Who Fights for Canada as the Climate Changes? - Joy Porter The Eccles Centre for American Studies - Treatied ...
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Who Fights for Canada as the Climate Changes? Joy Porter The Eccles Centre for American Studies The Fourteenth Eccles Centre for American Studies Plenary Event at the British Association for Canadian Studies Annual Conference, 2019 bl.uk/eccles-centre
3 JOY PORTER is Professor of Indigenous History at the University of Hull and Co-Principal Investigator of the UoH Research Cluster Treatied Spaces: Environment & Peoples in America, 1607-189: treatiedspaces.com. She is a Leverhulme Major Research Fellow 2019- 2021 and PI for the AHRC Standard Research Grant "Brightening the Covenant Chain: Revealing Cultures of Diplomacy Between the Iroquois and the British Crown", 2021-2024. Her most recent books are Trauma, Primitivism and the First World War: The Making of Frank Prewett, London: Bloomsbury Press, May, 2020, forthcoming and Native American Environmentalism, University of Nebraska Press, 2014. She is currently completing a book, Canada’s Green Challenge, generated by this lecture under contract with McGill University Press, and researching her Leverhulme project, “What Would Nixon Do?: The Forgotten Republican Roots of American Environmentalism”. Joy is also Lead Editor with Clint Carroll (Cherokee) and Dina Gilio-Whitaker (Colville Confederated Tribes) of the new Cambridge University Press Book Series, Elements in Indigenous Environmental Research. She welcomes proposals from all disciplines. ISBN 0-7123-4488-8
4
Thank you to Dr Phil Hatfield for the vim and only Fake News, it’s Fake Science.”1 I am
excitement you have brought to the work not suggesting that false positive science,
of the Eccles Centre. Your forward-looking or science distorted by vested interests does
approach and openness to new questions is not exist, only that the scientific method if
deeply appreciated. It is a delight to have a properly adhered to is sound and that the
writer, photographer, and cartographically- evidence affirming that climate change is
inclined intellectual in a role vital across real is overwhelming.2
disciplines for the UK and beyond.
Electorally, President Trump can afford to
This lecture addresses what is amongst deny climate change, because, as Roger
Canada’s greatest challenges as the twenty- Stone, his close political advisor has pointed
first century progresses – climate change out, climate is not a “driving issue” – yet.
and issues linked to the environment. The It is worth bearing in mind that President
overall objective is to suggest that aspects of Trump’s policy position on climate change
Canada’s self-image and self-representation is not aberrant in party political terms. To
may have hindered the generation of the contrary, it is in keeping with how the
pragmatic non-partisan thinking and politics Republican party, especially Republican
in response to the serious challenges now élites and conservative and libertarian think
impacting upon the environment. It will tanks, have formulated policy related to the
explore how First Nations and federal environment since the early 1980s.3 Part of
and provincial policy relate to Canada’s the problem for American conservatives,
environmental issues, before making the such as the Florida Representative Matt
case for a re-balancing of approach away Gaetz, one of President Trump’s strong
from the current emphasis upon technology allies in the House of Representatives,
as the primary solution set. Finally, it will is the assumption that if the science of
consider options for the Canada of the climate change were to be accepted,
future and ponder how generations to come then Republicans would be required to
may respond to environmental imperatives embrace the left solution set. Thus, Gaetz is
in the wake of the Fourth Industrial drafting a “Green Real Deal” in opposition
Revolution now unfolding. to the Democrat’s “Green New Deal”
–the Republican emphasis is on “Clean
I am going to take it as read within this energy”, small modular nuclear reactors,
room that it is accepted that climate change renewables and efficiency. However, there
is real, that the scientific community on this have been suggestions, notably by Vanity
issue is to be believed, that climate change Fair recently, that in his 2020 run President
is recognized as an urgent global imperative Trump will do a volte face and suggest “No
likely to have profound implications one cares more about the environment
including on prices, particularly of food, on than me”.4 Such a shift, perhaps
migration and the displacement of peoples encompassing a large increase in funding
and on levels of world conflict linked to for National Parks, would be in line with a
resources. In sum, I am going to assume similar vote-catching re-orientation towards
that there is distance between the thinking environmental protection and indigenous
in this room and the pronouncements of rights made in 1972 by the hero of many
President Trump, who has supported the Trump supporters, President Nixon.
need for urgent climate change action (in
2009 when he was pressurizing President Should part of you need further convincing
Obama) but more latterly, claimed it is a as to how serious the climate change
“Chinese hoax” (2016); and that climate threat is globally, have a look at the
change will “change back again”. On 12 October 2018 Intergovernmental Panel
March 2019 he tweeted someone presented on Climate Change (IPCC) report. It
erroneously as a co-founder of Greenpeace referenced over 6000 scientific studies
who stated: “The whole climate crisis is not and concluded that the world has about5 12 years to make fundamental changes so as to keep global warming under 1.5C, National Resources Canada just this month beyond which there are catastrophic risks produced the first installment of the multi- of droughts, floods, extreme heat and report “Canada in A Changing Climate”, poverty for several hundred million people. the first study of its kind.7 It revealed One of the scariest things about rising that Canada is warming at twice the rate temperatures is the effect upon insects of the rest of the world and Northern which are vital to pollination and therefore Canada warming at almost three times the vital for food production. You probably global rate. The report warned of melting noticed the recent press on the first global permafrost, sea ice disappearing, glaciers scientific review of all scientific literature retreating, more deadly heatwaves, heavy on insects. Over 40% of insect species are rainstorms – and pointed out that the declining, a third are endangered. They are main cause is the burning of fossil fuels. becoming extinct at eight times the rate The Earth’s climate warms faster near the of mammals, birds and reptiles and they poles and land warms faster than oceans are essential for all ecosystems – they are - Canada has a huge land area