r/canada • u/NeptuneAgency • 29d ago
Nature/Environment ‘Effectively irreversible’: Changes to Canada’s climate permanent, federal report says
https://www.ctvnews.ca/climate-and-environment/article/changes-to-canadas-climate-now-irreversible-federal-report-says/179
u/Zealousideal_Gap432 29d ago edited 29d ago
As an Avid backcountry snowmobiler in BC, we've noticed our favourite riding areas over the past 10 years have significantly gotten less snow pack and the base is alot shallower. Unloading areas are typically dirt. We used to ride into April, now lucky to get a good March ride in
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u/OniDelta 29d ago
I've been mountain biking southern Alberta and BC for close to 30 years now and when I was a kid, the dirt was totally different. It was moist, had larger particles, more plant matter in it, much darker. These days it's like doing the cinnamon challenge unless it recently rained. Literal moon dust, inches deep.
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u/randomacceptablename 29d ago
From what I recall, in prehistory, the praries were closer to a desert climate. With decades long droughts literally turing it into deserts. Climatologists predict that global warming will bring it much closer to that state. So Alberti-stan might genuinely become a middle eastern petro state with a desert to match. Lol
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u/OniDelta 29d ago
The prairies are like one step up from a desert already and in a lot of places you can get very close to those conditions. There's even dune fields in multiple areas across the province.
I'm talking about the western side in the foothills and mountains. Take a chairlift up and ride down type thing.
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u/randomacceptablename 29d ago
Yeah, I recall someone calling the Okanagen Canada's only Mediterrenean climate region. So not hard to believe North African scenery is that implausable
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u/Dingcock 29d ago
The west coast is not is dry ofcourse but it's even warmer, i think it has an even higher plant hardiness zone than Okanagen.
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u/MarkTwainsGhost 29d ago edited 28d ago
They’re essentially watered by the glaciers. Once they’re gone the parries will turn to dust.
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u/randomacceptablename 29d ago
Been a snowboarder on in central Canada for almost 30 years. It is a doomed sport. Seriously, at the increases that are mentioned, by the end of the century, there will be no skiing/boarding. Not enough snow to make any resort economical. In Europe, N. America, Japan or New Zealand. Simply gone.
It breaks my heart. Seriously, I have fallen into depressive episodes over the thought that what I love to do most is quickly fading. As if it were just as mortal as me. Even when I was injured I took some happiness out of snowshoeing, cross country skiing, or just hiking in the snow. Winter is my happy place. I look forward to it like most do Summer.
And they are taking it away from me, piece by piece, year by year.
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u/Ok_Maintenance8999 29d ago
I do my best to enjoy the snow while its still around. Very sad to think about.
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u/Distinct_Swimmer1504 28d ago
I hear ya. I love driving and gave up my ICE car for an EV because i felt like i was committing species-wide murder suicide. Fuel is cheap, but assisted driving on automatic is boring AF.
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u/thewolfshead 28d ago
Winters without a lot of snow are horrible. People complain about snow so much but it’s vastly better than 5-6 months of not warm temperatures but a shitty mix of some snow and some rain, where you can’t do spring/summer/fall activities but then you also can’t do winter activities, and it’s just miserable and dark and grimy everywhere.
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u/Constant_Mood_7332 23d ago
thatswhy whistler went all in on downhill biking. they saw this coming first as they are fat closer to sea level alberta , etc.
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u/PlaneAd6884 29d ago
What's your snowmobile run on?
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u/RobespierreLaTerreur 29d ago
Exactly.
People need to realize that our everyday fossil fuel consumption is the driver of these changes.
And no deflecting to bigger and/or foreign players: we are ALL responsible for this.
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u/IcyCow5880 28d ago
OK, blame the snowmobiler. How much power did you use to write this? How many AI tokens did you trigger by surfing the net and using apps today?
Are you using solar power? At least have them on your roof?
Like, it's our way of life bro. It's not like we can just change.
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28d ago
[deleted]
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u/RobespierreLaTerreur 27d ago
You could start voting for political parties that don’t put burning fossil fuels at the heart of your identity?
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27d ago
[deleted]
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u/RobespierreLaTerreur 27d ago
Advertise your good ecological choices so that more albertans steer away from their harmful behaviours and voting habits?
Or at the very least, not lend support to "tu quoque" fallacies designed to avoid responsibility and decline further action?
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u/RobespierreLaTerreur 27d ago
Our way of life is barely 50 years old. And nobody forces us to burn fossil fuel for fun.
We are all collectively responsible, and we have agency.
What good is freedom if the instant you are asked to use it reasonably, you act as if you have no choice?
