On the Eve of Cancun

Every
sphere of intellectual endeavour calls forth individuals who make it
their task to assimilate, interpret and transmit an evolved
understanding to those who may share their interests. This happens at
many levels. Some may choose to address groups of specialists through
the pages of learned journals or through professional conferences.
Others, such as the many dedicated teachers everywhere who daily pass on
the light of learning to their charges, work less visibly. And there
are certain projective individuals who will skilfully make use of the
dominant media, whether print or electronic, to transmit their message
as widely as they can. A few seem to be capable of spanning all levels,
thereby making substantive contributions to the collective understanding
of their times.

One
such individual is Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki who has spent
much of his life projecting his formed ideas through many theatres
using a range of media. His far-reaching and enduring influence
continues, even as he enters his eighth decade. Although recently
retired from academic life, Suzuki remains relentless in his quest to
identify and disseminate what he understands to be core ecological
principles by which humanity can live during a time when many former
certainties begin to progressively collapse.

Ironically,
while Suzuki continues to spread his message, the present Canadian
government remains obstinately obstructive in its refusal to reform or
abandon environmentally destructive practices. The saying uttered so
long ago, "a prophet is not without honour except in his own country"
still holds true.

In a snap vote taken without notice and without debate on 16th November 2010, the Canadian senate defeated Bill C-311, the Climate Change Accountability Act,
a modest piece of legislation developed over the past 5 years which
aimed for a 25% reduction in Canadian greenhouse gas emissions by 2020
and an 80% reduction by 2050. One cannot accuse the Canadian government
of inconsistency. This is a perfectly timed statement aimed at
delivering an unequivocal message to the UN Climate Change Conference
Summit, which will begin in Cancun, Mexico on November 29.

Canada
has for some years been widely perceived as engaging in a systematic
sabotage of climate change negotiations. Even while campaigning for
office in 2006, Stephen Harper had made it clear that he would terminate
Canada's commitment to the Kyoto Protocol that had been signed in 1998.
One of Harper's first acts upon election was to withdraw Canada's
financial support for developing countries seeking to reduce their
greenhouse gas emissions. Soon after, environment minister John Baird
brazenly described Canada's Kyoto commitment as a "risky, reckless
scheme." These
actions and rhetoric would appear to be largely driven by the Harper
Government's commitment to the exploitation of the immense reserves of
tar sands that are held in Canada, particularly in Alberta. Canada
presently exports over one million barrels of oil derived from tar sands
to the United States every day.

The
extraction process is both energy intensive and resource intensive and
requires two or three times as much energy as that required to process
crude oil. It consumes three barrels of water and lays waste two tons of
earth for each barrel of oil produced. The tar sands project, which has
been pursued in Canada since 1967, has been extremely damaging to the
environment, contaminating both ground waters and local river systems.
It has already caused significant health problems, including an
increased incidence of cancers and immune disorders in communities
living downstream from mining operations. The
extraction of tar sands in Canada results in the production of 400
million gallons of toxic sludge daily, most of which is stored in
numerous tailings dams. Polycyclic aromatic compounds are beginning to
appear not only in nearby river systems, but in winter snow gathered 50
kilometres away from the mining operations.

The
Alberta tar sands project has already claimed an area the size of
England and has been described as the largest industrial source of
carbon emissions in the world. In addition to the production of toxic
sludge, an estimated 40 million tons of greenhouse gases are spewed
forth into the atmosphere every year as a result of these operations.
Little wonder that those who support such activities on "economic
grounds" do whatever they can to destroy such pieces of legislation as
the recently emasculated Climate Change Accountability Act.

Aside
from the lobbying and disinformation campaigns of the mining and energy
industries, Obama's unilateral demands, China's recalcitrance and
Canada's obstructionism at Copenhagen did much to effectively torpedo
last year's climate summit. At the conclusion of the largely
inconclusive and inconsequential climate talks last year, former UN
Climate Chief Evo de Boer quipped: "Everything will be sorted out in
Mexico next year." In a video interview with George Monbiot in December 2008,
de Boer had presciently stated: "Copenhagen, for me, is a very clear
deadline that I think we need to meet, and I'm afraid that if we don't .
. . one deadline after the other will not be met, and we sort of become
the little orchestra on the Titanic." A perfectly apt metaphor for the
sad denouement of Copenhagen.

Unlike
the Copenhagen Climate Summit last year, which helped to mobilise the
hopes and expectations of millions of people throughout the world in the
preceding weeks and months, there has been an eerie silence surrounding
the coming Cancun talks. One has to look really hard to find any
mention of it in the dominant media. Perhaps this reflects a growing
realisation that the governments of the world are incapable of
mobilising the will to alter the patterns of production and consumption
that have brought us to our present impasse. Canada continues to plunder
its bituminous reserves regardless of the environmental cost.
Meanwhile, Australia eagerly continues to export 250 million tons of coal and 10,000 tons of uranium oxide to whoever will pay for it.

While
Ignatian methods call us to imagine the events from Gethsemene to
Golgotha, and Vajrayanist methods instruct us to imagine one's lama
seated upon ever-more-elaborate lotus thrones, David Suzuki urges us to
imagine a future based on community and long-term sustainability rather
than economic determinism and technocratic manipulation. In a talk given at the Kitsilano High School auditorium
in Vancouver on September 17th, 2010, Suzuki demonstrates that he has
lost neither the passion nor the clarity that have been his hallmark for
many decades. He urges us to imagine a future where we live work and
play in the same neighbourhood, where buildings and roads capture and
store the energy transmitted in sunlight, where town and city roofs
capture water for fruit and vegetable gardens, where asthma rates
plummet because the air is clean, where cancer rates decline because the
air, water and soil no longer carry numerous toxins. He concludes: "We
have to get to know each other because we're all in it together. I
believe communities are going to be the unit of survival."

Perhaps
the most important thing to emerge from Copenhagen last year was an
understanding that the only change we can realistically hope for in the
short term is that which emanates from the sustained commitment of
ecologically conscious individuals, groups and communities.