CLIMATE EMERGENCY

Sorry, no art, just some musing about Canada's climate change emergency.

I'm a bit of a naturalist. I enjoy bird watching, and in recent years, with aging having slowed me down a bit, I've become a bit of an observer, as opposed to a teacher. I've observed the changes to species  caused, I believe, by the destruction of habitat due to rampant urbanization.

Many years ago I observed the effects that removing portions of a forest to allow the building of a golf course, and the clearing of trees to develop a community, had on trees that had spent their lifetime adapting to prevailing winds. I observed the disappearance of species that once called the forest their home. I observed the change of weather in nearby cities caused by rampant urban development, and population growth. Where once there was snow for winter activities , microclimates created by unchecked urban development acted as a barrier shifting weather patterns. I decried unchecked urbanization, and the threat to humanity that would be caused by overpopulation. The warnings issued by myself, and others of my ilk. were ignored, and now look where we are....climate change, climate migrants, and chaos.

Canada has declared itself a champion in the fight against global warming, even going so far as to coin the phrase, "climate emergency" and to subliminally blame Canada/Canadians for the mess that we're in. Hardly. The entire world is to blame, especially our political leaders past and present, religious leaders included. As if the problem is something new that deserves full attention. Do you remember Walt Kelly's cartoon character Pogo and Kelly's foresight in pointing this out in the cartoon on Earth Day 1970, "We have met the enemy, and he is us."

Pogo

So, here we are, confusion reigns. How do we respond. In a totalitarian manner much like Canada's politicians are leaning towards, forcing change through incentives for the wealthy, or do we allow change to play out and adapt to what we've, collectively, caused.

As for the rhetoric surrounding the so called climate emergency, I'd like to share the following article that appeared in the Financial Post on this day, July 30, 2019 -

https://business.financialpost.com/opinion/gwyn-morgan-here-are-a-few-climate-change-head-scratchers-for-canadian-voters-to-ponder

As for my opinion regarding solutions to what could be considered a human catastrophe in the making, as world wide consensus on a course of action is an impossibility, I would think that we have no choice but to work to adapt to the storm that is coming.