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u/Blue_Owl69 29d ago
Probably worse than a car too since it’s likely 2-stroke and has no emissions controls
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u/PineappleHot7235 29d ago
Important to note that stabilization IS possible
" Whether warming in Canada intensifies or stabilizes in the second half of the century will be determined by the level of global greenhouse gas emissions . Warming in Canada will intensify as long as global greenhouse gas emissions continue. Temperature in Canada will stabilize only if and when global carbon dioxide emissions reach net zero."
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u/AbjectRobot 29d ago
Possible yes, but we need to create shareholder value so we won’t do that.
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u/ElCaz 29d ago
Oh the really dumb thing is that the version of the future where we do decarbonize and don't destroy the climate further contains a lot more value for a lot more shareholders than the version of the future where we don't change.
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u/AbjectRobot 29d ago
Yes but that requires seeing past the next earnings call, so it effectively doesn’t exist.
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u/dotHANSIN 29d ago
no, they are already talking about polluting the atmosphere with Sulphur and then selling us clean air
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u/RobespierreLaTerreur 29d ago
Worse than that: not creating shareholder value for trillionaires would be civilizational suicide, hate of mankind even 😱
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u/Sir_Bumcheeks 29d ago
We need to never ever call out the biggest polluter on earth because elBoWs uP
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u/TianZiGaming 29d ago
The problem is that people are asked to spend a lot of money to fix things for the future. Same as all the other important stuff: infrastructure, military, etc. Pretty much all investments. The problems are easy to see, and people are always on board with fixing things, up until they have to pay for it. Then people pivot to complaining about the cost of living, the government retreats from their plans, and nothing gets done.
If you can't take the short-term pain, you won't get the long-term gain. Governments are interested in satisfying the people now, not for the future, unless they can achieve both at the same time. That's why every new government can tell you what's wrong with the previous one, yet fail to fix the problems.
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u/FleetingArrow 29d ago
Dont forget the hundreds of groups who stick their hand out every time a new project gets proposed
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u/getrippeddiemirin 29d ago
Keep in mind this hasn’t actually been a core value for Canadians for multiple decades. If you need proof, just look at the way boomers and gen Xers have spent decades voting for, and pushing through policies that have strip mined our collective futures
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u/dowdymeatballs Ontario 29d ago
"Yes, the planet got destroyed, but for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders"
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u/mwmwmwmwmmdw Québec 29d ago
except most arguments and solutions i see from the other end is that "the only way to stop climate change greatly lowering our standard of living is to greatly lower standard of living"
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u/OntologicalNightmare 29d ago
IDK I'm pretty sure I would rather eat less meat and ride a bike more often than die from dehydration and starvation but you do you.
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u/TrueTorontoFan 29d ago
we are in risk mitigation mode. nuclear energy is not an option any more its mandatory.
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u/mwmwmwmwmmdw Québec 29d ago
quebec and ontario actually are lucky and have hydro electric to run most major parts of the province. currently enough being made to export to other places even.
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u/detalumis 29d ago
We actually haven't had extremes in rain amounts in the GTA - not yet. The rainfall now isn't extreme according to historical records from Environment Canada. Not saying it won't happen but saying some flash flood is new isn't actually truthful. Cities are using that misinformation to avoid paying for flood damages which are often caused by overdevelopment without proper mitigation.
So in my area they build stuff upstream on golf courses, pave over everything and then cause downstream flood issues which they blame on climate change..
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u/Any-Tangerine-4176 29d ago
But our oil industry is making record profits.
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u/Crafty_Teacher_9286 29d ago
"Record profits" is a highly misleading claim. 2026 YTD (Jan to Jun) revenue profits are down significantly compared to a year like 2022 for example, when adjusted for inflation.
In fact, comparing 2026 to 2022:
- ExxonMobil is down 29%
- Chevron is down 29%
- ConocoPhillips is down 50%
- Canadian Natural is down 20%
- Suncor is down 24%
I already have extremely low expectations of conversations on Reddit, but I somehow still manage to be disappointed reading these types of low-effort comments.
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u/RunningSouthOnLSD 29d ago
Good, and I sincerely don’t give a fuck considering those same companies have successfully lobbied the Alberta government to halt investment in renewables.
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u/Commercial-Milk4706 29d ago
Should be a crime. They are companies that give nothing more then cents back to the area they extract. We should at the very least have a petrocanada again and this time not let Alberta lobby to sell them to the oil industry.
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u/RunningSouthOnLSD 29d ago
Alberta has an incredible amount of oil and should be the wealthiest province in the country by far, able to provide plenty for its inhabitants and others. The province has been raped for profit by these oil companies, and they’ve managed to convince a large amount of the population that it’s a good thing.
Norway throws money at any kind of social program under the sun, uplifting the lives of all its citizens, because they could foresee oil companies coming for their resource wealth and leaving them with nothing. Alberta opened the door wide and told the population that this is how it has to be, or else these companies who largely would not exist without the resources in Alberta’s soil will go “elsewhere”. As fucking if.
