Climate change leadership and transfer of jobs to the green economy of alternate energy and non carbon transportation are flies that demand progress now. This requires leaders that seek common ground This change is not compatible with authoritarian, “my way or the highway” leadership that results in division and lack of progress.
Katharine Hayhoe offers very relevant information for Canadians.1
https://youtu.be/Pr1LzjXbqR0
Katharine Hayhoe asks if Canada is so far north, global warming would actually be good for it…right? After all Canada doesn’t have as much to lose as other countries. Katharine Hayhoe offers very relevant information for Canadians. It is in harmony with the IPCC plan to (1) STOP using coal to generate electricity. (2) STOP using gas and diesel in transportation. This transformation of the energy and transportation infrastructure will require many engineers, technologists, technicians, and tradespeople to accomplish.
The Kleinman Center hosted a panel discussion, Pricing Carbon: Lessons from Canada, that welcomed three experts to discuss Alberta’s Climate Leadership Plan. As negotiations leading to the Climate Leadership Plan began, Alberta faced a history of contentious relations between the energy industry, environmentalists, and other stakeholders.
“We came to the realization, and the environmental community came to the realization at the same time, that we were in an endless shouting match with each other,” said Cenovus’ Mitchell. “We weren’t getting infrastructure built and access to markets, and they weren’t getting strong carbon policy.”
Given the difficult politics of climate change in the United States, consensus on a climate plan might seem far-fetched here. But in Alberta, conservative and liberal governments held a common agenda on climate change driven by their dual loyalties to economic development and their environment. Alberta’s burden was particularly large, as it had just 11 percent of Canada’s population, but was the source of 37 percent of the country’s greenhouse emissions.2
Kate Aronoff of the Guardian writes that Older politicians are too quick to write off younger climate activists.
Yet realism on climate means something different than it did even a decade or two ago, when a modest carbon tax and a smattering of tax credits might have gotten the job done. As the IPCC noted in its latest report, avoiding climate breakdown at this point will mean a “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society”, including massive investments in renewable energy and new technology and going to war with the world’s most powerful industry, fossil fuels.
Thankfully, Sunrise, Ocasio-Cortez and other Green New Deal advocates are updating our shared definition of what being realistic in a climate-changed 21st century looks like. The adults in the room would do well to listen.3
But where are their solutions to the climate crisis?
References
1
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(n.d.). Global Weirding with Katharine Hayhoe - YouTube. Retrieved February 22, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi6RkdaEqgRVKi3AzidF4ow
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2
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(n.d.). Fighting Global Warming by Finding Common Ground | Kleinman .... Retrieved March 5, 2019, from https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/fighting-global-warming-finding-common-ground
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3
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(2019, February 25). Don't trust the adults in the room on climate change ... - The Guardian. Retrieved March 5, 2019, from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/25/adults-room-climate-change-dianne-feinstein
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