climate change

Tuesday March 21, 2023

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday March 21, 2023

The UN just released a landmark climate-change report. Here’s the grim timeline it gives us

November 18, 2022

By 2030, scientists warn, countries such as Canada must slash carbon emissions by almost half to prevent that fifth-grader from living out her old age in a world with increased floods, fires, crop failures, forced migration and infectious disease outbreaks, and to zero by 2050.

That was the conclusion of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Synthesis Report.

Climate change may have once felt like something you had to squint deep into the future to see. Monday’s report shows that the choices we make now will profoundly alter the planet today’s children live in.

“Let’s hope we make the right choices, because the ones we make now and in the next few years will reverberate around the world for hundreds, even thousands of years,” Hoesung Lee, chairperson of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said Monday.

Alongside new, near-term targets, the report also reaffirmed the goal of net zero emissions by 2050, a goal enshrined in the Paris Agreement. But on Monday, UN Secretary General António Guterres suggested wealthy countries such as Canada need to reach net zero even sooner — by 2040.

September 20, 2022

“This can be done,” Guterres said. “Some have already set a target as early as 2035.

“In short, our world needs climate action on all fronts — everything, everywhere, all at once,” Guterres said at a news conference for the report’s release.

Federal Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault affirmed the conclusions of the IPCC report Monday afternoon, but did not say Canada would move to a net-zero 2040 target.

“This is a new request from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, obviously one that we will study very carefully in Canada,” Guilbeault said. “It’s one thing to simply say, well, you know, we want to reach this goal, but we have to give ourselves the means to get there. We do that now in Canada for 2050.”

August 13, 2021

While Guterres referenced a science fiction movie in his remarks, the solutions to this crisis are both well understood, already in use and, in some cases, almost embarrassingly simple. Protecting intact forests, wetlands and other natural ecosystems would have massive payoffs. Solar and wind power are already contributing energy to power grids, even in fossil-fuel-friendly places such as Texas. Bike-riding made the list.

The report is the world’s most comprehensive assessment of the current state of climate change. The last synthesis report came out in 2014, and acted as both a major impetus and the scientific underpinning for the historic Paris Agreement, when nearly all the world’s governments agreed to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. That goal is necessary to keep the world within 1.5 degrees of warming, a critical guardrail that, if overshot, will lead to increasingly destructive planetary outcomes, some irreversible.

The synthesis report released Monday concludes years of work by hundreds of scientists around the globe, and will set the stage for a different kind of momentous meeting later this year: a conference at which nations will assess their Paris commitment progress so far.

The actions pledged by nations so far are insufficient to keep the world within that guardrail, and would result in 2.8 degrees of warming by the end of the century, the UN’s initial assessment found. The world will gather again in Dubai starting in November to conclude that global “stocktake.” (The Toronto Star) 

From sketch to finish, see the current way Graeme completes an editorial cartoon using an iPencil, the Procreate app, and a couple of cheats on an iPad Pro …

 

Saturday December 17, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday December 17, 2022

Why is COP15 important?

The definition of “biodiversity” is: “The variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem.” Biodiversity encompasses all aspects of life — genes, species and ecosystems — and it is currently in imminent danger. That means we are too.

December 10, 2022

The COP15 UN biodiversity conference runs from Dec. 7 to 19 in Montreal with 196 counties trying to agree on a plan to stop biodiversity loss and help restore nature because our fate as the human race is inextricably linked to the rest of nature. The plan is to protect at least 30 per cent of our lands and oceans by 2030 and the biodiversity that we depend on to survive.

Elizabeth Mrema, UN biodiversity head, has described the conference as “calling for ambitious outcomes.”

“Clearly the world is crying out for change, watching our governments seek to heal our relationships with nature,” she says.

The 2022 WWF Living Planet Report warned that global wildlife populations declined by 70 per cent from 1970 to 2022. This accelerating loss of nature has already impacted human well-being and economies. Healthy ecosystems also play indispensable roles in tackling climate change, and the loss of biodiversity weakens our resilience to that change. We are stripping our planet so aggressively and unsustainably that the resources we depend on will soon be extinct.