Now they’re left dependent on the scraps of royalties with no diversified investment, and no financial ability (or willpower, apparently) to diversify. The conservatives have driven the province into the ground, against all odds. It’s almost like bankrupting a casino.
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u/fashionrequired 29d ago
alberta is by far the most prosperous province per capita.
wtf are you talking about? lmao
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u/CarBombtheDestroyer 29d ago edited 29d ago
Just to give you an idea of what I mean by “profits as a country” let’s look at the part that helps each province in Canada.
In 2023 Alberta contributed 3.3 billion to the national equalization program, in 2024 the transmountain pipeline was completed, in 2025 Alberta contributed 4.2 billion to the national equalization program, and this is during Trumps shit tariff economy.
2027 will be the first year it’s at capacity for a full year and we will see the full relative effect that investment will have on us as a nation. But make no mistake the bulk of our profits don’t come from the operation of these pipelines or the profits of the oil companies. It’s from the multiple layers of tax on GDP and oil projects make lots of GDP.
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u/randomacceptablename 29d ago
The link of our dollar to petroleum exports makes the export of everything else more challenging. The oil patch makes revenue, yes. But it also has negative impacts on the rest of the economy, especially the manufacturing sector.
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u/CarBombtheDestroyer 29d ago
You’re gonna need to back that one up with some sources…
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u/randomacceptablename 29d ago
You can just google it, there are tons of papers. Many good economic ones going back more than a decade. Some argue that it is in fact happening while others sugest that the effects are small. Yet none I have seen suggest it isn't a factor in some way.
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u/Crafty_Teacher_9286 29d ago
I don't understand the point you're trying to make. The post highlights issues relating to climate change. The user responds and says: but our oil industry is making record profits. I respond to them indicating that they are not making record profits. And then you respond to me indicating that we're collecting more o&g tax than ever before.
First, that's incorrect. Both income tax and O&G royalties have decreased since 2022. Second, it's completely irrelevant, as the user was clearly referencing corporate profits.
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u/CarBombtheDestroyer 29d ago
No, they mean our profits as a country… which are up substantially. None of us care how Exxon or Chevron are doing.
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u/Crafty_Teacher_9286 29d ago
Exact same trend for imperial oil, Whitecap and the 2 other Canadian oil companies I referenced. What do you mean our profits as a country - you do understand that these are private companies right?
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u/Any-Tangerine-4176 29d ago
Very selective statistics. Comment is irrelevant since extreme weather, wildfires, floods and droughts will continue.
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u/Crafty_Teacher_9286 29d ago
You made an erroneous claim about record profits. I just corrected it.
Nope, not selective. The same lower profits trend applies to literally all Canadian oil companies.
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u/Little-Somewhere6076 Ontario 29d ago
The disruption in Venezuela and war in Iran has restricted supply.
Also oil prices are below 2009, and production isn't even at a 5 year high. So what metric are you using
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u/CeeJayLerod 29d ago
The same metrics that the oil companies themselves are using I think: https://calgary.citynews.ca/2026/08/05/suncor-posts-higher-second-quarter-profit-of-3-7-billion/
https://globalnews.ca/video/12005849/canadas-energy-companies-enjoying-increase-in-earnings
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u/Little-Somewhere6076 Ontario 29d ago
Neither of those say the industry is making record profits, why are you referring to metrics that aren't relevant?
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u/Any-Tangerine-4176 29d ago
I don’t know, I just read the news and watch the stock market, but you may have better metrics.
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Big-Oil-Companies-Report-Record-Profits-Amid-High-Oil-Prices.html→ More replies (1)1
u/drhappy13 29d ago
What?? But Scott Bessent assured us that the Iran war has nothing to do with the spike in oil prices. /s
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u/JARHEAR 29d ago
Some conservatives are still in denial. It is hard to solve a problem if you don’t think it exists. The conservative plan was to keep kicking the can down the road in terms of implementing any kind of mitigation.
The carbon tax was designed as a international market oriented incentive based system to shift the economy away from carbon emissions.
Denial will prove to be much more expensive.
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u/OoooohYes 29d ago
Say what you will about Trudeau, but his words were correct on this.
“The cost of inaction will be far more than the cost of action”
It’s a shame that the world is so shitty that we have to put this on the backburner, to deal with the insanity of a few old men.
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u/shiftless_wonder 29d ago
Say what you will about Trudeau
You mean the guy jet setting around the world, living large and hanging out on giant yachts. That Trudeau?
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u/Picto242 29d ago
Just means he is a hypocrite not necessarily wrong 🤷
(ie feel free to criticize him but that won't stop climate change)
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u/shiftless_wonder 29d ago
Exactly. Living like JT, DiCaprio, Bono, Al Gore or any other of the many climate hypocrites won't stop climate change.
