We have disrupted a cycle essential to all life.

Humans have disrupted a cycle essential to all life. Doctors and economists may seem like strange partners.

Christopher Ragan, Director, Max Bell School of Public Policy, McGill University and Courtney Howard, Clinical associate professor, Department of Family Medicine, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary spend their days working on very different problems in very different settings. But climate change has injected a common and urgent vocabulary into our work. We find ourselves agreeing both about the nature of the problem and the best solution. It’s essential that we put a price on carbon pollution.

Emergency physician Edward Xie has worked in Toronto for over 10 years. Lately, he’s seen more patients anxious about tick bites. It’s no wonder. A recent medical study shows a fivefold increase in Lyme disease cases in Ontario between 2012 and 2017 as ticks expand their habitat northward.
Dr. Xie also notices more cases of heat exhaustion and dehydration in summer months — particularly among elderly and low-income individuals who lack adequate housing. In Toronto alone, heat already contributes to an estimated 120 deaths each year. The city expects that number to grow.1

Doctors and economists agree. Climate change is here, it’s getting worse, and the best time to do something about it is right now. One way or another, we are paying the costs of climate change — in sick days and lost wages, rising health care costs and home insurance rates, and a less stable climate for the next generation. And we’re still adding new charges to our bill. Both professions agree: we must act.

In a new open letter, more than 3,500 economists state that climate change is “a serious problem” calling for immediate action. The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change research collaborative, which includes doctors and economists, agrees that adequately pricing carbon could be the single most important treatment for climate change.
Economics has a very clear prescription for these challenges: carbon pricing. In the same way that penicillin treats an infection, carbon pricing can help fight climate change. It effectively targets the root of the problem and there’s a mountain of evidence that it works.2 

Several Canadian medical organizations issued a call to all federal political parties to act on climate change, urging serious treatment for what the World Health Organization calls “greatest health threat in the 21st century.”

References

1	(2019, June 30). COMMENTARY: Why doctors argue 'carbon pricing' can 'cure' climate .... Retrieved June 30, 2019, from https://globalnews.ca/news/5428375/climate-change-carbon-tax/
2	(2019, June 24). Climate change puts health at risk and economists have the right .... Retrieved June 30, 2019, from http://theconversation.com/climate-change-puts-health-at-risk-and-economists-have-the-right-prescription-118797

Church will need to respond to Climate Emergency

How should the Church respond to a declaration of a climate emergency?

Coastal Erosion in Nova Scotia

This curation of articles indicates that a response may soon be expected from Church leadership. The Green Christian group urges the UK to join more than 400 local authorities and declare a climate emergency.

 More than 400 local authorities worldwide have declared a Climate Emergency, pledging to take decisive action to reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions and engage citizens to do likewise. In the UK nearly 300 arts and cultural institutions and individuals have joined nearly 70 local authorities in doing so. Opposition Leader Jeremy Corbyn is seeking a Commons debate on the matter this week.
Green Christian is calling on the national governing bodies of Churches and denominations to use their moral leadership and spiritual insight to help mobilise change. A declaration of emergency can act as a catalyst for rapid, focused, co-ordinated and equitable action across society, and help individuals make sacrificial choices which reach well beyond the incremental change achieved so far 1

Climate Mobilization calls for the rapid and just transformation of the physical economy and society at large, delivering an integrated package of solutions for a regenerative, zero emissions and safe-climate economy, geared toward reversing global warming and the 6th mass extinction of species as rapidly as possible.

The U.S. must launch a Climate Mobilization at emergency speed, on a scale not seen since the mobilization leading up to and during World War II.2 

Henry Nicholls of REUTERS reports that after protests, Britain's parliament declares climate change 'emergency' by backing a call by opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn for “rapid and dramatic action” to protect the environment for generations to come.

The measure was passed as an opposition motion, using a procedure typically ignored by the ruling party, and has no direct consequences for policy.
But it is a nod to an increasing vocal activist movement particularly among young people in Europe, who have staged school strikes and civil disobedience campaigns to demand action.
Eleven days of protests by the Extinction Rebellion activist group caused major disruptions in central London in recent weeks, and Swedish schoolgirl campaigner Greta Thunberg addressed lawmakers on a high profile visit.3 

Andrea Gunn reports that Canada could be the next country to declare a climate emergency if a government motion tabled Thursday passes. The Feds are poised to declare a national climate emergency.