The 2022 Global Biodiversity Framework’s four goals focus on conservation, sustainable use of biodiversity, fair benefit-sharing, and “resource mobilization” (more funding). The targets cover expanding protected areas (like the Greenbelt that Premier Ford will destroy with his outdated Bill 23 legislation), reducing pollution to ensure food production is healthy and sustainable and phasing out billions of dollars of public subsidies that harm nature. That’s why Bill 23 is a direct contradiction to COP15 and needs to be repealed.

November 23, 2022

Bill 23 will harm the Greenbelt, create more biodiversity loss, increase urban sprawl and emissions that will also affect Peterborough. It will also pollute prime agricultural land that was protected for growing local food and poison the soil and crops that grows there.

So, when Dave Smith says that Bill 23 will not affect Peterborough, he is wrong because this legislation will harm our environment and human health by allowing municipalities to move away from environmental protection and build big carbon footprint housing developments on protected land near protected waterways, wetlands and forests.

It’s hard work to balance the environment with the economy. That’s why we need politicians and governments who can do both because they are both connected to each other. By passing Bill 23, the Ford government has shown it doesn’t know how to make this connection work for the common good. It’s a fine balance, but a balance crucial to the health and survival of our biodiverse human race. (The Peterborough Examiner) 

From sketch to finish, see the current way Graeme completes an editorial cartoon using an iPencil, the Procreate app, and a couple of cheats on an iPad Pro … These sped up clips are posted to encourage others to be creative, to take advantage of the technology many of us already have and to use it to produce satire. Comfort the afflicted. Afflict the comforted.

 

Tuesday November 22, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday November 22, 2022

Political insider breaks down Green Party of Canada co-leadership win, potential trouble ahead

Former party leader and B.C. MP Elizabeth May and newcomer Jonathan Pedneault became the new co-leaders of the Green Party of Canada (GPC) on Saturday.

October 14, 2015

After her win, May, who ran the party from 2006 to 2019, made the case for the co-leadership model but noted that members would have the final say. It will require a change to the party’s constitution.

Former interim leader Amita Kuttner had expressed some uncertainty about how a potential shift to the co-leader model would be implemented.

Sonia Théroux, a political organizer who was involved with one of the Green Party of Canada’s most successful campaigns in 2015, says while she’s not surprised by the outcome of the leadership election, there could be some challenges ahead. 

When asked if she was surprised the two won the leadership, Théroux said, “I was not surprised. I was quite certain that Elizabeth and Anna Keenan were the two front-runners, and with Elizabeth’s name recognition, I assumed she had the edge.”

October 13, 2022

As for challenges they’ll inherit as co-leaders, “besides the obvious infrastructure problems, they’ve had a massive loss of staff. I think there’s a lot of work to be done to regain trust, not only from the base, which in some senses might be more easily done than with the public. I think the public looks for political parties and leaders in general that feel like they have a handle on their internal matters, and as we’ve all seen for the last few years, that’s not the impression the party has given.”

“It’s not unusual for Greens, that’s for sure. I see it as an increasing concept in leadership. I think it’s actually a good concept for the most part, but it can also really easily be poorly done if it’s not really well thought out. They do need to democratically come to this decision as a party, and my understanding is that they’ve attempted that in the past, and it hasn’t passed, but I can see it being successful at their 2023 annual general meeting. It will require an adjustment of their constitution.”

July 16, 2021

“if you’re both tackling the same things, you end up with a lot of confusion often, which can really trickle down to staff and the people that you’re working with. I’d say that the major factor from my perspective in a party that needs to signal change is that Jonathan Pedneault was given a lot of platform, and my understanding when Elizabeth announced the co-leadership intention, she was quoted somewhere in the media saying they had already figured it out.”