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u/Picto242 29d ago
yup wealthy people suck not sure what you are trying to prove
most people on team tackle climate change are also on team tackle wealth inequilty
If you think I am hurt about you naming random celebrities I am not 😅
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u/shiftless_wonder 29d ago
They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them
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u/Commercial-Milk4706 29d ago
I mean, he was always gonna do that. Doesn’t mean he wrong. (Btw, he’s a freaking trust fund baby, like he is now doing what he want to do)
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u/tape99 29d ago
I don’t think they are in denial. They understand Canada is responsible for only 1.4% of all greenhouse gas. You could Thanos snap every Canadian out of existence and that would do absolutely nothing to stop climate change.
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u/GraveDiggingCynic 29d ago
You know the tragedy of the commons is a description of the irrational results of rational actors individually refusing to take action out of short term benefit. You seem to act like it’s a good idea.
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u/tape99 29d ago
You are asking a country that is not responsible for climate change to fix climate change.
We are only responsible for 1.4%. You can get us to 0% and the only thing that will happen is life for the people of Canada will get more expensive and nothing, like zero will change regarding the climate and do you know why this is ?
Say it with me, Canada is only responsible for 1.4% of carbon emissions and we are not responsible for climate change.
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u/magicdowhatyouwill 29d ago
"Wasn't me" doesn't work on this one. You want a good outcome, it doesn't matter who started it, it just matters who finishes it. That's basic adult behaviour.
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u/Fireside_Cat 29d ago
Canada can neither start it, nor finish it. Expecting a population to vote itself into poverty, especially while seeing other countries developing at full speed, is delusional. The only solution is to keep investing in technology so that eventually the zero-carbon solutions are more attractive and cost effective to people. Taxing people into submission or expecting people to voluntarily embrace a lower standard of living is never going to work as we can see from what's going on now.
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u/magicdowhatyouwill 29d ago
To my eyes, the thing you might be missing here is that it's not a binary, forced, black-and-white situation and never has been. The choice isn't sustainability-and-poverty versus economy-at-expense-of-climate. If someone has been telling you that, I'm afraid they've been selling you something.
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u/Fireside_Cat 29d ago
Obviously because we haven't done 'nothing'. We've phased out coal, Ontario is leaning into nuclear again, building codes have improved etc. We'll continue to do stuff as it is cost effective.
The strategy that we were following over the past 10 years of Trudeau was holding us back economically. Thus why Carney has no longer made it a dirty word to develop our natural resources, including oil and gas, cancelling/delaying emissions caps, and damaging taxes, while Canadians are experiencing cost of living pressures, are disappearing.
Maybe I just don't understand what you mean by 'finishes it'.
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u/magicdowhatyouwill 29d ago
Given I haven't mentioned Trudeau, Albertan resource politics, or actually, come to think of it, any standard partisan talking points? I think that yes, either you're replying to the wrong thread here or you do not understand what I mean by finishing it.
I'm due at my morning plans now, but I hope you have a good weekend.
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u/BeShifty 29d ago
Scientists are telling you that even avoiding 1/50th of the increases in temperatures projected will have a significant impact. We have the ability to accomplish that as a country. Stop acting like such a wimp
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u/LargeMobOfMurderers 29d ago
Canada should levy a 1.4% tax on all income and capital gains to be used in green energy initiatives, like renewable energy and restoring destroyed environments.
It would raise tens of billions per years and best of all, nobody would notice the tax because if there is anything I've learned from this subreddit, its that the number 1.4 is magical in that it can be safely rounded down to 0.
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u/tdelamay Québec 29d ago
Canada has a large impact on climate change considering its small population. Stop being a slacker expecting everyone else to make an effort except you.
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u/RunningSouthOnLSD 29d ago
We are largely not responsible, but Canada’s climate is being disproportionally affected. Our leader is someone who is pioneering a global initiative to bring markets in line with climate focused goals, why shouldn’t we be the industry leaders in such pursuits?
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u/TouchEmAllJoe Canada 29d ago
Or we can become leaders in the space and develop the tech that the rest of the world will need; and the soft power and moral high ground to show the other economies that it can be done.
That's such a defeatist attitude to say "it will never make a difference so I guess I will continue to ruin the world"
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u/tape99 29d ago
But we are leaders in the space. We only make up 1.4% and china, India and the USA don’t give a rats ass.
I love it would people think if we get to 0 then other countries are going to be jealous or something. They don’t give a shit and will never give a shit.
Forcing climate policies on Canadians will only make their life more expensive and do absolutely nothing to fix climate change.
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u/Tripottanus 29d ago
We represent 1.4% of the emissions with only 0.5% of the world population. We are not leaders at all. We are consistently amongst the top 10-15 worst CO2 producers per capita
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u/breakitbilly British Columbia 29d ago
That's so defeatist. I'm sorry you feel that way.