 Following countries like the U.K. and Ireland, as well as municipalities like Halifax, a motion tabled by environment minister Catherine McKenna is calling on the government of Canada to declare that Canada is in a national climate emergency, and to go above and beyond its Paris Agreement obligations by pursuing efforts to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius.
On Wednesday, following McKenna’s announced intentions to table the motion, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh tabled their own climate emergency motion that was defeated in a vote Thursday afternoon. The NDP motion contained similar language surrounding the Paris Agreement and keeping climate change below 1.5 degrees, but also included additional points calling on the government to prioritize reconciliation with Indigenous people and ensuring workers don't get left behind when implementing its climate change strategy. The NDP bill also called for immediately ending all fossil fuel subsidies and axing the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.
Emma Norton with the Halifax-based Ecology Action centre said while the motions are meaningful, actions are key.
“It’s very exciting to see two motions put forward in one week to address the fact that we’re in a climate emergency,” she said. “But these declarations do not change policy.”
Norton signalling Canadians and to the international community that climate change is a priority is only meaningful if there are corresponding measures that enact the change necessary to mitigate that emergency and hold the federal government accountable to its climate change goals.4

Kady O'Malley reports on May 14, 2019 that Competing ‘climate emergency’ motions are set to hit the House this week.

Last week, the government served notice that it intended to put forward a motion that would allow the House “to debate the rising climate emergency across Canada,” which was dutifully filed by Environment Minister Catherine McKenna on Monday.
If passed, it would have the House formally declare that Canada “is in a national climate emergency which requires, as a response, that Canada commit to meeting its national emissions target under the Paris Agreement and to making deeper reductions in line with the … objective of holding global warming below two degrees Celsius and pursuing efforts to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius.”5 

Margaret Bullitt-Jonas reports that U.S. religious leaders including Dr. Richard W. Miller, Professor of Philosophical Theology and Sustainability Studies, Creighton University, and inventor and tech business entrepreneur David W. Carroll, author a report entitled “Religious Declaration of Unprecedented Human Emergency”.

 The third lead author of the Religious Declaration, inventor and tech business entrepreneur David W. Carroll, asserted: “There is no moment more critical for all-out personal and cooperative action.In my view, the Religious Declaration of Unprecedented Human Emergency successfully avoids both risks. It presents a menu of effective solutions. And it also lifts up the need to tackle both the ecological and the economic crises. As Pope Francis stated in his encyclical, Laudato Si’, we need to hear both the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor – neither one can be adequately addressed alone.
That is why Religious Declaration supports “the bold direction of the Green New Deal, or other similar science-based proposals, as an opportunity for this country to commit to stabilizing the climate while creating ‘unprecedented levels of prosperity and economic security for all people of the United States.’ This specifically includes low-income communities, communities of color, and those that have historically been marginalized or underserved. The Green New Deal is the first resolution that addresses the climate crisis with the urgency, focus, and comprehensiveness that the situation requires. Our nation mobilized every part of society during World War II and the Great Depression. Like the Greatest Generation, we must rise to the occasion and commit to doing what science says it takes to avoid irreversible catastrophic climate chaos and make a rapid and just transition to a clean energy economy.”6

Emma Norton with the Halifax-based Ecology Action centre is quoted noting that while the motions are meaningful, actions are key.

The Church in Canada, through national bodies like the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and locally from the episcopal leadership, will be expected to address the action required by members of the Church in response to these emergency declarations.

References

1	(2019, May 7). CHURCHES URGED TO DECLARE A CLIMATE EMERGENCY .... Retrieved May 15, 2019, from https://greenchristian.org.uk/churches-urged-to-declare-a-climate-emergency/
2	(n.d.). The Climate Mobilization. Retrieved May 15, 2019, from https://www.theclimatemobilization.org/
3	(2019, May 1). After protests, Britain's parliament declares climate change - Reuters. Retrieved May 15, 2019, from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-climatechange-parliament/after-protests-britains-parliament-declares-climate-change-emergency-idUSKCN1S74OA
4	(2019, May 16). Feds poised to declare national climate emergency | Regional | News .... Retrieved May 16, 2019, from https://www.capebretonpost.com/news/feds-poised-to-declare-national-climate-emergency-312642/
5	(2019, May 14). Competing 'climate emergency' motions set to hit the House this week .... Retrieved May 16, 2019, from https://ipolitics.ca/2019/05/14/competing-climate-emergency-motions-set-to-hit-the-house-this-week/
6	(2019, May 9). Emerging Earth Community | News | U.S. religious leaders issue .... Retrieved May 16, 2019, from http://www.emergingearthcommunity.org/innerfeed?source_site=fore&page_title=U.S.+religious+leaders+issue+%E2%80%9CReligious+Declaration+of+Unprecedented+Human+Emergency%E2%80%9D&article_id=0&feed_type=news&news_url=news/item/u.s.-religious-leaders-issue-religious-declaration-of-unprecedented/

