuels, we could create good new jobs in clean energy, sustainable agri-food, transportation, arts and culture. Governments and industries haven't grasped this possibility, some are only testing the waters, like the McGuinty government in Ontario.

It is due to these broad failures that I now believe we will pass 350 parts per million of CO2, what scientists have said is humanity's safe level. Others have argued this level is not safe, and will mean suicide, especially for small island states. I'm not sure this debate matters, because without a complete change in trends, or deep recession, we will fly past 350 and rise not two degrees, but perhaps four or five by the end of the Century. This is my opinion based on observations over the last few months and years of political and scientific trends.

Changing my tune

This doesn't mean though that we should stop working to reduce our emissions. First, we can't predict with certainty what will happen, and reducing emissions as fast as we can could stop runaway climate change. Second, although deep environmental and societal impacts are inevitable, the lower the temperature increase, the lower those possible impacts to life. But it also means we need to shift energy not just to mitigation, but to adapting to climate change, because we know it is happening.

Starting this Earth Day, I will be advocating further on adaptation - something that environmentalists haven't been talking a lot about, in hopes that we can stop everything. The environmental justice movement has brought about attention, the strongest in the form of the need to pay for climate debt to the developing world. Obviously, such a proposal has run into stumbling blocks. But the work to be done in adapting to climate change - and a world full of weakened ecological systems more broadly - is work that we now must realize if we are to figure out how to grow and distribute food, conserve water, live and move around in times with increased heat waves, droughts, flooding, storms, species loss and diseases. We don't know how the planet and human systems will react to these pressures - we can only plan and be resilient for what might come.

Focus on Food

I have worked lately on saving farmland in the proposal for a Markham Foodbelt. Farmers have wanted to make money on their land - and now believe that selling to developers is the only way to do that. Even in the GTA we have forced those unable to make money into supporting environmental degradation, instead of endorsing policies to keep our best land, produce local food and support those growing it. And yet it will be land just like this that will keep us resilient to a change in climate when oil prices are high and ecological damage becomes more apparent.

I enjoy working on food system issues because they relate to the environment, but also to the kind of living we need to create in order to support while enjoying healthier food, supporting small scale economies and reducing our input of CO2 while adapting to new realities.

These are some areas I will continue to work on and I hope you'll join me. This work will be very community-based, with trust that those in communities throughout the world are doing similar work. The global struggles must continue, while movements for change innovate to not just depending on failing international governance to get us where we need to be, but also working on direct actions and broadening the number of people supporting political efforts.

Doing the clean up last weekend, an elementary school aged girl who was helping me was looking at the garbage, asking why people would throw all of this stuff on the ground.

"This one's recyclable," she stated matter-of-factly. "I know that because my school's an Ecoschool."

Children and youth certainly have different mindsets even from when I was growing up - I am constantly surprised by the level of awareness. Many have hope that as they grow up things will change. Past generations have indeed left the planet in a mess. My hope that a future generation will change things isn't 100%, but with a broad-based knowledge of the problems, some have always said that only massive awareness will make things better.

With that said, I applaud those cleaning the parks, educating youth, communicating change, being change and challenging change.

Happy Earth Day

Recommended readings:

http://this.org/blog/2010/04/22/earth-day/
http://www.alternativesjournal.ca/magazines/new-eco-books-363
http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2010/world/bolivian-village-wants-compensation-for-climate-change-adaptation/

Some thoughts on an Earth Day

Three years ago I wrote the first article in a sustainability column giving tribute to environmental heroes who have made an impact locally (Southern Ontario) and internationally. I was reminded last Friday in a talk by Jane Goodall that everything you do every day makes a difference - how you act towards people and treat animals and what you say, what you do to the environment. I think this is the basis of Earth Day and the ability of individual changes to make a combined difference.
It was also a political movement which brought Washington to a stand-still in 1970 and brought 20 million Americans out to participate. Yes, Earth Day is an American creation. It meant peace and ecology and that's still what we're working towards. Today in Ontario we celebrate the institution of a new pesticide act which bans the use and purchase of hundreds of chemicals which may be dangerous to the health of people and wildlife. This is a day for everyone involved in the environmental movement to be proud, all those who worked municipally and provincially on campaigns for legislation - and also to know that green jobs will come with new types of lawn care and naturalization, work that requires higher levels of labour and finance.
We now go beyond to the next challenges of our time including nuclear disarmament, widespread poverty and disease, agricultural transition and the climate crisis, and how we can solve these and others in a new economy and caring society. Luckily we already have the solutions being in things like micro-credit, renewable energy, public transportation, health and clean water solutions, local trade and sustainable agriculture. What we make of the world is up to us, and particularly the younger generations who need to stand up to force others to listen and to make political and personal changes themselves. What are you doing today? Tomorrow?


My colleague Rebecca McNeil and I are working on a new column which will discuss tools of change, providing practical ways that people have made change can how we can organize for a new progressive and sustainable agenda for Canada. Stay tuned.

from: http://darcyhiggins.blogspot.com