Column: Youth and Elections
By David Suzuki
As youth march for a safe climate, politicians pander to polluters
It’s hard for me to imagine what life must be like for young people today. Once again, they took to the streets this month — along with older allies — to call for action on the climate crisis. Yet, here in Canada and elsewhere, politicians are campaigning on whether or not to maintain effective climate policies such as carbon pricing. We need more policies and regulations to address global heating, not fewer!
It’s heartbreaking to see this critical issue being politicized and polarized, to see how little some politicians care for the children and grandchildren and those yet to be born — or for the planet and its life-support systems. Appallingly, some appear to have no understanding of the crisis or deny that it’s even occurring. It’s especially sad when so many solutions are at hand. Whether it’s out of ignorance or avarice, backtracking on necessary climate policies hurts everyone.
The argument that we should elevate the human-invented economy over the natural systems that keep us alive and healthy didn’t hold much water to begin with, but now we’re seeing clearly that they’re interconnected. The climate crisis is costing us more every day.
Longer periods of intense wildfires, fuelled by drier forests and hotter weather; droughts affecting agriculture and food costs; increasing numbers of migrants leaving inhospitable areas; insurance rates spiking as climate-related disasters increase; rising sea levels swallowing homes and flooding coastal areas; pollution affecting health and causing death — all come with steep and increasing costs.
On top of that, volatile fossil fuel markets and rising gas and oil prices are causing inflation and price hikes for everything from groceries to fuel. Meanwhile, industry executives are raking in obscene profits as governments continue to subsidize their deadly enterprises.
Renewable energy with energy storage — wind, solar, geothermal and more — are now far more cost-effective than fossil fuels, and prices are quickly dropping. And although no energy source is without problems, renewable energy doesn’t cause nearly as much damage to land, water, air and human health as coal, gas and oil.
A just transition from fossil fuels to cleaner energy (along with greater efficiency and reduced energy use) creates good jobs, spurs innovation, moves us away from boom-and-bust resource economies and gives everyone greater independence from greedy oil and gas profiteers and their politician puppets.
There is no valid economic argument against getting off fossil fuels. That said, the economy shouldn’t even be a factor. Those who study climate disruption and its many impacts have been warning for decades that pumping more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and destroying carbon sinks and natural systems will push us closer to tipping points and planetary boundaries beyond which the hope of resolving the crisis dwindles.
The potent greenhouse gas carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for hundreds or thousands of years, so even if we stopped burning fossil fuels today, the planet would continue to heat. But we can slow and eventually reverse the heating by heeding the warnings and ending our addiction to the fuel creating the crisis.
With so many important issues to contend with — housing, health care, affordability and inflation, pollution, overpopulation, crime, violence and war — focusing election campaigns on whether or not to maintain effective climate policies is insane. Our children, many too young to vote, deserve better. We all deserve better.
Much of the problem is that we’re still living under an outdated consumerist economic system that prioritizes profit and encourages greed and waste. It’s a system that was designed when “resources” or “natural capital” seemed abundant and built capital scarce. That’s no longer the case. In shifting to cleaner energy sources and creating greater equity by removing the ability to hoard energy wealth while so many suffer, we must also rethink our economic systems.
Elections should be about things that matter to people, including those too young to vote. They shouldn’t be about scoring points through fear-mongering and propaganda in the service of a dying industry that threatens our health and survival.
I’m a grandfather nearing the end of my life, but I worry that greed, cowardice and ignorance will make life worse for those with lives ahead of them.
Young people are speaking up because their future is on the line. Do they matter to us or not?
David Suzuki is a scientist, broadcaster, author and co-founder of the David Suzuki Foundation. Written with David Suzuki Foundation Senior Writer and Editor Ian Hanington.
Learn more at davidsuzuki.org.
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