away from what everything else eats, they recycle the oceans. nutrients, and pollinate all the plants. The review said this is the start of the sixth Canada is far from meeting its Kyoto major extinction event on the planet and (1997) emissions reduction target and the if it cannot be halted, it has implications goal it has set for 2020 is weak. A coalition for the survival of mankind.5 Meanwhile of international climate organizations the 2018 Living Planet report of the World called Climate Transparency recently Wildlife Association in association with issued a report showing that Canadians the Zoological Society of London recently produce the most per-person greenhouse concluded that 60% of all wild animals have gas emissions of all the G20 nations – at disappeared since 1970. It clearly identified 22 tonnes per person, some three times consumption and increased demand for the G20 average of 8 tonnes per person. energy, land and water as the driving That’s about 2% of the total for the globe. force behind unprecedented planetary Overall, Canada is the 38th largest country change. A major concern across disciplinary in the world in terms of population, the boundaries, policy fields and other registers 11th largest economy, but the seventh is the way human activities have negatively biggest emitter. Canada is likely to miss its disrupted the carbon cycle on earth, in National Determined Contribution rates combination with disruption to the nitrogen based on the implemented policies under cycle through the use of inorganic fertilizers its Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean and fossil fuel combustion. The immediate Growth and Climate (Canada’s long-term future does not augur well particularly in climate plan), despite proposals for carbon relation to extinction. According to a 2019 pricing and traditional coal-plant phase- report by the IPBES, the Intergovernmental out. Canada is deemed to be ‘lagging Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity behind” along with Saudi Arabia, with the and Ecosystem Services, global extinction highest levels of emissions and no decrease rates may soon overtake “planetary over time. Remarkably, it is only from 2019 boundaries” and thereafter even more that it will be mandatory to label energy dramatic decline is inevitable. It also notes use of buildings in Canada and the aim is that at least a quarter of the global land to introduce a country-wide building code area is traditionally owned, managed, used for existing buildings by 2022.8 or occupied by indigenous peoples and that “nature managed by indigenous peoples Alongside big picture climate concerns, and local communities is under increasing there are more personally immediate, pressure”.6 distinctive issues in Canada in relation What About Canada? to environmental justice. Here I do not
6 just mean extreme examples, such as remediation – the process is often stymied the mercury poisoning (1962-70) of and contaminated sites simply abandoned the Grassy Narrows Band in Northern because of environmental laws that spread Ontario and the contaminated tidewater liability extremely widely. Cleaning Up area in Nova Scotia known as the Sydney the Past, Building the Future: A National Tar Ponds, the largest toxic waste site Brownfields Redevelopment Strategy in North America. I mean disease linked for Canada was put forward in 2003, to environmental hazards for ordinary but a recent review noted that “support Canadians. A clear picture of this emerges from upper levels of government appears if we collate data from the World Health to have ‘rusted’ and there is a need to Organization, the Canadian Medical ‘reignite interest’”.11 Taking each of the Association and Canadian academics. environmental hazards above into account, One of the most respected writers on Canadians would appear to be living very this theme is David R. Boyd of Simon much in the sort of post-World War II Fraser University.9 Boyd points out that “risk society” described by sociologist Canada has weaker laws and regulations Ulrich Beck. As Beck has identified, within on air quality, drinking water, food safety, such affluent societies, the distribution of pesticides, toxins, climate change and risk is as important as the distribution of biodiversity than other wealthy nations. wealth and the more one knows about Unlike the US, EU and Australia, Canada phenomenon such as ecological hazards, has no legally binding national standards the more insecurity one feels.12 for air quality or drinking water safety. Its air quality guidelines are voluntary and How did Canada Get to this Position in weaker than US, EU and Australian legally Relation to the Environment and Why? binding standards for five out of six air pollutants (ozone, particulates, sulphur All of this may shock some of us, because dioxide, nitrogen oxides, lead and carbon it does not fit either with the self-image monoxide). Canada’s drinking water of Canadians as citizens or for that matter, guidelines are up to 1000 times weaker with the country’s international reputation. than EU standards. Canada allows 46 As a recent analysis of successive Canadian active ingredients in pesticides that are Speeches From the Throne – orations to prohibited elsewhere, including 2, 4-D, mark the opening of parliament – pointed atrazine, carbaryl, diclorvos, permethrin out, the idea of Canada as a “responsible, and propoxur. Canadian maximum engaged [and] committed” world citizen residue limits for pesticides on food are has a long and significant history.13 significantly weaker than in other nations. Instead of taxing pesticides, Canada An environmental consciousness and a exempts them from GST (Goods & Services fundamental connection to Canadian land, Tax). Taxes on fuel, new vehicles, carbon for a great many, is part of what makes dioxide emissions, air emissions and a Canadian Canadian. It is a vital aspect discharges into water are either absent in of how Canada represents itself to other Canada or significantly lower than in other nations and “wilderness” is repeatedly countries. Canada has a track record of lax at the centre of Canadian iconography.14 enforcement of environmental laws – a After all, the Canadian flag, designed by multi-layered regulatory bureaucracy can Professor George Stanley of the Royal wield considerable statutory authority, Military College in Kingston, Ontario and but have little actual power to improve adopted on February 15, 1965, shows a the environment, particularly since the Maple Leaf. But maple trees are actually provinces often have most jurisdictional very sensitive to environmental change and sway.10 Additionally, when there is a need currently Canada’s maples are suffering in Canada to clean environmental spills from high levels of soil acidity leading to or toxic areas – what’s called brownfield – leaf loss. Despite recent overall increases
7
in syrup production linked to technological 1830, “The Peaceable Kingdom”.
