In partnership with Climate Change Newmarket-Aurora, NewmarketToday brings you a regular series of columns aimed at creating awareness and engaging our community to take action on climate change.
If there is ever a realm where the collective spirit can make a difference, it's politics. We might say, ‘They’re all the same, so what’s the point?’ Climate is the point. Until we accept that climate chaos knows no political boundaries, this Climate Action Newmarket Aurora member believes our voices, signatures and votes matter, locally and globally.
Perhaps naively I believe fighting for carbon emissions reduction is a goal of all humankind; we must work together for the common good. Surely, given the physical evidence around us now — 15 million hectares of forest in Canada alone so far this year literally up in smoke and the additional carbon emitted from the charred ground is double that we have ever seen before — is enough to move anyone?
Accelerating reforestation and transitioning to clean energy in no way should be a political question at this point.
Anyone who reads the International Panel on Climate Change reports knows that to prevent global temperatures from rising more than 1.5C, we must draw down greenhouse gases. At the halfway point from the 2015 Paris Agreement, the High Level Political Forum July 2023 summary says we have our work cut out for us.
While we debate in Canada on carbon capture units, electric vehicle batteries with the mining rights for minerals, and the ‘cleanness’ of yet to be regulated nuclear energy units called SMRs, mature woodlands, soils, marshes and wetlands are invaluable for carbon retention. Seems straightforward enough, so why does politics keep coming in?
I didn’t think of myself as a political being, though I vote at all levels. I now feel that addressing politics has become a necessary component of climate work. Whether we like it or not, politics plays a key role in how quickly we can effect change in climate decisions, and in which directions we move as a municipality, province, country and world.
The average citizen can max out their time simply getting lost in the maze of the levels of government just to find out who is responsible for what, let alone having leverage when they find them. Trusted organizations can help with that. And while pledges at United Nations Conference of Parties and assemblies at Global Environment Facility give hope, actions need to speak louder than politics.
It seems that despite what they say are their best efforts, we need to keep holding all politicians accountable for their promises and decisions, and developers accountable for the real climate value of what they take away — mature tree for mature tree as an example, or the involvement and remuneration of First Nations in mining exploration.
In Ontario, we might think we are ahead of the emissions reduction game, so politics therefore doesn’t matter. After all, we are heavily investing provincial and federal money into EV production, charge stations and battery plants. We boast of being the first province with no coal yet we are losing ground quickly, for economists as much as environmentalists. So why are emissions going up?
Facts are easily available once you look for them. The upward Ontario trajectory is directly linked to the land and energy decisions of the provincial government over the past five years:
- 750+ cancelled alternative energy projects (2019);
- urban sprawl supported by MZOs (44 2019-2021; double the previous 18 years);
- changes to environmental legislation (Bill 132 2019 & Reg.697/21) have or will cut through hundreds of hectares of environmentally sensitive lands (413 and Bradford Bypass included);
- the Greenbelt controversy being Ontario’s literal tip of the climate iceberg;
- and planned investment in gas plant expansions (which the Progressive Conservatives voted against in 2011) have all been politically incorrect decisions negatively impacting climate. Despite the science on how gas plants will increase Ontario’s carbon emissions 400 per cent by 2030, the provincial government will not reconsider any of these projects and so we plead with the federal government to step in. Again, politics.
So the question for each of us is what do we do? “You can’t be neutral on a moving train” when trying to effect change. (Howard Zinn); either we are doing something to reduce the climate emergency, or we are, by inaction, part of the problem.
The repeated outcry helps. The Auditor General’s Special Report shows we must actively monitor what our governments are doing, what legislation can endanger our natural world, but also that political decisions threaten our democratic processes, if we let them.
Politically? Call, email, write to MPs, MPPs and municipal councillors so that concerns are acknowledged. Climate Action Newmarket Aurora also has an online pre-made email letter about gas plant energy to copy and paste. Other ready-to-sign petitions and autofill email letters are available now on many environmental organization websites and that doesn’t mean having to donate, pass emails along or volunteer your time, though all are possible.
March for the Climate and sign a petition on Sept. 17 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Yonge and Davis in Newmarket. Organizations like Environmental Defence, Rescue Lake Simcoe and The Alliance for a Liveable Ontario have other event locator information.
Perhaps most importantly: VOTE. The right to vote is a precious tool. Someone recently reworded a Thomas Jefferson quote to “You get the government you deserve.” We need to think about that in Ontario where less than 44 per cent of eligible voters did so and 18 per cent of the votes in this situation was all it took for a government to gain a majority. So, either we push the government to change their climate impacting decisions and/or, use our vote wisely for a government that will.
Yes, it takes a collective effort to get legislation through, especially as quickly as we would like. Say YES to empowering our voice, to being heard through our signatures, and to collaborating with politicians who are receptive to the facts and the input of constituents. “Do the best you can do until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” (Maya Angelou) WE know better now. Politicians should know better by now. We must all do better. The children are counting on it.
Inspired by the international organization Project Drawdown, Climate Action Newmarket-Aurora seeks to engage citizens, institutions, and policymakers in actionable and measurable solutions to stop catastrophic climate change as quickly, safely and equitably as possible. You can contact them at climateaction.newmarketaurora@
