{"id":74737,"date":"2019-09-17T07:05:48","date_gmt":"2019-09-17T11:05:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huntsville.dopperonline.ca\/?p=74737"},"modified":"2021-01-29T08:05:38","modified_gmt":"2021-01-29T13:05:38","slug":"if-we-do-nothing-about-climate-change-we-will-just-have-to-sit-back-and-ride-this-one-out-to-the-catastrophic-end-gord-miller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/if-we-do-nothing-about-climate-change-we-will-just-have-to-sit-back-and-ride-this-one-out-to-the-catastrophic-end-gord-miller\/","title":{"rendered":"If we do nothing about climate change, ‘we will just have to sit back and ride this one out to the catastrophic end’: Gord Miller"},"content":{"rendered":"
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PARRY SOUND-MUSKOKA FEDERAL ELECTION 2019<\/strong><\/h5>\n

An estimated 65 people gathered at the Active Living Centre in Huntsville on Sunday evening to listen to members of the Green Party<\/a><\/span> talk about the importance of the upcoming federal election.<\/p>\n

Green Party of Ontario leader, and the first Green Member of Provincial Parliament, Mike Schreiner, and former Parry Sound-Muskoka Green provincial candidate, Matt Richter, urged those present to elect a Green Member of Parliament to represent this riding in Ottawa.<\/p>\n

Climate change is real: Miller<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gord Miller, the Green federal candidate running for the Parry Sound-Muskoka riding, was the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario for 15 years and told those present that this election, unlike any other, is urgent because climate change is real.<\/p>\n

He said while the Green platform is comprehensive and fully costed, climate change remains the pressing issue that frames everything else, and time is running out.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere are some things you have to know about the climate emergency. There are some things that have to be clear. It comes down to three words: real, serious and urgent,\u201d said Miller. “The climate urgency is the dominating factor, it frames all the other stuff… it is the dominant issue of our time.”<\/p>\n

Global impacts<\/strong><\/p>\n

He spoke of flooding in Huntsville and Bracebridge, forest fires in Parry Sound and Northern Ontario, and reminded those present to also look at the big picture. \u201cIt\u2019s not just fires and floods in Huntsville and Bracebridge and Parry Sound, there\u2019s massive fires in the Amazon, in Madagascar, in the Congo, through Africa. There\u2019s massive fires going on throughout the world\u2026 these fires are occurring in rainforests, think about that,\u201d he told those present. \u201cThat\u2019s a really wet forest that doesn\u2019t normally burn.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said climate change is profoundly impacting the planet. He spoke of thousands of people dying from heat exposure due to heatwaves in Europe, in the Middle East, and Asia \u201cwhere the temperature is getting intolerable for long periods of time. This is reality. This is happening now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miller referred to findings by the science-based North American Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that tracked temperatures in July 2019 as being the hottest on record.<\/p>\n

He spoke of hurricane Dorian and said while many may argue that you can\u2019t blame a hurricane on climate change, \u201cthat hurricane, which devastated the Bahamas, was fed by the hottest water in the Caribbean that\u2019s ever been recorded.\u201d Water levels are rising and causing unprecedented flooding.<\/p>\n

The Atlantic Ocean has had five category five hurricanes in the past four years, compared to 35 in the last one hundred years, said Miller. \u201cSo the reality is the world has changed. It is real, it is something we are experiencing now, and it\u2019s serious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miller said 80 per cent of the Great Barrier Reef is dead as a result of climate change. Sockeye Salmon fisheries in Alaska are collapsing because rivers and streams are too warm. He said the centre of the United States, the breadbasket of North America, has had long periods of heavy rains which have impacted the production of food. \u201cAs a result, in that breadbasket, that centre of the earth where they grow all that grain, 19 million acres were not planted this year\u2026 those are profound changes that economically, and socially affect and threaten our very existence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Insurance companies are increasingly backing out of providing coverage to areas impacted by flooding. \u201cThere are portions of the City of Toronto that are so prone to storm sewer back-ups and flooding that you can\u2019t get home insurance. If you can\u2019t get insurance, you can\u2019t do business. If you can\u2019t get insurance, you can\u2019t get a mortgage. If you can\u2019t get a mortgage, you can\u2019t sell your home\u2026 it threatens the very economic structure of where we live,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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Canada’s commitment<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe countries of the world got together in 1992 and they signed an agreement,\u201d Miller said, referring to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. \u201cAnd for 26 years they\u2019ve been meeting,\u201d he said. \u201cElizabeth May has been to every single one. I think that she\u2019s the only person on earth that\u2019s been to every one.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2015, when the nations met in Paris, an agreement was signed after 20 years of negotiations, said Miller, in which an agreement was made to keep the increase in global average temperatures well below two degrees Celcius (above pre-industrial levels), and to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius in order to substantialy reduce the risks and effects of climate change. \u201cAnd 197 nations signed that agreement, including the United States, including China\u2026 to this day, 185 nations have ratified [it].\u201d<\/p>\n

Time is running out<\/strong><\/p>\n

He said Canada has 11 years to honour its commitment to lower its greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent, below 2005 levels. \u201cBy 2050 the world is supposed to be neutral on carbon emissions. That means no internal combustion engines or if there are, they have to be mechanisms that trap carbon, capture carbon\u2026 this is a serious business, it\u2019s serious and it\u2019s urgent because the timelines are so incredibly short\u2026 and what have we done? Just about nothing,\u201d he told those present.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to get off fossil fuel, I know it\u2019s not easy, but we have to do it.” Miller said it would require a major societal transformation \u2013 but it wouldn\u2019t be the first time. \u201cWe turned the entire North American economy into a war machine. They didn\u2019t make any cars and they didn\u2019t make any refrigerators. We didn\u2019t make any stoves or appliances\u2026 we transformed the entire economy of North America in two years, in 1943.\u201d<\/p>\n

While war is not what Miller had in mind, he did note that social and economic transformations are possible when faced with adversity, like climate change. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYou think we can\u2019t solve this problem? We can\u2019t transform our economy? