I first learned about climate change and fossil fuels in third grade.
Not in school mind you — this was Alberta in the 1980s. Rather than explain the science behind climate change or where greenhouse gases came from — newsworthy since at least 1912 — we were instead informed if we didn’t use both sides of the paper or took too long of a shower, we would transform into a hairy, Oscar-the-grouch-looking-beast called a glut.
What the Education ministry thought they were accomplishing by this baffles me to this day. I can say seven-year-old Eric was highly disappointed when his green monster superpowers failed to emerge. Fortunately, having already learned the truth about important childhood icons like Santa Claus I was able to grasp the concept of a symbol and began delving into the effects of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases on the atmosphere. Already reading about dinosaurs at my public library, I quickly discovered National Geographic specials describing how scientists could bore into glaciers, soil and even bedrock to find evidence of different worlds in our past.
As I grew older and saw inaction among governments and businesses in response to this emerging crisis it became clear to me things were going to get a lot worse. A huge part of the problem I discovered was part of the population really, really didn’t want to change their behaviour to avert climate disaster. The argument I have heard from my teenage years on is that trying to alter our lifestyles to make them even remotely sustainable will result in everyone dying of job-loss, therefore doing nothing now and paying the entire cost when it’s too late is the smarter option.
This year I will turn 40 years old. Now that it’s almost too late, we -finally- have a government who at least claims to be serious about trying to mitigate climate change and has enough like-minded governments around the global economy to possibly accomplish this. Yet I’m still getting flooded with prophecies of financial apocalypse.
After 30 years of the same predictions from the same people using the same exact sentences being consistently wrong, I’m beginning to think there is no substance to their argument. It seems essential fuels and utilities continue to grow in cost regardless of whether it’s governments or invisible hands raising prices. Our demand for cheaper consumer products moves fleets of trash-quality goods across our oceans, eliminating skilled craftspeople and building spaceships for website-owning middlemen. Workers continue to accept the same wages they did 50 years ago as housing prices soar out of reach. Voters consistently reject free power from solar to indulge people who make money selling them electricity. Ironically, fossil fuels aren’t even reliable — the power plant which heats our vehicle oil pans here in Inuvik dies once a week. Widespread deforestation enabled a global pandemic we’re still recovering from. The biggest driver of job losses appears to be automation as robots are simply superior — cutting costs and increasing productivity at the same time, and the skyrocketing cost of living is fuelled by the climate crisis we’ve ignored while failing to prevent inflation.
UK-based charity Christian Aid reports in 2022 alone climate-related disasters affected nearly 40 million people around the planet and cost over $166 billion in damage. In 2021, there was over $174 billion in damage. That’s a lot of insurance and bankruptcy claims as well as supply chain disruptions, which like all other expenses ultimately get forwarded to consumers.
Enough crying wolf. If there are actual alternatives to reducing carbon emissions, let’s hear them.