Ways Forward from this Polycrisis: David Suzuki/Ian Hanington

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Photo: Gage Skidmore via Flickr Connected crises contain opportunities  for a better world The climate crisis is not simply an isolated technological challenge. It’s part  of a much larger “polycrisis.” After all, everything is interconnected. The magnitude of this “system disequilibrium,” as Canadian author, social  scientist and Cascade Institute executive director Thomas Homer-Dixon  calls it, can cause a sense of hopelessness, but it is resolvable —  with major changes in the ways we conduct ourselves on this small planet. That’s the message of a comprehensive new study. The World  Inequality Lab’s “Global Justice Report: A Plan for Equality &  Prosperity Within Planetary Boundaries” — by 45 authors using  databases compiled by more than 200 researchers from around  the world — states that “it is possible to reconcile planetary  habitability and high well-being for all, but only if the transformation  rests on three pillars simultaneously.” This will require significantly altering the power structures  that now govern our world and that are driving us toward calamity. The pillars are rapid decarbonization of energy systems, a shift from  overconsumption toward “sufficiency” (including reduced labour hours  and raw materials use and large changes in food habits, land use and  forest cover) and a “drastic reduction in inequality of income, wealth  and power” between and within countries. This will require significantly altering the power structures that now govern  our world and that are driving us toward calamity. It would include “hefty  wealth taxes on billionaires, sharp reductions in working hours, a change  in diets and a shift of investment from materially intense sectors, such  as industry and mining, to education and health,” the Guardian reports. The majority of humans would benefit, as it would double the incomes  of 89 per cent of the world’s population by 2100 and keep global heating  below 2 C above the preindustrial average. It would also reduce the  average workweek to about 2.5 days, increasing leisure time. Wealth inequality would be sharply reduced, with the poorest half of  humanity increasing its portion from two to 30 per cent, while the  billionaire class would see its share fall from six to 0.05 per cent. “Close to 90% of the world’s population would double their income  between 2026 and 2100, and once leisure and a habitable planet  are counted, more than 99% come out ahead,” WIL co-director and  Paris School of Economics professor Thomas Piketty and others wrote in a Guardian article. As people feel less economically secure, they support authoritarian leaders, but that then leads to a backlash against green policies, undermining efforts to reduce fossil fuel consumption. Piketty says the ideology of people currently in power or rising in the  United States and many other countries can’t deliver what most of humanity needs. “At the end of the day we’ll have to come to this kind of cooperative  redistribution of resources and power because the alternative will  simply lead to disastrous outcomes both on the environment, on the  climate, but also on social grounds,” he told the Guardian. Homer-Dixon argues that, although the interrelated crises may  seem dire, they also present opportunities. That requires  understanding how they connect, and how feedback loops  exacerbate the problems. For example, fossil fuel consumption  leads to climate change, which produces economic costs. “As  people feel less economically secure, they support authoritarian  leaders, but that then leads to a backlash against green  policies, undermining efforts to reduce fossil fuel consumption.” The opportunity, he says, is that this “delegitimizes the existing way  of doing stuff, the existing vested-interest stakeholders who are hunkered  down and don’t want anything to change.” What stands in the way is not technical impossibility but political choice and the hard but crucial work of building a coalition behind it. The Cascade Institute and the WIL report attempt to understand the holistic  nature of the polycrisis to find solutions. Given that one underlying cause  is wealth hoarding and inequality, the backlash from the ultra-wealthy and  their political backers will likely heat up. The “Global Justice Report” notes  that average per capita gross national income worldwide would increase  for almost everyone but, “The exception would be the mega-rich, who  would be highly taxed because they are most responsible for the climate crisis.” As well as taxing the overly affluent, the report recommends measures such  as “a global justice fund to finance the energy transition and oversee an  increase in education and healthcare spending” and “a world sovereign  fund, which would rebalance global holdings of public and private wealth closer  to proportions last seen in 1970.” It concludes that a better, more equal world is materially possible. “What stands  in the way is not technical impossibility but political choice and the hard but  crucial work of building a coalition behind it.” It’s a coalition we should all get behind. By David Suzuki, with contributions from David Suzuki Foundation Senior Editor and Writer Ian Hanington Read Online Share this story! Support the David Suzuki Foundation Your gift will help push for bold climate action, protect nature so it can sustain all life and create resilient communities that benefit everyone. Donate Today . To configure which emails we send you, please manage your content preferences here. If you no longer wish to receive any email from the David Suzuki Foundation, you can unsubscribe at any time. The David Suzuki Foundation is a registered charity in both Canada (BN 127756716RR0001) and the United States (94-3204049). We are located at 340-1122 Mainland Street, Vancouver, B.C., V6B 5L1, and we also have offices in Montreal and Toronto. Please visit our website for more information on how to contact us.

