Tag Archives: climate

Junuary

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It’s cold and rainy this morning. Some mornings I find it really hard to get out of bed. When I look out the window and I see the a sky that is so, ‘You shall not see where the sun is in the sky today for I shall block any light from seeping through my gloom’ grey… I just want to pull the cover over me until tomorrow morning.

The hardest part of living in Vancouver for me are days like this. I know November weather is going to suck. I know February weather is going to suck. But when June comes along and it feels like a cold, dark, damp January, I really wish I lived somewhere else.

I know that we had a very dry winter with minimal snow. I know we need more rain to help prevent forest fires. But dang, it’s June and I’d like to wake up to a bit of sunshine. Or, at least a hint that maybe at some point we’ll see the sun today.

Well that’s enough whining for today, time to get my butt in gear. Days like this I’m thankful that I have a daylight light on my office desk… it doesn’t just get used during the winter here.

The Future holds promise

At Inquiry Hub Secondary we had the privilege of getting Richard Campbell to present to us. He did 4 topical presentation, chosen from a list of 20 by our students, as well as an AMA – Ask Me Anything session. Here was the day’s schedule:

9:10am-9:40am
30 minutes
Richard Campbell: Overpopulation & Food
Can we make enough food to feed the world population? What’s the maximum number of people the world can feed?

9:45am-10:05am
20 minutes
Student Presentation: Maiya – How to train a dog

10:10am-10:40am
30 minutes
Richard Campbell: Climate Change & Alternative Energy
Are solar power and electric cars the answer to climate change?

10:45am-11:05am
20 minutes
BREAK

11:10am-11:20am
10 minutes
Student Performance: Koen – Piano

11:25am-11:55am
30 minutes
Richard Campbell: Future of the Internet
How will the internet evolve and how will that impact us?

12:00pm-12:10pm
10 minutes
Student Presentation: Agata – LARP Announcement

12:10pm-1:00pm
50 minutes
LUNCH & Student Performance: Colin – Bagpipes

1:05pm-1:35pm
30 minutes
Richard Campbell: Jobs of the Future
With technology becoming involved in more and more jobs, how will jobs evolve? How will the workforce be affected? What jobs will be eliminated?

1:40pm-1:50pm
10 minutes
Student Performance: Mari – Singing “Part of Your World” in Japanese
Student Performance: Maiya – Singing & Piano “Try Everything”

1:55pm-2:15pm
20 minutes
Student Presentation: Jazmine – Designing and Building a Model of a House

2:20pm-2:50pm
30 minutes
Richard Campbell: Ask Me Anything!
What questions do you still have? Do you have questions about topics not covered today?

2:55pm-3:10pm
15 minutes
Debrief and Feedback

I’ve written a few thoughts on the future here on my Daily-Ink, but when I look back at these I see some dystopian views, and conversations about how we won’t see time travel and we won’t holiday on Mars any time soon. Yesterday I got to hear a lot of promise about the future ahead, and it was really refreshing.

Yes, the population of the world is growing, but that growth has slowed and the global population will likely peak at less than 11 billion. Advances in food production will continue and we will be able to feed the world.

Yes, energy production is a problem, but currently the two cheapest ways to produce energy are wind and solar, and their financial viability will make them more desirable. Also while fusion reactors are decades away, small modular nuclear fission reactors are an amazing technology far safer than current nuclear reactors. So the future of energy production holds a lot of promise.

Yes, climate change is one of the biggest concerns today, but in the coming decades we won’t just have the technology to reduce carbon emissions, but in the process we will develop the technology to the point that the byproducts of this process will be economically desirable. Richard posed the challenging question of how low do we take the carbon levels because if they are too low, that could create weather issues with more dangerous storms and shorter growing seasons… the problem won’t be too much CO2, but rather how much is too little?

It was so fascinating to have a futurist come to the the school and share with our students (and adults) the promise of a better future. I think that we often get the message that there is nothing but doom and gloom ahead. Having someone share a big picture view of a future that holds promise, new kinds of jobs, and exciting advances, was absolutely refreshing.

Voices, Ambition, and Action

“Today we need the correct mix of voices, ambition, and action. Do some leaders in this world believe that they can survive and thrive on their own? Have they not learned from the pandemic? Can there be peace and prosperity if one third of the world literally prospers, and the other two thirds of the world live under siege, and face calamitous threats to our well-being? What the world needs now my friends, is that which is in the ambit of less than 200 persons, who are willing and prepared to lead. Leaders must not fail those who elect them to lead.” ~ PM Mia Mottley

Take a few minutes out of your day and listen to Barbados Prime Minister, Mia Mottley’s entire speech, which not only shares the eloquence above, but also an attainable strategy to fight global warming.


