We’re in a Climate Emergency: Let’s call it that and act By Tara Ehrcke, CASJ Environmental Justice Action Group and Victoria teacher
Adapted from an article appearing in the June 2019 edition of the Greater Victoria Teachers’ Association publication The Advocate
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t is no wonder that students and youth are feeling immense stress and anxiety related to climate change. It is also no wonder they are taking to the streets. As 16-year-old Greta Thunberg has so forcefully pointed out, the one thing that can relieve the depression of the climate news cycle is the emancipatory act of doing something about it. While the student strike movement has taken the lead in putting pressure on society for the type of urgent and massive change required to confront the climate emergency, it is time for us adults to get on board. The question is more than urgent. We now know, based on scientific
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consensus from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), that even if the commitments from the Paris Agreement were to be met, we are looking at over 3° C of warming in 80 years. This amount of warming would elicit a planetwide economic, environmental, and social catastrophe. This is why the November 2018 report from the IPCC urges warming of no more than 1.5° C in order to limit the climate risks of water scarcity, fisheries decline, animal and insect habitat loss, and extreme heat. This report also gives us a timeframe. Ten years remain to complete a massive transformation of how we organize our economy, transportation systems, infrastructure, buildings, land use, and energy sources. The report calls for a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by one-half by the year 2030, net-zero emissions by 2050, and net-negative emissions in the second
half of the century. This is a significant acceleration from the targets set out in the Paris Agreement. In the last year, we have seen municipalities and even entire countries—the United Kingdom, Ireland, and, more recently, Canada— declare a climate emergency. It is time for school districts to do the same. We need every governing authority at every level to be part of this mass transformational change. Many school districts in BC have climate action plans, but they are woefully inadequate for the task ahead. Most rely heavily on purchasing carbon offsets to achieve carbon neutrality. The IPCC, however, has told us that we need to meet the reduction targets and then implement substantial offsets as well. We cannot use offsets to replace reductions; we need them both. This is what is necessary to be in alignment with the current IPCC targets.
BCTF Social Justice Newsletter, Winter/Spring 2020
