Fort McMurray and Climate Change: A Tough Conversation

Cody Hartsburg

Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of talk to not politicize the Fort McMurray fire. And the people saying this are 100% correct. There have been people on both sides of the political spectrum who have made some pretty off-hand comments, and any snarky attitudes of this sort should absolutely be condemned. But silencing talk about climate change right now is not helping anybody. With the short winter and little snowfall, higher than average temperatures, dry conditions, a fire season that is lengthening, and the increasing frequency of forest fires, it’s hard to ignore the role that climate change plays here. Yes, it would be ridiculous to claim that the Fort Mac fire was undoubtedly, 100%, only caused by global warming. But that doesn’t mean it didn’t play a role, a significant one at that. Climate change is linked with the increase of severity and frequency of extreme weather events around the globe. These types of disasters are only going to happen more often, and on a larger scale. The reason I feel the need to talk about this is that it’s not an isolated event, this is a symptom of disgusting disease. If we continue on with business-as-usual, disasters like the Fort Mac fire will slowly become the norm.

Greenpeace questions whether links between the Conservative Party and Ethical Oil break election rules

By Greenpeace Canada

It’s one thing to cooperate – it’s another thing entirely to collude in order to get around laws that help make our democracy work.

So Greenpeace Canada has asked Elections Canada to investigate whether the Conservative Party is colluding with the Ethical Oil Institute in violation of the measures in the Canada Elections Act that prohibit donations to federal political parties from corporations.

“We have compiled some very troubling evidence on the relationship between Ethical Oil and the Conservative Party that we believe merits investigation by the Commissioner of Canada Elections,” said Keith Stewart, Climate and Energy Campaign coordinator for Greenpeace Canada.  “Our laws still ban oil companies from directly or indirectly funding political parties, so we hope that Ethical Oil and the Conservative Party will cooperate with the Commissioner in an investigation to clear this up.”

The Ethical Oil Institute does not publicly disclose its funding sources, but its website states that it does “accept donations from Canadian individuals and companies, including those working to produce Ethical Oil.” The institute was founded in July 2011 by Alykhan Velshi, who left Jason Kenney’s political staff to create Ethical Oil. He returned within a few months to a senior position in the Prime Minister’s Office.

Greenpeace’s request for an investigation presents evidence indicating that money raised by the Ethical Oil Institute has been spent on advertising and other activities that were developed and implemented by people directly involved in the Conservative Party of Canada.  The request provides details on the multiple crossovers between Ethical Oil Institute staff and ministerial staff; examples of mirrored messaging between Ethical Oil spokespeople and Conservative cabinet ministers; and a coordinated attack on government critics.

“Whether it is robocalls, in-and-out election spending, or the Mike Duffy secret payment, the Conservative Party seems to believe that playing by the rules is something other people have to do,” said Stewart. “Election finance laws are a core part of our democracy, which is why we are asking the Commissioner to determine whether the Conservative Party’s relationship with Ethical Oil has crossed the line that bans corporate donations to political parties.”

Greenpeace is bringing its concerns to Elections Canada now in advance of the 2015 federal election campaign.

Greenpeace’s full submission to Elections Canada can be found here

Compromises weaken Warsaw climate change talks

By Kimball Cariou
Peoples Voice newspaper

            The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 19) wrapped up on Nov. 23, after heated late‑night debates and a walkout by environmental groups. Most of the "civil society" observers at the conference shared a consensus that the compromise deal struck in Warsaw will do little to help cut down carbon emissions which are driving climate change.

            Much of the conference was deadlocked in disputes between negotiators from the major capitalist countries and the developing world over the division of responsibility for cutting down emissions, and over financing to countries suffering from the impacts of climate change.

            A deal was finally reached through terminology that asks countries for "nationally determined contributions", instead of "commitments" to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, during talks for a new global climate agreement to be finalized at a 2015 summit in Paris.

"Line 9! Shut it down!"

P. Millionaire,
Rebel Youth Magazine

The movement against tar sands pipelines has been growing over the last year. Indigenous communities and activists in British Colombia have so far successfully blocked the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline that proposed to run from the Alberta tar sands to the BC coast.

Indigenous people, workers, and community members in Ontario and Québec are also concerned with Enbridge’s proposal to reverse the flow of line 9 and send tar sands bitumen from Sarnia all the way to Montréal.

On Saturday October 20, activists against the reversal of line 9 protested in Toronto at 12 pm outside the metro Toronto Convention Center. The protest was set to occur during Enbridge’s hearing about line 9 with the National Energy Board (NEB), but the meeting was postponed.

The day before, on October 19, activists at the hearing burst into song, chants, and played drums in order to disrupt the meeting. The noisy protest was so powerful that members of the NEB fled the hearings. Activists at the protest against line 9 expressed their belief that the hearings had been postponed because of the work of the movement against the reversal of Line 9.

“Enbridge is afraid of us,” said Vanessa Gray, one of the first speakers at the rally.

Environment crisis: can capitalism cope?

Johan Boyden,
Peoples Voice Newspaper

Oil spill creates toxic legacy. Government accused of muzzling scientists on climate change. Invasive species threaten wildlife. High cancer in Natives linked with tar sands: study. Global warming causing storms, freak weather. Park privatization bad for environment, union says.

These kinds of headlines are all too common in the media today. Both in Canada and around the world, society is facing increasingly dangerous environmental crises.

It seems almost everyone agrees, at least in words, that not enough is being done to really turn the problem around. If anything, matters are getting worse.

Power Shift points to corporate power as main danger to environment

Over a thousand youth, students and young workers gathered at the University of Ottawa at the end of October for a busy weekend of presentations, workshops, seminars, and protests about climate change and social issues, under the banner of “Power Shift 2012.”

