"Thoughts and Prayers" Don't Cut It Anymore.

In the wake of the sudden deaths of hundreds of Canadians in the heat bubble of last week, our prime minister said the most banal thing imagineable, “Our thoughts are with people who have lost loved ones.” 

It's not your saccharine 'thoughts and prayers' we need, Justin. Deeds, not words. The Canadian people need to know their government will do everything in its power that we don't have more Lyttons and Fort McMurrays, which, unless something changes and soon, is the path we're on.

You've been prime minister for six years. You have to own this. The previous management was no damn good but what's your excuse?

So, what's your plan? What great ideas have you come up with these past six years? We've still got two or three, possibly more months of wildfire season ahead. What's the plan? Killer heat waves could be with us perhaps into September.

“The risk of heatwaves is increasing across the globe sufficiently rapidly that it is now bringing unprecedented weather and conditions to people and societies that have not seen it before,” said Prof Peter Stott from the Met Office. “Climate change is taking weather out of the envelope that societies have long experienced.”

Prof Simon Lewis of University College London described the situation as “scary” and warned that extreme heat events could have huge impacts on everything from food prices to power supplies.

“Everywhere is going to have to think about how to deal with these new conditions and the extremes that come along with the new climate that we are creating. That means everyone needs plans.”

He said it was crucial governments and policymakers heeded the warning signs and dramatically ramped up plans to halt fossil fuel emissions and prepare societies to deal with more extreme weather events.

“This is a warning in two senses,” said Lewis. “We have to get emissions down to zero fast to cut off the new extreme heatwaves, and we have to adapt to the new climate conditions we are creating.”

The clock has run out on bitumen and coal. You have to shut them down. That's the essence of climate mitigation in a petro-state.  Then, both alone and in conjunction with the provinces, you have to implement a major programme of adaptation measures. That, alone, should create plenty of jobs for those lost in the oil patch.

You're chomping at the bit to call an early election. That makes the climate emergency your Achilles' Heel.

Comments

  1. Northern PoVJuly 5, 2021 at 7:08 AM

    " thinking of this catastrophic heat wave as the “new normal,” which she calls “really misleading” as it actually underestimates the gravity of the situation. “It implies we’re going from one state to another state. We’re in a period when there’s going to be ongoing change for decades.

    “The new normal is not the current temperature. The new normal is the constant change.”

    Otherworldly heat records

    Never in the century-plus history of world weather observation have so many all-time heat records fallen by such a large margin than in the past week’s historic heat wave in western North America. The only heat wave that compares is the great Dust Bowl heat wave of July 1936 in the U.S. Midwest and southcentral Canada. But even that cannot compare to what happened in the northwestern U.S. and western Canada over the past week.

    “This is the most anomalous regional extreme heat event to occur anywhere on Earth since temperature records began. Nothing can compare,” said weather historian Christopher Burt, author of the book Extreme Weather.

    Pointing to Lytton, he added, “There has never been a national heat record in a country with an extensive period of record and a multitude of observation sites that was beaten by [a few degrees Celsius].”

    International weather records researcher Maximiliano Herrera agrees. “What we are seeing now is totally unprecedented worldwide,” said Herrera, who tweeted on June 30, “It’s an endless waterfall of records being smashed.” " via the Tyee

    Nothing can compare!
    Perhaps this will finally cut through BC's cognitive dissonance around climate change.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Disaffected LibJuly 5, 2021 at 8:37 AM

      BC's cognitive dissonance, really? It's Ottawa that has the real power to act in an emergency, NPoV.

      Ottawa has been bullshitting the Canadian people on what it's going to do to avert climate change for 30+ years. Remember we now have a government that has pledged to "follow the science."

      Let's face facts. This autumn we'll be electing a government whose priority is getting elected, not serving the country in perilous times. That's true whether the name on the door is Trudeau or O'Toole.

      Your man has had six years to follow the science. How has that gone? How far has he brought Canada on mitigation? On adaptation?

      We're getting the "thoughts and prayers" treatment that normally precedes the "who knew" excuse. Who knew? Anyone, make that everyone who stayed abreast of the numerous government and NGO agencies researching and evaluating this climate emergency. Environment Canada knew. That was evident in their latest annual report that concluded "we're not ready."

      You must be itching to point out what a great job your man has done on finding vaccines and I will, with some reservation, accept that. However the climate emergency is an existential threat and we've known about it for 30+ years.

      What is happening right now, in Canada and pretty much everywhere else, is a reminder that time is running out to get national mitigation and adaptation strategies implemented. How many more reminders will we get?

      Time is running out. What we do with the time remaining will determine the fate and future of our country. Now, where do we find a leader of vision and courage who realizes our predicament?

      Delete
  2. Northern PoVJuly 5, 2021 at 10:32 AM

    I am puzzled by the adversarial tone of your reply, Mound. Horgan has lots of 'real power' in the most decentralized federation on earth.

    While Horgan & Trudeau have both been competent pandemic managers, they are milquetoast green-washers that only look 'good' to us because of the right-wing nutjobs that dominate their main opposition in our fptp cul-de-saq.

    I do appreciate this:
    "what a great job your man has done on finding vaccines and I will, with some reservation, accept that." progress! ;-)

    But "Your man" ??? Where on earth did you get this idea?

    I have no patience for the spin that BC is in any way less culpable than Canada (or even Alberta) in our lack of mitigating actions re climate change. (Sentiment is for greenwashers)

    If Horgan had killed Site C, pushed back on LNG (instead of full steam ahead), stopped subsidies to fossil fuels in general, ended the logging of old growth and fought harder against TMX, BC might be in a moral position to point fingers.

    ReplyDelete
  3. John B.July 5, 2021 at 11:15 AM

    Once our city announced the possibility of a water shortage and asked its residents to cut down on their consumption. Many of them proceeded forthwith to soak their lawns and fill their bathtubs.

    Based on our record it would be difficult for any Canadian government to influence any of the other major polluters of the atmosphere to cut down on their contributions. We always knew but denied that we had to start with ourselves, but our bathtubs never got quite full enough.

    Algoma's EAF(s) will have to do for now. (After listening to Justin, I've got more questions than answers on that one.)

    ReplyDelete
  4. lungtaJuly 5, 2021 at 8:14 PM

    while it is obvious that humanity has a fair share of self righteous pearl clutchers'
    it remains also factual
    there is no such beast as the innocent bystander
    we all lived the dream
    not once saying "ok i'll just leave some on the table"
    we all took maximum advantage every time.... it was just business
    like that jew in gaza video
    "if i dont steal it ... someone else will "

    ReplyDelete

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