Meeting Seth Klein

The talk I'm reporting here is also recorded on YouTube.

A contact of mine from Oakville, ON, invited me to join a meeting of the GASP group at which the author and environmentalist Seth Klein was to give a talk. February 25th, he signed into that meeting from his home in British Columbia. The book he wrote, A Good War, appeared last September and people are finding it hopeful. It is structured around people's memories of the 2nd World War.

Klein grew up in the 1970s as a pacifist in a pacifist family. Nonetheless, he draws lessons relevant to the world's climate crisis from Canada's experience of the war.

What we have been doing so far isn't working. We have failed to "bend the curve" of reducing GHG emissions despite decades of trying and of promising to act while accomplishing precious little.

For about six years, during and after the war, the country faced a comparable existential threat and found common cause in responding to it. There was social collaboration across the barriers of class, race, age and gender. (There were also "things that caused us shame" in those days, reminiscent of the treatment of today's refugees.)

A wartime government

1. spends what it takes to win;
2. creates new economic institutions to get the job done;
3. shifts from voluntary and incentive-based policies to mandatory measures;
4. tells the truth about the severity of the crisis.

During the current climate emergency, the government is failing to do any of the above. Klein's book spells out what it will take to win this war too.

In the 1940s there was a tenfold increase in government spending, because "if we lost, nothing would matter." At present, $5-billion a year is being budgeted for climate mitigation in Canada, not much if you compare this with the budget of $5-billion a week for dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic.

The wartime population of Canada was a third of what it is today, yet in that small country a huge amount of military production took place and institutions were quickly created. If today's government really saw a climate emergency it would study what's needed and similarly establish new Crown Corporations to deal with it.

Admittedly, there's plenty of encouragement for change, but nothing mandatory and no deadlines. This is not making it clear to the population that this is a serious matter. Why is the government not using its power of state to make change happen? There's a sapping of the imagination, a lack of belief that we can do grand things together.

In the 40s it took work to mobilize the public. The leaders we remember did that and managed to impart a sense of hope all the same. Today, as in wartime, there ought to be daily press briefings to show that the media takes the emergency seriously, but this isn't happening, and the government is sending contradictory messages, besides. It is high time the CBC got involved. We need a broadcaster of Ed Murrow's ilk, who would start to change people's opinions.

One lesson from World War II is that inequality is toxic to solidarity. If we pay attention to avoiding inequality, we win. In the 1940s the social welfare system was initiated. A Green New Deal in the 2020s would link bold climate action with social awareness, so that no one gets left behind. Robust just-transition programs are needed now.  

In the USA, the new "platform" is excellent, with half a trillion dollars (50-billion a year, in Canadian terms) now being set aside for climate change mitigation. The USA aims to decarbonise its whole electric grid by 2035. Canada's leaders are saying nothing like this, said Klein, comparing our efforts unfavourably with those of the UK, Ireland, New Zealand and Denmark. Norway has fossil fuel reserves that are deliberately being kept in the ground.

Klein has hopes for action at the municipal level. In Vancouver, for instance, impressive plans for legislation are in place. The Vancouver city council has very long meetings and no political party is in the majority there; even so, they recently passed a unanimous vote in favour of positive action. These plans "have teeth" and may be the most ambitious in North America.

The David Suzuki Institute is about to start a campaign to ban the advertising of fossil fuel products. Environmentalists of our older generation should form alliances with the student Fridays for Future strikers; intergenerational activism is important.

The C-12 Act, targeting zero carbon emissions by 2050, isn't going to take effect until 2030, but there will be a different government in power, by then. Are we on the right path? Klein thinks not, and will pressurize the government to bring about rolling 3-year carbon budgets. He supports carbon pricing, but that won't achieve what we need to achieve. We need to mobilize, to rally behind the idea of setting clear, mandatory deadlines. Canada has been nimble in tackling the pandemic but the red tape measures associated with climate policy are painfully slow in comparison.

Why work so hard at reducing our GHG emissions when China is still emitting so much? This has to be a global effort, and per capita, Canada's emissions are among the highest in the world. You can't sit out this war, says Klein; you win with allies around you.

Unfortunately many people are already becoming "climate fatigued". We all wrestle with despair and live in ambiguous times. Being ordered to stay at home because of Covid was an anathema to our social instincts, but it's encouraging to think that we have done it all the same. To counteract global warming, on the other hand, we're being asked to go out and do something together, and that's good. In the 2nd World War a million Canadians enlisted without knowing they would win. They rallied, regardless, and surprised themselves with the outcome. That is the spirit we need.