The Best Gift Is The One You Need
Editorial by Fred Larsen – Special to SUNonline/Orillia
This year, give the “Best Christmas Gift Ever”
The Christmas season is traditionally a time for consumers to buy, buy, buy. This Christmas, however, is a wonderful opportunity to re-think how we will celebrate the season, and how we can each do our part in the transition to a net-zero lifestyle and economy. Two things—one local and one international—suggest now is the time for re-evaluating the way each of us lives.
The local nudge is Orillia’s Climate Future—the city of Orillia’s climate action plan, adopted by the City in 2022 and now in the process of implementation. The goals set therein start as early as 2025, with major targets set to be accomplished by 2040. The document describes a pathway to, “transform the energy system.”
The report notes: “A low-carbon Orillia is a better city. Homes that are properly insulated and use heat pumps for heating and cooling are more comfortable and more affordable to run. Swapping gas- and diesel-powered vehicles for electric vehicles reduces air pollution, which results in less asthma in children and less COPD and other chronic diseases in the elderly. Additionally, increased walking, biking, and transit improves fitness, increases social interactions, and results in a more vibrant community”
Our city’s goals should be our personal goals, because it will take community effort to reach the set targets.
The second thing that should motivate us is the 2023 UN Climate Change Conference – COP 28 convening November 30 to December 12 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
- Fast-tracking the energy transition and slashing emissions before 2030;
- Transforming climate finance, by delivering on old promises and setting the framework for a new deal on finance;
- Putting nature, people, lives, and livelihoods at the heart of climate action; and
- Mobilizing for the most inclusive COP ever.
The first of these, fast-tracking the energy transition, means being more aggressive and doing more – more and faster – in order to slash emissions. What Canada and other nations are now doing is not enough.
There is urgency to this climate conference. For the past eight years, since 2015’s Paris Agreement, the world community agreed, “To prevent worsening and potentially irreversible effects of climate change, the world’s average temperature should not exceed that of pre-industrial times by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius.”
It appears, however, the lack of action to date by national and state or provincial governments—including Canada’s—means a much higher rise in temperature is likely. As Climate Tracker notes, “Current policies presently in place around the world are projected to result in about 2.7° C warming above pre-industrial levels. (Promised actions by nations) will limit warming to 2.4° C. When binding long-term or net-zero targets are included warming would be limited to about 2° C above pre-industrial levels.”
While this increase from 1.5 degrees to 2 degrees does not sound alarming, the increase will mean wilder weather in future: more torrential storms, stronger hurricanes, more tornadoes, more droughts and wildfires, and conversely, more widespread flooding, not to mention the rise of seas will endanger coastline communities worldwide. In other words, more destruction and more impact on people everywhere—including right here in Orillia.
Sustainable Orillia is therefore suggesting that in 2023 the best Christmas present we can give each other and the future is a commitment to making the changes needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In other words a commitment to keep the world as safe as we can for those who will be living in 2100 and beyond – our children and their grandchildren.
This gift to the future will involve meeting with family or a group of friends and discussing the many changes we need to make: electrifying our homes and our economy, reducing our energy use by preventing heat loss from our buildings, choosing our foods more carefully and using them less wastefully, choosing transit or active transportation as much as possible. It means adapting to a lifestyle that will reduce carbon emissions every day. Start planning your next step. Set a timeline. Involve family and friends.
Those family meetings and gatherings of friends also must include a decision to speak up, to demand our political leaders show that they understand that Christmas 2023 is the time for us all to give the best Christmas present ever – a commitment to the people of the future. Further delay cannot be an option, not anymore. By raising our voices, we can ensure that this Christmas message is loud and clear.
When in our past have we had the opportunity to give a Christmas present to eight billion people? It’s not cliché this time. This will be the gift that keeps on giving. Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah. A joyful Kwanzaa, however you choose to celebrate the season, enjoy the festive holiday season this December.
(Images Supplied)