innovation, the adverse effects of climate
change upon Canada’s maple syrup Hicks was a Quaker and his painting brought
industry continue to be felt, particularly in to life prophetic verses from Isaiah (11:6):
Ontario and elsewhere in the Northeast.15
The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,
The environment, however construed, and the leopard shall lie down with
is fundamental to a great many literary the kid…. and a little child shall lead
evocations of Canada, both before and them. And the cow and the bear shall
after confederation. Indeed, nature could feed; their young ones shall lie down
be described as the foundational metaphor together: and the lion shall eat straw
within Canadian literary expression. As like the ox…They shall not hurt nor
the first eco-critical collection on the topic, destroy in all my holy mountain.18
Greening the Maple (2013), pointed out,
stories and poems that engage with the A version of this iconic painting by Hicks
“wild” that lies north of the 49th parallel shows another Quaker, William Penn
have been at the heart of the politics and (1644-1718), founder of Pennsylvania,
social imagination of its people from long signing a 1682 treaty with the Lenni-Lenape
before there was a Canada or “Canadian under the shade of an elm at Shackamaxon
literature”.16 It is a central theme that can on the Delaware River. Thus, the dream of
be discerned across Canadian cultural the natural world in peaceful co-existence
production. Yet the Canadian response to was twinned with a utopian vision of
“wilderness”, both in critical and literary ongoing amicable relations between
terms, stands in marked contrasted with settler and indigenous communities. On
that of dominant American traditions. The one level, Hicks’s and Penn’s dream of
celebratory nationalistic emphasis of Henry shared interethnic living has singularly
David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson failed: Pennsylvania is now one of the few
has not found its corollary in Canada. states without a federally recognized tribe,
Instead, nature has figured as something although, in September 2000, the Delaware
to be survived, a tendency identified Nation of Oklahoma received 11.5 acres
by Margaret Atwood, or as something of land in Thornbury Township, Delaware
Canadians have registered a strong need County, Pennslyvania. Today, there are
to protect themselves from, a theme about 20,000 Lenape in the United States,
discussed by Northrup Frye. mainly in Oklahoma, but there are also
Lenape in Wisconsin and Ontario.19
Yet Frye also described an originatory
Canadian tradition, a beautiful pastoral Frye took as the title of his 1971 collection
myth at the heart of Canadian society that the Margaret Atwood image from The
spoke to a desire for balance and reciprocal Journals of Susanna Moodie, of the “bush
right relationship between all humans, garden”. That idea, of a garden, a middle
non-humans and their environments. ground, forged in the bush is linked to the
Frye said it explained the popularity of vision of a “peaceable kingdom”, to the
Grey Owl, the early twentieth century aspiration for a Canada where co-existence
globally-known deep ecologist and Indian- between animals, the wider environment
by-choice, as well as the popularity of and diverse communities is made possible
the Mohawk-English poet and performer by spiritual grace. “Nostalgia for a world
who died in 1913, Emily Pauline Johnson of peace and protection,” he maintained,
(Tekahionwake).17 For Frye, one painting “with a spontaneous response to the nature
in particular epitomized this quest at the around it, with a leisure and composure
heart of Canadian sensibility – the desire not to be found today, is particularly strong
to reconcile man with man and man with in Canada”. It is perhaps predictable that
nature – Edward Hicks’ painting from Frye detected solace for Canadians in Isaiah8
and “peaceable kingdom” iconography, to attempt to be very “environmental”
since so much literary evidence suggested and drive an electric vehicle, we would
they thought of themselves as battling then require nickel, cobalt, lithium and
against almost insurmountable odds. Frye graphite.22 Overall, by far the largest source
characterized Canadians as a people living of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada is
in psychological garrisons, forever mentally the burning of fossil fuels; mining, oil and
holed up against hostile nature in a “vast gas, and manufacturing are responsible for
country sparsely inhabited”. They faced the largest slice of this (45%).
“the unknown, the unrealized, the humanly
undigested”. “To enter the United States”, Furthermore, Canada does not just mine at
he explained, “is a matter of crossing an home. As Natural Resources Canada points
ocean; to enter Canada is a matter of being out, Canadian firms have an extremely
silently swallowed by an alien continent.” strong external investment presence.
What impressed Frye about Canada’s Canada’s investment policies favour investing
poetry, was “a tone of deep terror in regard in the mining industry outside of Canada,
to nature... It is not a terror of the dangers making it, as one commentator puts it, “a
or discomforts or even the mysteries of hegemon in the global mining industry”.23
nature, but a terror of the soul at something
that these things manifest”.20 A significant ongoing contemporary case
study powerfully illustrates the complex
If we follow Frye’s insights, a desire for issues, fabulous wealth and environmental
utopia mixed with profound fear explains risk Canadians are involved with in North
why Canadians have allowed this gap to America: Pebble Mine, Bristol Bay, Alaska.
exist between their sense of themselves It is 200 miles southwest of Anchorage.
in relation to the environment and what Thought to be the second-largest copper-
actually pertains. gold deposit in the world, it also has
molybdenum which is used in coal and
A Mining Nation gas liquefaction and in missiles, engine
parts and lubricants. Gold, of course, has
Whilst culture and cultural sensibilities are uses far beyond coins and bullion. Its most
important, it is vital, as the political right important industrial use is in electronics
suggest, that we “get real”. But what - it is within almost every sophisticated
is that reality? At a basic level it is that electronic device including computers and
Canada is a mining economy, one of the mobile phones and it plays a vital role in
world’s largest exporters of minerals and the aerospace industry. The Pebble Mine
metals, selling over 60 different mineral site is thought to be worth somewhere
commodities to over 100 countries.21 In between $345 and $500 billion US dollars.
2017, minerals contributed $72 billion Vancouver-based Northern Dynasty
to Canada’s GDP. In this sense, Canada Minerals Ltd. is seeking to exploit it and
remains from the world outside’s point of create a modern, long-life mine. From
view, as Frye characterized it, “less like a a number of perspectives, the impetus
society than as a place to look for things”. to realize Pebble’s wealth is almost
overwhelming. Current estimates suggest
Canada is the world’s biggest producer of that Pebble could yield at a minimum a
potash and in the top five world producers measurable 57 billion pounds of copper,
of cobalt, aluminium, diamonds, nickel, 71 million oz gold, 3.4 billion pounds of
gold, platinum, and uranium. We are molybdenum; 325 million oz silver as well as
all implicated in this economy if we use palladium and rhenium.
a typical computer, which has over 66
individual minerals including silver, copper, The problem? Pebble is at the headwaters
gold, and aluminium. iphones need five of two of the five major river drainages
rare earth minerals and, even if we were that supply the salmon runs of Bristol Bay9
which support subsistence, commercial 2017 presentation outlining the above
and sport fisheries. Bristol Bay is the site given by Pebble Partnership CEO, Tom
of the world’s largest salmon run and Hillier.