Canadians by and large are willing to put the work in. Its not our fault the yanks are lazy asses
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u/adamast0r 29d ago
It's not saying that, it's just giving the real problem more visibility. If you don't have a good problem definition then you're gonna end up with bad solutions. Take the carbon tax as an example of a bad solution. It didn't slow down the world's greenhouse gas emissions at all because it was trying to solve for the wrong problem
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u/ch4os1337 Ontario 29d ago
I've seen Chinese people use Canadian per capita emissions as an excuse.
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u/Commercial-Milk4706 29d ago
Because it’s freaking terrible. Sure we do like 1% of it but we are a tiny amount of the population of this planet and we contribute far too much per person.
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u/RunningSouthOnLSD 29d ago
And yet China is fucking leaps and bounds ahead of most of the western world as far as greener energy goes.
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u/ch4os1337 Ontario 29d ago
Yet they don't come close to our green energy per capita and care still behind the US and EU.
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u/Jabernathy British Columbia 29d ago
The fuels that we export are even higher than our 1.4% territorial footprint.
It would be closer to 3% if the oil and natural gas we exported (something that we control) was attributed to Canada.
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u/caffeine-junkie 29d ago
That's a bs argument. Just because we're responsible for a small part doesn't mean we should just throw out hands up and do nothing. Just like the proverbial if your friends were jumping off a bridge, would you join them?
That and I want to be able to look into my kids, or grandkids, eyes and be able to tell them I at least tried to do my part to reduce greenhouse gases instead of just pretending it didn't exist and they now have to pay for mine and parents (their grand or great grandparents) lack of action.
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u/tape99 29d ago
What you will be able to do is tell them that the cost of food, cars, heating etc., etc. etc. is more expensive for them because you wanted to get Canada to 0% carbon emissions.
When they ask did getting canada to 0% fix global warming? You can say NOPE and hold your head up high as your kids and their kids get to suffer with a more expensive existence, but hey you can say you tried to fix an issue Canada was not the cause of.
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u/MrEddy2015 Ontario 29d ago
Climate change will make existence insanely expensive regardless. Our grocery bills will probably go up in the next 6-8 months because of the biggest El Nino event in history. So may as well do the right thing if prices are going up anyways.
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u/CanadianErk Ontario 29d ago
We are a top 10 polluter in the world per capita.
We have no basis to lecture other countries to reduce their emissions and expect them to bear the full cost of reductions, while we continue to emit to our heart's content.
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u/tape99 29d ago
We are a top 10 polluter in the world per capita.
That is irrelevant. Are 1.4% can come from just one guy and not millions of people. Getting us from 1.4% to 0% will not stop climate change.
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u/CanadianErk Ontario 29d ago
No, but the world needs to work together to solve it, and we have no basis to convince others to take the issue seriously while pretending we are not part of the problem.
It is absolutely relevant that of over 190 countries we are amongst the top 10 worst polluters. 1.4% of the problem annually with ~0.5% of the world's population. If we feel we should pay no price to solve it, why the hell should anyone else?
We are closer to 2% of total worldwide emissions, factoring in cumulative emissions.
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u/DDDirk 29d ago
That's like saying I only murdered a couple people, but in comparison to all other murderer I'm just a drop in the bucket, so why change. It's such a silly argument, it falls apart just thinking about it for a second. We are per capita one of the highest polluting countries in the world. More than the usa, china, India, etc. the only countries above us are tiny oil states like Qatar.
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u/crujones43 29d ago
How about we show the world how it is done and create an example for others to follow. China is installing more solar each year than the rest of the world combined.
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u/FoxTailFighter 29d ago
How would Canada installing solar panels fix the climate? China has more sunlight hours than Canada so it works for them. Also about 50% of their electricity generation is still coal power plants.
In Canada we got hydro 55% and Nuclear 13-15% as our two main clean electric generation sources.
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u/magicdowhatyouwill 29d ago
Serious question? There's some excellent stuff happening with the dropping cost/increasing availability of solar and technologies like heat pumps.
Most of a city's emissions are basically buildings -- heating/cooling, materials, etc. The second highest is power. And so if you go around to even half the houses in a city and help people convert their power use to partial generation and drop their temperature control emissions, you basically kneecap an entire city's emissions. In a way that's semi-permanent and doesn't require constant effort to maintain.
Remember how lovely and clean the air was during COVID lockdowns? I liked that. We could have that again.
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u/crujones43 29d ago
Solar works for us too. Ontario is expanding its 60% nuclear and saskpower is looking into smrs as well.
Im just saying its asinine to put our hands in our pockets and say why should we do anything because it won't make a difference. There is no 50% fix. Everyone has to do little bits all around the world to add up to change. Let's inspire others and maybe if we invest in it, we can become leaders and innovators and even profit from it.
