More or Less cynical?

Having a look at the recent election numbers from another point of view, I thought I’d try a “glass half full” interpretation of our current situation. With 33% of the popular vote going to the Liberals, and another 31% going against the Conservative camp, we have almost a two thirds majority of support for at least, er, lip-service. Donning my less-cynical hat, I suppose I’ll agree that it's a step in the right direction...

The devil-in-the-details would be the expectations behind the numbers. What hopes are pinned to the Liberal plan, if not having our collective cake and eating it too? And what fantasies are projected via GND but promises of a grandiose and sweeping technological shift toward perfect balance in short order? As fantasies these narratives may keep us going psychologically, but at the end of the day, if you eat your cake, you no longer have it to behold. If we don’t vote for a GND, there’s no knowing what even a mere attempt at that kind of shift will look like.

If only someone could answer what the actual future is likely to have in store for us…

Clearly a “Green New Deal” or equivalent, is not on the books since that’s not in the Liberal’s platform. Clearly also, an approach to maintain national unity will trump all sorts of other ideals, leading to compromises that will leave regions in various states of disgruntlement, and environmentalists especially, fuming on the back-burner. If the minority government lasts four years, my call is that Canadians will continue to lead the world in carbon emissions per-capita – if not surpassed by the Americans south of the border who will also be too busy with unity politics to care very much about their emissions. Besides, they’ll be deep into the last hurrah of fracking for oil and gas – itself a huge source of carbon emissions. Will the American people turn their backs on both Trump and the Dems to vote Green? My guess is not a chance.

So, there are my predictions based on our recent (predictable) election results, and projecting similar (if not worse) results in the 2020 US elections. Will the green activist camp continue growing over that time? Let’s hope so. But the next big push may not come until after another four years of status quo, when the campaigning ramps up again.

The only other course of action remains the one area where each of us has the most control over our share of CO₂ emissions, and that’s our own lifestyles. Changes on this front may not affect the lion’s share of emissions, but it may be all that actually gets done…