Lise Ravary: Please tell me what I can do about climate change.

Article content

I confess that I know relatively little about climate change. The confusing headlines from the many posts I read, from all over the world, have not helped.

Article content

Take the recent COP26. Some claim it was a success, others a partial but historic success, while more than a few say it was a failure due to the coal compromise. We’ve had 26 of those meetings so far and some of the world’s worst polluters are still on the sidelines.

Serious material on climate change is the almost exclusive domain of scientists whose language is incomprehensible to most of us, of activists who sometimes struggle with what is feasible and what is not, and of politicians on the prowl for them. green votes.

Not surprisingly, US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson were said to have fallen asleep during speeches in Glasgow.

Many normal people may also be tempted to put off naps. They feel left out of the discussions, so they are losing interest.

Article content

Be honest, how many people have read the Glasgow Pact? Some have, I’m sure, but not the majority who nevertheless understand that the world is in danger and feel that the fight against climate change is moving too slow to make a difference over time.

Ordinary citizens have been on the sidelines of the global debate on climate change for far too long. People are not present in COP conference rooms, only their governments. Politics ends up driving all decisions.

Politics may be the weakest link in our quest for survival. Why is Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison delaying on climate change? Australia is a major producer and consumer of coal.

Obviously enough Australians agree with their government’s policies in this area, even as the wildfires continue, or they would kick out their coal-loving prime minister.

Article content

Even in Quebec, where most people understand the challenges of climate change, it’s hard to be overly enthusiastic about the Legault government’s plan to cover most of the $ 5 billion worth of electric buses. Will they make a difference or will they just make us poorer? What motivated that decision?

I am one of the pessimists who believes that it is too late to change course. We are toasted. I can’t imagine how pollution kings like China and India will be able to shift their carbon-dependent economies to become carbon neutral by 2050. I can’t see us reaching the middle of the century without serious and irreversible damage. Being done.

How are the humble inhabitants of Earth supposed to change things in our daily lives when Ford stops making sedans in North America to concentrate production on SUVs and trucks?

Article content

Climate leaders have made a mistake by not doing a better job of keeping citizens informed. The public is an important source of common sense. Greta Thunberg’s popularity was a reaction against the lack of citizen participation, but now she is just another activist and her profile is waning.

A friend, a well-known and sincere climate activist, thinks he should go back to the city and live in a tall building in a high-density neighborhood. Living in the countryside is not environmentally friendly, he says, because you need cars to get around. Never mind all that diesel-powered farm machinery.

I will never live in a tall building.

Most want to do the right thing to keep the Earth and our descendants alive and healthy. I trust scientists, but I would like them to do a better job of speaking directly to citizens. There are so many agendas, so many competing stories. So much ignorance and propaganda. And so little for us people in the barrage of high-level meetings that have come to define the environmental movement.

Just tell us honestly what to do about climate change, what buttons to push. It may be too late, but I’m willing to do my part.

[email protected]