Chatelaine_April_May_2019

APRIL/MAY 2019 • CHATELAINE 75

they might have noticed how climate change

is altering the migration patterns of birds;

the National Audubon Society has mapped

future distributions for many native species,

showing just how radically different they’ll

be from today. If they’re a parent like me,

I know how worrying it is that our children

are living in a world that is far less stable

than the one we grew up in.

A few years ago, I was invited to speak at

the Rotar y Club in West Texas, where I live.

As I walked in, I noticed a giant banner stat-

ing the Four-Way Test, the Rotarian’s ethi-

cal guidepost: “Is it the truth? Is it fair to all

concerned? Will it build goodwill and bet-

ter relationships? And will it be beneficial

to all concerned?” I’m not a Rotarian, but

these values hit me right in the eye.

Is what we know about climate change

the truth? Yes, it absolutely is. We’ve known

since the 1850s that digging up and burn-

ing coal—and, later, oil and gas—produces

heat-trapping gases that are wrapping an

extra blanket around the planet. Since then,

thousands of studies and millions of data

points have confirmed it’s true. Together

with colleagues from Norway and Australia,

I’ve even taken the few dozen studies that

suggest this isn’t the case and recalculated

their work from scratch. In each, we found

an error that, when corrected, brought the

results right back into line with the thou-

sands of studies that agree climate is chang-

ing, humans are responsible, and the impacts

are serious.

Is climate change fair? Absolutely not.

The poorest and most vulnerable among us,

those who have done the least to contribute

to the problem, are most affected. These

include the women and children Adsum sup-

ports in Halifax; farmers struggling to raise

their crops in East Africa; Bangladeshis los-

ing their land to sea level rise and erosion;

and Arctic peoples whose traditions are

threatened and whose homes are being dis-

placed by rising seas and thawing perma-

frost. The carbon footprint of these groups

is miniscule. They’ve contributed so little to

the problem, yet they bear the brunt of the

impacts. That is absolutely not fair.

And would it build goodwill and be benef i-

cial to address climate change? Yes, it would.

The more climate changes, the more serious

and even ultimately dangerous its impacts

become. In Texas, climate change is amplify-

ing our natural cycle of wet and dry, making

our droughts stronger and longer at the same

time it supercharges hurricanes and extreme

rain. My research shows that the sooner we

cut our carbon emissions, the greater and

more costly the impacts we’ll avoid. And tran-

sitioning to clean energy brings new tech and

opportunities as well, including more than

30,000 jobs in Texas already. As we work

together, we can build goodwill.

I ignored the Rotary lunch buffet and

instead whipped out my laptop. I re-arranged

my presentation on how climate change

affects West Texas into the Four-Way Test

as fast as I could. I was glad I did, because

when I stood up to speak, I could see many

more skeptical faces than I saw at the Adsum

banquet—people who didn’t just question

climate change’s relevance to their lives but

its reality in the first place. But as I spoke,

I could see those faces changing and some

heads nodding. I will never forget the local

banker who had the f inal word: “I wasn’t too

sure about this whole global warming thing,

but it passed the Four-Way Test!”

How did I persuade him? Not by overwhelm-

ing him with data and facts, and certainly

not by starting off our conversation with

something we disagreed on. Rather, I did it

by beginning with his values, showing my

respect for them and then connecting the

dots between what he already cared about

and a changing climate. And it worked—

because to care about climate change, all we

really have to be is a human living on the

Planet Earth, someone who cares about the

health and the welfare of our family, our com-

munity and especially those less fortunate

than us.

3. CANADA’S NOT

BIG ENOUGH TO

MAKE A DIFFERENCE

It’s true Canada is responsible

for about two percent of global

emissions today. But historically,

if you count up all the carbon

we have released since 1850,

we’re ranked 10th on the list of

the world’s biggest emitters.

If we consider our emissions per

person, the situation is worse. We

represent less than 0.5 percent

of the world’s population, yet one

Canadian emits the same amount

of heat-trapping gases as two

and a half people living in the

U.K., 10 people in Zimbabwe and

more than 20 Yemenis, according

to calculations based on 2014

numbers. Climate change is a

tragedy of the commons. We all

contribute to it, so we all have

to be part of the solution.

4. IT’S COLD OUTSIDE—

GLOBAL WARMING

CAN’T BE REAL

One cold day doesn’t negate

the fact the entire planet has

been warming over decades.

Think of it this way: Weather

is like your mood, and climate

is like your personality. Weather

is what occurs in a certain place

at a certain time. Climate is the

long-term average of weather

over many years. Since 2000, we

have been seeing far more high

temperature records than cold

ones. Guy Walton, a meteorologist

from Atlanta, Ga., calculates that

since 2010, we’ve broken more

than 14,000 cold temperature

records at weather stations across

Canada. But over the same

time, we’ve exceeded more than

35,000 hot temperature records.

5. HELPING THE

ENVIRONMENT WILL

KILL THE ECONOMY

By 2025, clean tech could be

one of Canada’s top five export

industries, totalling an estimated

$20 billion annually, according to

government forecasts. We’ve been

blessed with natural resources—

lumber, minerals, fossil fuels—

that have served us well. But in

the new clean energy economy,

we need to do things differently

and smarter. And the fact we do

have abundant wind and water,

enough solar to get things done

and the technical know-how

means we have the opportunity

to lead. We just have to do it.