I am a high school teacher. I need something I can give my students to suggest that the leaders of our country are going to really lead on the issue that, more than any other, will define the kind of world they will live in.
That issue is climate change.
This came home to me after reading the recent article by the University of Victoria's Andrew Weaver on the censoring of scientists, his new study on melting permafrost in the north and the new regulations on coal-powered electricity.
Watching Prime Minister Stephen Harper and NDP leader Thomas Mulcair argue about whether a carbon tax is being suggested, using words like "dumb" and "stupid" (terms I do not let my children use), I don't see the kind of leadership I had hoped would inspire my students.
Cap-and-trade versus carbon tax? Both. Either. Whatever. And start investing in a new energy system and Economy 2.0 so my boys will have an economy. B.C., Alberta, Ontario and Quebec all have a version of this kind of tax or are planning similar measures. They could be better, but it's a start.
Oil execs in Athabasca are asking to know how much they'll have to pay for carbon so they can plan. Even they seem to know we cannot dump carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere without a price.
The good news is, as we continue to cut carbon from our individual lives, we'll pay less in taxes.
We're living in a dinosaur economy, and yes, this version is currently working better for us than many other economies in the world. But, please, let us demand that our leaders do a bit of research on how long this economy will continue to work in a climate that is releasing billions of tons of new carbon and methane into the atmosphere as we melt our own permafrost.
(P.S.: We're running out of the energy that fuelled the dinosaur economy anyway - it makes sense to get ahead of the curve so we can come out on top.)
So perhaps less hot air and more research. Weaver and Orca Books sent every MP a copy of his latest book Generation Us. It's only 177 pages. Let us ask our MPs if they've read that yet for starters. If they haven't even done that so they at least understand what's at stake, shame on them.
If we don't ask them, shame on us.
Mark Neufeld is a teacher at Claremont Secondary's Institute for Global Solutions and an MSc candidate at the Centre for Earth and Ocean Sciences at the University of Victoria.