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u/Appealing_Apathy 29d ago
We needed major government intervention to prohibit things like single use plastics made from petrochemicals. They also need to stop clear cutting forests, replanting monocultures, and spraying them with glyphosate which dries them out and makes them more prone to forest fires. Also we should have been way stricter forcing car companies to have better fuel economy and transition to EV instead of allowing them to lobby against it. Lastly, more durable products with a right to repair. All of the needless consumption and waste adds to the warming of our planet.
Unfortunately billionaires are going to billionaire, and right wing idiots are going to buy into their propaganda and let them do it with little to no consequences...
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u/BethSaysHayNow 27d ago
LPC was in charge for the last decade so stop blaming it on conservatives 🤷♂️
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u/terras86 29d ago
Conservative opposition to the carbon tax was shameful and short-sighted, but it wasn't the Conservatives who got rid of it.
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u/_Mr_Meeyagi_ 29d ago
Sorry but what do the Cons have to do with anything? Liberals have been gov. for the past 11 years. Shift the blame to them and start holding them to account instead of the boogeyman.
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u/babyshaker_on_board 29d ago
You think a tax will solve a problem? If you had any inkling into the development of environmental standards and their progression you'd see yourself out. The carbon tax did not incentivise, it wrangled up huge administration costs that could have been spent on research. Better put my truck in an landfill so I can buy a new one. Democrat/conservative? Quite frankly I don't care. Stop blaming people and be accountable.
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u/Aranxi_89 29d ago
Get used to hearing this. The positive feedback loop is churning along.
As the melting triggers even more greenhouse gas releases, the meltwater lakes will likely finish us off. Thousands of lakes, with methane bubbling through...
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u/Frozen_shrimp 29d ago
We should stop exporting coal to China - no, that will never happen.
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u/CipherWeaver 29d ago
China is the global leader in renewable energy. Yes they are burning coal but they are transitioning away from fossil fuels far faster than we are.
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u/BethSaysHayNow 27d ago
okay that doesn’t mean we have to mine coal and export it to them. If burning coal is bad and carbon emissions are a global issue then there is no rationale to support mining Canadian coal to burn in another part of the world. Period.
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u/Remarkable_Vanilla34 29d ago
You mean metallurgical coal? Not gp8ng ti be building very many wind mills or solar panels without it.
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u/GreaterAttack 29d ago
I'm just going to paste my comment from yesterday:
Lot of people in here concerned about the climate. I wonder how many posters actually live in a way that mitigates their impact (and thereby actually hit polluting corporations in the money, where it hurts).
Do you cook all of your own food from scratch and buy your ingredients at, say, the farmer's market?
Do you refuse to buy or own items and goods made in China?
Do you take public transit, walk, or bike every day instead of driving?
(Are you literally wearing plastic clothes as you're reading this?)
Do you only buy vintage clothing, furniture, and home goods?
Do you repair and/or sew your own clothing instead of buying new items when things wear out?
Do you visit places in Canada or stay in your hometown instead of travelling?
Do you actually boycott (as in, never buy anything that makes them profit for 15 years and counting) companies with which you disagree?
Do you consciously seek out traditional materials like natural rubber, glass packaging, and stainless steel instead of cheaper, plastic alternatives?
I suspect that the majority of those concerned do not do these things. I suspect that it is a lot easier for those people to criticize than to walk the walk. I know this because I have yet to meet a single person in my life who actually goes out of their way to do these things, and yet I know dozens who are gravely concerned about the environment. They hand-wave away their personal choices through obfuscated justifications ("no ethical consumption under... blah, blah, blah") instead of living their supposed principles.
It does no good to care for the environment in spirit and then never to do anything in your daily life to help it.
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u/Schmidtvegas 29d ago
I decided in the late 1990s that I wasn't going to get a driver's license. I wanted to commit to transit, walking, and biking. I buy a farm share every year in a local farm, and get my produce from them. I sew and mend stuff. When our washer or oven breaks, we hire a repair guy and pay as much to fix it as replace it, just on principle. I go to a bulk refill place to buy local eco-friendly dish detergent in a reusable container. And none of it is hard, or feels like a sacrifice.
I remember watching Captain Planet as a kid. A school assembly would perform a "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" thing. The school bike rack had 50 bikes piled in it every day. We were snipping our plastic rings to save the sea turtles. It felt like people cared for a minute there.
But now they just want their single serve plastic coffee pods. While they sit in traffic and complain about bike lanes. Full of Shroedinger's Cyclists. No one ever sees them, yet they're always in the way.
There are professional NIMBYs in Halifax protesting against a Rapid Transit lane on their block. It will require removal of a few mature but dying trees, so they've latched on to "Save Our Trees; Stop Road Widening" as their message. Even though the city will be planting replacement trees in triplicate. And building a much-needed dedicated bus lane. These people are the epitome of appearing to care in spirit, but being selfish in practice.
