Canada is "beautiful and sophisticated nation, but it is being ransacked by barbarians"
George Monbiot: Why humans should back off and let nature heal itself
Provocative environmentalist says it's wrong-headed to try to return the natural world to a more pristine state
Aug 4, 2013
The Canadian edition of the book Feral by environmentalist George Monbiot includes a sort of open letter to Canadians saying it is one of the world's most beautiful and sophisticated nations, but that it is being ransacked by barbarians. (Random House of Canada/Adrian Arbib/Canadian Press)
It's not uncommon for people to long for nature as it once existed, before human progress and civilization reshaped the Earth and its ecosystems. But George Monbiot thinks it's wrong-headed to try to return the natural world to an earlier, more pristine state.
Monbiot is one of Britain's most provocative environmentalists, and his column in The Guardian is one of the most widely read and influential in Britain. In his new book, Feral: Rewilding the Land, the Sea and Human Life, he argues that nature is neither sentimental nor nostalgic for its own past, but if left alone, it is more resilient, resourceful and creative than we appreciate.
He defines rewilding as a mass restoration of the natural world. Where land, such as farmland taken out of agricultural production, becomes available, the rewilding process would see human infrastru
Nature did pretty well for the three billion years before we turned up, and it could do pretty well again if we learned to interfere less, environmentalist and author George Monbiot says.cture, from fences to drainage ditches, ripped out and some species re-introduced.
The idea is that humans would kick-start ecosystem processes, then stand back and let nature do its own thing and rebuild healthy wild places.
"One of our tendencies," Monbiot told Sunday Editionguest host Laura Lynch, "is to try to manage and control and see ourselves as stewards of the land, and to take an Old Testament view of dominion that we're responsible for all the animals and plants. Well, nature did pretty well for the three billion years before we turned up, and it could do pretty well again if we learned to interfere less."
He also points to the ability of top predators to completely transform ecosystems, such as when wolves were recently re-introduced to Yellowstone National Park - if humans keep their hands off.
"The whole ecosystem was changed by the wolves and that's one of those wonderful, serendipitous surprises that to me is what nature should be all about. Nature is not just a collection of species, it's all the weird stuff that happens between those species."
In the process, humans can relieve what Monbiot calls ecological boredom and reconnect with the natural world, recapturing an essential and exhilarating wildness within ourselves.
Message to Canadians
The Canadian edition of Feral also includes a sort of open letter to Canadians.
People who are familiar with Monbiot will not be surprised to learn that he is not a fan of the oil sands industry, and his message to Canadians is particularly trenchant, writing that Canada is "one of the world's most beautiful and sophisticated nations," but that it is being "ransacked by barbarians."
In his conversation with The Sunday Edition's Laura Lynch, he didn't back away from that kind of rhetoric.
"At the moment, this highly cultured, sophisticated, wonderful nation seems to be descending into a thuggish petro-state which appears to be governed by the tar patch, and its politics seem to suffer from the oil curse, as so many countries suffer from when they have found big reserves of fossil fuels. And wildlife has suffered greatly as a result, natural resources of all kinds are suffering greatly, and so are those who love nature.
"It's almost as if Canada is ripping up its most precious natural assets in exchange for assets which won't last long and which can only cause harm, and that to me seems to be completely perverse."
You can hear Laura Lynch's interview with George Monbiot as part of The Sunday Edition on CBC Radio One on Sunday morning just after the 9 am ET news, or here.
George Monbiot: Rewilding the landscape21:51
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From CanadianProgressiveWorld.com
The tragedy of Canada's environmental denial
Guest Blog 01 August 2013
by: Ray Grigg | First Published by Troy Media
Those with even a modicum of understanding of environmental issues recognize that the problems are large, serious and complex.
(Photo Credit: David Suzuki Foundation)
The psychological dynamics of problem solving are well known. When a problem is identified and assessed, and when a corrective strategy is formulated and activated, then people begin to feel better. Hope replaces the feeling of inevitable defeat that is the result of inaction. Uncertainty and procrastination are corrosive to contentment and lethal to optimism.
Optimism can't replace pessimism until constructiveaction begins. This explains why increasing numbers of people are becoming gloomy about their environmental future. Those with even the most rudimentary understanding of environmental issues recognize that the problems are large, serious and complex, that they are deep and global rather than superficial and local. As the predictions of climate science become more dire, the mood darkens. The dangerous threshold of a 2°C increase in global temperature is now considered to be inevitable. The scientific models are predicting 4°C by 2060-70, and - unless we reduce emissions quickly and dramatically - at least 6°C by 2100.
The pessimism in Canada is particularly pronounced because this country has a federal government that actively subverts international efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, is silent on the ecological effects of a melting Arctic, avoids discussing the root cause of extreme weather events, systematically obstructs scientists who raise issues of environmental relevance, and blithely plots a future for Canadians that seems wholly disconnected from the most basic principles of climate science. Indeed, Canada's government seems to be living on a different planet, oblivious to the mood of concern eroding the morale of the country. No wonder that a cloud of pessimism is darkening the emergence of optimism when our national political leadership seems numb to the catastrophic consequences of unrestrained greenhouse gas emissions.
The tragedy of this position of denial is compounded by the experience that real problems are more easily solved than imagined ones. When problems are identified and solutions attempted, we find ways to overcome obstacles that once seemed overwhelming. But worry in the company of inaction is a fatal combination that wastes energy, saps resolve, squanders creativity and produces cynicism. Instead of contemplating corrective strategies, the imagination concocts worse-case scenarios, anticipates disaster and dissolves in gloom. Passive resignation is a poor substitute for positive initiative. Without a Canadian strategy for addressing the twin threats of global warming and climate change, everyone in the country becomes a fretting victim of failure, rendered powerless about a fate they are not attempting to avoid.
