Message from Bill McKibben – A New Day is Dawning in Canada
This post is drawn from an email message from Bill McKibben to friends and people concerned about the survival of future generations. Canada has been a “huge obstacle in the global fight against climate change,” points out McKibben. Canadians need to join the rest of the world in the struggle for #JobsJusticeClimate. (RollyMontpellier ~ Editor, BoomerWarrior.Org).
It saddens me to see that for the last few years, Canada has been a huge obstacle in the global battle against climate change — it’s the country tearing up treaties and rejecting targets. This has been a shock for those of us living on the rest of the planet. We had gotten used to admiring Canada as a global leader dedicated to solving the planet’s problems.
The majority of people in Canada know that Ottawa’s infatuation with tar sands and other fossil fuels is damaging not just the planet but the country’s future. That’s why our friends across the country are mobilizing in an unprecedented way on July 4th and 5th to demand Jobs, Justice, and Climate Action.
On July 4th people will be out on the front lines, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, at all the places where we need to block the industry’s plans. A line will be drawn in the sand on the beaches of Vancouver, in Edmonton — near the heart of the tar sands — organizers will rally by the legislature, and a kayak flotilla will take shape in Hudson-Oka, Québec. Click here to find an event near you.
And then on July 5th, thousands will converge in Toronto for a great march designed to show our numbers and our resolve. As a federal election looms, mobilizing in large numbers is the only way to show leaders that they need to move beyond the politics of the past — and toward the promise of a future that works for everyone. I’ll be there, and I hope you will as well — click here to RSVP today for the March for Jobs, Justice and the Climate.
The rest of the world can’t afford for Canada’s government to be a wholly owned subsidiary of the fossil fuel industry. We need change and we need it fast. Clearly, politicians aren’t doing anything. The people will have to lead — and that’s exactly what’s going to happen in just a week.
See you there!
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Rolly Montpellier is the Founder and Managing Editor of BoomerWarrior.Org. He’s a Climate Reality leader, a blogger and a Climate Activist. Rolly has been published widely – Toronto Star, The Hill Times, Kingston Whig, the PEN, UnpublishedOttawa, Climate Change Guide, World Daily, Examiner, The Canadian, 350Ottawa, ClimateMama, MyEarth360, GreenDivas, The Elephant, Countercurrents, County Weekly News.
He’s a member of Climate Reality Canada, Citizens’ Climate Lobby (Ottawa) and 350.Org (Ottawa). You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin.
Unfortunately most people think that Bill McKibben is a loon.
http://www.climateconversation.wordshine.co.nz/2013/06/wild-bill-mckibben-outlaws-of-physics/
Mack – thanks for your comment.
I must disagree with you Mack. Most people in my circles believe that McKibben has been an important leader in the fight against climate change. As one of the founders of 350.Org, he has led the organization which was a principal leader in the Peoples March in New York and around the world last September. Other campaigns such as Divestment and “We are Greater than the Tar Sands” have also been led by 350.Org.
Hmmm… does anyone know the statistics for climate deniers?
I suppose there will always be two sides to any argument.
Truth is, we believers only have models (maths, physics, climate statistics, ice cores, earth cores, plant and species extinction rates, tree ring data, carbon dating,oceanic research, space research, sun activity data, volcanism, pollution rates…. shall I go on?) to prove that there is a problem with our earth’s heating climate.
Truth is, deniers hold on to old ideas, 20-year old data, “me-myself and I” idealogies …. perhaps they even deny that the planets revolve around the sun (sorry that is unfair).
We have to grow with the science so we learn. Sure, there will be exuberant people like Bill McKibbon who will draw criticism. So did Marie Curie but no-one disputes her work into penicillin now. OK, Bill McKibbon is not a scientist – but an energetic Proselytizer of climate change principles as put forward by many concurring scientific papers by people who are scientists but not as gifted in sharing their work in the social media outlets (staying firmly in the scientific community for the peer reviews that show they are right or wrong).
Frankly, the climate denier argument is beginning to sound like a lot of conspiracy theories to me. Why do people think that changing to clean technology is somehow a big ploy to make some people rich? Do we think that of TV? of the Internet? (both people who invented those didn’t make any money at all from their inventions).
Surely we can get beyond this blame game and name-calling and start looking a little more closely at what is really happening outside our windows. When did anyone last look at the insects in their environment, how they might have changed, how soil structure has changed, how the trees look in their neighbourhood. We all walk around blind and ignore the die-offs, the poor air quality, the polluted water and say “well we’ve always done it this way, and it hasn’t done anything to me!” – So why are cancer rates rising? Why is dementia and Alzheimer’s disease rising? Why are so many children experiencing allergies? We are ignoring all the signs that unhealthy things are happening everywhere….to the plants, to the animals, and to us.
It is not alarmist to care about the planet, other lifeforms, our children and ourselves. It is a sign that we still have a place on the planet. To become uncaring is to seal our own extinction!
Colette – I like to think of myself as a minnie Bill McKibben, maybe a 1 on a scale of 1 to 100. Like him I’m not a scientist or a climate expert but I rely on what the entire scientific community believes to be true. As you point out, we have all “(maths, physics, climate statistics, ice cores, earth cores, plant and species extinction rates, tree ring data, carbon dating,oceanic research, space research, sun activity data, volcanism, pollution rates”. Do we need more.
What do the deniers have? Deniers use many tactics which I wrote about in this article – Five characteristics of the science of climate denial. http://bit.ly/1daamsu
They have little to go on except twisted versions of the truth and a whole lot of misinformation which they feed to a public eager to look the other way.
Thanks for your detailed comments.