Going from a once-in-25-year ice storm to summer temperatures like we did last week is jarring. However, bizarre weather like this shouldn’t be unexpected. The scientific consensus is that over the coming years, weather patterns worldwide will become increasingly erratic and extreme due to climate change driven by human activity. Due to the decades of not reducing emissions, despite knowing the consequences, things will almost certainly get weirder and worse at this point, though humans still have some influence over how bad it gets if we act now. That is as true in the Pontiac as it is everywhere else.

Avoiding the worst-case scenario essentially involves people, from leaders on down, recognizing the emergency it is increasingly apparent that we are in. This means preventing global temperatures from getting too high by immediately and urgently reducing emissions and preparing our communities for challenges that are now inevitable.

This is a region with a largely agricultural economy, abundant wildlife and highly sensitive to flooding, so doing all we can do to ensure a stable climate seems like a no-brainer. But like almost everywhere else in the world, not enough is being done.

The well-documented extensive lobbying and blatant media disinformation/misinformation campaigns from the fossil industry are one reason keeping necessary action from happening, but there’s more to it than that. There is a certain logic in resisting the radical action needed to address climate change at the grassroots level. Many people’s livelihoods and ways of life do depend on practices that will have to at least be modified to avoid the worst-case scenario. That’s just the reality, but the fact is that the change required to avoid the worst-case scenario doesn’t need to be bad.

Climate policies advanced by Canada’s current political leadership almost seem to be designed to play into the hands of those who don’t want action – carbon taxes, everyone expected to drive an electric car despite a frequently failing electricity grid, subsidies to already profitable companies, etc… – In many cases climate action is seen as punishment or imposition, when, if policymakers readjusted their horizon on what is possible, could make our lives better and communities stronger.

For example, instead of heavily taxing people to use the gas-powered vehicles their lives are built around, make sure that there are accessible, reliable and affordable alternatives in place before phasing them out. Instead of making people anxious over how they can afford to heat their homes, launch a renovation drive to ensure that every home has the best insulation possible and alternative heat sources. Instead of scaring everyone in financially precarious situations with price increases, take concrete actions in ensuring people’s basic needs are met. Help local producers by rearranging supply chains to ensure we are eating what is produced locally as much as possible to cut down on transportation emissions. Let people work from home if their jobs genuinely don’t require them to make long commutes. Instead of subsiding oil companies on the promise they’ll eventually stop threatening human civilization in a way that’s profitable to them, take their profits and start investing them in building the infrastructure we need to live a more sustainable life. These are just some of the changes we can take to make climate action not mutually exclusive with a better quality of life.

There are even a few things we could do immediately on a local level.

Local politicians have brought up how uniquely sunny the Pontiac is relative to other parts of Quebec, making it an ideal place for a solar farm. While one is supposedly in works now, there is no time line on its completion. It’s not like we don’t know how to build solar farms, or that the cost of solar panels hasn’t been dropping for decades. There’s even one already in Arnprior. We should advocate to have one built here ASAP.

Or what about the lack of public transportation in the Pontiac which makes it almost impossible to get anywhere without a car? Why not have a bus that goes directly to Ottawa via Renfrew, or offer more frequent service up and down Hwy148?

We recently had a massive disruption in the power grid which for some residents lasted a week and showed a pressing need to revamp the regional power grid so it is both more efficient and resilient. There’s also an obvious need for increased crisis response and maintenance teams to minimize the impact of bad weather. There are no good reasons as to why those investments should not be made.

All these things are possible. Those who say they’re not are really missing what our society is capable of doing if properly mobilized. During the Second World War Canada was transformed into an armed camp to defeat the threat to civilization represented by the Nazis. Hundreds of factories were converted to build armaments and other war material while three-quarters of a million civilians were turned into soldiers in a matter of a few years. There’s no reason why we couldn’t see a similar effort to preserve living conditions on the planet, as while climate change doesn’t have the easily recognizably evil face of the Nazis, it arguably represents a more serious danger.

We need to act now, and in order to ensure that action is durable, we need to do it in a way that brings everyone along.

Brett Thoms