Théroux believes challenges lie ahead: “Jonathan was going to focus on rebuilding the party, and she was going to be the spokesperson. That sounds like a recipe for it not working. You’ve got a party in disarray that is not completely unrelated to her 13 years in leadership. To have Jonathan go in and try to fix that while she’s given the platform, I think it’s the opposite of how they should approach it.”

“If the intention is really to signal a new voice, a new time, a new era, and to try to regain the trust of the public, it’s really hard to do that when you’ve got a record versus somebody who’s brand new and exciting, and that can really engage a subset of the population that currently isn’t paying attention to the Green Party.”

June 18, 2021

“Elizabeth had her time at the party. It really needs to signal change. I think that points to giving Pedneault more of a platform than Elizabeth May herself. He needs to be given the time and the resources he needs in order to feel like he’s got everything he needs to move forward.”

When asked if the Green Party be any better situated in the next federal election to elect more members of Parliament, Théroux said, “That really depends on what they choose to do. I do know a lot of folks that feel like Elizabeth May returning to the role signals moving backward versus moving forward. So that is a hump that they have to overcome.”

“And I think then it really comes down to, can they as leaders really generate enough attention and engagement that they build back a funding base because you cannot win elections without staff and without money. And if those two things aren’t repaired together with, critically, a culture change that needs to happen in that party, I don’t see their chances necessarily getting better without that hard work.” (CBC News) 

 

Friday November 18, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday November 18, 2022

Canada won’t back call at COP27 to ‘phase down’ oil and gas production

Canada won’t agree to add language calling for the phaseout of all fossil fuels — including oil and gas — to the final agreement at this year’s United Nations climate talks in Egypt, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said Thursday.

November 10, 2021

The agreement from the UN conference in Scotland last year called for countries to move faster to get rid of coal-fired electricity plants that are not abated with technology to capture emissions. It was the first time a COP pact included any reference to reducing any kind of fossil fuel use.

India spent the last two weeks of COP27 negotiations pushing to add oil and gas to that paragraph in this year’s final pact.

The European Union said it was supportive of the idea as long as it does not weaken the language on coal. United States climate envoy John Kerry said the U.S. was on board as long as it applies only to “unabated” oil and gas.

But there was no sign of any such language in the draft text of the COP27 pact released Thursday. The final draft was still being negotiated as the two-week climate talks near their final day Friday.

Canada backed the coal language last year, but Guilbeault said it’s not open to adding oil and gas to the pact this year.

April 11, 2018

During a one-on-one conversation in Egypt Thursday with Climate Action Network Canada’s national policy Caroline Brouillette, Guilbeault said Canada’s focus is on regulations and policies that curb greenhouse gas emissions, like regulations on how much methane oil and gas producers can emit.

It’s also focusing on reducing demand for fossil fuels with policies that promote energy conservation alternatives, such as electric vehicles, clean power and more efficient buildings.

He said if Canada backed the addition of oil and gas phaseout language it would prompt pushback from the provinces, including in court.

“Everything we do is challenged in the court,” he said. (Carbon) pricing was challenged, our plastic pollution regulations were challenged, our environmental impact assessment is being challenged — either by provinces or companies, or both. And if we’re not on very solid legal ground, we will lose in front of the tribunals and that doesn’t help anyone.“

October 28, 2021

Guilbeault said Canada hasn’t been challenged over plans to phase out coal, but is on almost everything it does on the oil and gas side.

“We have to be super careful in terms of what we do … that what we do will hold in court,” he said. “Otherwise we’re wasting time, and precious time, to fight climate change.”

Julia Levin, national climate program manager for Environmental Defence, called that a disappointing excuse.

“I’d say it’s clear that the government of Canada is beholden to fossil fuel lobbyists and putting their interests ahead of public welfare,” said Levin.

She added that Canada’s position is strange, considering the agreement would likely have included the same abatement provision as coal. While Levin doesn’t back carbon capture and storage as a serious solution to cutting emissions, she said even that would be “a clear signal that, according to the U.S. and others, the age of oil and gas is over.”

