Tomorrow a group of us will join at Trenton United Church for our third and final session on Laudato Si: On Care for our Common Home. In 2015 Pope Francis issued this encyclical that is entirely devoted to addressing the global climate crisis, inviting Christians and all others of good will and faith to cherish and protect the Earth.
This papal position paper was released about six months before the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris and is still the most comprehensive statement on the subject from a religious standpoint. The timing may have been intentional, a faith statement to offer moral and ethical perspectives on the subject.
That climate summit called COP21 produced an agreement signed by 196 countries and gave hope for a turning point in international action. According to the UN website:
The agreement aims to keep global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further, to 1.5 degrees Celsius. To achieve these ambitious goals the Agreement sets in place provisions for enhanced cooperation among nations on climate change mitigation, including through market-based approaches, such as carbon pricing.
Canada was a signatory to the Paris Agreement and eventually introduced carbon pricing, often called a carbon tax, to require emitters to pay.The idea was to use both a carrot and stick to get the biggest offenders to find solutions for carbon emissions that are giving the planet a fever. Carbon pricing has always been contentious and even though the federal government gave rebates to most individuals Canadians to offset the cost it has been a constant target of naysayers.
Now it is gone. Today the federal government under new Prime Minister Mark Carney fulfilled his promise to "axe the tax", to use the slogan of another political leader. Ending the program is calculated to change the narrative in the current federal election race and it seems to have worked. Fuel prices have already dropped so lots of people will be thrilled.
No alternative has been proposed by the Liberals who are hanging on to power by a thread while the Conservatives continue to act as though climate change doesn't exist. It's hard not to be cynical about politics in general and I am dismayed that climate action has all but disappeared as an issue during this election. The former Environment Minister has been banished to another portfolio and we really don't know what it expected from his successor, should the Liberals be reelected.
Ten years ago Pope Francis understood that the crisis we face is urgent and that it presents both a threat and an opportunity. Laudato Si offers a big picture that politicians won't grasp because they fear the consequences or are motivated by greed. Where did we all put that moral compass? Are we counting on an ailing pope, political cartoonists, and the ghost of the Green Party past to keep us on course?
Tomorrow I will share with the group this quote from Laudato Si that asks a compelling question:
We need to strengthen the conviction that we are one single human family. We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and environmental. What need does the earth have of us?
2 comments:
The false narrative and grievances that grew around it made it kryptonite. A concept that should have had traction, but didn't. Even when they called it the Carbon Rebate it didn't resonate with enough people. I don't think Mr. Carney will abandon his green credentials, but now what will follow and how will it be framed?...... KB
Agreed, agreed, agreed, I hope he doesn't, and important question, Kathy! Thanks for an insightful response.
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