Sabine Dietz addressing community meeting on climate change

About 40 people attending a community meeting in Sackville last week heard a grim message from Sabine Dietz, executive director of the environmental organization, CLIMAtlantic.

No one is safe from any of the effects of climate change including wildfires, flooding, extreme weather and heat, she warned.

“There is no ‘new normal’ anymore,” she added during a town hall meeting sponsored by the Sierra Club of Canada and hosted by the Tantramar Alliance Against Hydro-Fracking.

“It’s all about change and humans are not good with change.”

Dietz dismissed the idea that reinforcing dykes, for example, would necessarily protect the Chignecto Isthmus from the catastrophic flooding that could sever transportation, energy and communications links while threatening homes, farms and businesses.

“You cannot build a dyke for any money in the world that will fix the problem of flooding, potential flooding from the ocean,” she reiterated later during an interview.

“You can’t fix it so that the communities behind are 100% safe.”

Dietz acknowledged that steps do need to be taken, such as reinforcing dykes, to help manage or reduce the effects of flooding, but there are no guarantees of safety.

“Whenever we say across the country, ‘Build this, build that, do this or that and you’ll be safe,’ we’re lying to people.”

Instead, Dietz said, communities need to start thinking more critically and imaginatively about how to cope with the inevitable effects of climate change.

“Imagine things going really badly, imagine things going really well and then figure out a way, how do we get through this, what’s our path through this mess,” she said.

Dietz advocated putting pressure on politicians and officials at all levels to implement measures to mitigate the effects of climate change and to help build climate resilient communities.

She also mentioned the Climate Imagination Session that will be conducted by Quinn MacAskill at the Sackville Commons from 6 to 8 p.m. on August 14th.

For more details, click here.

Emissions caps needed

Gretchen Fitzgerald of the Sierra Club sporting her oil & gas emissions cap

Those who attended last week’s meeting also heard from Gretchen Fitzgerald of the Sierra Club about the need to require oil and gas giants to implement 40-45% reductions in their greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2030.

She pointed out that the oil and gas industry is Canada’s most polluting sector yet it comprises only 5% of the Canadian economy.

Fitzgerald said the Sackville meeting was one of a number being held in Atlantic Canada to generate support for stiffer oil and gas emissions caps.

She added that the meetings are timely because people are experiencing or hearing about wildfires, flooding, extreme heat — climate change effects that are related to the burning of fossil fuels.

“We feel that this is kind of a moment where it’s really valuable for communities to get together and speak about root causes,” Fitzgerald said.

The Sierra Club cites media reporting showing that the country’s per capita greenhouse gas emissions are among the highest in the world yet Canada is not cutting its carbon emissions as quickly as other rich countries largely because of resistance from the oil and gas industry.

Fitzgerald says polling has shown consistently that most Canadians support major reductions in emissions and are taking steps as individuals to cut back themselves, but persistent lobbying by the oil and gas companies is slowing progress.

“There is a fairness argument here,” she adds. “These folks have been raking in massive profits while communities have literally burned.”

To read the Sierra Club fact sheet on emissions caps, click here.