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BC Fossil of the Decade Awards
By Bill Henderson
20 December 2009 |
We (BC activists who recognize that climate change is an emergency requiring urgent
systemic change) are proud to announce the winners of the coveted fossil of the decade
award.
In the great Canadian tradition of climate change denial, obfuscation and inaction few
organizations have done so much to keep British Columbians mis-educated about climate
change.
As BC's use of fossil fuels and resulting greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise even
as the emerging science paints an ever clearer picture of how tragically serious and
humanity threatening climate change will be for our kids and their families, we'd like to
honor BC's BIG ENGOs: David Suzuki Foundation, Pembina, BC Sustainable Energy Association,
Sierra Club of BC, POWER UP/ FOREST ETHICS for:
helping to keep the BC public profoundly mis-educated by supporting the BC Liberal
government's 'showbag of dinky policy actions'* like the puny $10 carbon tax (instead of
an effective triple digit carbon tax), the promise of supposed carbon neutrality through
offset indulgence, and what increasingly looks like a leaky, corrupted cap and trade;
helping to keep the BC public mis-educated and in denial by stressing individual green
shopping 'smart choices' instead of insisting upon systemic change like public transit
instead of continuing planning and infrastructure for cars and sprawl (for only one
example), and for supporting the BC government illusion of renewable energy instead of
insisting upon real policies to keep BC fossil fuels in the ground until they can be used
properly;
and, for being so politically naive and unprogessive and totally in climate change denial
as to support Premier Campbell, the very epitome of the skilled politician stickhandling
climate change instead of taking meaningful action, the very epitome of the skilled
politicians who descended upon what might have been our last chance at Copenhagen to
ensure that climate change mitigation continued to be confined, ineffectually and
profoundly unethically, within BAU.
Premier Campbell to whom a couple of the Big ENGOs we are honoring tonight gave a Climate
Excellence award at Copenhagen; Premier Campbell who does know the climate change science
and does understand the humanity threatening consequences of continuing to just obfuscate
needed change, who could have shown leadership in advocating for agreement on keeping
fossil fuels in the ground and global economic systemic change (contraction-convergence,
relocalization, a steady state economy, massive cuts to fossil fuel subsidies and military
use of fossil fuels, etc) but who instead smiled as a salesman for a carbon trading system
that will just waste another decade while directing big bucks to the undeserving.
With you guys helping him, applauding him, while his kind of myopic, business-agenda
serving, small minded, territory protecting politicos wasted the opportunity of
Copenhagen.
It's great that you guys are inside with influence. Imagine how much more our emissions
might soar without your influence in CAT and with the Premier. Imagine how apathetic and
confused, how ignorant of the serious tipping point to runaway warming danger, how stuck
in a BAU with no future, the public, the Premier and his government would be without your
leadership, guts and strong voices.
Ian, Matt, Tzeporah, Guy, Merran - all you guys and, of course, yes, Dr. Weaver too - come
up to the stage for your award. And we have a special end of decade present for you all
donated by a philanthropist who shall remain anonymous - A TWO MONTH SPECIAL CARBON ADDICT
ENFORCED RESTFUL DETOX STAY AT HOLLYHOCK PUT ON BY THE SPECIALISTS FROM THE BETTY FORD
CENTER!!! LET'S HEAR IT EVERYBODY!!!
*"(A) systemic political under-estimation of the seriousness of the problem
… Because governments are not honest with themselves about the size and urgency of
the problem, they necessarily transmit a shallow view of the problem to the electorate,
who follow suit in seeing climate as an incremental problem. Voters are sold a show-bag of
dinky policy actions on climate as 'solving the problem', and they reasonably conclude the
problem can't be all that serious. Much
of the climate advocacy lobby is guilty of the same incapacity." David Spratt |