Good Sunday Morning!
Today – August 30 – is the last day of active campaigning before tomorrow’s voting in three by-elections. Best of luck to Bruce, Nathe and Shelley! I am holding in my mind the by-election victory of Green “Hannah the Plumber” – Hannah Spencer – last February. The U.K. mainstream media did not see it coming when a Green MP was elected in the strong Labour country of Andy Burnham, now UK’s PM. By-elections are different, as we know from Paul Manly’s first win in May 2019. Campaigning in North Vancouver is a heart-in-my-throat experience. So much is at stake and for every door that opens with a smile I am encouraged and then so nervous. Shelley Luce, her whole family and the local team are working flat out. We paused on Thursday afternoon (between canvasses) for a celebration marking the 20th anniversary of me becoming leader of the Green Party of Canada, August 27, 2006. Honestly, it seems like more than twenty years ago! We had a party that was like a family reunion. Adriane Carr, former Vancouver City Council member, former leader of the BC Greens, who was co-campaign manager for that campaign for leadership came and spoke, as well as Deputy leader Rainbow Eyes, and Vancouver Green Pete Fry, currently in a real contest to be Mayor of Vancouver, former candidates – dear friend and scientist Lynne Quarmby, George Orr, Dana Taylor and of course our local hero, Shelley Luce! John Kidder, also a co-founder of the BC Greens, led us in Stan Rogers’ “The Mary Ellen Carter” – “rise again!” We sang lustily hoping the Liberal and Conservative campaign offices – all within a few blocks – could hear us. Campaign manager, Naomi Hunter, also leader of the Green Party of Saskatchewan, reported volunteers from the bigger parties are amazed by what they call the “Green Army.” We sure are trying!
Most of the news this week centred on reverberations of Trump’s irrational and illegal tariffs and, in almost equal measure, his attention-seeking antics. Best to ignore lunatic proclamations to rename Lake Ontario. Time for some version of “Keep calm and carry on!”
The biggest impacts that threaten Canada come from the uncertainty. Actual impacts seem to be less dreadful than initially feared.
From The National Observer: “the new tariffs apply to only around five per cent of Canada’s exports south of the border, representing, according to RBC, about 0.4 per cent of total Canadian GDP and employment. …The truth is, a few days ago TD calculated the new tariffs could cut Canadian GDP growth by 0.4 to 0.7 percentage points in the coming year; meaningful, but not an economic cataclysm. And today, abiding concerns were likely dispelled by Canada’s latest GDP data, showing the economy grew in fact at a 3.3 per cent annualized rate in the last quarter, with exports up 3.6 per cent and business investment up 2.3 per cent. The US’s trade hit is landing on an economy that just had a very strong quarter.”
So while the Canadian media focused on the economy, the real news was the horror of the glacier collapse in Nepal, also impacting Tibet. Thousands have died. Maybe tens of thousands. People and whole villages have been washed away.
This is from The Guardian: “On Wednesday morning local time, a landslide of ice and rock resulted in a torrent of mud, water and debris bursting the banks of the Trishuli River, also known as the Bhotekoshi, which runs between China and Nepal. Homes, roads, bridges and power plants were swept away.
Experts at the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development said water levels on the Trishuli River rose by as much as nine metres in half an hour. The Lhende Khola River, a tributary of the Trishuli, was most affected, they said.”
Representatives of Nepal’s government initially thought the disaster was triggered by an earthquake. It turned out it was the other way around. The seismic event registering 5.2 on the Richter scale was caused by the glacier’s collapse. And the glacier collapse was caused by global warming. We have known for decades that climate change would cause glaciers to retreat, and eventually disappear. It was one of those predictable things we cited at Environment Canada when I was there in the minister’s office in the 1980s. The official statement was that if we did not act, we could see glaciers retreat by 2030. So, as ever, as emissions rose rapidly instead of falling, disasters are coming faster. Meanwhile the loony echo chambers of the denial team pump out fake quotes claiming time had proven those warning of climate disasters were like Chicken Little. None of it is happening, according the the local North Van Peoples Party candidate. I wish the climate scientists had been wrong. But there was little to no doubt among them forty years ago. There is no doubt now.
This week we mourn the loss of one of Canada’s most brilliant and prescient scientists. My dear friend Jim Bruce died last Sunday, August 23. He was 97. He was so sharp, remembering all the details when I needed to know things about almost any waterway in Canada. His work was extraordinary. He played a huge role in water policy, working on the Canada-US Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement and flood reduction plans, back in the days when we had federal-provincial flood mapping. Jim played a huge role in setting up the IPCC. Back in June 1988, at the first large, international climate conference, “Our Changing Atmosphere: implications for global security,” chaired by the late Stephen Lewis, over 300 scientists gathered. Jim penned the words for the consensus statement, opening with this: “Humanity is conducting an unintended, uncontrolled, globally pervasive experiment whose ultimate consequences could be second only to global nuclear war.”
That Toronto conference, co-hosted by the UNEP and WMO, led directly to the creation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (IPCC). God knows Jim has earned his rest.
Much love and sympathy to his whole family and especially his dear wife Ruth. It was such an honour to have been his friend.
And now we must redouble efforts in his memory and for our children and grandchildren. May God forgive us for the wasted years; for allowing the masters of BIG OIL to make their billions, robbing future generations in broad daylight. In Nepal and Tibet they scramble to reach people who may still be alive in tunnels under a mountain of rubble, while the criminals who knowingly increased the risks of fires and floods and heat domes plan their next world cruise. As John ended a recent Sunday letter- “Don’t let the liars win!”
I must close here and get back to work – reaching the voters of North Vancouver-Capilano.
Much love and thanks,
Elizabeth
And P.S. Important book launch!
Book Launches & Celebrations for Listening Once Again to Our Great Mother: The Fairy Creek Blockades and the Life Story of Pacheedaht Elder Bill Jones, by Elder Bill Jones and Karen Moe.
- September 13th The Nanaimo Harbourfront Library 1pm.
- September 17th Russell Books Victoria 6:30pm
$10 ticket/ VIP $30 with signed copy of the book.
Reserve your spot!
Walk-ins also welcome depending upon space.
- September 22nd Saltspring Island Public Library 7pm.
- September 24th The University of Victoria First Peoples House 1:30pm
Reserve your spot!
Walk-ins also welcome depending upon space.
- September 30th UBC Truth & Reconciliation Orange Shirt Day Parade! Elder Bill is the keynote speaker! 11:45 am to 3:00pm, beginning at the amphitheatre below the clock tower (1956 Main Mall) on the Vancouver campus.