Canada’s founding myths hold us back from addressing climate

[Oscar]

Canada’s founding myths hold us back from addressing climate change

[ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/nat ... e32022126/ ]

NAOMI KLEIN Special to The Globe and Mail Published Friday, Sep. 23, 2016 12:00PM EDT

It has been one year and one week since a coalition of dozens of organizations and artists launched The Leap Manifesto, a short vision statement about how to transition to a post-carbon economy while battling social and economic injustice.

A lot has changed: a new federal government, a new international reputation, a new tone around First Nations and the environment. But when it comes to concrete action on lowering emissions and respecting land rights, much remains the same.

Our new government has adopted the utterly inadequate targets of the last government. Alberta has a climate plan that would allow tar sands emissions to increase by 43 per cent, wholly incompatible with the goals of the Paris climate agreement.

And the push for new pipelines – often sold as “nation building” – continues to tear us apart.

What I find striking is the narrowness of our public discourse – how much continues to be treated as unsayable and undoable when it comes to keeping carbon in the ground. Other countries are moving ahead with policies that begin to reflect the scientific realities. Germany and France have both banned fracking.

Even in the United States, there is a wider spectrum of debate. The new platform of the Democratic Party, for instance, states that no new infrastructure projects should be built if they substantively contribute to climate change – essentially the same position that caused all the outrage around The Leap Manifesto.

So what’s going on here? Why is it so hard for Canadian political leaders, across the political spectrum, to design climate policies that are guided by climate science?

There are many factors, of course – the need for jobs in an economic downturn, the power of the fossil-fuel lobby, to name a couple. But we are hardly the only country contending with these forces.

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Naomi Klein delivered the 14th annual LaFontaine-Baldwin Lecture, from which this piece is adapted.


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Jim Carr rejects idea First Nations are united against pipelines (Listen to The House Interview below . . .)

[ http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/jim-car ... -1.3776378 ]

First Nation communities in Canada and U.S. signed treaty this week to stop oilsands pipelines

CBC News Posted: Sep 24, 2016 5:00 AM ET| Last Updated: Sep 24, 2016 11:16 AM ET

Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr is dispelling the idea that all Indigenous groups in Canada are united against pipelines after a group of First Nations in Canada and the United States signed a treaty opposing new projects to carry diluted bitumen from the Alberta oilsands.

"If you put the mayors of major cities in British Columbia and Alberta in a room you'd probably not get consensus and you'd certainly not get unity. If you put the premiers in a room talking about these energy projects there would be a difference of opinion. So too, no doubt, there will be a difference of opinion in Indigenous communities," Jim Carr said in an interview with Chris Hall on The House.

LISTEN to The House: [ http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thehouse ]


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Canadian First Nations, U.S. tribes form alliance to stop oil pipelines

[ http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/ ... -1.3774444 ]

Agreement signed in Montreal, Vancouver on Thursday

Thomson Reuters Posted: Sep 22, 2016 2:46 PM ET| Last Updated: Sep 22, 2016 11:58 PM ET

First Nations communities from Canada and the northern United States signed a treaty on Thursday to jointly fight proposals to build more pipelines to carry crude from Alberta's oil sands, saying further development would damage the environment.

The treaty, signed in Montreal and Vancouver, came as the politics around pipelines have become increasingly sensitive in North America, with the U.S. Justice Department intervening last week to delay construction of a contentious pipeline in North Dakota.

The Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion was signed by 50 aboriginal groups in North America, who also plan to oppose tanker and rail projects in both countries, they said in a statement.

Targets include projects proposed by Kinder Morgan Inc, TransCanada Corp and Enbridge Inc.

While aboriginal groups have long opposed oil sands development, the treaty signals a more coordinated approach to
fight proposals.

Among the treaty's signatories is the Standing Rock Sioux tribe who opposes the Dakota pipeline.

"What this treaty means is that from Quebec, we will work with allies in (British Columbia) to make sure that the Kinder Morgan pipeline does not pass," Kanesatake Grand Chief Serge Simon said in the statement.

"And we will also work with our tribal allies in Minnesota as they take on Enbridge's Line 3 expansion, and we know they'll help us do the same against Energy East," he said, referring to TransCanada's plan to carry 1.1 million barrels of crude per day from Alberta to Canada's East Coast.

The statement did not specify what actions the groups would take to stop development.

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