Facing despair as a strong economy fails to defeat climate change: Don Pittis

It is not unreasonable that the majority of Canadians and the 97 per cent of scientists who understand that climate change is real are feeling a certain amount of despair.

Optimism following the 2015 Paris summit that the world could and would halt the growth of greenhouse gases in the earth'satmosphere and slow the devastating effects of rising seas, storms, drought and forest fireshas turned to gloom.

And perhaps most disheartening is the fact that despite a strong, growing economy in many parts of the world, including Canada and the United States, governments have failed to reverse the damage. So what happens when the economy goes into retreat?

Backsliding at theG20

As the G20 meets in Argentina today, reports fromgroups that monitorgreenhouse gas output show that none of the world's richest 20 economic powers have met their Paris targets that would limit temperature increases to twoCelsius degrees abovepre-industrial levels.

"Current nationally determined contributionswould lead to a global temperature increase of around 3.2 C," says the report from Climate Transparency, based on numbers assembled using the variousgovernments' own data.

And yet people who have seen it say thedraft resolution of the G20concluding document backslides on climate, partly to make it palatable to U.S. President Donald Trump, who has already withdrawn his country from the Paris accord andpromotes increased use of coal.

Trump reportedly tried to suppress a recent U.S. government studyby releasing it on the day after American Thanksgiving. That may have backfired whenthe release which declared climate change had already cost the economy hundred of billions of dollars and would cost hundreds more was unofficially labelled the Black Friday Climate Report.

"Climate change is arguably the biggest threat humanity has ever faced," says Stewart Elgie, chair of the Smart Prosperity Institute, a think-tank based at the University of Ottawa, comparing it to the impact of nuclear war. "We are messing with the planet's life support system in a waythat we haven't before."

Captured by selfish forces

But despite large support for climate action, governments have been captured by selfish forces that seem bound to sacrifice the planet for short-term interests. Well-funded voices of opposition use social media to discredit sound science.

Repeatedly, public funds are being spentto make climate change worse, instead of investing in alternatives that would make it better. And since Earth's climate is the ultimate shared resource, there sometimes seems no advantage in taking individual action, if others just producethe carbon you have saved and more.

But rather than despairing, Catherine Gauthier is using the law tofightback. A spokesman for the Quebec youth group Environnement Jeunesse, the 29-year-old has helped launch a legal campaign to sue the federal government in an effort to keep it from destroying the planet for future generations.

"We are bringing the government to court because it is infringing our fundamental rights," says Gauthier. Under Quebec law, that includes the right to a safe environment and the preservation of biodiversity, she says.

Growing visible impacts

Gauthier says the technique has been used elsewhere, including the Netherlands, to give the fight againstclimate change a legal basis that stands above individualeconomic interests.

Sarah Buchanan, a policy expert withEnvironmental Defence Canada, has had moments of despair. Butshe still hopes democracy and capitalism can solve the problem, in part because people will increasingly witness climate change in their lives.

"People who do not see these immediate impacts right now are going to start seeing them very soon," says Buchanan.

While she objects to increasedgovernment subsidies for fossil fuel production, she insists it is false to see a conflict between fighting climate change and supporting the economy. And while poll after poll show most Canadians realize something needs to be done, she thinks their voices have been overwhelmed by the financial clout of pro-carbon interests.

Buchanan says she hears from despairing people whoask what they can do, and she always asks them if they have told their elected officials how much they care.

"More often than I expect, the answer is, 'No,'" she says.

Paralyzed by fear

Elgie, like other climate scientists and activists I spoke to, will not let despair divert him from helping to move the world to a low-carbon economy.

"Fear can be paralyzing," says Elgie.

He admits that dramatic shifts arealways disruptive and often go through a process of "two steps forward and one step back." It may be that in recessions people willbe less willing to make changes, but he says whether we realize it or not, the process of decarbonization isunderway and is unstoppable.

"In 20 to 30 years, we will live in a low-carbon global economy. We can debate the pace of change," he says,"but the factthat change is happeningis now undeniable."

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