It definitely doesn't look like the ideal place to hold a climate change conference.
The Polish city of Katowice, the centre of the country's coal industry.
Where even though between November and May smog can hang heavy in the air, most Polish leaders aren't sorry, they're proud of serving King Coal so faithfully.
But nevertheless it is the site of the COP24 UN climate conference, where many people including David Attenborough, believe we're running out of time to stop human civilization from collapsing.
It's a powerful message.
But Attenborough was recently accused by George Monbiot of "betraying the living world."
So who knows whether it will register.
Famed British naturalist Sir David Attenborough told the UN climate conference in Poland on Monday that the "collapse of our civilizations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizons" if no urgent action is taken against global warming.
When so many humans have shown they can live happily in denial.
And one must walk a narrow line between raising the alarm, and avoiding making people feel that the struggle against climate change is hopeless.
"If you overwhelm people, there's some evidence that they can end up in some fatalistic mindset and feel unempowered," Mildenberger said.
"The trick is to communicate the seriousness of the climate threat … with a sense of empowering people to take action."
Which is something some dirty old toxic Trudeau haters in this country never learn...
But Attenborough on the other hand definitely did get this right.
"We have all been living beyond our means. It's a perfectly simple thing. We knew not what we did," he said. "We have let down the young generation, and they know it, and they are angry."
I can feel that anger rising,
In Australia, school children have been defying their government.
In London, activists from Extinction Rebellion have been blocking bridges into the city...
Inviting the police to arrest as many of them as possible.
All over the world ordinary people are getting involved...
And this is what I think it all means:
The new generation will fight for the future of the planet like no generation before ever did, because climate change threatens THEIR future and the future of THEIR children.
In this country these Con climate change deniers are going to feel the heat...
And will pay a heavy political price for their failure to do anything to try to save our precious planet, our Earth, our only home.
You know, last Sunday evening it was a balmy 10 degrees in my neighbourhood, and a friend and I were sitting on a pier watching the sun go down....
At some point, after smoking a joint, my friend said "it looks like the end of the world."
And I said "no, I think it looks like the end of the Cons."
And now I think we're both right eh?
So much time has been wasted, there has been so much denial.
But the final battle to save the planet is about to begin in earnest. It will be apocalyptic.
And failure is not an option...
17 comments:
I hate to say it, but Jason Kenny in the last week did the environment more good than Justin Trudeau's done in three years. A mandated cut in tarsands production is exactly what environmentalists have been calling for, and Kenny backed Notley's proposal to cut production by almost 9 percent.
Sure, his motives are impure - he wants to drive up the price of Alberta's toxic tar. But a good act for bad reasons is still a good act.
The Canadian media are part of the problem. They have fallen into the CNN style equivalency conundrum. There are two sides to every story and we have to be fair and balanced.
In Canada we know that the Trudeau response to climate change has been less than satisfactory. But Trudeau and McKenna are on the right side of history.
Sadly, on an open flank we have hostility and unrelenting anger attacking the only real answer to carbon pollution a price on carbon. Led by Scheer and the resistance 5 Premiers climate denial and and crazy carbon tax myths on jobs and short term impacts are accepted as equivalent arguments by the Canadian media.
You can’t blame people for thinking that if major main stream parties and our media are uncritically accepting plans for climate inaction such as that proposed by the Ford Government, there could be something to it and the world of science could be wrong.
The Conservatives across the country are pursuing purely partisan advantage and using climate and the future of civilization as a mere pawn to be sacrificed.
So Trudeau is attacked by the media for not doing enough, while half baked, useless, smokescreen, slush fund plans by Ford are given respectful coverage.
The CBC rude interrupting attack interviewers are more culpable than most. The two sides in this debate are not 50/50, not even 90/10.
The media resent Trudeau, they love Scheers painful ordinaryness. This bias is to be expected; allowing it to distort a debate on an issue of world survival is indefensible.
J. W.
Canadians who support the Conservatives need to ask themselves why does it look like they love those climate change deniers more than they love their own children or grandchildren? It’s the most shocking thing I have ever seen. I hope those children and grandchildren never forgive them.
of course "ordinary people" are supporting changing things. They are the most likely to be impacted by climate change. The financial elite of any country can make an exit to some where more comfortable. We have tourists coming from China to B.C. for 3 week vacations to enjoy clean air. The financial elite of any polluted country can come and go as they please to places with clean air. "ordinary people" in the west can see what is happening to the "ordinary people" in other developing countries. They die. At some level "ordinary people" and kids know they will be for the chop once climate change becomes more pronounced in North America and western Europe.
When a billion people die in other parts of the world due to climate change and that includes not being able to feed themselves, people won't notice because its not happening to them. We have only to look at all the genocides going on in the middle east and still the AMerican Senate didn't vote to stop it. Some of these people truly believe, they with the most toys, when they die wins. What they don't understand is, they still will die.
