Here in B.C., we’re packing our emergency kits, checking weather sites, and wondering why things have reached this critical point.
Both our prime minister and premier campaigned as climate champions. Yet Canada has not once reached a single Paris Agreement target.
Both have subsidized fossil fuels with our tax dollars instead of investing in green technologies, and have allowed our biggest carbon sinks, old growth forests, to be decimated.
We hear empty words for Aboriginal people as we witness the grief buried in the grounds of residential schools.
This is a time of reflection. People voted for climate champions so they would look out for our interests, address climate change, and get on with a just transition to a greener, more livable future.
I hope they take a hard look at the risks that we in B.C., and the rest of the world, are facing. Their actions say something very different from their reassuring words. You can fool some people, but you can’t fool nature.
How many more towns will be burned to the ground because of climate change next summer?
Our politicians must support genuine green solutions instead of nuclear power, unproven carbon capture technologies, massive planned military investments, fracking or pipelines.
We want to see everything electrified, and powered with green energy. We want need to subsidize making our buildings energy efficient, green transportation infrastructure and the restoration of our lands and water. And we need to invest in schools, hospitals and public institutions for a green and caring society. So much needs to be healed.
And let’s get clean water to reserves, ensure aboriginal women and girls are safe, and honour the spirit of UNDRIP in negotiations around land and resources.
It’s time to change the terrifying trajectory we’re on.
Diana van Eyk
Nelson