salmon underpin around 75% of all local
jobs. Subsistence living is vital to the On the one hand, Alaskan elected officials
people living in or around the Pebble site. and various organizations including the
According to an Environmental Protection Alaska Chamber of Commerce are supportive
Agency statement of 1 July 2019, if the of developing the mine. At the same time, a
mine is permitted, after it closes, the pit range of groups and organizations strongly
lake left behind will need to be treated in oppose it, notably environmental groups,
perpetuity. Further complexities will arise the Bristol Bay Native Association, and the
resulting from the proposed 188-mile Renewable Resource Coalition and United
natural gas pipeline across Cook Inlet and Tribes of Bristol Bay. The latter consortium
Lake Iliamna that the project entails, as represents 15 federally recognized Tribes in
well as from an associated 270-megawatt Bristol Bay, representing over 80% of the
power plant. A great number of the region’s population. Pebble Mine opponents
associated roads and the planned pipeline highlight the risk the mine poses to the
impinge upon lands owned by the Bristol world’s most valuable Sockeye salmon
Bay Native Corporation, who are not fishery, the risk of water contamination,
minded to give permission.24 the finite nature of the mine versus the
sustainable nature of fishing and the low
Northern Dynasty, and the larger company returns in tax revenue that may be generated
Hunter Dickinson Incorporated with for Alaska as a state. According to the United
which it is associated, has attracted much Tribes of Bristol Bay, “the proposed pebble
controversy, not least because a number mine will generate up to 10 billion tons of
of other major mining companies including toxic waste that will have to be treated in
Mitsubishi (in 2011) Anglo-American (in perpetuity (that means forever).” The acute
2013) and Rio Tinto (in 2015) have chosen fear is that the livelihoods of communities
to divest their interests in Pebble Mine. who rely on salmon for food will be
Northern Dynasty maintain their plan for threatened and so will a renewable economy
Pebble meets the strictest Environmental surrounding one of the most important
Protection Agency standards, and that salmon ecosystems in the world. If Pebble
their tailings dam or “engineered land gets the go-ahead, the largest open pit in
mass”, consolidated to the North Fork North America will result, covering some 18
Koktuli area, will be heavily buttressed, square kilometres and there will be enormous
lined and have “greater” safety so as to lakes of toxic mine waste.25
withstand Alaskan earthquakes. They
plan to have a project footprint of just One of the most respected voices
12.7 square miles and claim a range of opposing Pebble Mine is aquatic ecologist
local and regional benefits will accrue, and activist Professor Daniel Schindler
including “revenue sharing”, infrastructure of the University of Washington.
improvements, a fisheries investment, and His work studying chemical isotopes
a Native Corporation for Business. Five trapped in otoliths has revealed the deep
thousand individual Bristol Bay residents interconnected nature of the freshwater
are to gain an estimated $500 a year and lakes and streams that allow sockeye
a business mentoring initiative promises to salmon to hatch in Bristol Bay. A particular
ensure village corporations can compete contribution of his is the idea of “portfolio
for project contracts worth hundreds of effects” whereby complementary or
millions a year. Dynasty maintain that independent dynamics among species help
the state of Alaska will reap substantial to stabilize ecosystems and the economies
revenue at all levels, and crucially, jobs. and people who depend upon them.
Native faces featured prominently in the The phenomenon has been compared10
to the effects of asset diversity on the result can be said to have “lost its image
stability of financial portfolios. Schindler’s as a state serious about addressing climate
quantification of the portfolio effects in change, even though many Canadian
Bristol Bay has provided clear evidence provinces are in fact leaders in their own
of the importance of maintaining species right”.29 Additionally, processes have
diversity so as to keep fisheries open and been afoot whereby authority in relation
viable – and made the threats posed by to climate has been ceded by the federal
Pebble Mine’s potential exploitation all government not just downwards to the
the more stark.26 One irony of the Pebble provinces, but upwards, to international
Mine development “opportunity” in 2019 institutions. Commentators on Canada’s
is that it comes after a string of seasons of recent environmental policy suggest
exceptional large runs of salmon in Bristol that Canada’s international reputation as
Bay, some of the most lucrative in the environmental advocates has consistently
fishery’s history. For many Alaskans, Pebble far exceeded Canadian accomplishments in
Mine represents a limited-term jobs and relation to the environment at home.30
tax boost that cannot counterbalance the
nightmare potential of a toxic tailings dam There are certain positives however, such
breakage capable of threatening Bristol as the fact that unlike the U.S., Canada
Bay’s existing 14,000 sustainable salmon is a signatory of the 2015 Paris Accord
fishery jobs. where countries agreed to limit average
temperature increases to well below 2
Is Politics the Answer? degrees, but overall, it does not seem
likely that Canada will be able to achieve
Politics is always the answer, sooner or later. this and there are ongoing political rows
currently over Prime Minister Justin
A major issue for Canada is that it sleeps Trudeau’s climate policy. The relatively
with an elephant: the United States.27 As modest $20-a-tonne federal carbon tax at
a result, over time, its federal government its centre has, however, become law, and
has aligned Canadian climate policy with will rise to $50-a-tonne in 2022. This will
that of the US. As Environment Canada significantly raise Canadian gasoline prices
puts it: “The North American economy but will be off-set by tax rebates which will
is integrated to the point where it makes go back to the provinces from which they
absolutely no sense to proceed without were generated.
harmonizing with the United States and
aligning a range of principles, policies, Can We Look to Indigenous Peoples
regulations, and standards.”28 Four for Answers?
provinces stand out economically in terms
of their contribution to Canadian GDP: No, in the sense that First Nations are
Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and British living in a colonized context and are
Columbia. According to a recent study by doing what they feel they need to do to
Miranda Schreurs, Alberta, an energy giant survive. Indigenous people were 11.6%
(from oil sands) has acted as a veto player of the mining industry’s workforce in
at the federal level environmentally, even 2016 and in the last 10 years over 350
though Ontario and Quebec have energy indigenous mining agreements were signed
policies that resemble that of progressive between indigenous peoples and mining
European governments. It is worth noting or exploration companies.31 Looking to
that the planned oil production in Alberta indigenous peoples to inspire an ethical
is intended for export to the US. Schreurs or religious transformation in terms of
points out that energy-rich Western the relationship of all Canadians to the
provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan) have environment is unfair and a projection with
heavily influenced climate strategy since a long and suspect history. The truth is, as
Kyoto (agreed 1997) and Canada as a one study put it, Canadian governments11
most often treat environmental concerns and ICC spokesperson against persistent
as secondary because “citizens declared organic pollutants (POPs). She has pushed
concern for the environment often exceeds for global action on POPs which she points
the evidence of concern discernible in out “move relentlessly from warm to cold…
their major consumption choices such eventually there is only one place they end
as residence or transport.”32 Expecting up: the coldest climates on earth. In other
indigenous Canada to somehow redress words, Artic land and waters.” Watt-
this is an enormous ask. Cloutier has made the case that, “the Artic
is the barometer of the health of the planet.