The conference aimed to bring together “a broad, diverse movement to tackle the root causes of climate and change a fundamentally unsustainable economic system based on corporate greed and perpetual growth.” Attendance was so high that the keynote speeches on Saturday night overflowed into three separate large university auditoriums and had to be simultaneously linked by video stream.

Power Shift billed itself as coming at a key moment in history where “the reality of climate change is one of the central challenges of our time, showing the problem of corporate power and the urgent need for alternatives.” Conference organizers said that “economic and climate crises we are facing have the same roots — the relentless drive to put short-term economic profits over the interests of our communities and the environment.”

The participant’s mood was upbeat and inspired by the major youth mobilizations of the past year with the Occupy movement, the Quebec student uprising, and also the powerful show of opposition to the expansion of tar sands pipelines and tankers along the west coast with the rally of 5,000 people at the BC provincial legislature last month.

“I think this is the first time I’ve been at an environmental conference that is actually talking about the system, not just the symptoms,” keynote speaker Naomi Klein told participants. “For a very long time the climate change movement has behaved as if it were the one issue that didn’t have an enemy, and we’re all in this together,” she said.

“You are coming of age in a society at war with your future” Klein said to loud cheers, pointing to reactionary governments, big corporations, war and especially the energy industry as the culprits.

Former co-spokesperson of the CLASSE, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, was equally frank. "The problem is not consumption, it is our economy and production. Our system is broken on a systemic level. The destruction of our environment is a natural and inevitable result" he told the conference, blaming the capitalist system.

"We will not get a second chance. Without radical change we will be faced with extinction. Resistance in these times is not an option, it is a duty", Nadeau-Dubois said.

Several speakers came from Quebec to talk about the student strike as an example of the power of mass popular mobilization in the streets, and also the less-well known victory against Hydraulic Fracturing or Fracking used to extract shale gas.

The new Parti Québécois government of Pauline Marois has indicated serious concerns over the safety and environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing with the environment minister talking about a full and permanent ban.  Currently, fracking is partially banned in Quebec pending on the results of two environmental studies.  The energy company Talisman suspended all shale gas exploration in October.

A number of delegations, presenters and speakers also came from First Nations communities.  “We have one thing that industry and government will never have, and that’s the truth” Crystal Lameman with the Alberta-based Indigenous Environmental Network told delegates on the Saturday night session.

“My children have the right and … the government has a fiduciary [Treaty] responsibility to give us clean drinking water. And it's not okay that … when I walk past [the boarder between municipalities], our drinking water is different than others” said Lameman, who is a member of the Beaver Lake Cree First Nation, about the impact of the Tar Sands on her community and environmental racism.

“It’s not okay that my 14-year-old niece have an asthma attack, that my son got a bleeding nose - that’s not okay. And that’s what we’re living every single day. It doesn’t matter if you’re indigenous or not - it’s not okay. This is what our future looks like, because they have desecrated a site the size of Switzerland - and they want to expand it ten times,” she said.

The Power Shift conferences were first organized in Australia, New Zealand, Britain and Canada after a US conference kicked-off the initiative around 2009. Future meetings are planned for India, Africa and Japan.
From the beginning, Power Shift has drawn a very broad range of voices speaking out against climate change. The US conferences have featured speakers like former US Vice-President Al Gore on the one hand, and journalist and activist Bill McKibben on the other hand.

McKibben (founder of the group 360.org which uses social media to coordinate climate change protests globally) also spoke at Power Shift 2012 in Ottawa. He called upon young people not to fear getting arrested in non-violent civil disobedience in order to halt plans like the Enbridge Northern Gateway or Keystone XL pipelines and spoke of his arrest last August outside the Whitehouse in Washington, along with about 70 other activists protesting Keystone XL.

Outside of the presentations from big-name speakers, an almost overwhelming series of workshops dealt with activist training lead by campus, community and labour activists. Many local student unions as well as the Canadian Federation of Students sent delegates and trainers. While the contribution of the labour movement to Power Shift was smaller, a number of young workers came from unions including the CAW and CEP.

Training sessions addressed anti-oppression and environmental justice, explained climate change issues, policy and science, and discussed questions like indigenous people’s perspectives and working together in local action.  There was also discussion of direct action as well as lobbying, perhaps reflecting a certain lack of consensus around a common strategy and way forward beyond discussion.

Future preparations are now focusing on the international climate negotiations, continuing building links with social justice issues, and further campus and community training to draw more young people into the environmental movement.

Arguments with deniers over climate change

By Bob Treasure, from The Guardian, weekly of the Communist Party of Australia

     It is sometimes tempting to tag our opponents as "climate deniers" or "climate change skeptics", simply because they often deny the evidence of their own senses, and what is happening all around them. Their views, ignorant and dogmatic as they usually are, tend to operate in a cynical and toxic way to undermine action around stopping carbon pollution, or pursuing renewable alternatives. Often, they are merely vehicles of a vested capitalist interest, defending the comfortable exploitation and profit‑taking of the past.

     Of course, it is frustrating to see certain media outlets overlook the common science and lionize the often irrational, "climate change sceptics". They get coverage way beyond their worth. If a "scientist", like the Cold War defectors of old, wanted instant fame and a market for their views, they need only question "climate change misrepresentation".

     It is our task to patiently, positively and rationally, explain the facts and expose the fallacies. Often the answers are simply a Google away, because the information, the data and the answers, are readily available on the Internet.

     This is a guide for activists, people engaged in the arguments on a daily basis, or who are confronting the cynical affronts of workmates who simply won't accept reality and therefore, refuse to act.