Winston Churchill once noted that people, “…occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.” He was talking about us. We have known for at least half a century that fossil fuels were befouling our atmosphere and more than likely destroying our planet. As a country we have had many opportunities to do the right thing.
Most people will remember the name Stéphane Dion. Before he became Liberal leader in 2006, he was the environment minister. At the time he was quoted as saying he intended to transform, “…the environment dossier from the traditional tree-hugger’s last stand into a forward-thinking economic portfolio.”
Unfortunately, in the 2006 federal election, Dion’s vision of a “green shift” and the utility of a carbon tax was dismissed by the electorate for the boutique tax breaks offered by Steven Harper’s Conservatives. More than a decade later, another Liberal government did implement a pale version of a carbon tax. The problem is, it wasn’t a meaningful effort to either change our behaviour or give the government enough money to start to build infrastructure to facilitate the transition to a fossil-fuel free world.
When the federal carbon tax was first introduced at $20 a ton, after the rebate, the carbon tax cost consumers only ½ cent per litre of gasoline. If the federal government continues to rebate 90 per cent of the carbon tax to consumers, in 2030 when Canadians are paying $170 carbon tax per ton, consumers will be actually paying less than five cents a litre toward climate change initiatives. No one can believe that is a serious attempt to change our fossil-fuel addiction. All that blah, blah, blah from our leaders, as Greta Thunberg has so eloquently paraphrased it, deserves to be mocked as a legitimate effort to limit our use of fossil fuels or change our behaviour.
Perhaps more importantly, the federal carbon tax as implemented fails to acknowledge a fundamental truth. A carbon tax on gas and natural gas, as minimal as it is, ignores that almost everything we do is implicated in our growing emissions into the atmosphere (and our oceans and rivers). We need a way to put a price on everything we do or consume, so that the true cost of our lifestyle can be quantified in terms of its impact on our planet. Everything we use, eat, sit on or throw out has a carbon footprint.
We have stumbled over the truth of the moment. After COP 26, we all know that the use of fossil fuels is the single biggest contributor to global warming. If we hope to slow and eventually stop the planet warming, we must not, as Churchill suggested we might, pick ourselves up and move on. We need to act, now.
But what to do? It is no wonder people feel paralyzed when a discussion turns to our climate crisis. There are no easy answers. The dilemma for politicians, at home and abroad, is twofold. One, we want cheap, accessible energy and we want … things. At the same time governments need revenue to meet the endless demands of its citizens for better roads, better everything. The interconnectedness of revenue for governments, pensions funds, and jobs in our economy and the many ways our society benefits from fossil fuels makes deciding on how and what to change difficult.
At this point, the oil industry is ground zero in the push for change. There is no doubt that “big oil” has an outsized influence on the policies of provincial and federal governments from time to time. But we, the driving public and plastic buyers of the world, wanted the oil and gas industry to serve our personal needs and wants, and we are collectively paying a heavy price for our habits. It isn’t “big oil” causing the problem – it’s our relentless demand for the convenience of cars and things. We all wear the big H (hypocrite) on our foreheads on this issue.
The fossil fuel industry has trillions of dollars of assets, oil reserves and related infrastructure, invested around the world. According to our former Bank of Canada governor, Mark Carney, many of those assets are “stranded” and are already being written off. That is good, but there are consequences. Like every other solution being proposed, whether it is to move to renewable energy, electric vehicles or put in place a carbon tax to reduce the use of fossil fuels generally, the limits that we will put on the use of fossil fuels will have a public and individual cost.
We have all been witness to a great shirking of responsibility when it comes to changing our gluttonous use of oil fossil fuels and unrelenting consumerism. Gas guzzling SUVs and trucks are still consumer favourites, travel to exotic places is a must, and we need ever more purchases delivered to the door. And, few seem willing to actually change their behaviour or pay more taxes to help solve the problem.
Disengaging from fossil fuels comes at a price. There is a reckoning on the horizon. We have to avoid listening to, or voting for, the voices out there saying we don’t need to change; it’s too expensive or disruptive or inconvenient. Democracy is fragile and asking us to vote, to actively support something that costs us individually – inconvenience or money – is an uphill battle. As citizens, we must support those who are prepared to make the tough decisions.
Politicians, like voters, are a fickle lot. They often do what people want, even if they know better. We must make it clear that we, the voters, know what needs to be done, and are willing to pay the price. Perhaps that will encourage our governments to do what needs to be done.
It remains to be seen whether our commitment to protecting the environment will be matched by a willingness to adjust our expectations and our behaviour. Are we willing to contribute our share financially and personally to solutions? Or will we just move on and let the moment become, once again, our personal blah, blah, blah.
My grandchildren will be coming of age in a decade, I want them to know that our generation, the people who ignored the problem for far too long, didn’t stand in the way of fixing the problems we helped to create through neglect and selfishness.
Hon. Jerry Storie was the MLA for Flin Flon from 1981 to 1994, and held several provincial cabinet positions, including northern affairs, education and energy and mines. He served as a school superintendent from 1994 to 2004; until he retired in 2010, he was an associate professor and dean of education at Brandon University.