The new Trudeau administration from If the Artic is poisoned, so are we all”.34
2015 looked to be very promising in
terms of guiding Canada towards both Yes: The Importance of Balance
reconciliation with indigenous peoples,
particularly in relation to treaties, and Whilst we cannot reasonably look to
towards a new approach to climate issues. indigenous peoples to solve the world’s
Many were inspired by the appointment growing environmental crises, there are
of Jody Wilson-Raybould as Minister of certain philosophies and attitudes of mind
Justice and Attorney General, the first that it would be useful to take on board.
indigenous person to have that role in In a real sense, these are lessons the
Canadian history. However, the tensions indigenous world has been encouraging
between certain indigenous rights, climate its foreign “younger brother” to learn
imperatives and the needs of extractive since contact. They include the importance
industries vital to Canadian prosperity have of adapting to change, of perceiving of
proven extremely difficult to surmount. ourselves in fundamental inter-relationship
There has been much controversy, in with the “natural” world and with the Earth
court and out of court, over the federal itself, and of balance as a vital principle
government’s purchase on 29 May 2018 for the creation of ways of living that are
for $4.5 billion, of the Trans-Mountain sustainable for generations to come.
pipeline from the Texas multinational
Kinder Morgan. Indigenous peoples and Allow me to briefly apply the idea of
affiliated groups fear the impact of tanker- balance to the global challenge of climate
traffic on fragile coastal ecosystems and change and environmental stress, in ways
the potential for a major bitumen spill. you may not have considered before.
But things are complicated: a number
of Secwepemc Nations have officially Re-Balancing
signed up for the project, even though
many feel that the pipeline will pose a So far, the world has put much effort into
severe threat to unceded Secwepemc’ecw solving climate-related problems using
territory overall. The numbers of technology, working to generate “clean
indigenous nations signing up to the energy” so as to reduce amounts of carbon
pipeline is being monitored by the Tracking dioxide emissions and other toxic by-
Trans Mountain database.33 products that result from our commitment
to ongoing growth and consumption.
This is in no way to deny the important As a result, we have seen significant
work to “fight for Canada”, indeed to government investment in battery-
fight for us all, that is being done by powered vehicles, solar cells, ethanol,
a great many indigenous groups and “clean” coal, hydrogen, and the biggest
individuals, people who are often on the winner of all in terms of incentives and
front line facing the concentrated effects of subsidies, nuclear. But, as Ozzie Zehner’s
climate change and environmental stress. recent book, Green Illusions, makes clear,
One such is Sheila Watt-Cloutier, president there are environmental problems with
of the Inuit Circumpolar Council of Canada each and our attachment to them is sullied12
by selection bias, our desire for quick fixes which are set to reach 9 billion by 2043,
and for a utopia of limitless consumption. and the question of whether we need to
To take just one “renewable”: the batteries reduce our growth levels as a species (we
within “electric” cars are expensive to are growing at about 1.5 million per week);
replace, and mining for the minerals and the extension of women’s rights as
for them is toxic and disposing of them the accepted most efficacious means to
even worse. Whilst the advertising and achieve this. Having said enough in this
promotion surrounding electric vehicles keynote that is hotly debated already,
stresses how cheap the electricity is that here I will simply refer anyone interested
they use to run, too little thought is given in considering this issue to the work of
to the holistic environmental cost of the philosopher Sarah Conly. Her book with
batteries upon which they rely and their Oxford University Press, One Child: Do
disposal.35 We Have A Right To More?, argues that
in light of the depletion of non-renewable
The wider problem is that being able to resources, we do not, morally, have the
produce energy more cheaply, simply right to have more than one child.38 Such
encourages even more consumption of ideas may well take on greater valency as
energy. This rebound as the economists call the world’s scientists tackle age-related
it, or boomerang effect, was identified in disease. It is thought that, for some, the
1865 by William Stanley Jevons in his book “Hayflick limit” of approximately 120 years
The Coal Question, and he gave his name as the longest potential lifespan, could
to the “Jevons paradox”.36 The only way soon be extended.39
around it is through government caps or
taxes, often an anathema to the right. Several of the ideas discussed above
were more prevalent in the 1960s and
A number of recent scholars, including 1970s, when the emphasis was on Limits
Zehner, have suggested we have the To Growth and when the American
balance of effort wrong and that in historian Lynn White argued (in 1967):
fact we should be thinking more about “More science and more technology are
less seductive and less instant solutions not going to get us out of the present
geared towards lowering waste and world ecological crisis until we find a new
consumption of energy in any form, the religion, or rethink the one we have.” The
argument being that the environmentally computer-generated predictions from the
cleanest energy of all, is less energy MIT team behind Limits to Growth have
generated in the first place. In essence, we recently been demonstrated to have been
should think less about how to consume largely accurate so far, something of a
ever more without an environmental concern given that the report projected
impact and more about how to live on “overshoot and collapse” in the mid to
a planet with finite resources long term. latter half of the twenty-first century if
Taking such a rebalancing seriously would then-current growth trends persisted.40
mean putting the emphasis on to the White’s work had brought to the fore how
creation of walkable neighbourhoods fundamental Christian underpinnings were
(reconsidering megastores, cars, suburbs, to the history of anthropocentrism, man
lawns), on efficiency, particularly of food having been formed in Judeo-Christian
use, rethinking all aspects of consumerism thinking in God’s image and having been
including advertising to children, rethinking given dominion in the Bible over the rest
the extent of military spending, rethinking of creation which was therefore figured as
wealth disparities, and reforming capitalism, being lacking and inferior. The echo of E.F.
a subject explored in depth by scholars such Schumacher’s book, Small Is Beautiful:
as James Speth and several others.37 Economics As If People Mattered, which
Such thinking inexorably leads to appeared in 1973, is also clear within
discussion of world population levels, much contemporary debate.41 Of course,13
telling Americans to cut back has not Google + Government
gone well for presidents in the past.
