Canadian’s Don’t Care

In December 2009 representatives from nations from around the world met in Copenhagen, Denmark for The 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference. Many Canadian protestors were also present, raising awareness of many issues including Native Rights specific to the Alberta Tar Sands.

Canadians don’t care about the poor, the vulnerable and the marginalized.

Or at least that is what the world now thinks of Canadians as a result of the Canadian government’s poor performance at the recent UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.

Canadians have traditionally prided themselves on their big hearts and their willingness to protect the world’s most vulnerable. But that image of Canada is fading fast. The Canada of the present is selfish, uncooperative and obstructive.

As a youth delegate in Copenhagen, I watched day after day as Canadian government officials obstructed progress at the climate talks. The Copenhagen conference was one of the most important negotiations to have ever taken place on the planet, yet right from the get go, the Canadian government was playing hardball, coming into the conference with unacceptably low targets and refusing to strengthen them one bit. Canada has committed to a 20 per cent reduction below 2006 levels. This may sound ambitious, but according to the international base year of 1990, Canada’s targets equate to a weak three per cent reduction. This came at a time when the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) called for a cut of 25 to 40 per cent below 1990 levels for industrialized nations. Such drastic cuts are necessary to effectively mitigate climate change. Canada is effectively saying the best they can do is three per cent.

Canada is barely doing anything, with targets among the worst in the industrialized world.

Canadians are turning a blind eye to the struggles of the poor and vulnerable and we are disrespectful to the global mitigation process.

By setting such low targets and ignoring the global process, Canadians are telling the world they don’t care. And while I presume Canadians would hate to think that this is a fair depiction of them, how is it not when people from small island states or coastal regions see a government that has committed to minimal action on climate change. How do we tell them we care when we continue to allow one of the most destructive projects on the planet thrive in Alberta? How do we tell them Canadians care when we are still bickering about whether or not climate change is real?

Well, climate change may not be real for us in Guelph, but it is a reality for billions of people in the world, and it is real for Canadians.

Many of us forget that the indigenous communities of Canada are already experiencing the consequences of climate change. We forget that they are most vulnerable to intensified changes in our climate and water quality because many of them still live off the fish in their streams and animals in their arctic. In Copenhagen, I heard about the struggles of many fellow Canadians as their indigenous communities were being directly affected by Tar Sands development. Residue from the oil sands is polluting their river basin and causing alarming rates of cancer.

Sue Deranger, a Dene woman belonging to the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation of Northern Alberta, told me that in one month, she lost 13 family members due to cancer related diseases.

“How can that be?” she asked. “For money, for profit? And when the world dies and our mother earth cannot survive anymore, what will their money do for them? Can they eat it, can they drink it? They’re making us lose everything.”

And by they, she means the Canadian government, as under provincial regulations, energy companies such as Suncor are allowed to discharge up to 150 kilograms of oil and grease each day into the Athabasca river. There are currently five plants up and running and people already are experiencing the impacts. What will happen when all 21 proposed plants are up and running? How could I tell her Canadians care when we have legislation that allows for the pollution of their water sources? How could I console a woman who has lost so much, just so Canadians can continue to use fossil fuels? I couldn’t so I just cried.

And I cried when I met Mohamed Axam Maumoon, a fifteen-year-old youth ambassador from the Maldives, an island country in the Indian Ocean. He told me most of Maldive’s Islands are only 1 meter above sea level. I looked down at my barely 1.6 meter body and realized that the water would only need to raise past my waist to start flooding the islands he calls home. I imagined the horrors of knowing your entire country would disappear underwater in the next 30 years and all of your country’s people would be rendered homeless. Small island states and low lying coastal regions are among the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change due to sea level rise and the increased intensity of natural disasters. These countries only collectively contribute to 0.6 per cent of the world’s global greenhouse gas emissions, yet they are the ones on the frontline. At a conference session, Mohamed boldly asked, “would you commit murder, even while we are begging for mercy and begging for you to stop what you’re doing, change your ways, and let our children see the future that we want to build for them?”

As outrageous a question as it may seem, it is important to realize that climate change is about life and death for the world’s most vulnerable countries. Yet, Canada is perfectly fine committing to a three per cent decrease of carbon emissions knowing perfectly well that three per cent will not do anything for these countries.

Many of the developing nations made it clear they will not sign a suicide pact, but the outcome was never up to them. The developing countries pushed for a scientifically based, ambitious and legally binding global climate deal in Copenhagen, but instead they got a weak political agreement with no specific targets. The Copenhagen Accord, as it was named, allows countries to do what they like as long as global as long as they keep temperature rises to no more than 2C. With no specific targets set for greenhouse gas cuts, there is really no action planned to even meet this minimal goal. In fact, according to an UN analysis, the weak pledges made at Copenhagen are more likely to place the world on a path towards a devastating global temperature increase of at least three degrees. Three degrees would drastically melt the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets, put the Amazon rain forest ecosystem at risk of collapse, and intensify droughts across the globe.

These projections sound extremely frightening, but they will most likely not be enough to change the majority of Canadians’ perception on climate change; it has not become real for them.  Here in Canada, we have the comfort of our wealth, our water and our abundance of resources. It may be hard to see the fight to mitigate climate change as one of survival because we are not at the direct mercy of the mother earth. Our food supply depends on money, not the weather. Our source of water is the tap, not a far away waterhole. And our summers are cooled by air conditioners.

So what is it going to take to get Canadians to care? Because until that happens and we vote according to our values, our political leaders will stay the same and Canada will continue to project an image to the world that we just don’t care.

Luckily, many Canadians were at the conference to try to depict an image of Canadians as caring and cooperative but politically mislead. Taryn McKenzie-Mohr, an 18-year old-University of Toronto student, found herself embarrassed to be Canadian when talking with youth from other parts of the world. She expressed her frustration at a daily 8 a.m. briefing with Michael Martin, Canada’s lead negotiator. Speaking with a great deal of passion and with tears running down her face, Taryn lambasted Martin. This is what she said.

“You know Canada can be more ambitious because right now, these negotiations are about lives and deaths and Canada is not protecting the most vulnerable people and I am ashamed of that. I suggest you go talk to the African youth who are concerned that their children won’t have enough food and that their homes will be destroyed because right now what you are doing is awful and it’s horrible and I’m ashamed and embarrassed and I apologized to them and I told them I was sorry for what developed countries are doing to them but you know what saying sorry is not enough. You need to take action because I am embarrassed of what you are doing and I know a lot of people are and it’s not fair what you are doing, it’s just not fair and there is no excuse. No excuse.”

After her speech, the room full of 30 to 40 Canadians erupted in applause, but Mr. Martin simply said thank you and moved on to the next speaker. This is the stone cold face of Canada that the world has gotten to see in Copenhagen. How will people from different countries feel listened to if Canadian politicians won’t even listen to a voting member of their own?

This is not the Canada I know and definitely not the one I am proud to be a part of. Unless average Canadians like you and me mobilize to demand a government and an opposition that is committed to mitigating climate change, we do not care and we will not be able to protect the world’s most vulnerable including those in our very own country.

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