Our campaigns to slow Climate Change

How can we slow climate change?

It's easy to hurt someone, it's easy to belittle. It's much harder to bring change into the world.

At One Blue Marble, we feel that we have to be bold and honest, but we don't want to be mean or vindictive. So we'll try to find a balance between being provocative and constructive. But at the end of the day, we need people to start talking, and to change dramatically.

And so we're going to embark on a series of campaigns that we hope will make climate change a common topic of conversation, so people can have the tools they need to embark on a low-carbon lifestyle. We want to create a sense of community and common purpose.

Let's put Liberals & Michael Ignatieff on notice

Michael Ignatieff

Our Liberal Problem

Ummm, the Coalition is dead, long live the Coalition! We do have a plan for the recent turn of events in Canadian politics. Please read on! (Join our first-ever Red Letter Day on February 27).

But first, the background.

As a Canadian who is married to an American , I can say that we’re thrilled by the American elections — and by everything Obama is doing to slow global warming — and embarrassed that Canadians gave the Harper Conservatives another shot at governing.

The ridiculous nature of the Canadian electoral system — often called first past the post — means that our current government enjoys the electoral support of only 37 percent of Canadians. The other 63 percent of us, moderates and progressives, have been watching this right-wing government with a sense of ominous foreboding. Over the last three years, they’ve been quietly locking Canada into a fossil fuel economy, to the economic ruin of all, and dismantling our social safety net. They’ve destroyed our international reputation, they've muzzled climate change scientists, and they’ve tabled a ridiculous and spendthrift budget that will plunge the country back into a deficit, with nothing to show for it in the end. First they refused to stimulate the economy, a move that befuddled economists, and now they blame their uncontrolled spending on the opposition. In the meantime, they are doing nothing to support clean technology, energy efficiency, and renewable energy, unlike virtually every other developed nation on the planet.

Canada is now the world's worst climate-change villain. If you doubt that fact, read this page, and this one. We used to compete with Australia and the USA for the honor, but they are now embracing the science, and taking a courageous stand.

Obviously, as an environmentalists, Harper’s callous disregard for climate change is infuriating. He has turned a deaf ear to the country's top scientists. He is cleaving to right-wing policy with a frightening conviction that frightens all but his most ardent supporters.

Frankly, we’re surprised by his utter lack of vision, and how he is devoted to a right-wing agenda of cutting taxes and laissez-faire deregulation that is now being blamed for the current financial crisis. Canada is on a downward spiral — morally, economically, and environmentally.

Throughout December and January, many Canadians put their hope in a Coalition of Progressives that possessed the wherewithal to defeat this government in a vote-of-non-confidence, hoping that the Liberals and NDP would form a government, with key voting support from the Bloc Québécois. Alas, the Liberal Party was run by a brilliant, thoughtful man who was a terrible communicator. After a series of bumbling gaffes, Liberal leader Stephane Dion was replaced Harvard professor and writer Michael Ignatieff.

And now we have a problem. Ignatieff seems to be shifting the party to the right, and he was never keen on the Coalition. After the Harper Conservatives tabled their woefully inept budget, Ignatieff decided to support it, and the coalition was dead.

To suggest that Ignatieff's decision was discouraging is to engage in the Canadian penchant for understatement. This is Our Winter of Discontent. (See Blog Post). Truth to tell, we think Ignatieff does have a plan, but he's keeping his counsel to himself.

That presents us with an opportunity, a chance to change Ignatief's mind before he offers unconditional support to false economies — as he did recently in promoting accelerated development at the Alberta Tar Sands.

Right now, the Liberals are vulnerable. If they can't afford to alienate Alberta with tough tar sands talk, they can't afford to alienate progressives, either.

The Red Letter Campaign

We need to reach Ignatieff and the Liberal Party of Canada. We think he's biding his time, and preparing to bring down the Conservatives later this year. That's all well and good. But even if the Conservatives are defeated in a general election, and the Liberals gain a majority, we still believe that our country would best be served by a coalition that represents Canadian interests from sea to shining sea.

(Join our Red Letter Day on February 27).

The problems that come with transitioning to a low-carbon economy are vast and complicated. We need as many parliamentarians as we can find all pulling in the same direction. We need a new spirit of cooperation and common purpose if Canada is to once again become a great nation that is respected throughout the world.

Ignatieff has put the Tories on notice. Well, it's time for us to put Ignatieff — and the Liberals — on notice!

The Red Letter Campaign: Ignatieff is busy. He's trying to save the party, cozy up to Alberta, support the Conservative budget without seeming like a toady, fill depleted Liberal coffers, and hone his political skills. He's WAY too busy to read our mail.

But we're willing to bet that some members of the Liberal caucus do read their mail, and we bet they talk to their colleagues. So we we'll write to them. Every week or two in Our Red Letter Campaign, we'll have a Red Letter Day: we'll decide on a theme, and write letters to our Liberal MPs, or to a members of the Liberal shadow cabinet. We want to voice our objections to Ignatieff's unqualified support for the fossil fuel industry when renewable energy makes more sense for the economy and future generations, ask him to fight so that Environment Canada scientists are free to talk to the media about climate change, and bring down this government with all due haste.

We'll post our letters to our One Blue Marble blog, and here as text files, so you can download them easily, and personalize them before mailing. We want to keep up the pressure on Ignatieff, and help the Liberals understand that we speak for the MAJORITY of Canadians.

But that's not all we can do. We can also:

Talk to friends and family about climate change, and tell them why we need to support a change in government so that Canada stops stifling progress at the international climate talks.
Talk to friends and family about why the current Conservative budget will place Canada at an economic disadvantage for a generation — or more!
Write Letters to the Editor to Canadian newspapers. We'll start compiling a list of newspapers, and writing our own letters and posting them here.
Send us your Letters to the Editor. We'll post the best ones here as often we can, with full attribution (if that's what you'd like).
Keep us informed. We have two other jobs, so even though we follow global warming in the Canadian media, stories still get past us. Tell us what people in your community are saying!
Ask us for advice. We have answers for anyone who tries to hit you over the head with junk science.
Add our link to your blog to boost our hits. If you write about climate change, we'll do the same.
Buy a One Blue Marble Bumper Sticker to show your public support for the Coalition. Buy a groovy t-shirt or hoody to help us keep fighting!

We have four more campaigns that we're getting ready to launch in the coming weeks and months, so please stay tuned.

We want to slow development at the Alberta Oil Sands, the world's most environmentally destructive project.
We want to mothball all coal-fired power generation in Canada and the US over the next four years, or convince utilities to switch to biomass. This will cut more greenhouse gas emissions than anything else we can do as a society.
We want to engage religious groups across Canada to get them to join the campaign to slow climate change, as they've done in Scotland. And guess what... Scotland recently tabled incredibly ambitious climate change legislation that won the praise of environmentalists.
We want to take the muzzles off Environment Canada scientists so that Canadians can learn the truth about global warming

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