President Carter was the first to install Google also has a tech-based solution that
solar panels in the White House (which is being marketed as highly environmental
Reagan removed), tried to get support – modular “smart cities”. The prototype
to tax oil and, wearing a cardigan, in for export worldwide is Quayside, Toronto,
1976 told Americans in a TV fireside chat, a joint effort by a Canadian government
“We simply must balance our demand agency and Sidewalk Labs, owned by
for energy with our rapidly shrinking Google’s parent company Alphabet, to
resources. By acting now, we can control develop 12 acres of waterfront southeast
our future instead of letting the future of downtown Toronto. The plan is that
control us.” Reagan, president from 1981, Quayside will use data to solve the waste
trounced Carter in the polls, saying “It issue and other problems: Toronto’s “smart
is no program simply to say “use less city” will have “mixed-use” spaces that
energy”.42 change according to need, heated streets,
“raincoats” to create transparent tents over
What Might Balance Look and public spaces, free Wi-Fi and 5G, “sensor-
Feel Like in the Future? enabled waste separation”, driverless cars,
modular, cheap, timber-framed homes and
Future Farming an underground network of utility streets
manned by drones and robots- all meeting
Despte Zehner’s concerns, he the highest environmental standards.
acknowledges renewables are extremely
important for all our futures, as are The snag? It also has constant data
other technologies, such as those set to collection built in, and a centralized identity
transform what is being called “Agriculture management system. Several of the people
4.0”. To tackle a population growth involved to date have resigned because
expected to reach 11.2 billion by 2100, of concerns that it is an undemocratic
increased desire to consume meat, and experiment in “surveillance capitalism”,
increasing urbanization, a number of where all sorts of data on the city’s
technologies are set to transform how inhabitants will be collected and used by
food is grown so that we can have the Alphabet. Jim Balsillie, former Co-CEO of
70% more food that farmers are said Blackberry Inc., is on record saying that what
to need to produce by 2050. These happens at Quayside will “have profound
include: hydroponics, desert agriculture & and permanent impacts on the digital rights
seawater farming, algae as a feedstock, and prosperity of all Canadians because
3D printing of food, precision agriculture, intellectual property and data – our century’s
nanotechnology, genetic modification, most valuable extractive resources – spread
drones, AI and crowd-sharing to reduce seamlessly.” When Quayside was being
food waste. Significant investors in these initially discussed, it should be remembered,
areas include Jeff Bezos, Eric Schmidt, Bill Google’s former executive Chair Eric Schmidt
Gates, Richard Branson and the Japanese talked about how Google’s founders had
billionaire Masayoshi Son. Particular got excited about “all the things you could
attention is being paid to tackling food do if someone would just give us a city and
waste. Between 33-50% of all foods put us in charge”. To date, Sidewalk Labs
produced globally is never eaten, making has not been in a position to say who will
food waste, if it were a country, the third own the data that will result from “the most
largest ‘emitter’ of greenhouse gases after measurable community in the world”. The
China and the US; this, when 800 million concern is that in an era of environmental
people go to be hungry every night.43 stress, the lure of environmentally efficient
cities subsidized by tech companies awash14
with cash will prove overwhelming and Under 46.1 of the Quebec charter there is,
cities as democratic spaces free from blanket for example, the right to live in a healthful
surveillance may be sacrificed. The fear is that environment. Tackling these issues using
the public’s autonomy and data will end up the law, however, will inevitably take years.
owned by one company, who in Quayside
also wish to have a share of the Toronto Significant numbers of this generation, born
taxes which they envisage will rise as result from mid-1990 on and sometimes called
of their investment, and that the process be “Generation Z” or the “iGeneration”, are
aided and abetted by government. doing what they can on a personal level
to mitigate climate change – planning
Quayside prompts immediate comparisons on having fewer children, living car-free,
with the 1967 surveillance village portrayed avoiding airplane flights, eating a plant-
in the British fictional series, The Prisoner. based diet.44
Although in the intervening years many
have become accustomed to voluntarily Generation Alpha
uploading their details onto the internet,
when such volition is taken away, as Generation Alpha, in comparison, were
would be the case at Quayside, there is born in 2010, the year Apple launched
considerable resistance. It seems that for the ipad. By 2025 they will be 2 billion
Canadians at least, despite the potential strong within the global population. They
environmental benefits, living in such a city, are children now, the generation after
for now anyway, comes at too high a cost. Generation Z/iGeneration, the children
of millennials. One characterization of
Generation Z them is that they might well ask for a new
device and more screen time, rather than
The next generation of Canadians look for a puppy. They will be a large, wealthy,
set to be more active than the post 1970s urban, tech-savvy generation, increasingly
generations about climate and much influenced by India and China as the most
better informed. Emulating the success of populous countries in the world.45 My hope
the Urgenda Foundation campaign in the is that this, the most connected, educated
Netherlands, for example, Environnement and informed generation ever, will think
Jeunesse, a network of young people about balance and continue to quickly
in Quebec, have applied to bring a advance the adaptations to living in a finite
class action suit against the Canadian world fought for by generations before.
government on behalf of all Quebecers They will continue to rely less and less
aged 35 and under. They are being upon knowledge brokers such as university
represented pro bono by a Montreal-based professors, libraries and politicians as
law firm and similar actions are ongoing exclusive sources of information, but they
in the US, Belgium, Norway, UK, New will still need guidance perhaps as never
Zealand, Switzerland and Colombia. The before so as to discriminate between
legal teams are linking weak climate targets powerfully entrenched myths and reality.
to legislation such as section 7 of the They will rely upon our example as citizens
Canadian federal charter which protects able to candidly self-reflect, in order to
the right to life, integrity and security of have the skills to allow them to govern
the person and to the protections that exist their data, their environment, their Canada.
under section 1 of the Quebec charter.15
Footnotes
1
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump retweeting foxandfriends 1.29PM, March 12, 2019.
