Time’s running out, so change the rules

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/03/2024 (806 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should be commended for taking the long view in signing a 10-year assistance agreement between Canada and Ukraine. (In contrast, his Conservative counterpart, Pierre Poilievre, may find that his callous disdain for Ukraine and its fight for survival will cost him dearly in the next federal election).

But that 10 years is likely longer than his tenure either as prime minister or leader of the Liberal Party. It is also longer than the time we have left to manage the climate crisis, only made worse by the militarism of world leaders.

I often think about the people who went to war in 1914 or 1939. From hindsight, we know that those who returned sacrificed five or six years of their lives in the service of their country and for the sake of future generations. Yet they chose to enlist, not knowing when — or if — they would return, or what the outcome of that war would be.

During both world wars, however, the government made a lot of money selling war bonds, the forerunner of Canada Savings Bonds. Those war bonds promised a reasonable return on the investment — provided, of course, that Canada won the war.

It has been said that it costs billions to win a war, but it costs everything you have to lose it. That is the plight of the Ukrainian people, who are proxies on the front lines of one of the current conflicts among the various global financial elites. There is good money in wars, so much so that we live in a perpetual war economy, hiding its true cost while perpetuating the illusion of peace, at least for the privileged. That illusion — or shall we say delusion? — is about to be shattered by a growing climate crisis.

There is some irony these days in trusting a banking system that now gives you a 30-year mortgage, and also offers good rates on long-term investments. As a culture, we find it impossible to accept that Mother Nature has a different timeline. Yet the reality is that nothing is certain beyond the next five years — anything further is blind speculation, not serious investment. Quite apart from the antics of warlords or their stooges, we are simply not grappling with the immediate dangers of a warming world, the instability of a changing global climate, and what this will mean for how we live our lives.

More particularly, we are not considering what it will mean for our children and grandchildren.

Understandably, they are anxious, as they watch the world burn and flood, while their elders continue as before, refusing the inconvenience of any significant change. American environmental activist Bill McKibben recently wrote: “We only get one life. The thought that young people are having to live theirs under this shadow — damaged by the climate crisis even before it’s fully hit them — should give all of us real pause. There’s a generational theft underway: of water and ice and coral, but also of security and ease.”

And it will get worse — much worse. Only our astonishing capacity for self-delusion, in which we gaily go on annual vacation cruises or take yet another trip to Disneyland, keeps us from sheer panic at what lies ahead.

Incrementalist environmentalism keeps the ecological problem in sight, but it will never accomplish the change that is needed, in the time we have left to live differently.

I think nothing less than a common sense revolution, led by ordinary people who refuse any longer to be pawns in the games of the rich and famous, will be enough to save civilization as we know it. Or, as one group calls itself, we need a non-violent “Extinction Rebellion,” made up of people like you and me.

Idiocies abound, however, including close to home. I remember confident dismissals of the need for solar and wind power, as our leaders bragged about Manitoba’s self-sufficiency in hydro generation and discounted the urgency of eliminating fossil fuels. (Oops). Now, our leaders propose spending billions on new roads, instead of moving the rail lines and creating a light rail system in a walkable city, full of the green space (and trees) that bring us life and health.

So many of our local problems could be solved with compassion, co-operation and common sense — and yet we create more injustice, as we pander to privilege instead, betraying next generations as we play the usual political games.

Yet, as Greta Thunberg concludes her 2018 TEDx talk: “We can’t save the world by playing by the rules. The rules have to be changed. Everything needs to change, and it has to start today.” Six years later, we are running out of time. This is a war we cannot afford to lose, whatever the cost.

» Peter Denton writes from his home in rural Manitoba.