Temperatures rise and science helps industry and ecology

This small collection of articles on the patterns of discussion about climate change raises questions about capitalists who knew and did not act and ecosocialists who aim high for social and economic justice yet have difficulty engaging the people who they claim will most benefit from their approach.

Mitigate coastal erosion

This seemingly stalling initiatives are set against a background of temperature evidence that is not cool.

https://www.this-is-italy.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Europe-Temperatues-map.jpg

The CBC Day 6 interview of Nathaniel Rich, who wrote a New York Times Magazine cover story, "Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change." The article traces the efforts of scientists and politicians to tackle climate change between 1979 and 1989. The work of Humble Oil and Exxon scientists was in recognition that there's going to be policy coming down the line on this, and if the oil industry is going to be part of that conversation, it needs to have a strong understanding of the science.

They had a whole carbon dioxide program, as did the American Petroleum Institute, in the early 'Eighties. By 1984, you have the head of Exxon's research division sponsoring a symposium held by James Hansen, the NASA scientist, and he's talking about how Exxon is going... away from fossil fuels to renewable energy and how Exxon has all of these programs set up to do that. They dropped that shortly thereafter. And when they take it up again in '88, there's sort of different people involved. It's more of the business side that starts to get involved and they begin to formulate what will ultimately become a much vaster effort to propagate this denialism campaign.

The Magical Earth web site has collected data that shows the highest officially (not anecdotally) recorded temperature in all European countries.

The highest officially recorded temperature in the world is 56.7 °C (134.1 °F), which occurred on 10 July 1913 in Furnace Creek, California, USA. Other continents also have some really hot places: 55.0 °C in Africa (Tunisia), 53–54 °C in Asia, 50.7 °C in Australia, and 48.9 °C in South America (Argentina). In comparison, the climate in Europe is fairly mild. The highest temperature was recorded in Athens, Greece, on 10 July 1977, with a measly 48.0 °C. This European map below shows the highest officially (not anecdotally) recorded temperature in all European countries…

System Change not Climate Change, an anti-capitalist, ecosocialist network advocates for workers’ power and sustainability; for a society that is free, just, and equitable; that fosters human creativity and productivity while healing the rifts generated by capitalism among people and between human society and the earth’s ecology. The battle against climate change may need a new system to redistribute wealth.

In order to address the environmental crisis, workers will need to create a new system that redistributes wealth and restructure the economy so it prioritizes people and the planet over profit. The scale of this task is such that workers will need to socialize the energy sector and expand renewable energy, expand mass transit, plan production and agriculture within ecological cycles, reduce the workweek with no loss in pay, and defund the US military and much more.

Neither the neo-liberalism that has dominated our economy in the 21st century nor the ideas of socialism from the 19th century seem to fit a problem of raising money to mitigate the effects of the floods, storms, fires, and coastal erosion that comes with rising temperature.

Global News on extreme weather August 2018

Action will need to be based on science, known to industry and independent ecologists, and political cooperation that puts the planet before populism.

References
(2018, August 10). 'Losing Earth': Do we have a collective moral responsibility to fight .... Retrieved August 11, 2018, from https://www.cbc.ca/radio/day6/episode-402-saudi-trolls-vs-canada-alex-jones-s-precarious-empire-losing-earth-pampered-poultry-and-more-1.4777781/losing-earth-do-we-have-a-collective-moral-responsibility-to-fight-climate-change-1.4777798

(2018, August 4). The Highest heatwave Temperatures in Europe (map) | This is Italy. Retrieved August 11, 2018, from https://www.this-is-italy.com/the-highest-heatwave-temperatures-in-europe-map/

(n.d.). Working-class power | System Change Not Climate Change. Retrieved August 11, 2018, from https://systemchangenotclimatechange.org/workingclass