2
A particular example of science viewed as being distorted by vested interests is the
influential letter published in 1980 in the New England Journal of Medicine that
suggested that addiction is rare with opioid therapy. Letter to the Editor, Jane Porter,
Hershel Jick, M.D., Boston Collaborative Drug Surveillance Program, Boston University
Medical Center, January 10, 1980, New England Journal of Medicine, 1980, 302:123.
3
With the partial exception of George H. W. Bush – see “A Worthy Heir: Donald Trump,
the Republican Party and Climate Change”, by Jean-Daniel Collomb, LISA, Vol. XVI
No. 2, 2018. Jean-Daniel Collomb, « A Worthy Heir: Donald Trump, the Republican
Party and Climate Change », Revue LISA/LISA e-journal [En ligne], vol. XVI-n°2 |
2018, mis en ligne le 24 septembre 2018, consulté le 05 avril 2019. URL : http://
journals.openedition.org/lisa/9941 The Reagan era saw the US turn away from treaties
and other international mechanisims designed to promote environmental protection.
This was mitigated somewhat during the George H.W. Bush administration which
implemented the Montreal Protocol in relation to ozone depletion, but also undermined
the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (Rio 1992).
4
“Trump’s 202 Pitch: No One Cares More About the Environment Than Me”, by Bess
Levin, Vanity Fair, 8 April 2019.
5
Francisco Sánchez-Bayo & Kris Wyckhuys, Journal of Biological Conservation, 2019
6
WWF. 2018. Living Planet Report - 2018: Aiming Higher. M. Grooten & R.E.A. Almond,
R.E.A.(Eds), WWF, Gland, Switzerland, https://wwf.panda.org/knowledge_hub/
all_publications/living_planet_report_2018/; IPBES. 2019. Summary for policymakers
of the global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services of the
Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. S.
Díaz, J. Settele, E. S. Brondizio, H. T. Ngo, M. Guèze, J. Agard, A. Arneth, P. Balvanera,
K. A. Brauman, S. H. M. Butchart, K. M. A. Chan, L. A. Garibaldi, K. Ichii, J. Liu, S. M.
Subramanian, G. F. Midgley, P. Miloslavich, Z. Molnár, D. Obura, A. Pfaff, S. Polasky, A.
Purvis, J. Razzaque, B. Reyers, R. Roy Chowdhury, Y. J. Shin, I. J. Visseren-Hamakers, K.
J. Willis & C. N. Zayas (eds.). IPBES secretariat, Bonn, Germany. https://www.ipbes.net/
global-assessment-report-biodiversity-ecosystem-services
www.ChangingClimate.ca/CCCR2019. Canada’s Changing Climate Report, Part 1, E.
7
Bush et all, Environment & Climate Change Canada, Canada in a Changing Climate:
Advancing our Knowledge for Action, 2019.
8
See “Brown to Green: The G20 Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy, 2018”,
Climate Transparency, p.12, 27. https://www.climate-transparency.org/wp-content/
uploads/2019/01/2018-BROWN-TO-GREEN-REPORT-FINAL.pdf
9
See David R. Boyd, “The Right to a Healthy Environment: A Prescription for Canada”,
Canadian Public Health Association, Sept/Oct 2015: 106(6): e353-e354 and David R.
Boyd, Cleaner, Greener, Healthier: A Prescription for Stronger Canadian Environmental
Laws and Policies, Vancouver, BC: UBC Press, 2015.
10
April L. Girard, Suzanne Day & Laureen Snider, “Tracking Environmental Crime Through
CEPA: Canada’s Environment Cops or Industry’s Best Friend? The Canadian Journal
of Sociology/Cahiers canadiens de sociologie, Vol. 35, No.2, 2010, (pp.219-241):
Quotation p.222.
11
See Christopher De Sousa, Reanne Ridsdale, Isabel Lima & Megan Easton, The State
of Brownfields in Canada: Renewing Canada’s National Brownfield Redevelopment
Strategy, No. 21, 2018, Report prepared for the Canadian Brownfields Network, p.43.
12
See Ulrich Beck, The Risk Society, London: Sage, 1992.
13
See Janine Brodie, “Three Stories of Canadian Citizenship”, pp. 43-66 in Contesting
Canadian Citizenship: Historical Readings, eds. R. Adamoski, D.E. Chunn & R. Menzies,
Toronto: Broadview Press, 2002.16 See John O’Brien, “Wild Art History”, in Beyond Wilderness: The Group of Seven, 14 Canadian Identity and Contemporary Art, eds. John O’Brien & Peter White, Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2007. Quebec, rather than Ontario, is Canada’s primary maple syrup-producing region. See 15 Ontario Forest Biomonitoring Network and Inés Ibanez, Donald R. Zak, Andrew J. Burton & Kurt S. Pregitzer, “Anthropogenic Nitrogen Deposition ameliorates the decline in tree growth caused by a drier climate”, 17 January 2018, Ecology: Ecological Society of America, Vol. 99, Issue 2, February 2018, pp. 411-420. The Proctor Maple Research Center of the University of Vermont provides further points of departure. Ella Soper & Bradley Nicholas, Greening the Maple: Canadian Ecocriticism in Context, 16 University of Calgary Press, 2013. Grey Owl (Archibald Delaney) was thought of as Ojibway, since he was fluent in the 17 language, but claimed to be half Apache. 18 Isaiah 11:6–9, King James Version. An interesting angle from which to begin to explore the Lenni-lenape treaty is Dawn G. 19 Marsh’s A Lenape Among the Quakers, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2014. See also: Amy C. Schutt, Peoples of the River Valleys: The Odyssey of the Delaware Indians (Early American Studies), University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007. Northrup Frye, The Bush Garden: Essays on the Canadian Imagination, 1971; New York: 20 House of Anansi Press, 2017, p.223, 241, 219, 222, 235-253. 21 National Resources Canada. iphones require Dysprosium, Neoymium, Praseodymium, Samarium and Terbium. 