 

People Have the Power! David Suzuki

 email from David Suzuki and his Foundation today:

We can all take part in the great transformation The odds are stacked against people standing up for the planet’s interconnected life-support systems. We don’t have the wealth of billionaires, oligarchs and industrialists or their armies of lobbyists. We don’t have their massive resources, connections and influence over news media, politicians and governments. We’re also overwhelmed by public apathy, fuelled by mis- and disinformation, distraction and fear. Many people understandably believe the fossil fuel industry’s relentless public relations campaigns. For decades, the sector has lied about evidence even its own scientists confirmed: that burning oil, gas and coal traps solar radiation under a blanket of emissions, heating the planet at accelerating rates. Industry has also stoked fears that the necessary transition to cleaner energy will cause job losses and economic hardship. The results are unfolding as predicted, often faster. Weather events have become more unpredictable and extreme, with increasingly intense and frequent storms and storm surges, droughts, floods and heat domes. This fuels massive wildfires, harms agriculture, displaces people and animals, overwhelms infrastructure, raises sea levels, destroys homes and buildings, melts glaciers, dries up waterways and creates water shortages. If we keep heating the planet at this rate, we’ll likely alter or collapse important oceanic and atmospheric systems such as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and jet streams — with calamitous consequences. Industry has also stoked fears that the necessary transition to cleaner energy will cause job losses and economic hardship. No matter how quickly renewable energy and storage technologies improve and prices drop, industry spends billions to convince us that fossil fuels are necessary and solutions unrealistic. For corporate executives and investors, profit trumps everything, including survival. It’s more challenging to get the truth across — that conservation, efficiency and renewable energy not only create jobs, better working conditions and economic opportunities, but also cleaner air, water and land and improved human health. They also keep the planet from overheating! It’s all designed to give a small number of people power over the rest of us, so they can continue to enrich themselves and their families and friends. Many people don’t think much at all about industry, politics, economics or the climate and biodiversity crises. Who can blame them? Times are crazy, with growing polarization, political turmoil and wars. And many people are struggling to make ends meet. It’s no wonder they bury themselves under distractions, from consuming drugs and alcohol to scrolling incessantly on devices to buying stuff they don’t need. It’s all designed to give a small number of people power over the rest of us, so they can continue to enrich themselves and their families and friends. Government — the instrument they use to maintain the status quo and impose rules and regulations that benefit them — should represent the people and our interests, not deceive us or lull us into complacency for the benefit of plutocrats and polluting industries. Even in democratic countries where freedom of speech and the right to protest have long been important facets of society, governments are enacting laws to restrict nonviolent protests and are cracking down on those who stand against destructive industries for planetary health and the future of humanity. In one disturbing but not isolated example, a British undercover cop seduced and fathered a child with an environmental activist, then vanished when his assignment ended. He was later awarded an MBE (Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) and went on to hold a number of prestigious positions. In Britain, the U.S. and elsewhere, peaceful protesters face lengthy jail sentences for trying to stop the destruction — which human rights advocates say potentially violates international law. People have the power, though. We just have to choose to use it. Apathy is the enemy. In Canada, governments have sent soldiers and militarized police to attack land defenders from Wet’suwet’en territory in B.C to Kanehsatà:ke and Kahnawà:ke in Quebec. As the Guardian reports, “The crackdown against activists has intensified amid increasing death and destruction from extreme heat, floods, drought and sea level rise, with mounting evidence of collusion between corporate lobbyists, lawmakers and state security forces.” It’s worse under openly repressive regimes, where activists are often murdered. People have the power, though. We just have to choose to use it. Apathy is the enemy. We can stand with land defenders, march with climate strikers, write letters, sign petitions, attend local government meetings, get active in politics, learn, vote, dance, have conversations with family, friends, neighbours and colleagues, make positive changes in our own lives and spread some good energy. Those bent on destroying nature may have wealth and power, but we have numbers and we have truth and love, the most important forces of all! By David Suzuki, with contributions from David Suzuki Foundation Senior Editor and Writer Ian Hanington Read Online Share this story! Support the David Suzuki Foundation Your gift will help push for bold climate action, protect nature so it can sustain all life and create resilient communities that benefit everyone. Donate Today This email was sent to zenriver@sympatico.ca. To configure which emails we send you, please manage your content preferences here. If you no longer wish to receive any email from the David Suzuki Foundation, you can unsubscribe at any time. The David Suzuki Foundation is a registered charity in both Canada (BN 127756716RR0001) and the United States (94-3204049). We are located at 340-1122 Mainland Street, Vancouver, B.C., V6B 5L1, and we also have offices in Montreal and Toronto. Please visit our website for more information on how to contact us.

 

sixth mass planet extinction . . . or (David Suzuki)

 

This blog is read around the planet, so I'm reposting this for those who may not know about David Suzuki's excellent foundation. Apologies for the messy layout - I'm not very techy.

