"Once upon a time you believed in eternal economic growth. That fairy tale is why our planet is now dying. You could have saved us, Grandpa, but instead you did absolutely nothing. How can we ever forgive you?"
Those weren't the exact words of tiny Greta Thunberg, just 16, to the United Nations this week but that was the gist of her honest, gut-wrenching message.
I have a question: What is your grandchild's life worth? Don't say she is priceless because you really don't believe that. If you are a true capitalist then you believe everything and everyone has a dollar value. We are seeing that belief played out right before our eyes.
Every day our court systems come up with a dollar value for what someone's life was worth had they not been killed due to negligence on the part of individuals, corporations or governments. It is always astonishingly little. Tens of thousands of dollars. Maybe a million. That's how much our society values your granddaughter or grandson. From a corporate point of view it may be more profitable to continue killing children than make a change. It's just business and so far society in general has no problem with that.
The scientists of the world are screaming from the rooftops that we only have 11 years to cut our carbon emissions by 45 per cent just to have a 50:50 chance of stopping the Earth from becoming a barbecue.
"Oh, I don't know if I believe that," some of you are saying right now.
You know what? There are a lot of things you don't know but that doesn't stop you from reaping the benefits of science.
Case in point: do you have a smart phone? Do you know how it works? How does text, audio and video come through the air right to that little device?
Did you know that your smart phone would not even function if the scientists who developed it didn't take Einstein's Special Relativity into account?
No, you don't understand your smart phone, modern medicine and a lot of other things that you use every day but you have no problem believing in them.
Why then don't you believe in the warnings of climate change? I just read a book that I had a hard time understanding but finally, with the help of a friend, got its message: It is going to take more than science to convince people to change their ways. It did not explain why this should be so different from the examples I provided above.
Well, here's one big reason: On one side of the issue we have you, me, children, environmentalists, scientists, teachers, doctors, even the military and on the other side are the people with all the money in the world.
The fossil fuel industry is so filthy rich it can buy anything it wants, including your free will.
It has its own political parties: Republicans in the U.S. and Conservatives in Canada. But if they aren't currently in power it can still leverage its demands with whomever. There is no bottom to its pockets. It has created entire institutions to brainwash citizens. Google "climate change skeptic organizations" for a list or for an in-depth understanding that goes beyond climate change read Pulitzer prize-winning author Jane Mayer's book Dark Money. This has been going on for so long that it controls our subconscious.
Nobody hears about a plan to fight climate change without immediately asking, "What does that cost?" We have been programmed to be suspicious about anything other than the status quo.
"Grandpa, why do you give all your money to the man in the limousine?"
"I don't know, honey. It's just the way things are."
"Don't you know any better?"
"I guess not."
We just assume that any change is going to cost us. No, that's not exactly right. We assume that any change to our fossil fuel usage is going to cost us. We don't have the same expectation about other changes. Funny, isn't it?
Probably the biggest hang-up people have about fighting climate change is it will require us to convert to electric automobiles. "What is that going to cost?" you say immediately. Well, let's look at that.
What do you pay right now for your car's gasoline? It isn't free, after all; you shell out part of your income for it every time you fill up. I will bet you don't even know what you spend in a year on gas. Funny, isn't it?
Well, there are people who have examined what the average person spends on gasoline. In Ontario, the provincial Ministry of Transportation has calculated we spend up to $2,500 a year. (It would be way higher in Northern Ontario where we must drive much longer distances.) The same usage with an electric vehicle would cost less than $300.
So back to the question about what would converting to an electric vehicle cost? It wouldn't cost anything. It would save us $2,200 each year.
And immediately your mind flips to the next reason not to change. "We would have to build charging stations all over the place. What would that cost?" Did you ask the same question about building gas stations? Nope. Funny, isn't it?
A year ago in Ontario we elected Conservative premier Doug Ford, at least in part, because of his vow to destroy every climate change initiative (including incentives to buy electric vehicles) instituted by the previous Liberals. He made a special point about going all the way to the Supreme Court to get rid of the four-cent-a-liter carbon tax imposed by the federal Liberal government. The carbon tax, which you get back in a rebate at the end of the year anyway, amounts to three per cent of the cost of a liter of gas. Ontarians were outraged and so elected this right wing blowhard. We will now live with the consequences.
So what is your grandchild's life worth? In Ontario, not even four cents.
Do you really not believe in science? Science is just another word for knowledge. If you don't believe in science you are not far from sacrificing virgins to appease the gods.