22 Max Chewinski, “Mining as Canadian Nation-Building: Contentious Citizenship 23 Regimes on the Move”, The Canadian Journal of Sociology/Cahiers canadiens de sociologie, Vol. 41, No.3 Special Issue: Canadian Mobilities/Contentious Mobilities, 2016, pp.349-374, quotation p.354. See United States Environmental Protection Agency Region 10 letter to Shane McCoy, 24 Program Manager, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1 July 2019. https://www.epa. gov/sites/production/files/2019-07/documents/epa-comments-draft-eis-pebble- project-07-01-2019.pdf 25 See http://www.utbb.org/our-work. See Daniel E. Schindler, Ray Hilborn, Brandon Chasco, Christopher P. Boatright, Thomas 26 P. Quinn, Lauren A. Rogers & Michael S. Webster, ‘Population Diversity and the Portfolio Effect in an Exploited Species”, Nature, 465, 2010: 609-612. This analogy was used by then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in an address to the 27 National Press Club, Washington, D.C., March 1969. “Canada’s Actions on Climate Change”, Environment Canada, www.climatechange. 28 gc.ca Miranda A. Schreurs, “Federalism and the Climate: Canada and the European Union”, 29 International Journal, Vol. 66, No.1 Winter 2010-11, pp.91-108. Quotation p. 107. Andrew Fenton Cooper & J. Stefan Fritz, “Bringing the NGOs in: UNCED and Canada’s 30 International Environment Policy, International Journal, Vol. 47, No.4, Autumn, 1992, pp.796-817, quotation p.808. National Resources Canada, Statistics Canada, 2016 Census. 31 See Edward A. Parson, “Environmental Trends and Environmental Governance in 32 Canada”, Canadian Public Policy/Analyse de Politiques, Vol. 26, Supplement: The Trends Project, Aug. 2000, pp.S123-S143, Quotation p.S139. See #TrackingTransMountain, a database on Indigenous consultation for the pipeline project. 33 Sheila Watt-Cloutier, The Right to Be Cold: One Woman’s Fight to Protect the Arctic 34 and Save the Planet from Climate Change, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2018; London: Allen Lane, 2015, p. 134, 142. Ozzie Zehner, Green Illusions: The Dirty Secrets of Clean Energy and the Future of 35 Environmentalism, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2012.
17 William Stanley Jevons, The Coal Question: An Inquiry Concerning the Progress of the 36 Nation and the Probable Exhaustion of Our Coal-Mines, London: MacMillan & Co., 1865. James Speth, The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and 37 Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008; America the Possible: Manifesto for a New Economy, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012. Sarah Conly, One Child: Do We Have A Right To More?, Oxford: Oxford University 38 Press, 2016. George H.W. Bush was interested in population reduction prior to running for president, an interest that linked back to interests of his father Prescott S. Bush. See George H.W. Bush, “George Bush on Population: An Early Statement”, Population and Development Review, Vol. 14, No.4, Dec. 1988, pp. 751-753. Zehner’s stress on current possibilities for “slowing the aging process” is the subject 39 of much debate by gerontologists. See L.A. Gavrilov & N.S. Gavrilova, “Is Aging A Disease? Biodemographers’ Point of View”, Advanced Gerontology, 2017; 30(6):841- 842; Ozzie Zehner, Green Illusions: The Dirty Secrets of Clean Energy and the Future of Environmentalism, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2012, p. 200. Donella H. Meadows, Dennis L. Meadows, Jorgen Randers & William W. Behrens III, 40 Limits to Growth, 1972; Lynn White, Jr, “The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis”, Science, 10 March 1967, Vol. 155, No.3767: 1203-1207. See also Paul R. Ehrlich, The Population Bomb, Sierra Club/Balantine Books, 1968; Donella Meadows, Jorgen Randers and Dennis Meadows, Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update, White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2004; Jorgen Randers, 2052: A Global Forecast for the Next Forty Years, White Rover Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2012. E. F. Schumacher, Small Is Beautiful: Economics As If People Mattered, London: Blood & 41 Briggs, 1973. See Meg Jacobs, Panic at the Pump: The Energy Crisis and the Transformation of 42 American Politics in the 1970s, New York: Hill & Wang, 2016. See Matthieu De Clerq, Anshu Vats & Alvaro Biel, “Agriculture 4.0: The Future of 43 Farming Technology”, World Government Summit, February, 2018. See Seth Wynes and Kimberly A. Nicholas, “The Climate Mitigation Gap: Education 44 and Government Recommendations Miss the Most Effective Individual Actions”, 2017 Environmental Research Letters. Vol. 12 074024 See Mark McCrindle, The ABC of XYZ, Bella Vista NSW: McCrindle Research Pty Ltd, 2014. 45
18
ECCLES CENTRE FOR AMERICAN STUDIES PLENARY LECTURES AT THE BRITISH
ASSOCIATION FOR CANADIAN STUDIES ANNUAL CONFERENCE
2006 Abenaki People from Where the Sun Rises by Alanis Obomsawin
(unpublished presentation)
2007 Hunting, Shooting and Phishing: New Cybercrime Challenges for
CyberCanadians in the 21st Century, by David S Wall
2008 Governance, Globalization and Unruly Populations : Governing the Aboriginal
Cross-Border Economy in Canada, by Jane Gilmore-Dickson
2009 Mouthy Enemies: Canadian Writers and the Power of Being, Belonging and
Celebrity, by Heidi Slettedahl Macpherson
2010 Citizen Reader: Canadian Literature, Mass Reading Events and the Promise of
Belonging, by Danielle Fuller
2011 Insecurity in Canada’s Past: James Douglas Keeps the Peace on Vancouver
Island, by Stephen A Royle
2012 Wilderness / Sophistication, by Faye Hammill
2013 From Cannon to Canons: Writing the Literary History of Francophone Canada,
by Rosemary Chapman
2014 Parrots, Pasta and the Politics of Language: Making the Ethical Case for
Language Policy in Quebec, by Leigh Oakes
2015 Diverging Parallels: Canadian Literature and the Canada-US Border,
by Gillian Roberts
2016 Writing, Talking and Walking Québec’s Eastern Townships, by Ceri Morgan
2017 Margaret Atwood in Conversation with Coral Ann Howells
2018 Canada and the Great War, by Margaret Macmillan
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