The one supposedly killer argument that is used to defend the extraction of bitumen from under Alberta’s boreal forest is that we depend on the oil, and our global civilization would collapse without it.
“Don’t you use oil to drive to your meetings and fly to your conferences?” defenders of the tar sands ask.
The rational response is to admit that yes, we do, but the tar-sands produce some of the world’s dirtiest oil, and we urgently need to redesign the world so that we don’t need it, whether it goes to China or Houston, Texas.
A new year is with us, and a great transformation is underway as we learn how to live on Earth with far less ecological impact.
The transformation is happening in many areas, but let’s pick personal transport, cars and light trucks, to see what we can do. By how much could we reduce our ecological impact?
In 2010, Canadians used 40 billion litres of gasoline in their road motor vehicles. Each litre produces 2.34 kg of carbon dioxide when burnt, so that’s 94 million tonnes of fresh carbon dioxide trapping heat in the atmosphere every year - a quarter of which will remain there for over 500 years. Long after we are gone, and only a fragment of cyber-memory remains of our lives, a quarter of the CO2 from the gasoline we burn today will still be warming the atmosphere, offending our ancestors twenty generations down.
So here’s how we can fix it, to prevent the damage from climate change from getting any worse.
Al Gore called it The Inconvenient Truth, and I’ll bet he’s had many sleepless nights since his film came out.
We live in very troubling times, since the gravity of the looming climate crisis is being pushed out of people’s minds by a desperate concern to restore economic growth, aided by a successful campaign by climate-deniers and fossil fuel interests to downplay the risks of climate change and emphasize the virtues of the so-called ‘ethical’ oil sands and so-called ‘clean’ natural gas.
If anyone doubts the urgency of the climate crisis, they have only to consider the generally conservative International Energy Agency, which reported in November that the world is hurtling toward irreversible climate change, and that if bold action is not taken in the next five years the world will lose the chance to limit warming.
What do we want? If we can’t define what success is and visualize it clearly we’ll never achieve it. The Occupy movement will degrade into an argument over the right to camp on public land or a takeover by rogue elements who aim to provoke the police, and this new generation of activists will trade hope for cynicism, saying “We tried, but it didn’t work.”
How can it be that after so many years, we still don’t know what we want? A vague mish-mash of demands about greater equality, taxing the rich, reducing the power of the banks and ending corporate rule does not have the same punch as the Ninety Five Theses that Martin Luther nailed to the door of Wittenberg church on October 31st 1517, launching the Protestant Reformation that overthrew the Catholic Church.
Why is it so difficult? There’s a clear reason, but first, let’s do some political detective work.
Back in 1970, Alvin and Heidi Toffler wrote a best-selling book called Future Shock. They predicted all sorts of change, including the Internet, and forecast that people would be overwhelmed by the speed of change.
Did it happen? I think not. Most people embraced the changes from birth control pills to i-Pads with excitement and pleasure.
If they were writing today, they might write a book titled Future Fear. People read about global warming, the wipe-out of the world's fish stocks, the collapse of the honey-bees, the population explosion, the possible collapse of the global economy, and they feel afraid, thinking "Stop the future - I want to get off!"
This is understandable, but not wise. Alarm is good if it leads to a positive response. Fear is not, since it shuts down positive thinking. Future neuroscience may find that fear and negative attitudes send chemical messages to the brain that switch off activity in the areas associated with creativity and rational decision-making.
We are deeply programmed to live in the present. For most of our history there was little change from one century to the next. Once we are relatively comfortable, we like things to stay the same, to return to the same good hunting grounds year after year.
$43 trillion - that’s how much is owed by governments to external debt-holders, according to The Economist’s global debt clock. In 2012 it will rise to $46 trillion.
Here are some of the numbers, showing debt per person and per GDP :
Greece:
$34,154
135% of GDP
Italy:
$37,220
120% of GDP
Portugal:
$16,751
88% of GDP
Spain:
$19,184
88% of GDP
Canada:
$38,262
82% of GDP
US:
$33,135
68% of GDP
Strange… there’s Canada with a larger debt to GDP ratio than the US. So how come the government has been telling us what good shape Canada is, in compared to the US?
That’s a small matter, however, compared to the big problem, which is how nations can stop the debt from growing, and begin to pay it down. It is because of the debts that governments are cutting back on environmental budgets and social spending at the very time when we need it. What is the way out of the mess? A sustainable world must have sustainable finances.