While many think it will happen else where, it won't. Just have a look at floods and forest fires in North American this past year. The world's population is approx. 6 BILLION. if climate change becomes any more pronounced I suspect the earth will only be able to sustain 1 BILLION. So the next time you want to buy that new car, make renovations to the house, etc. remember your chance of dying due to climate change will be one in six.
As things worsen in other countries people will move and not all the soldiers with all their AKs firing at them will stop it. We either change and ensure people can live in their home countries or they will move.
WE can all support our environment this Hannuka and Christmas season by buying less. Its not that we need that new t.v., cell phone, tinsel, etc. Some of your friends and family might really like that donation in their name to their favorite charity along with some cookies, or coffee or gift card to their favorite restaurant. Want to do your parental unit a really big favour at Christmas, give them the gift of a house cleaning service.
My favorite gift and the one I remember best, is the gift two neighbours gave me for my 40th birthday. One had my emergency key and two of them went in and cleaned my house and did all the dishes. When I came home I was over the moon. To this day, it is still my favorite gift.
Now I check out the hospital thrift shops in my community before I buy new. You'd be surprised what you can find there and it supports your local hospital. Any additional décor comes from there. Check with local churches and hospital organizations to see when they have quilting sales and Christmas stockings.
When we aging baby boomers were growing up the food we ate was in season. Now everything is in season all the time. What that means is forested areas in other countries are being clear cut to make way for argi business. Try going back to the diet of your youth.
Wow a free market fundamentalist embracing government intervention. I think we need a National Energy program.
Uzu
If what happened in France is any indication of what's to come, I predict a wave of yellow-vested shit disturbers breaking stuff in Alberta sometime soon. Stirred up, no doubt, by the usual suspects on social media who stand to gain from fomenting chaos. The high-five between Mohammad bin Oilman and the czar of the Russian cybertrolls at G20 speaks volumes about what the world is up against.
Who is that old guy in the Parksville pic?I think you've used him before, but is he supposed to represent a real person?
I think Katowice is an excellent place for a climate change conference. It lets a lot of people see and breath the problem.
Michael Coren did a good column in Now on the Trudeau hate activists in Alberta. The demonstration when he was out there recently was frightening. This is being promoted by mainstream media whose language often approaches that of the comment boards in major mrdia. So that demonstration indicated that the Paris style right wing anger is here as well.
J. W.
Hi anon@3:18 pm....I could never give the anti gay bigot Kenney credit for anything, especially since it was Rachel Notley who made the decision, and Kenney would like an idiot if he had opposed it. But yes, hopefully Alberta will one day understand that less of their tarry sludge is better for them and the planet...
Hi J.W....I feel exactly like you do, the Canadian media have been letting us all down with their false equivalency. They print verbatim every anti-carbon tax diatribe from the planet burning Cons, without ever demanding that they tell us how they can do better. Even though as you point out, the Cons are using the future of the planet as a mere pawn to be sacrificed in their lust for power. Which is of course madness. And so is the CBC's infatuation with Scheer, considering that his leadership campaign platform calls for the elimination of CBC News. So the CBC is actually supporting those who would kill them, and should really change its name to the JBC, the Jonestown Broadcasting Corporation...
Hi anon...I too am shocked by the Con's callous disregard for the future of their own children. But it does show us us what scummy people they are, and yes, as soon as they can leave the nest the children should tell their climate change denying parents that they shouldn't exp ct to see or hear from them again, unless they change their planet murdering views...
Hi e.a.f...you make lot of excellent points, unfortunately th m dis does not point all of that out, buy treats climate change as if it was just another political story, with two sides that deserve equal coverage. When in fact one side is on the side of human survival, and the other would lead us to extinction. I live simply, I celebrate small acts of human kindness, I buy no presents for myself or my friends. But occasionally do leave a present on the doorstep of a lonely senior in my neighbourhood, without ever letting them know who left it. So I can enjoy hearing them tell me later, " how did that person know what I wanted?" And I can feel like Santa...😇
Hi Jackie...yes we are up against a formidable gang of right wing mostly rural rubes who don't understand what's going on and are easily manipulated by fascists. I sympathize with some of them, but unless we can get a new generation of leaders to channel this anger, the world could descend into violent anarchy that could lead us to a very bad place...
Hi anon...I use that character to represent angry old Cons everywhere, but there is a real Parksville pervert, and soon I will release his real name, fully document his crimes, and show you why I believe he should be jailed...
Hi jrkrideau...I also thought of that, and in Katowice's favour, Inshould point out that they have built a magnificent conference center over an old mine, that has a roof of grass. So maybe they can indeed serve as an example to others...
Hi Uzu...good idea. Canada would have been so much more better off if the NEP had gone ahead. It would have made the tar sands a national project, easier to develop, and eventually easier to phase out...
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