Katharine Hayhoe is a Canadian scientist and professor at Texas Tech University, evangelical Christian and someone who manages to remain positive, even as the news about climate catastrophes grows ever worse. She keeps working to convince people that "The science is clear: every bit of warming matters, every action matters."
She knows people can change because when her pastor husband did not believe the climate crisis was serious, she succeeded in convincing him. Realizing many people feel discouraged, she reminds us that we have seen monumental change before, such as the abolition of slavery or when women and Indigenous people gained the right to vote. She urges politicians to stop arguing over who is to blame and strive to be the ones offering the best solutions.
I agree with her that it's important for us to continue to call for climate action. I believe how we face crises that might at first seem unrelated, like US president-elect Donald Trump's 25 per cent tariff plan and threats of annexation, matter too.
CBC Radio interviewed David MacNaughton, former Canadian ambassador to the US, about how we should respond. He urged us not to try to negotiate, willy-nilly, on social media. Makes sense. He went on to suggest Canada speed up approvals for big projects, so we can have more to offer to the US.
The CBC did not inform us that MacNaughton stepped down as ambassador in order to become president of Palantir Technologies Canada, a big data analytics company which provides software platforms for commercial and government institutions in a variety of fields, notably for defence and intelligence agencies.
In another interview MacNaughton urged us to do things he says we ought to be doing anyways, such as strengthening border security, expanding our involvement in NORAD and increasing military spending, as a demonstration of good faith that might help prevent Trump from imposing tariffs.
Does this approach, a form of appeasement, make sense?
Another CBC interview demonstrates another approach worth considering. Piya Chattopadhyay interviewed housing expert Carolyn Whitzman. Asked about how a tariff war might affect our efforts to get affordable housing built, Whitzman acknowledged imports from the US would surely become more expensive. But, since we need to build on a large scale, with enough standardization to keep costs low, the tariff problem could provide an incentive for the government to nurture the Canadian businesses that are ready to build, but which need certainty in order to move forward in a big way.
Yes! Let's use the threat of tariffs to do things we ought to have done long ago, including decreasing spending on militarization and megaprojects. And let's focus more on producing and selling what we need (not what we may feel entitled to) locally. Then we could protect the Salish Sea from the proposed RBT2 shipping terminal that is slated to bring more than two million additional shipping containers into BC through a facility that would be larger than 300 football fields, in the mouth of the Fraser.
If we're serious about reducing GHG emissions, we need to restructure our economy, indeed our whole way of life. Ultimately, our security depends more on learning to foster what is best in humanity, not on whether we can outgun some other nation. Clearly, it depends on preventing ecological and social collapse.
If we want to change direction, lots of work has already been done that could get us headed in a healthier direction. For example, Canadian Mike Nickerson has many resources available on his sustainwellbeing.net site. We need to free ourselves from a colonizing worldview. The worldviewliteracy.org site is a great place to start on that effort.
We need to hear more from the many people who recognize the dangers of our dominant worldview and of fascistic tendencies in our societies, and who are doing amazing things to show how another world is truly possible and much healthier and happier for everyone.
For people wanting to get news that can help nurture this worldview, my top recommendation is Nonviolence News, curated by the amazing author, dancer, farmer, Rivera Sun.
Jan Slakov is a member of qathet Climate Alliance.
Join the Peak's email list for the top headlines right in your inbox Monday to Friday.