To counteract this destructive effect, many provinces, cities, towns and municipalities have undertaken heroic initiatives that range from carbon taxes and bicycling infrastructure to composting projects and urban gardening. Green spaces, parks, walkways and stream rehabilitation are just a few of their initiatives to restore and enhance healthy environments. Within their limited capabilities they have attempted to increase energy efficiencies, provide rapid transit and limit urban sprawl.
Heroic as these undertakings are, their effects are relatively small without an overarching national policy that sets and coordinates clear objectives that can then be synchronized with local and international policies. The fundamental environmental threat we are facing is multinational and global. Community and individual effort is exemplary and important. But the key to eventual ecological management is a system of guiding national initiatives that concur with global principles. When such principles are clearly defined and assiduously respected, they inspire hope.
In this regard, the Canadian government is guilty of neglect, abject failure and even subversion. While Ottawa has just started to consider carbon taxes, Norway is increasing its levy from $33 to $72 per tonne to add an extra $1.6 billion to funds that will increase energy efficiencies, combat climate change, encourage renewable energy, enhance food security, reduce deforestation and help developing countries convert to low-carbon energy sources. Norwegians are debt free, with $720 billion in savings to safeguard their security and the ecologies on which they depend. Britain is actually meeting its 1990 Kyoto Protocol target for greenhouse gas emissions, an objective that Canada dismissed as being impossible for itself - subsequently withdrawing, for the first time in its history, from a legally binding obligation to the international community.
While some countries struggle bravely to reduce their greenhouse gases, Canada's contribution has been dismal. Our bewildering negligence has branded us a pariah state that is undermining the world's environmental security.
The effect on the Canadian psyche of our national inaction and the resulting international censure is corrosive. This explains why doomsday scenarios are becoming a preoccupation of our imagination. If Canada's government were to methodically address environmental problems in a manner proportional to their actual severity, and if it were to actively solicit and encourage public dialogue, participation and innovation, then the Canadian collective mood would brighten. The focus of our attention would shift from helpless worry to actual solutions - of which there are many - and optimism would begin to replace pessimism. When, however, our national government is not even capable of acknowledging a problem as fundamental and obvious as global climate change, then the effect is sufficiently poisonous to prevent us from proceeding to hopeful and practical solutions.
Ray Grigg is the author of seven internationally published books on Oriental philosophy, specifically Zen and Taoism.
The Canadian Progressive recommends: Indisputable Proof of Climate Change
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Energy East Pipeline: Building a Nation on a Nightmare
MIKE HUDEMA - Climate and Energy Campaigner, Greenpeace - Posted: 08/02/2013
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TransCanada officially announced on August 1 a $12-billion Energy East tar sands pipeline project. If constructed, the pipeline would run from Alberta to the coast of St. John, New Brunswick, and would carry 1.1 million barrels of crude a day, which would enable a 50 per cent increase tar sands production.
Alberta Premier Alison Redford called Energy East "truly a nation-building project."
What does it say about our leaders and about us when the best dream we can think of is to build a nation on a tar sands pipeline? That extracting the bodies of long lost ancestors -- essentially that's what oil and bitumen are -- and pushing them through a pipe is cause for national platitudes?
But it goes deeper than that.
This project would also greatly increase the ongoing injustices being done to First Nations communities that are at ground zero of the tar sands horror story and bring some of those injustices to other communities right across Canada. The Beaver Lake Cree cite over 20,000 Treaty Rights violations on their traditional territory alone, and that's without a new 1.1 million barrel a day tar sands pipeline.
But it goes deeper than that.
This pipeline would also lead to a rampant increase in the climate pollution coming from the tar sands. It would greatly increase Canada's emissions at a time that the world is seeing more floods, wild fires, super storms, and other climate disasters. This pipeline leads us further into the climate crisis, not out of it.
But it goes deeper than that.
Already approved projects in the tar sands are projected to blow past government-set limits for protecting air, water, and wildlife habitat. This pipeline would facilitate more projects being built, adding to the damage. Future projects would also be mostly in-situ, a pretty worrisome thought given that right now an in-situ project near Cold Lake, Alberta has been spilling tar sands into the environment for months and the government and the company can't seem to stop the spills. They just keep going.
But it goes deeper than that.
We know the problems pipelines cause. We've seen the spills in Little Buffalo, Arkansas, Kalamazoo, and Zama City. We've heard about schools being evacuated, rivers poisoned, and oil companies walking away from spill sites that are still contaminated years later. Alberta, the province pushing the new pipeline, suffers an average of of 2.2 crude oil spills a day. (Yes, a day.) Shouldn't we fix those problems first before bringing these problems to new communities?
But it goes deeper than that.
By building a pipeline that further accelerates climate change, tramples Treaty and First Nation rights, and compounds already severe problems, we are not only building our nation on those injustices, we are also saying that we've lost our imagination, that the scope of our dreams comes from an oil company press release.
I'm not ready to do that. I think we have more in us as a nation. I think our dreams are bigger. That our solutions are ones that address our problems, make our environment healthier, honour our commitments to First Nations peoples, and strengthen all our communities.
What if, instead of building a toxic pipeline, we set a goal of installing solar panels on 100,000 roofs across the country, like Germany did, and that employed over 382,000 people in the process? What if we put forward a national home retrofitting program to employ people in green jobs and that allowed people from coast to coast to save on their energy bills? What if we set a national goal of using our ingenuity and creativity to address the climate crisis rather than to accelerate it?
It's because of that greater dream that I will oppose this tar sands pipeline and encourage you to join me.
It's time to dream again because the oil industry's dream would be a nightmare.