It’s a Mad, Mad World

Any question that we are living in a mad, mad world need only look at the actions of political leaders in several countries.  Where would you like to look?

How about Great Britain, the country in which I was born.  The fight over Brexit and the actions of its leader, Theresa May is sheer folly.  What kind of foolishness and old-fashioned thinking was fed to the people to convince a small majority of them to vote for separation from the European Union can only be imagined from this distance.  None of the predictions that it would be an easy thing to do have been fulfilled.  Brexiters like Nigel Farage have said it would be a great thing for their country and that they should walk away with no deal or guarantee are ridiculous.  Statements like “you wouldn’t want this in Canada” hide the fact that the Canadian situation is nowhere near the same as Britain’s.  My prediction is that soon after Great Britain walks away from Europe, it will fall to being a third rate power.  By themselves they cannot hope to regain their status as a wold class power.  The world is too big for that now.

“The public will believe anything, so long as it is not founded on truth.”
  - Edith Sitwell

In our country (Canada in case you’ve forgotten) leaders and hopeful leaders embarrass at every turn.  The current federal government doesn’t seem to know how to operate our armed forces.  They waffle on procurement of badly needed defence equipment while only promising to allocate money for Coast Guard vessels.  I wish the Coast Guard luck in getting that done.  With this and the last government having gutted all but two shipyards (one other yard has managed to hang on with innovative and successful projects despite the governments), there is no capacity to fulfill all these Navy and Coast Guard shipbuilding projects any time soon.  Add to that such fiascos as the Mark Norman case and the hidden Afghan Memorial (do you think the Afghan War will ever be recognized on the National War Memorial?) really must make you wonder.

“You will find that the State is the kind of organization which, though it does big things badly, does small things badly, too.”
  - John Kenneth Galbraith

On the other side of the political spectrum, the Conservative leader, Andrew Sheer, is making the most ridiculous promises.  He is a one trick pony whose only ideas revolve around how to exploit more oil from Alberta, the province he comes from.  Cancel carbon tax, build pipelines, develop an ‘energy corridor’.  Has anyone heard anything else from him that goes beyond this obsession?  I have no idea how he expects to put into practice his energy corridor.  The idea makes no practical engineering sense.  Where is it going to go?  How is he going to route it around Quebec?  More specifically, how is it going to route it around Montreal?  This is where the engineering part comes in.  The only way around Montreal is north, but there you run into the unyielding terrain of the Canadian Shield, some of the hardest and most impervious rock in the world.  Even if it can be done, the cost will be enormous. A rough estimate of $100 billion has been suggested. Only the federal government could consider spending that kind of money.  And whose pockets do you think that’s going to come from?

“A conservative is a man who believes that nothing should be done for the first time.”
  - Alfred E. Wiggam

In Ontario, Doug Ford, the Premier of Toronto and leader of the Regressive Conservatives, is cutting everything in order to eliminate a deficit.  It doesn’t seem to matter what is being cut, or will be cut in the future, it’s got to go.  His pledge that no jobs would be eliminated now seems an obvious fraud.  Wages and salaries are THE largest component of any product or service.  Jobs must be sacrificed in order for costs to be cut.  Oh, but jobs will be eliminated through normal attrition and retirements as many apologists will tell you.  But it is not just the existing workers in these jobs that must be considered; it is the young workers who will no longer have these jobs to aspire to.  It seems to me that the only level of government that has guts enough to do the obvious thing and actually raise taxes is municipalities.  Annual tax increases in cities is expected.  As more and more things are expected of every level of government, it is obvious we must be prepared to pay for them.

“Whenever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship.”

  - Harry S Truman

And at this point, we won’t even consider what is going on in the United States.  It could be bad for our health.

Listen to the Young

I was talking to my son the other day and he lamented that his generation and younger (he’s in his early forties) did not think they were being listened to.  He said that this certainly applied to climate change.  He said that for these younger generations, climate change is THE number one concern.  And I fully support him on this.

Instead of being considered a serious threat to all of us, it is being considered purely a political issue.  It is considered a “wedge issue” whatever that means. Parties argue over whether it is real and what should be done about it.  It becomes nothing more than an election issue to be argued over in political debates.  And even when a newly elected government (federal, provincial, municipal) takes power and acknowledges the problem, they do precious little about it.  Instead they use millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money, money that could be used to take real action, to fight court battles against some other government.  They are not listening to the real problem, but only to pressure groups and lobby groups who don’t want their “lifestyle” spoiled.  The fact that these groups usually represent the rich and well established does nothing for the rest of the population. They are the ones who don’t want to have to give up their luxury SUVs or other toys that usually require the use of petroleum products.  I have yet to see any industry that makes luxury yachts, recreation vehicles or other such devices every invest in fuel efficient technologies.

In Ontario, our esteemed Premier Doug Ford, who seems to be more obsessed with beer than climate change, is now proposing to raise the speed limit on major highways to 120 Km/h.  This will no doubt will make him very popular with folks who don’t look at consequences such as the increased fuel that is used by a vehicle travelling at that speed. The optimum speed for maximum fuel economy is about 80 – 90 Km/h.  Consumption goes up very quickly above that speed.  This fact is in addition to the reduction in safety that these speeds will bring.  Highway 401 from Toronto to the Quebec border is already a killing ground.

The arguments against taking any action are manifold.

“It will destroy the economy.”  This is a favourite among conservative “thinkers” and politicians.  But let’s be honest, it may reduce some sectors that rely on excessive use of petroleum products, but other industries will grow in their place.  After all, the destruction of the buggy whip industry did not destroy any economy.  Any company worth its salt and investor respect will adapt as most industries have had to adapt if they have been in business for any length of time.

“Canada is such a small contributor.”  True, but as they say every little bit helps.  If Canada can show leadership many other small and medium countries are liable to follow.  Take, for example, Costa Rica where they just went 300 days of using only renewable energy to provide electricity to the entire country.  Obviously, they didn’t think their contribution was too small to take such action.

“It’s too late to do anything.”  It is never too late to at least minimize the carbon pollution that is the primary source of climate change.  We may never eliminate it all together, but we can mitigate it as we seek answers to improve the situation.

“What will happen to me?”  Your life will change.  But with the right leadership, your life can go on and perhaps be better.  If it is a job you’re worried about, you may have to be adaptable.  Besides, technological changes, such as so-called AI, are probably going to have a bigger impact than trying to tackle climate change.

So as our governments argue over carbon pricing, new pipelines and how to get more money out our pristine tar pits (oops oil sands), let’s demand that they start taking climate change seriously and do something about it.  If not, the younger generations will rise up and throw them all out of office.