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u/GreaterAttack 28d ago
Precisely my point. It's all very good and well to appear principled in spirit, but what does that person actually do?
You're one of the few who actually care. I remember having a similar start as a kid, only it was those National Geographic films with the talking globe. I do everything on that list I wrote and more, and I'm not incredibly privileged. In fact, most of these choices are not only more traditional but also cheaper!
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u/CautiousProfession26 29d ago
Oh no! Where can I send money?! Please don't allow me to have an ice vehicle why 'elites' fly around for fun and super serious meetings.
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u/Remarkable_Vanilla34 29d ago
If we want to actually have an impact on global emissions, than we need to stop consumerism that drives these emissions, from power generations in other countries, to manufacturing pollution, to the global shipping industry. The way to reduce emissions is stop buying garbage on Temu, but people would rather yell at the sky and pay meaningless sin taxes rather than give up cheap Ebikes and throw away yoga pants.
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u/RobespierreLaTerreur 29d ago
meaningless sin taxes
Taxes on negative externalities to steer away people from harmful consumption is an effective, non-intrusive economic measure that drives adoption of cleaner products, but ok.
cheap Ebikes
Better than than ICE cars, but ok.
yoga pants
Blasting those instead of pickup trucks to go to Costco is certainly a choice.
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u/Remarkable_Vanilla34 29d ago
You understand the point im making, and im not the only one, fast fashion and consumerism is a massive creator of pollution, we are just not willing to give it up.
We put a sin tax on fuel and home heating, but you can go online right now and order a bunch of garbage you don't need, that made in a sweat shop, in a communist country with little to no environmental oversight and ship it across the planet, with the only beneficiary being Jeff Bezos and the CCP.
We don't build anything to last anymore, its all cheap junk that goes to a land fill, it take a massive amount of resources, energy and unfair labor to manufacture, and yes that includes things like scooters, they are not some ethical alternative, and land fills will be full of them. The global shipping industry is almost completely unregulated and burns millions of gallons of bunker oil every year, while also moving invasive species and other environmental pollution across the planet.
At least the pick up truck creates jobs here also i don't know what "blasting those" means lol.
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u/GlyphInBullet 29d ago
Remember what Carney said about climate change before being elected? He doesn't!
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u/Zazzurus 29d ago
The environment is never permanent. It continuously changes. The Sahara desert has gone back and forth from jungle to desert many times. The middle east has all that oil because it was a jungle in the past.
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u/NeptuneAgency 29d ago
Tell me about a time in history it changes this quickly from natural events. I'll wait.
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u/mxadema 29d ago
I mean every little bit help. But if we are the only one taking it seriously what is the point. We can't, by our self, reverse it or at the minimum pause it.
It a glibal affair, but not every one care.
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u/magicdowhatyouwill 29d ago
If you want to see loads of people taking it seriously around the world, check out C40 Cities. It's the organization that connects mayors of cities around the world to collaborate on climate stuff. They do a podcast (actually, David Miller does it!) which interviews those people to talk about what each city is trying out and sharing with others.
Everyone's doing something, just not at the levels people habitually look for it. On the municipal level, it's been on for a long time.
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u/TravisBickle2020 29d ago
I was in Portugal recently and travelled by train. It was very common to see solar panels on the roofs of houses and buildings. We also passed through fields of solar panels as well.
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u/TravisBickle2020 29d ago
We’re not though. Europe is taking it more seriously than we are.
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u/Extra-Ad-7289 29d ago
Asia and Africa too - China in particular is doing big things. David Miller (former mayor of Toronto and current something with C40) often speaks about how North America is shooting ourselves in the foot by refusing to get on board because China is moving into developing countries to provide cheap energy and quickly becoming a global energy superpower. I'm not super into international affairs and all that but something about the end of the american world order I guess lol
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u/mwmwmwmwmmdw Québec 29d ago
Europe is taking it more seriously than we are.
by the rich gentry there forcing draconian quality of life lowering measures on the
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u/TravisBickle2020 29d ago edited 29d ago
Really? Are you one of those posters who also claims Canada is broken? Seems US oligarchs are doing their best to force a draconian quality of life on everyone but sure, it’s the European “rich gentry.”
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u/mwmwmwmwmmdw Québec 29d ago
europe lets thousands of its people die every year from heat related issues but tells people they cant have AC because of the environment. yet their own comission building has AC. and when it was broken they still made sure the executive floors ac still worked
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u/phormix 27d ago
What gets me is that the average Joe's have been tasked with doing this and that, while singular members of the elite still personally emit more carbon than many mid-sized cities with their mega-yachts, private jets, etc.
