Inspired by the Swedish student, Greta Thunberg, the student strikers and Naomi Klein's new book "On Fire: The Burning Case for the Green New Deal," I have decided to upend my life, leave my comfort zone and move to Washington, D.C. for four months to focus on climate change. As Greta said, "This is a crisis. We have to act like our house is on fire, because it is.”
While many Canadians are looking to the October 21st federal election for solutions to global climate disruption, the climate plans from the four major parties offer none.
Any genuine solution will require reining in an economic system that demands eternal growth in a finite ecosystem, mitigating or adapting to multiplying environmental and social disasters, and drastically reducing consumption. Deadline: yesterday!
The climate crisis is itself a byproduct of 70 years of U.S. interventionism and empire.
The Pentagon is staring down the barrel of what could become the longest, hottest war in U.S. history. This titanic clash pits the largest military the world has ever seen against an omnipresent opponent that can marshal resources like no enemy it has ever encountered.
The New Deal and World War II are reminders of past transformative times, reverberating in current severe hardships and extreme dangers. Emergencies can bring clarity and reason about what to do, though at the opposite end, crises can elicit the worst outcomes, such as outlined by Naomi Klein in The Shock Doctrine.
