TORONTO, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Climate change is an "existential crisis for human species", wrote a Canadian author as world leaders gathered at the UN headquarters in New York for a climate summit on Tuesday.
Naomi Klein, a Montreal-born author and activist, expressed that opinion in her newly published book "This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate". She offered to explain the rationale behind the worldwide People's Climate March.
"The green movement, such as this protest has been obsessed with win-wins for a long time. But those are actually lose-loses," according to Klein.
Klein termed the current policy dealing with climate change as the low-hanging fruit strategy, where quick fixes ruled over permanent long term solutions. "Emissions are up 61 percent since we began to fix this problem in the early 1990s," she said.
Klein explained further, "Those figures are politically demographically driven. For example in the United States, if you identify as a Democrat, the belief that humans are driving climate change is still in the 1970s."
There is a belief that "their world" would be threatened if they admitted that business was warming the planet, Klein said. "So by denying the science, it's considered our economic worldview will not collapse."
She pointed out that some big green groups made very bad business deals with fossil fuel companies, perpetuating the issues.
"The knee jerk response was what rules do we put in place that bans the dumping of the emission of toxins. Which evolved into, how do we create a market in pollution, to create the right incentives?"
On the weekend, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon led the People's Climate March, believed to be the largest demonstration against climate change to date.
The climate summit convened by Ban, was intended to galvanize and catalyze climate action. Delegates from over 200 countries and regions were asked to bring bold announcements and actions to the summit that will reduce emissions, strengthen climate resilience, and mobilize political will for a meaningful legal agreement in 2015.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was not amongst the 125 world leaders attending the summit, but he will discuss climate issues at a related dinner with the UN secretary general.
"It was long past time for Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to take concrete steps to reduce the country's greenhouse gas emissions," said John Bennett, national program director of Sierra Club Canada Foundation, a volunteer-based environmental organization.
Bennett, who also participated in Sunday's march in New York, criticized Harper for not responding to Canadians' overwhelming demand for actions on climate change.
"We want to bring a message to the United Nations and to Mr. Harper that we want to see some real action to reduce our emissions and that means stop betting on fossil fuels and doing things to reduce our emissions, and to help the rest of the world do the same," Bennett said.
|
