The Cost Of Living And The Cost Of Staying Alive: Climate Action Is All About Climate Justice


 

On August 16, 2023 Yellowknife faced the likelihood of evacuation from wildfires.
 
On the same day Pierre Poilievre was in PEI making a speech against the carbon tax which he has done for quite some time.
 
Yet only 11 months earlier 95% of PEI was without power from hurricane Fiona.

As of Aug 9 Poilievre is gaining popularity in the polls (ahead of the governing Liberals by 10%).
 
His strategy is to appeal to people’s concern about the rising cost of living.

But what about the cost of staying alive in the face of climate catastrophe? 

Poilievre’s strategy is to make people think that they shouldn’t be the ones bearing “the burden” of doing climate action…despite the fact that the carbon tax offers rebates to most Canadians. (See 19:48 at this link)
 
Because of this situation, climate action is all about climate justice.

If that is true then which party is most likely to deliver?

Many times the Liberals have refused the federal NDP request for a wealth tax.

But the federal NDP is not as aware as the Greens are of the reality of climate change: MP Heather McPherson in Edmonton is a federal NDP who supports the TMX pipeline and continues to get her candidacy papers signed by the leader in spite of that position.
 
The federal Greens are the only party with seats in the House of Commons that comes anywhere near seeing the importance of both climate action and climate justice.

But even the Greens have had a 2019 slogan saying, “not left, not right, but forward.” They have moved away from that slogan recently, but it has been too recently to fit the climate clock we’re in.

Sobering Conclusion

It’s clear to me, looking at the success of Poilievre’s message against the carbon tax on the same day that the capital of NWT faced evacuation that we are in a deep multi-faceted crisis of a lack of public awareness and political wisdom. 

Those are some of the real roots of the worsening climate crisis and it is many times more sobering than hurricanes and fires.

Those of us who are working to improve this situation are clearly facing an uphill battle for life itself.

But even if harm elimination seems unlikely, harm reduction is the right thing to do.

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