The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are a must-read for anyone who cares about what kind of planet weāre going to leave to our kids.
Problem is, outside of academic circles and environmental groups, these important reports are now mostly falling flat. It seems that the general public has gone through a kind of systematic desensitization to the issue.
Itās been talked about for so many years that a new report on the devastating effects of global warming and climate change gets a shoulder shrug, meh!
Itās as if the IPCC were some poor soul wearing a sandwich board sign blaring out: āRepent the End is Nighā. Easy to ignore. If the world does come to an end, we wonāt have to worry (and what does that guy know anyway?)ā¦
What's making it through to the average voter?
Inflation: Now thatās real. Ordinary Canadians feel its effects every day.
Vladimir Putinās illegal war against Ukraine and crimes against humanity? Yep, those are real too. See them on TV. Arrest the murderer!
Justin Trudeauās refusal to allow a full investigation of the Chinese Communist Partyās interference in our elections? Really real! Overt attack on the foundations of Canadian democracy by a foreign power. Does Trudeau stand on guard for theeeeee? Not so much.
Canadaās shameful failure to meet our international obligations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?
What? Who cares? Natural resources are the backbone of our economy...
When Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault sat at the cabinet table and agreed to the outrageous plan to dig oil wells into the ocean floor off Newfoundland and Labrador, all the phoniness of Trudeauās climate pretensions were revealed.
Guilbeault, a once-respected environmentalist, was now being used as a prop. He emotes at international biodiversity conferences then agrees to oil drilling in highly sensitive deep ocean ecosystems.
Guilbeault has already announced that he plans to ācollaborateā with the head of this years climate conference to be held inā¦Dubai! What a perfectly appropriate word: "collaborateur". Sort of rolls off the tongue like āspecial rapporteurā.
Guilbeault apparently believes thereās enough wool in Canada to cover everyoneās eyes at the same time.
He has the chutzpah to claim that this massive new oil project will be carbon neutral! Of course thatās pure nonsense but hereās how he explains it: Canada just wonāt include, on our balance sheet, the greenhouse gases that will be released when that petroleum gets burned somewhere else. Like magic, fossil fuel extraction in Canada becomes a ānet zeroā project.
It would be funny if it werenāt so sad.
Trudeau hoodwinked everyone on climate change during the 2015 campaign, when I was one of his opponents. He mastered none of the details but all of the glib lines.
We had to stop opposing the environment and the economy. Yeah, sure, but what are you actually going to do?
Last Friday, Trudeauās Royal Canadian Air Force flew the prime ministerās empty private business jet from Toronto to Waterlooās regional airport ā a 10-minute, 65-kilometre flight ā so he could avoid the drive back to Toronto to get flown back to Ottawa. Itās been like that for eight years.
āCanada is backā was his boast at the Paris climate conference shortly after his election in 2015. He just forgot to mention that he was actually going to come back with Stephen Harperās plan, timelines and targets andā¦private planes.
STILL LAGGARDS, BUT WITH COOL SOCKS
He made us feel so much better about ourselves than Harper, that it didnāt seem to matter that weāve had one of the worst records since signing onto the Paris deal. We are still laggards but weāve got cool socks.
Canada continues to provide subsidies to the oil and gas sector despite our international commitments to end them.
Trudeau will continue to emote, to posture and to do more harm to the planet. Problem is, his main opponent in the next election, Pierre Poilièvre, is dogmatically opposing even the modest tax we have on carbon (and that is actually reimbursed to the average family).
Poilièvre missed an excellent opportunity last week to score some points when he was asked point blank whether he would fly on commercial aircraft if he becomes prime minister. Heās clearly thought about it but after a short pause wouldnāt say heād forego the climate-killing private-plane perk that he uses to bash Trudeau.
Despite his great intentions and strong critique, the plan Jagmeet Singh put forth in the last campaign was panned by recognized experts, like Mark Jaccard, as being devoid of substance. He has an opportunity to take the lead on the issue this time around if he does his homework.
has finally succeeded in totally destroying the Green Party which, tragically, plays zero role in getting us to net zero.
Canada is indeed blessed to have such an incredible wealth of natural resources. Everything from our forests to our strategic minerals. Canada also has 20 per cent of the worldās fresh water, possibly our greatest source of natural capital as we face the inevitability of global warming that will dry up that precious resource in many of the worldās poorest nations.
Climate change will create security issues that will make the Syrian refugee crisis pale in comparison. Wars will continue to be fought as places to live become scarcer. The world will be a very different place as what weāve wrought on the environment echoes throughout our economies and societies. Governance issues wonāt be only for Wall Street to worry about, Main Street may never be the same.
Canada is a bellwether state on climate change. Like others, we seem to understand the causes and solutions but have never had the wherewithal to act. We talk a good game but itās for show at international conferences. The fact is, thereās not been any tangible result from our successive governments since Chretienās Liberals signed the original Kyoto deal a generation ago.
As former Chretien chief of staff Eddie Goldenberg admitted later, the Liberals failed completely because they never had a plan to meet the lofty goals. Instead, it was all about āgalvanizing public opinionā. In other words, it was political theatre and a branding operation for the Liberals.
MARK CARNEY MAY BE OUR BEST HOPE
Itās counterintuitive to say that a central banker may be our best hope but has done some groundbreaking work in getting the business sector on board in the fight against climate change. Definitions of net zero and offsets will always be an issue but the only thing that counts is the measurable result.
Carney has shown an understanding and willingness to put his decades of work as Governor of the Banks of Canada and of England to good use to help save the planet. Thereās delightful irony in the fact that the person best placed to counter the right-wing war against ESG (environmental, societal and governance) reporting in the investment sector is the person who knows the most about investors.
Senior federal Liberals have begun whispering to Trudeau that thanks to his success with child-care, dental care and health-care programs and agreements, he should be viewing this third term as his legacy mandate. Not exactly greasing the skids but certainly a classy way to plant the idea that it may be time for him to move on to a few directorships in the private sector.
Liberals will be well served by a titanic leadership battle of ideas between the highly competent but resolutely right-leaning Chrystia Freeland and the exceptional Carney. His lack of experience in politics (and in Trudeauās Cabinet) may in fact turn out to be major assets as the self-styled ānatural governing partyā prepares for Trudeauās succession.
Tom Mulcair was the leader of the federal New Democratic Party of Canada between 2012 and 2017