Well beyond enjoying the lilt of her Bajan 🇧🇧 accent, reminding me of home, this entire speech is a calling to those in power to take action on climate change.

— — —

I also really appreciate when intelligent people use a word I don’t know, and then I look up the definition to discover that it is indeed a better word than any that I would have used:

ambit

ăm′bĭt

noun
  1. Sphere or scope, as of influence. synonym: range.
  2. An external boundary; a circuit.
  3. Compass or circuit; circumference; boundary: as, the ambit of a fortification or of a country.

Humanity – versus – Reality

I saw a video a few days ago of hundreds of unmasked protesters, packed together in a square in the United Kingdom, singing ‘Stick your poison vaccines up your ass’ to the tune of ‘She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain When She Comes’. I wanted to write about it sooner, but I could only come from an angle of anger and disgust. It would have been a good rant, that would probably have made me feel better, but I’m done ranting with the purpose of making myself feel better. I’ve been seeking out joy, determination, fun facts, and when dealing with our current situation, humour, as sort of coping mechanisms for dealing with the discord that seems to be pervasive right now.

There is an epic battle going on. It is a battle on many battle grounds. It is a battle happening across the world. It is a battle that pits humanity against reality. Here are six of the battlegrounds:

  1. The Covid-19 Pandemic: Many people are dying – versus – Protests against the preventions and lockdowns to prevent the spread.
  2. Vaccines: They save lives – versus – They are dangerous (or they will be used to monitor and track us).
  3. Climate change: It’s the greatest threat we face as a species – versus – It’s a hoax.
  4. Science: Seeking objective facts – versus – un-objective and agenda-driven propaganda.
  5. Freedom: Government are here to serve and protect us – versus – Governments are corrupt and stripping away our freedoms in an attempt to control us.
  6. Civil liberties: Issues like racism, gender identity, pro-choice, freedom of expression – versus – Religious values, as well as both right-wing (QAnon) and left-wing (Antifa extremists) using hateful tactics to argue their points.

I purposely didn’t use the word ‘Truth’ before now. I believe that we are living in a post-Truth era (with an intentional capital ‘T’).  I’ll leave you with Stuart McMillan’s webcomic about Neil Postman’s book, ‘Amusing Ourselves to Death‘. I recently listened to both 1984 and Brave New World back-to-back. I was struck by the contrast between a world run based on fear – versus – one run based on pleasure. I think that things are so messed up right now that we are stuck in a dystopian novel where both worlds exist simultaneously. Many people live in constant fear based on ‘facts’ that are cherry-picked, on half-truths, and even made up completely. Many more are living in a social media based alternate reality where their truths are based on a ‘news’ feed designed to entertain with a confusing mix of facts and fiction.

I don’t know how so many people could be naive enough to believe that the world is flat and other ridiculous conspiracies; That vaccines will be used to monitor you; That so many people can confuse mask use with being a sheep; Or that so many people can believe one group’s fight for rights undermines their own rights? Yet, across the globe, millions of people are so sure they are right, that protests and propaganda based on ignorance are now commonplace.

We are living in an era where humanity has no grasp on reality. Fiction and fact are interchangeable. ‘T’ruth is subjective. And a common, collective plan for peace and prosperity seems further away than any worlds that Huxley or Orwell could fabricate.

How dare you!


Greta Thunberg asks, “How dare you?”
When I watch this i am reminded of Severn Suzuki’s speech at the Rio Summit in 1992.

There is something special about hearing impassioned youth showing genuine concern for the environment and for their, for our, future.

The difference of 27 years is interesting. Severn did her speech 13 years before YouTube. There wasn’t social media to spread the word. There also wasn’t a culture of mockery and resentment. I went looking for the full video of Greta on Twitter and I saw videos that made fun of her speech and one that was a full attack on her generation. It claimed that her pampered generation was the first to need air conditioning in schools, and technology in their hands. This video started with a frame of ‘this global warming hoax’, so I won’t share it here, I feel bad enough having watched it… giving it my attention, it doesn’t deserve yours.

I hope that Greta’s speech will stand the test of time and not get swallowed up by a subculture of hate, mockery, and ‘meme-ification’. I hope that the global conversation isn’t the equivalent of patting her on the head and saying, ‘good speech young girl’. I hope that this amazing young person can do what Severn Suzuki hoped to do, but didn’t have the stage and audience to do. I hope that Greta Thunberg can be the spark that ignites a real movement, one that makes us seriously look at our human impact on climate in a way that forces us to change.