Canadians need to see that solutions to climate change work

In a not so distant time, few Canadians would have said that they really He felt climate change. It was a terrifying idea, sure, but ominous abstractions hardly inspire real fear.

Canadians are scared now.

in a September survey, 60 percent described the temperatures where they lived as warmer due to climate change, while almost two-thirds said that this summer’s wildfires made global warming a more urgent problem for them. These questions, asked just a season ago, already feel outdated in the wake of the devastating floods in British Columbia.

Some might say that Canadians have finally realized the reality of climate change. Unfortunately, when it comes to really solving the big problem before us, fear is simply not enough. And the wrong kind of fear, the fear that nothing will be done, can even undermine progress if it leads people to lose faith in their political system.

Like celebrated Canadian climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe recently commented: “The most important thing most of us as individuals lack when it comes to climate action is… a simple sense of efficacy or agency. If I act, can I make a difference? “

The importance of self-efficacy is a well-studied topic by the late Stanford psychologist and professor Albert Bandura, who also explored the concept of collective efficacy and its importance not only in our personal life but also in our civic life. Simply put, people who believe that positive change is possible through political systems tend to be more engaged citizens.

What’s more, their shared beliefs in collective efficacy, in our ability to bring about real change as a society, influence their desired future and the resilience of collective efforts when those efforts fail to produce quick results or face political opposition.

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Which brings us back to climate action, something that is notoriously slow and often the opposite.

COVID-19 offers an illustrative counterpoint. A sense of effectiveness has been central to our efforts to curb the worst outcomes of the pandemic. Canadians closely watched the effectiveness of the restraints and vaccines as they produced positive and measurable results, often within weeks, results that were routinely communicated to the public.

Public support for strong COVID measures has remained relatively firm throughout the pandemic despite the fact More expensive and social distancing are far more detrimental to our daily lives than any climate policy ever proposed.

Can that be said for climate action? Unfortunately, it already has a natural downside: even the best climate measures take time to implement and time to achieve desired results. Think in years instead of weeks.

But there are success stories, although whether they are communicating effectively to Canadians is another matter.

Take BC’s new climate plan, which includes a requirement that 90 percent of all new car sales be zero emissions by 2030, the most ambitious measure of its kind on the continent.

Representing 37 percent of the province emissions, transportation is by far the most polluting sector in British Columbia. Additionally, BC’s pre-existing sales requirement for zero-emission vehicles was so successful (the province reached its 2025 target five years earlier) that the government literally tripled its 2030 target.

Here’s the kind of story British Columbians need to hear: and I didn’t. It was an opportunity to highlight a hugely effective solution backed by measurable success and create a stronger sense of collective effectiveness in climate solutions among the general public.

While it could be argued that collective efficacy can also be found outside the political system through activism, most Canadians will only participate with their vote.

If they don’t believe the system can work for them, they are more likely to disengage, and critical climate measures already in place or proposed, of which there are many, will be more vulnerable to impatience and opposition.

Fear may be justified and fear can move people, but fear cannot be a blunt instrument that also destroys our sense of collective efficacy.

Canadians must see the climate solutions that are being asked to support the work, and indeed they are already working, even if there is more to be done. They need to hear these success stories out loud and often, rather than just the hum of apocalyptic crickets.

Trevor Melanson is the director of communications for Clean Energy Canada, a program of the Simon Fraser University Center for Dialogue.