Pie Palace

I heard Elizabeth May speak tonight¹ at Ottawa U, and I have to say that I think I’m getting a handle on how the Green Party is going to be operating into the next election. And let me say: I’m impressed.

The talk was given to an introductory environmental science class, so the talk was, well, environmenty. In it, Elizabeth took a page out of Al Gore’s book and talked about the current climate crisis as a moral issue. She showed an impressive knowledge of the science that we’ve all come to know over the past 20 years² – too much carbon in the atmosphere (along with other greenhouse gasses) means that we’re having a destabilizing effect on the climate. What made the talk interesting was her knowledge of the last big environmental crisis: air pollution in the 1970s and and ’80s. Then, a strong central government negotiated with each province individually to bring in air quality legislation. Industry kicked and screamed, but despite their dire predictions of economic weakness, companies flourished under the new laws. Some even improved their profits.

But the part that caught my attention was her emphasis that the climate crisis is the most pressing issue facing humanity today. The evidence that she cited backs her up. She spoke of the effects of increased carbon in the atmosphere lingering for at least a century after we begin to curb our emissions (higher global average temperatures, with more and more heavy weather as a result). Worst of all, sea levels likely won’t reduce to their pre-1990 levels for one thousand years. It seems as if an emphasis on climate change will be her top concern. However, even as Elizabeth works on the climate crisis, it sounds like the party will start the mini policy conventions she has been promising. The first one is scheduled for Halifax in November. The topic will be tax shifting (ie, lowering taxes on activities that benefit society, like corporate payroll, and raising taxes on activities that harm society, like carbon emissions). It sounds as if there is a full calendar of other miniconventions coming up.

So what does that mean for you and me, fellow Green Party volunteers? It means that we’re going to keep working on other policy areas. Those policy areas will be used to show that we’re a serious party, and to ward off attacks from other parties. Meanwhile, it looks like our emphasis will be on the climate crisis as a moral issue: painted as nasty corporate lobbies trampling the rights of the public, or possibly as the priviledge of the few (ie, us rich folks in the developed world) crapping on rights of the many. It looks like the big difference between the Green Party under Jim Harris and the Green Party under Elizabeth May is that we’re going to be doing much more: the hub is having press conferences every week, and mini policy conventions are being held regionally.

1. Expect to see my recording of it up sometime in the next 48 hours. (back)
2. On the whole, scientists’ predictions have been pretty much on the money. When the scientists have been wrong, their mistakes were often being too conservative. The worry now is that we’re approaching a set of tipping points, where gradual changes build up, and suddenly cause a dramatic climate changes. Such changes could see huge portions of Greenland’s ice sheets melting, or the Gulf Stream stalling. Crappy times ahead, maties. Crappy times. (back)