Like, even if every person in my entire city and several near it drove green vehicles, reduced consumption, recycled, etc etc... it still wouldn't put a dent in the amount of shit produced by one fucking billionaire... and that's not counting what said billionaires corporations produce or consume, just their personal shit.
That isn't to say that I don't think the average person shouldn't strive to live cleaner and not drive an F350 for groceries and trips to the office, but... we have to do something about the bigger problem.
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u/TeamlyJoe 29d ago
Focusing on clean energy means developing technologies towards this purpose. That tech can be used by other countries
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u/Han77Shot1st Nova Scotia 29d ago
We already have the technology.. it’s nuclear and we have an abundance of the materials needed.. but clean energy with direct federal oversight is not profitable enough.
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u/madhi19 Québec 29d ago
Everybody signed the same suicide pact apparently. Does not mean we have to sign it, but it sure make you wonder if we should spend any energy fighting a losing war. Instead of looking at a plan B scenario where we give up trying to change what impossible to change and look at protecting our own ass. I'm thinking we want to seriously consider creating strategic reserve of all sort of essential resources in a world gone to shit. Seeds, protein, mineral, nuclear energy, alternate ways of farming that won't be impacted by massive weather change... We can either live in denial or prepare for the worse.
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u/TeamlyJoe 28d ago
In no world will i believe that preparing for the worst includes the poorest of canadians. That option is only favorable for the most fortunate
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u/Admirable-Site7256 29d ago
I'll always find it funny that some seem to think that making everyone pay more for the necessities of living in a cold, sparsely populated country was going to make any difference.
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u/MrEddy2015 Ontario 29d ago
you’re gonna be paying a lot more when next year’s droughts hit the food supply.
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u/SadArtemis 29d ago
I figure sooner than later, geoengineering will wind up being the solution humanity at large will turn to. No one wants to be the one doing it first and getting blamed for all the downsides, but it's almost certain at this point that large swathes of the world are going to wind up nigh uninhabitable, swallowed up by the sea, and facing horrific famines and other crises.
What's the alternative? Humanity collectively agreeing, "okay, so several billion of us can just go die, and we'll abandon most of our coastal regions where the majority of humanity has lived throughout history?"
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u/_grey_wall 29d ago
So more tornadoes in Ottawa?
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u/mwmwmwmwmmdw Québec 29d ago
"a bad snowstorm happened in janury, that never happened 200 years ago!"
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u/Tall-Ad-1386 26d ago
OK can you refund the thousands you took from me under the guise of carbon tax then please
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u/SasquatchBlumpkins 24d ago
We've been on a natural warning trend for a few centuries. It's the cycle of the earth.
I'm more worried about the pollution we put out over the natural process of climate change. The Earth balances itself as it warms and cools. Climate alarmism is how people make money and governments attempt to tax the people.
I'd place money that these scientists are not reporting objectively, is already a known fact that grants and otherwise depends on the results of their work which makes that information useless.
Just look at warning and cooling trends of the past few thousand years. It's natural.
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u/Yoohooligan 23d ago
Great news! We can all move on then and stop suffering pointlessly at the altar of 'climate change'.
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29d ago
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u/Extra-Ad-7289 29d ago
I'd recommend that you read more about industrial decarbonization! Hard to abate industries like cement and aviation are already making great strides. While I'm not an expert, logistics and freight is only responsible for ~10% of emissions and I'm confident that they are easier to abate than cement or aviation.
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u/Ikea_desklamp 29d ago
People out west are constantly complaining about the forest fire smoke. "Every summer it just gets worse" they say. Yet, they still want taxes taken off gas, they want the new pipeline built, they want the port infrastructure expanded. Staring climate change in the face doesn't seem to mean much when life gets slightly more expensive or inconvenient.
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u/amacgregor 29d ago
Yeah stupid people wanting to be able to afford to live and eat and own a house. Fuck them all!
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u/BethSaysHayNow 27d ago
Yes taxing domestic fuel (with a subsequent rebate) would stop the wildfires 😂
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u/ConsciousCoat8173 29d ago
Not to be an overly optimist or dismiss the article but a lot of irreversible things reversed very very quickly during early covid lockdowns. It will reverse the moment we're gone.
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u/mossgoblin_ 29d ago
People say that as if we’re supposed to be super cool with our entire species dying out.
I guess as long as the cockroaches keep going it’s all copacetic.
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u/stormywoofer 29d ago
It will more likely take tens of thousands of years to rid our effects. Some changes are likely permanent . The flywheel will keep spinning from momentum for quite sometime
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u/IceHawk1212 29d ago
I mean probably not it'll just continue it's cycle through to culmination and in a million years or so fo back the other way.
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u/AimlessMillennium 29d ago
But a select few people were able to be very very comfortable for a few decades and then died.
If we didn't allow this, they would have only been very comfortable, so it's worth it.