Photo by Zbynek Burival on Unsplash

Some truths are deeply uncomfortable. It does not make them less grounded in objective reality.

We have a problem.

The times are not only changing, they are poised on a knife edge that leads on one side to increasing degradation of the natural systems on which we depend for our survival, eroded freedoms and ultimate calamity. On the other side there is the possibility of a profoundly different future that sets humanity on a path to sustainable prosperity on a beautiful, healing planet – our only home.

I have a great deal of compassion for people caught in the social and economic forces that can tear apart the social landscape. The 1984 miners strike in the UK showed me what happens when people are ignored whilst business and ideological forces set the agenda. Business discards people and leaves the lowest levels of government and fellow humans to clean up the wreckage.

I have zero compassion for soulless business, the only purpose of which is to create shareholder value in an ethical vacuum.

There is so much deeply researched, unequivocal scientific theory to demonstrate that our current way of life and the web of life on which we depend are deep in the process of colliding. Climate change is happening now. We are in the sixth mass-extinction; for which we humans are responsible. This is not happening sometime in the future for our grandchildren to deal with. This is happening NOW. The natural world will win. Our way of life will be the casualty. Unless we change course it will potentially end us too.

The way through this breakdown is to create a new conversation that brings ourselves and the natural world into beneficial alignment. The alternative is filled with unspeakable loss and destruction.

Jared Diamond in ‘Collapse’ recounts the story of Easter Island. A thriving civilization, celebrating its success with art and monuments, made the mistake of seeing its environment as inexhaustible.

The exponential growth (a modest 3% growth rate means doubling in size every 23 years) in resource use at some point had halved the number of trees left. In the last doubling time, the last half of the life-giving forest were destroyed.

They inhabitants of Easter Island saw it too late and cut down the last tree. The knock-on effects took the civilization with it. When the first Europeans arrived the few descendant survivors of the calamity had lost everything, and were barely surviving on their depleted, isolated rock. With no forest they had even lost the means to leave and try again somewhere else. You try building a canoe out of scrub grass…

We are in a similar predicament.

If economic growth were so good, and would solve everything, how come we are in the circumstances we are in? How come after the years of oil patch investment that Alberta has suffered from boom/bust and is saddled with terrible liabilities?

The businesses that have ravaged Alberta’s natural riches have no conscience for the destruction they have caused, which considering the costs, are probably irreparable. Companies can go bankrupt and move on. We people cannot. The damage is not on any balance sheet, except our own with the planet.

Business exists to continue to exist. The agenda of business is to persuade people that its interests, in the inexorable pursuit of profit, are theirs too. There is a lot of money in them being successful at this. Advertising is a multi-billion dollar art form. They are very, very good at it.

What will change things is us taking our democracies back in the interests of our children and grandchildren. Putting the market in its place as servant, not master. Recognizing the power of holding resources in common trust for the benefit of all. Having government as the guardian and arbiter of the safe and just space within which human civilization is possible.

And taking our head out of the tar sands. And all other sands too…

Many times we have been told that the next mega-project will bring prosperity for all. That the obvious costs on the natural world, such as the wrecking of the pristine wilderness of the Athabasca basin and the impacts on the health of those disenfranchised downstream are worth it.

How many times has this been true in the past? Isn’t it just the continuation of a long and seductive lie, dressed in the best marketing money can buy?

Our continued existence as a civilization can not afford the tar sands. It can not afford the CO2 in the atmosphere, the vast tailing ponds for which there is no cleanup plan, the toxicity in the watersheds. It cannot risk a catastrophic un-cleanable spill. Nor can it afford the burden of new fossil fuel infrastructure locking in the destruction for another generation.

By taking our heads out of the sands, a new world is possible. Just. It will take profound commitment to our descendants who are in danger of inheriting the poisoned, rotting wreck of paradise. It will take us, you and me, doing something new, and re-claiming our very culture.

Humanity is off-the-charts remarkable in one key respect. We are the most altruistic of all species. Our collective humanity is the most powerful force there is. It is what got us to the top of the pyramid. It is why those who seek power over us maintain it by dividing us. Inauthentic power is afraid, as Love is so much stronger than fear.

I urge you; choose Love – the authentic Power of our common humanity. It will save us all. Vote. Get on the street and demand change. Get on a phone bank. Talk to your neighbours. Create democracy from the ground-up. There can be nothing more important than creating our future. There is no-one else who will do it for us.

#fossilfree