Cameron Fenton is the Canadian Tar Sands Organizer with 350.org.
This week, the cover of the Economist proclaimed “the fall in the price of oil and gas provides a once-in-a-generation opportunity to fix bad energy policies.” The article teased on the cover explains how low oil prices create the space for governments to make rapid leaps to change energy policy instead of “tinkering at the edges” urging policy makers to use this moment to “inject some coherence into the world’s energy policies.”
The Oil Shock
The article gets a lot of things right. Eliminating fossil fuel subsidies and forcing big polluters to pay for the mess they’re making are crucial policy steps, but the piece also presents some more dubious proposals. The last paragraph of the Economist piece is the perfect example of the inherent dangers ahead.
After calling for policy measures to constrain climate change, the author encourages that “governments should be encouraging the growth of seamless global energy markets” through steps like approving the Keystone XL pipeline or lifting restrictions on energy exports. It’s the logic of free-market economics laid out in Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine applied to the climate crisis – that moments of crisis be exploited to reduce regulations and open markets.
Without a big, bold and diverse climate movement, these ideas may never have a chance, or worse could be transformed into policies that leave out or sacrifice those communities on the frontlines of climate change and extraction. If we’ve learned anything in the past decade about climate policy it’s that just because policy makes sense, that doesn’t mean it will happen.
Time to Seize the Moment
It’s now up to us to seize this moment, not to follow politicians but to push them and demand the kind of energy revolution that the best scientific minds on earth are saying we need. This is a moment build on the momentum of the Keystone XL fight to hold politicians to a higher standard, to refuse to accept weak policy and empty commitments on climate.
According to the Carbon Tracker Initiative, $1.1 trillion of potential capital expenditure on fossil fuel projects, including $271 billion in tar sands developments, require a price of oil above $95 a barrel. With the current price hovering close to half that, Stephen Harper’s government has been forced to delay the release of their 2015 budget until April.
An eight year push to expand the tar sands is now coming face to face with the reality of the beginning of the end of the fossil fuel age, and it’s something that neither Harper nor big oil are equipped to deal with.
The fossil fuel industry’s business model, echoed in the policies of the politicians they prop up, is to extract every dollar and barrel they can before the bottom drops out. It’s a model of business as usual that has set us on a crash course, both economically and climatically.
Like past crises, like the 2008 recession, it’s unlikely that those truly responsible – CEO’s and their political allies – will feel the biggest hit. Instead it’s the workers, thousands of who have already been laid off, the communities and the people who will be left out in the cold.
Much of the time, movements move slow and steady, but sometimes we have a chance to sprint. This is one of those moments, and if we wait too long we might miss it. The good news is we don’t have to start from scratch. The beginning of the end of the fossil fuel age has started at campus divestment campaigns, in frontline communities organizing against extraction, where local communities are stopping new fossil fuel infrastructure, and together in the streets at mass mobilizations like the Peoples Climate March.
This is the climate movement’s moment to seize. It’s a moment for the labour movement and climate movement to join together to demand investment in re-tooling and re-training workers to build the new economy.
It’s a moment to divest from dangerous fossil fuels like tar sands and reinvest in the solutions that are here and growing, especially those being led by those communities most impacted by extraction and climate change. It’s a moment to recognize that climate justice needs racial, social and economic justice, and most of all, it’s a moment to be bold.
Image Credit: Derek Bacon, Shutterstock
This post was previously featured on DesmogCanada and HuffPostBlog.
Before any problem can be solved the problem must be clearly defined. The Global Warming problem has been clearly observed. Green house gas clearly implicated. Why are we still on the highway to ecocide? Because $$$/rewards are going to the wrong hands. We need to “Social geo-engineer” the rapacious Socially Enabled Capitalistic Paradigm which itself is a proven “faulty engineered” human construct. Back to the drawing boards. End tax funded pollution of the commons.
Remember the sailors adage: “Never go to sea in a boat you would not be proud to have as a coffin.” I can state without reservation that I am not proud of this rust bucket that is looking like I will be trapped upon to my death bed.
Yes Leif, I must concur. We would like to leave a better world to our successors but that seems unlikely to happen. It’s one thing to attempt to control climate change and global warming but those are the symptoms, among many others, of an economic model which is destroying the planet. Death by capitalism.
World leaders meet to discuss economic growth and the GDP – Davos for example, G20, etc. But no one is willing to talk about the “Socially Enabled Capitalistic Paradigm” you refer to.
Thanks for the comment. Sorry about not responding more promptly.
People power will cause political change. We can rid the system of corporate influence but only with a grassroots movement that supports sustainability in commerce and shows young people that refusing to vote is not rebellion, it’s surender.
The solution in in groups like “SaveNaturefree” (link in previous comment) but many people seem blind to the solution these people are in effect a part of the problem. Keep it simple. – Alexander Reid Co/founder SavetheWorldfree.ning.com
We are still waiting for you to respond. Our list of people who give a BLEEP is growing and the children have access to the published list We have invited the world to join in unity for the future of our home and environment, because “We Love Nature & We Vote”. (Bumper Sticker) If you continue to believe you can do this alone and steadfastly refuse to unite with others (Individuals and groups), you face the prospect of shame and embarrassment, why? just because you would not join a free group that invited you to be one who cares about the planet. Save The World Free is going viral in the near future. This means the sensational reward (wealth sharing kiosk project) will only go to the early birds. We are really exposing those that are full of s _ _ _, come along http://SavetheWorldfree.ning.com Sign in >>> http://savetheworldfree.ning.com/main/authorization/signUp?target=http%3A%2F%2Fsavetheworldfree.ning.com%2F