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July 5, 2012
Not so very long ago, climate change was a scientific fact. Its transformation
into a political issue says something about our society's core values.
Only two decades ago, politicians could state the obvious without repercussions.
President George Bush Sr. warned in 1990: "We all know that human activities are
changing the atmosphere in unexpected and in unprecedented ways."
Now such statements would be political suicide for any conservative politician.
Climate change, if acknowledged at all, would be couched in explanations of the
earth's inevitable natural cycle or sunspots: nothing we can do about it.
How could President Bush say something then that would be foolhardy now? The
optimism of that time is part of the answer. We thought we could get ourselves
out of any mess as when acid rain was killing forests and peeling paint off
houses. The solution was to reduce the sulphur in fuel. And when
Chlorofluorocarbons were destroying the ozone layer, international protocols
reduced them. United Nations Secretary-General Kofi glowed: "perhaps the single
most successful international agreement to date has been the Montreal Protocol."
A funny thing happened on our way to solving climate change. It became a
political issue. Sure, we could reduce greenhouse gases. All it would take would
be to completely change the way we live.
That suited some. Advocates of a low human footprint on the earth liked the idea
of energy conservation, small efficient houses, bicycles, public transportation,
and renewable energy. Those in love with their SUVs saw the solution to climate
change as a threat to their way of life. The ostentatious display of wealth was
completely entangled with the consumption of energy and the subsequent
production of greenhouse gases.
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In hindsight any political observers, including President Bush, could have
foreseen events as they unfolded and sides as they became entrenched.
Conservatives saw solutions to climate change as a left-wing agenda: higher
taxes, government intervention, and redistribution of wealth. Progressives
saw conservatives as thuggish Neanderthals who would sooner rape the planet
than give up their decadent ways.
There is blame enough to go around. Once climate change becomes an issue,
rather than a fact, it is just another item on the check-list. Change the
old inefficient light bulbs. Check. Recycle the trash. Check. Save the
planet. Check.
Climate change becomes just another item in a cluster of issues that define
a group of political party. Climate change (the fact) changes the earth's
atmosphere in unexpected and in unprecedented ways. Climate change (the
issue) threatens our accepted wisdom of the way our world works. The
implications are staggering and hurt the head. Our globe is threatened and
so is our world; our physical home and our mental constructs of society.
Naomi Klein, author of No Logo and Shock Doctrine, puts it this way: "The
abundant scientific research showing we have pushed nature beyond its limits
does not just demand green products and market-based solutions; it demands a
new civilization paradigm, one grounded not in dominance over nature, but in
respect of natural cycles or renewal - - and acutely sensitive to natural
limits, including the limits of human intelligence."
These limits affect us all, left and right, because they challenge our
deeply-held beliefs of the world.
"In fact, it isn't an issue at all," says Klein, "Climate change is a
message, one that is telling us that many of our culture's most
cherished ideas are no longer viable."
It's too bad that we can't turn back the clock two decades and start afresh
in solving the looming climate change problem.
David Charbonneau is the owner of Thompson Studio
He can be reached at
dcharbonneau13@shaw.ca
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