The Climate Summit in Paris has once again reminded us of how vulnerable we are on planet earth. However, humanity is faced with a number of deep and challenging crises: economic, social, political, over food – and, of course, over climate change, which is threatening the very existence of millions of people. These crises have many of the same root causes, going to the core of our economic system.
West coast of Greenland. The fastest glacier in the world, Jakobshaven Isbrae, moving at 150 feet per day, dumps ice from the Greenland Ice Sheet into Disko Bay. (Photo: Bruce Melton)
We saw the delegates hugging each other as they walked out of the COP21 climate change talks in Paris back in December — but we had no idea what the agreement they reached meant for Canada.
Now we do. And it turns out Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall was quite right to be anxious about the future of our fossil fuel industry and Alberta Premier Rachel Notley may have been quite wrong in her assertion that Alberta will prosper — if she was talking about the oil and gas industry, at any rate.
Robert Pollin is Distinguished Professor of Economics and Co-Director of the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. He is also the founder and President of PEAR (Pollin Energy and Retrofits), an Amherst, MA-based green energy company operating throughout the United States. His books include The Living Wage: Building a Fair Economy (co-authored 1998); Contours of Descent: U.S.
Closing speech by Paula Gioia, the European Youth International Coordination Committee (ICC) member of La Via Campesina, at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) colloquium on Global governance/politics, climate justice & agrarian/social justice: linkages and challenges. 4-5
Sanders and Clinton debate. Photo: Adam Reese/CNN.
Chris Williams of Pace University and Michael Oppenheimer of Princeton University say the presidential candidates have not given the issue of climate change the attention it merits given that the future of humanity is at stake - February 12, 2016
[ Editors: Some union leaders in BC continue to advocate the wrong direction for working people. The latest example is the letter below that was published in the Vancouver Sun newspaper. Following this letter's misguided opposition to fossil fuel divestment by UBC is a previous response by the Vancouver Ecosocialists to such views. Note further: "UBC board of governors votes against divestment from fossil fuel industry"- CBC News, Feb 15, 2016 12:52 PM PT]
NDP Leader Tom Mulcair did not endorse the Leap Manifesto at the time of its release but said he welcomed new ideas and understood it reflected a desire for change. (Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press)
As the NDP mulls over its disastrous election outcome, more than a dozen ridings are urging the party to embrace a plan for dramatic change at the party convention in April.
The Leap Manifesto offers a number of recommendations, including a proposal to wean the country off fossil fuels to address climate change.
