But as a climate writer, environmentalist, and activist, I’ve learned over the years that there’s no point engaging with that kind of argument. And thankfully, after four decades of fossil-fuel-funded propaganda campaigns, climate denial is no longer a major political force. Even the oil companies have moved on.
So I’m addressing this letter to everyone who’s rightfully concerned about the fact that just in the last six months in the Lower Mainland, we’ve had hundreds die from a record-breaking heatwave; we’ve had the worst air quality in the world due to a devastating wildfire season; we’ve had towns and communities literally vaporized in two hours, and now we’ve had our entire highway system — and thousands of homes — destroyed.
You can nitpick about whether each of these events was “caused by climate change” — though please look up the nascent branch of climate science known as “attribution science” before you do — but researchers have been predicting exactly these impacts for decades.
This speaks to why we must all become climate activists if we want any hope to rebuild a future where we can thrive.
The New York Times declared “Global Warming Has Begun” on its front page in 1988, before I was born. More than half of all cumulative CO2 emissions have been released into the atmosphere since then. And of course, knew the consequences of their business model far earlier.
Over four decades, we’ve seen that listening to the experts is demonstrably not enough. It’s not enough because as much as the climate crisis is a technical problem, mitigating it is a political one, and the political world today is one of vastly unequal power and influence.
In that sense, resolving the climate crisis is like any other historical battle against entrenched interests. The only way those battles have ever been won is through mass mobilization and the building of collective power. Together, we can force our governments to take meaningful action.
Activism can look different for everyone. You don’t need to get arrested from a tree-sit on Burnaby Mountain fighting the Trans Mountain Expansion Project to be an activist.
But I’m begging you: do not sit idly by as the world — and our future — burns.
Nick Gottlieb
Squamish
