WE DON’T HAVE FIVE PLANETS!!

[Actually, Dr. AIR CARE grabbed the keyboard and got a few words in edgewise. Blacklock apologizes in advance for AC’s bluntness and her tendency to SHOUT.]

When Europeans first made their way to the “New World”, equipped with weapons and diseases with which to kill off and decimate the indigenous peoples, the vast land we currently call North America must have seemed limitless.

More land . . .

More trees . . .

More rivers . . .

More minerals . . .

More of EVERYTHING than had EVER been imagined. As soon as resources in any one place were largely exploited, the colonizers could just move on. Further inland. Further west. Over the vast prairies. Down the rivers. Over the mountains and hills. Inexhaustible riches and resources. Cotton. Tobacco. Gold. Grain. Timber. COAL.

And finally . . .

OIL.

South America was similarly endowed with riches. So was Australia. It was all there for the GRABBING. And GRAB they did. They GRABBED AND GRABBED, and we their descendants are still GRABBING. And DUMPING.

Canadians, Americans, and Australians are THE WORLD’S GREATEST GRABBERS and DUMPERS.

The European colonists could perhaps be forgiven for getting carried away when they were confronted with the vastness of the new worlds they had discovered. We who inhabit the year 2020, on the other hand, have NO EXCUSE. We have comprehensive maps of Planet.

WE EVEN HAVE PHOTOS OF THE EARTH FROM SPACE.

We know DAMNED well there aren’t five Planet Earths available for our GRABBING AND DUMPING pleasure. AND YET, WE KEEP LIVING AS IF THERE WERE.

Meanwhile, the human species as a whole is overshooting our ONLY Planet Earth’s capacities by 60%. You might well ask: why aren’t we overshooting by 500%? That would be BECAUSE MUCH OF HUMANITY STILL LIVES IN POVERTY. Their GRABBING and DUMPING is TRIVIAL compared with our own. 

As a result of our PROFLIGATE and PERSISTENT GRABBING and DUMPING, we are now faced with PLANETARY CATASTROPHE. Eco-Overshoot. The Great Melt. Sea Level Rise. Biodiversity Loss. The Sixth Great Extinction. The Climate Emergency. Call it what you will. It’s all part of the same phenomenon, the result of our incessant GRABBING and DUMPING.

In regard to the Climate Emergency specifically, the GRABBING consists mainly of extracting and burning FOSSIL FUELS. The DUMPING involves spewing the resulting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. 

On October 14, 2020, the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change, which represents at least twenty-one medical colleges and associations in Britain, issued a memorandum:

“Health Professionals Call for Action to Avert Climate Catastrophe”

In keeping with the IPCC’s most recent report (2020), the Alliance called for all countries on the Planet, including the UK, to reach net zero emissions by 2040. How could this even be possible? And then, how could it be done fairly? 

The answer is based on the principles of Contraction and Convergence. First, the great grabber-dumper nations of the world RAPIDLY CONTRACT their emissions down to the global average.

[CONTRACT means SHRINK, lest there be any doubt]

And then we ALL bring our emissions down to NET ZERO by 2040, and ultimately down to absolute zero. 

What will this mean for Canadians (and Americans and Australians) specifically? Well, we will have to CONTRACT our FOSSIL FUEL GRABBING and GHG DUMPING by two thirds to three quarters. Put that another way: The average Canadian is responsible for some 16 metric tonnes of CO2e emissions each year. We have to first get that down to the global average of 4.8. AND WE’D BETTER DO IT QUICKLY. Because THEN we all need to CONVERGE TO NET ZERO BY 2040.

I’m not talking here about what’s FEASIBLE. I’m talking about what’s NECESSARY. Anything less is just a new form of CLIMATE CHANGE DENIAL, which will condemn today’s youth to CLIMATE HELL. And in case you are about to label me a dangerous left-wing elite radical extremist, let me remind you that what I’m describing was proposed, just a few weeks ago, by an Alliance that represents most of the UK’s doctors, only a few of whom are out protesting with Extinction Rebellion.

We should each address our own personal carbon footprints. We should also advocate for sustainable health care systems. But we also MUST not KID ourselves. THOSE actions alone will be NOWHERE NEAR ENOUGH. We’ve dallied for 30+ years on this issue, and now the changes required of us are DRASTIC. And we are never going to do it unless we’re MADE to. Unless we MAKE OURSELVES.

We need POLITICIANS WITH GUTS AND VISION. We need LEGALLY-BINDING, SCIENCE-BASED TARGETS put into LAW, so that neither we nor our politicians can escape from them. We need audacious citizen-voters to make sure it HAPPENS. And we need to watch carefully, and make sure it all transpires in ways that promote EQUITY and the RIGHTS OF THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES whose ancestors occupied this land long before all the RAMPANT GRABBING AND DUMPING ever got started. 

Doctor AIR Care writes from the traditional lands of the Atikameksheng Anishnawbek peoples. She is grateful to them for the privilege of sharing in the care of this place.