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Paradigm shift needed to address climate change, biodiversity loss Much of the focus in trying to address climate breakdown is rightly on reducing emissions from burning gas, oil and coal. But an equally critical part of the equation is halting and reversing rampant destruction of the natural world. Whether or not you believe our planet and its biosphere operates like a living organism — “Gaia,” as the late scientist James Lovelock called it — there’s no denying it constitutes a harmoniously balanced system, with natural cycles that have evolved to support human and other life forms. From the hydrologic, or water cycle (whereby water cartwheels around the biosphere through evaporation, photosynthesis and precipitation) to the carbon cycle (in which carbon repeatedly moves from the atmosphere into Earth’s organisms and then back into the atmosphere), these intricately interconnected processes maintain an equilibrium that keeps temperatures and geological forces relatively stable and facilitates our existence. When forests and other green spaces are destroyed or altered, it affects the carbon and other cycles — as well as the myriad species that rely on these habitats. When one cycle is thrown out of balance, it affects all the others. Burning gas, oil and coal releases carbon that has been absorbed through solar energy and compressed and stored over millennia. This increases atmospheric carbon levels, which creates a heat-trapping blanket around Earth, causing the global average temperature to rise rapidly. This in turn affects systems such as the hydrologic cycle, creating increased precipitation and flooding in some areas and drought in others. Carbon is also stored in trees and other plants, and in oceans and wetlands. When forests and other green spaces are destroyed or altered, it affects the carbon and other cycles — as well as the myriad species that rely on these habitats. It’s all interconnected. “There is a double movement humanity must make,” said Susana Muhamad, president of the United Nations COP16 Biodiversity summit in Cali, Colombia, to be held in October. “The first one is to decarbonize and have a just energy transition. The other side of the coin is to restore nature and allow nature to take again its power over planet Earth so that we can really stabilize the climate.” Delegates to the 2022 COP15 summit in Montreal agreed to work toward halting biodiversity loss by protecting 30 per cent of the world's land, water and marine areas by 2030. This blog is read around the planet, so I'm reposting this email from the David Suzuki Foundation for those who may not know about his foundation.    Addressing the biodiversity crisis involves protecting remaining natural areas and restoring those our activities have damaged or destroyed. A Guardian article reports that the activities of a still-growing human population of more than eight billion has caused insect numbers to plummet, oceans to acidify and fill with plastic pollution and resources to rapidly become depleted. Animals and plants continue to go extinct at an alarming rate. Scientists have been warning for years that we’re approaching a sixth mass extinction, representing the most significant loss of life since dinosaurs were wiped out. In simple terms, resolving the climate crisis requires phasing out fossil fuels and cutting emissions. Addressing the biodiversity crisis involves protecting remaining natural areas and restoring those our activities have damaged or destroyed. But achieving those outcomes requires an even greater shift: a shift in consciousness to facilitate new ways of thinking about economics and human wellbeing. We can’t get out of the mess we’ve created using an outdated system based on endless growth and consumption — a system that prioritizes profit and measures progress by increases in gross domestic product, or GDP. We need ways to ensure people’s needs are met without destroying the natural systems that make life, good health and wellbeing possible. We need to use every available tool to halt and reverse the damage we’re wreaking on our planet and ourselves, but we must also stop placing humans at the centre of existence. It’s a dilemma because, in some respects, capitalism promotes innovation and technological advances — which are needed to resolve some of the most immediate problems. So, just as a transition from fossil fuel economies to more conservation-oriented ones using renewable energy is necessary, so too is a transition from profit-driven consumer capitalism to more benign forms and eventually to more enlightened systems altogether. We need to use every available tool to halt and reverse the damage we’re wreaking on our planet and ourselves, but we must also stop placing humans at the centre of existence. We are part of nature and what we do to it we do to ourselves. Many Indigenous Peoples have long understood this, but the current mainstream ideology of domination and exploitation has run roughshod over the kinds of knowledge that come from living in place and observing nature’s interconnectedness. We need to shift to a society based on respect, responsibility and reciprocity. By David Suzuki, with contributions from David Suzuki Foundation Senior Editor and Writer Ian Hanington Read Online Forward this email to a friend Share this story! Support the David Suzuki Foundation Your gift will help push for bold climate action, protect nature so it can sustain all life and create resilient communities that benefit everyone. Donate Today This email was sent to zenriver@sympatico.ca. To configure which emails we send you, please manage your content preferences here. If you no longer wish to receive any email from the David Suzuki Foundation, you can unsubscribe at any time. The David Suzuki Foundation is a registered charity in both Canada (BN 127756716RR0001) and the United States (94-3204049). We are located at 340-1122 Mainland Street, Vancouver, B.C., V6B 5L1, and we also have offices in Montreal and Toronto. Please visit our website for more information on how to contact us.