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Earth Day: Five Minutes After Midnight

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I must admit, it's been years since I celebrated Earth Day (pictured to the right laying out an endangered species graveyard on the Cornell University Arts Quad in 1994). Back in the early nineties, I participated in Earth Day preparations throughout high school and college. Those were the heady days of the Rio Summit, the Brundtland Report, and TV specials such as After the Warming that highlighted the potential impact of global warming through the next few decades. Environmental concerns were going to be the next big thing as the Berlin Wall crumbled, or so we thought.

Amazingly, it's After the Warming that starkly reminds me how much time has been wasted on the climate change front. From its broadcast to the Kyoto Treaty, eight years elapsed. Four more years would pass for Canada to officially ratify the treaty, and four more for Canada to all but pull out of the deal, leaving the entire regime in shambles. Despite the increasing sophistication and dire nature of the warnings emanating from the scientific community, we have seen political stagnation and regression as economic growth and globalization dominated the 1990s, followed by war and terrorism in the 2000s. Environmental concerns largely fell by the wayside, and even now, anything besides climate change and energy is all but ignored in the media.

As such, I cannot but feel wary of the recent resurgence of green issues in the body politic. I am also wary of the increasingly corporate and commercial edge of this new environmentalism as it substitutes individual consumer choices for the broader transformational change necessary to harmonize human civilization with the urgency of biosphere survival. My fear is that this upsurge of interest may quickly dissipate, leaving us next time to muddle through an upcoming planetary crisis, a dark authoritarian period veteran journalist Ross Gelbspan termed the Permanent State of Emergency.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel put it this way in March:

"It's not five minutes to midnight. It's five minutes after midnight."

We were perhaps five minutes to midnight in 1990. Not so anymore. We can't afford any more wasted time.

Indigenous Perspectives on Climate Change

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Beginning on April 21st and continuing until May 2nd, the UN's Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues has been meeting to discuss climate change, bio-cultural diversity and livelihoods from an indigenous perspective. This is the first session of the group since the historic passage of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples last year that only four countries -- including Canada -- voted against.

Indigenous communities are particularly vulnerable to climate change, due to the close association between their livelihoods and ecosystems that stand to be heavily impacted by changing climate patterns. This is especially true of the Canadian North, where rapid shifts are already being witnessed and the repercussions on the marginal Arctic economy could prove devastating.

At the opening ceremonies of the UN session, Bolivian President Evo Morales Ayma outlined a new set of ten commandments that could guide the over 3000 delegates as well as the world at large in developing a framework for an alternative future and a new model for living. As the first indigenous head of state with an indigenous perspective in the whole of the Americas, Evo has become an inspirational figure beyond Bolivia and South America, and has talked frequently about our relationship with the Earth.

Below is a brief version of his commandments (compiled on the Climate and Capitalism blog): Continue reading →

Canada goes Rogue

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On April 2, Toronto Star revealed that Canada played the central role in thwarting a Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council resolution asserting water as a human right. In what could have been a landmark declaration protecting communities from the threat of expropriation or profiteering, water rights activists including respected environmental and civil society leaders from Canada left with a sense of foreboding, ever more fearful that without a clear verdict from the Council, corporate interests will increasingly take precedence over the right to life in a water-stressed world.

Sadly, this US-backed stance (with Canada possibly playing the role of proxy, as the US does not hold a seat in the body) is only the latest affirmation of the accelerating corporate tilt of Canadian policies in the international arena as witnessed recently in climate change talks in Bali. As acerbically noted last December by Peter Gorrie, talks like those held in Bali or for that matter in Geneva are beginning to follow a predictable script:

Long days of desultory talks are followed, as departure time looms, by chaotic – often angry – marathon negotiations. When agreement is almost at hand, Russia, pretty much invisible to that point, raises a furious complaint, only to be mollified by what amounts to a pat on the head.

Canada dominates the Fossil of the Day awards for obstruction, even though, as at the just-completed 13th annual meeting in Bali, it might have spent most of the two-week event on the sidelines. The United States remains intransigent until the last minute, when it dramatically relents.

A deal is made. It never exceeds the lowest expectations. Officials praise it; environmental advocates express disappointment.

While this trend preceeds the current government's gutting of climate change initiatives (Canada fell far behind its Kyoto commitments years ago), it has grown worrisome with Canada now joining a small but influential group of obstructionist countries who actively resist international initiatives and obligations. This was most odiously embodied in September 2007 by our stunning rejection alongside the US, Australia, and New Zealand of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This also led the Conservative minority government to favour the "Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate" in April 2007 as a strictly voluntary, technology-based alternative to Kyoto, making good on their promise to pull out of Kyoto's binding emission reduction targets.

While one may take umbrage from the fact that such treaties are often toothless and wildly ineffective, the "take my marbles and go home" attitude reflects a certain contempt for the international state system in favour of a looser and more opportunistic coalition of actors that reflect the interests of particular alliances such as NATO and governments with strong corporate ties. Moreover, the disrespect extends to the countless Canadians drawn from civil society who have played important roles in the treaty making process. Most alarmingly though, it represents a dramatic shift from a country that has for many years inhabited the respectable terrain of a consensus-forging middle power in the international imaginary, to a more naked role as a loyal lieutenant of Empire and servant of big business. Back to the Future indeed.

Climate Change’s Biggest Threat

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Collapsing ice shelfs? Nope, perhaps the gravest impact of climate change on humankind will stem from the melting glaciers of the Himalayas. These enormous ice fields feed the river systems that have sustained Indian and Chinese civilizations for millennia. With their rapid retreat, the lives of over 2 billion people are at risk due to rivers like the Ganga, Yellow, and Yangtze being reduced to a seasonal trickle for the first time in recorded history.

The timeline for the near disappearance of these glaciers has been moved up due the accelerated pace of melting. Many could disappear altogether even before the mid-century mark. These alarming trends and their grave impact on food production have been noted by Lester Brown and the folks at the Earth Policy Institute. You can also listen to a podcast of this issue, which is also part of the general discussion on their latest book, Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization.

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