November 4, 2021

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, meanwhile, said getting lower-emission oil and natural gas to international markets is paramount for its members.

“As global demand for natural gas and oil will remain strong for decades, Canada has a role to play in providing safe and lower emission resources to the world’s energy mix,” said Lisa Baiton, CAPP’s president and CEO, in a written statement.

The hope in Egypt is that countries would reach a consensus on action to cut greenhouse gas emissions enough to still make it realistic to reach the goal of limiting global warming to no more than 1.5 C. (The Peterborough Examiner)

From sketch to finish, see the current way Graeme completes an editorial cartoon using an iPencil, the Procreate app, and a couple of cheats on an iPad Pro … These sped up clips are posted to encourage others to be creative, to take advantage of the technology many of us already have and to use it to produce satire. Comfort the afflicted. Afflict the comforted.

Thursday October 13, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday October 13, 2022

The sad decline of the Green party

Climate change is no longer something we need to prepare for. It is here, in the form of extreme weather, and this country, and, indeed the world, is reacting to a crisis no longer at our door, but in our kitchen.

September 23, 2005

Hurricane Fiona and Hurricane Ian are just the two most recent extreme weather disasters that are bringing death, destruction, darkness and despair to North America. We have also dealt with record heat, raging wildfires and a litany of “once in a century” storms that hit with frightening regularity, making a mockery of such hyperbolic labels. It also hurts the Canadian economy. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has committed $300 million in a relief package to rebuild after Fiona.

The Green Party of Canada had long held more mainstream parties accountable on dealing with climate change and a vibrant party pushing for more robust action would be crucial to the discourse of 2022.

But, that type of contribution is no more. There are signs that the national party could soon be no more.

September 17, 2007

There are those who would argue that the demise of the Greens began when Canada’s mainstream parties (with the notable exception of the federal Conservatives) began dealing seriously with climate change. We are now in an era when even the Canadian Chamber of Commerce is mapping a strategy for NetZero by 2050 and the Canadian corporate community has long known that transitioning to low-carbon energy is no longer aspirational. Failure to act damages the bottom line.

But the steep decline of the Greens wasn’t sparked by the loss of its signature issue. It was the product of hubris. Rarely has a political party more completely lost touch with its raison d’etre. It is there to serve and advocate for its constituents, not settle internal scores and bury itself in a grave of leaked grievances, threats, petty sniping, charges of misgendering and legal minutiae.

June 18, 2021

But that has been the sad recent history of the Greens, post-Elizabeth May. Jonathan Pedneault, a Quebec Green seeking to become co-leader with May, put it this way: “Right now, Canadian voters would be hard pressed to look at us and think that we are a viable option.”

He’s being optimistic if he thinks Canadians are looking at them. Most have looked away, in the manner in which one would recoil from a bus crash.

Most of the Green dysfunction over the past couple of years has been chronicled first – and in excruciating detail – by Torstar’s Alex Ballingall and Raisa Patel. News stories have chronicled party resignations and allegations of exclusion, discrimination and toxicity.

The leadership of Annamie Paul crumbled amidst charges and countercharges. She said she was destabilized from within. Party officials said she could not accept the party’s principle of decentralized authority. Then Paul, a Black, Jewish woman, accused unnamed party members of racism and misogyny.

September 10, 2019

Now, the party has eliminated a round of voting in a federal leadership contest with one official saying the party lacked the morale and motivation to handle two rounds of voting. The party is said to be losing money and is at risk of having to close its Ottawa headquarters. It has two MPs, May and Kitchener’s Mike Morrice, it polls about three per cent support and last year won its smallest vote total since the turn of the century.

There remain signs of Green life at the provincial level, and that’s good. But sadly, it is difficult to find a pulse on the federal scene. If we lose the Greens, the lament will be for what they could have been, not for what they have become. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial) 

From sketch to finish, see the current way Graeme completes an editorial cartoon using an iPencil, the Procreate app, and a couple of cheats on an iPad Pro …