But first, how did we get into this mess? Maybe understanding that will help us get out of it.
We have been emotionally shocked by the earthquakes and tsunami that have hit your country. Our hearts reach out to you. We live across the ocean on Canadas west coast, and our cherry blossoms bloom at the same time that yours do.
My personal work is devoted to creating a vision of a more sustainable world, and doing what I can to make it happen. I dream of a green economy in which everyone will be able to live and work in harmony with nature, benefiting from solar panels, electric cars, safe bicycle lanes, high speed trains and sociable village communities, enjoying lives that are rich in fulfillment and meaning.
Copenhagen was a big disappointment for the world’s climate movement, and there has been a feeling ever since that our progress has gone off the rails.
If the old ideas are not working, however, it’s a sign that new ones are needed. I have just written a major new paper on the topic, titled Seven Ideas. The ideas have been featured in a Huffington Post interview with Guy Dauncey by Marc Stoiber.
Podcast of Guys February 2010 talk at the
Church of St John the Divine, Victoria
(30 min talk, followed by questions)
Coming soon...
Brokenhagen - So Lets Try Something New December 21, 2009
In the wake of Copenhagen, what are we to make of all the confusion and mutual blaming?
Der Spiegels editorial said What a disaster. The climate summit in Copenhagen has failed because of the hardball politicking of the United States, China and several other countries - and because people just can't seem to fathom how catastrophic climate change will be.
But lets step back a minute, and consider the difficulty of obtaining a binding consensus from the leaders of 193 fractious nations, each of whom has to answer to his or her own voters, on a change so enormous that it calls for nothing less than retrofitting the entire planet for zero carbon operations within 40 years. Theres not a nation on Earth that manages to govern itself by consensus.
Can you imagine any kind of consensus agreement coming out of the USA, where very few Democrats deny the science of climate change, and very Republicans accept it?
Ten Ways for Canada to Flourish without Fossil Fuels
Green Power from the Sun, Wind, and Tides For how much longer will we burn coal and gas to generate the electricity we need, generating asthma, lung disease, air pollution and global warming? It makes no sense. The numbers show that as a world, we can generate all the electricity we need from solar, wind, tidal, geothermal, hydro and the other renewables, plus the best of efficiency, with no need for nuclear. Ontario is phasing out its coal-fired power plants, and could get 100% of its electricity from renewables by 2027. Connected by a smart supergrid, using our hydro-dams and other means for storage, we can have smart, reliable power that never runs out.
Electric Cars, Powered by the Sun, Wind and Tides
Who killed the hydrogen and biofueled cars? The electric car, in a delightful act of revenge. Right now, the worlds major automakers are all engaged in a race to produce the best electric car. Better Place is working with Nissan/Renault in Israel, Denmark, Australia, Hawaii, San Francisco and 20 other places to produce an integrated system with electric cars, EV charging posts and EV battery replacement stations. Plug-in Hybrid EVs are coming that will run on electricity for 80% of their miles. Combined with regular EVs and lightweight designs, these cars could reduce our need for liquid fuel in cars and light trucks by 95%.
This short PDF booklet is a pre-publication draft of the Ten Solutions for Communities section of my forthcoming book, The Climate Challenge: 101 Solutions to Global Warming (New Society Publishers, Fall 2009).
These solutions are set within the wider context of three arguments that are laid out in detail in the book:
That global warming poses a real and present danger to the existence of all life on Earth, and we must act with immediacy and urgency.
That the peak oil threat to the worlds future oil supply is very imminent, and even if climate change did not exist as a concern, communities must start planning immediately so that local residents and business can operate without need for oil.
That the economic, job-creation, and health benefits of undertaking this shift are enormous, while the financial and environmental costs of not acting are alarming.
When these three factors are considered together, it just makes such sense to get engaged with the solutions.
Please download, enjoy, and feel free to use these ideas in your own municipality.
Guy
Spirituality, Hope and the Future of the Planet
Listen to this inspiring 25-minute presentation made by Guy Dauncey at the First Unitarian Church of Victoria. (MP3, 22.6mb)
Peak Moment TV, Episode 26:
101 Solutions to Global Climate Change
"Author Guy Dauncey's lively, optimistic solutions for Peak Oil and the climate crisis are do-able here and now."
Featured Quote
"Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step." - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
We have been emotionally shocked by the earthquakes and tsunami that have hit your country. Our hearts reach out to you. We live across the ocean on Canadas west coast, and our cherry blossoms bloom at the same time that yours do.
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