There will come soft rains . . .

Memorial to Homo Sapiens? - Puerto Vallarta Malecon

There’s no denying: climate change and forecasts of dire effects for the planet and living things on it are front and centre in Canada’s public discourse these days. As with every prophetic pronouncement of impending doom, there are those who tear out their hair as they trumpet worst-case scenarios, and there are those who seek to maintain their happy place through denial. Between them are the quiet majority for whom the screaming, divisive rhetoric of the doom-sayers and denialists just adds another worry to an already-worrisome life, like a newly-erupting boil on the behind when your arthritis is acting up . . . again.

As far as I can tell, we’re pretty much agreed that flooding and wildfires are increasing noticeably and that that’s really, really bad for people who live in the most vulnerable parts of the country. What we haven’t determined to anyone’s satisfaction is whether or not the human ingenuity and innovation that contributed to the phenomenon of climate change can be redirected to slow it down enough to make a difference. Neither have we taken seriously the “What will we do about it?” question or put another way, “However will we pay for steps to protect vulnerable life on the planet in the future?”

Right now, we’re being urged to pick sides with positions that are nonsensical; a few zingers come to mind:

1. “A small but escalating carbon tax is the most effective and cost-efficient way to reduce corporate and individual use of fossil fuels.” This is nonsense on two levels: by the time we reach the point of effectiveness of such a tax the matter will have become moot. (Some projections have said that the signs of human extinction will be obvious already in a decade or two.) Much more than a carbon tax must be enacted if Canada is to make a reasonable, proportional contribution to the greenhouse gas solution.
2. “Canada’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions world-wide is so minuscule that the imposition of a carbon tax is laughable.” This is nonsense on two levels: given that climate change’s effects will be global, any and every effort including the smallest contributes to the solution. Furthermore, Canada needs to model innovative options in order to have influence on laggard nations as the problem’s effects escalate.
3. “Climate fluctuations are normal on planet earth; there have been ice ages and ice-melting ages and the current global warming is just one of these fluctuations.” Global warming ended the last ice age around 12,000 B.C. The estimated world population in 10,000 B.C. was 4 million, so there was plenty of room on the planet for migrating to survivable climes. With a population exceeding 7 billion (or 7,000 million+), a similar option just doesn’t exist.
4. “Humanity has always been able to adjust to change and as it becomes necessary, we will adjust to global warming when we have to.” Historically, it’s been the wealthy and the powerful that have had the means to adjust to major catastrophe. Trump’s “We’ll build a wall,” Hadrian’s Wall, the Great Wall of China, the nuclear-arms race etc., are and were preparations for ensuring that the already-privileged would survive and prosper, even if that meant allowing (or requiring) the less-fortunate masses to starve in the dark.
5. “It’s all in God’s hands; God will save us.” That the God of Israel did not save his people from the holocaust or Haiti from the 2010 earthquake or millions of people from ongoing warfare globally etc. should teach us that whatever God’s activities in creation might be, rescuing people from their preventable follies—even from unpreventable natural disaster or human savagery—is not one of them.

The most troubling thought in all this comes from our abysmal record of denial and division where common judgment and joint action are called for. Every effort to unite us is countered by a political tribalism that effectively kills forward motion. Perhaps this trait is woven into our DNA so that we have no choice but to be competitive, even when cooperation is mandatory for our very survival.

The most pessimistic among us have concluded that the train has already left the station, or more aptly, that the canoe has already gone over the waterfall. Surely that doesn’t get us any closer to what’s to be done. For the optimistic rest-of-us, crossing our fingers and waiting to see what develops just won’t be enough, I’m afraid. 

There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;

And frogs in the pools singing at night,
And wild plum-trees in tremulous white;

Robins will wear their feathery fire
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;

And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree
If mankind perished utterly;

And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,
Would scarcely know that we were gone. - Sara Teasdale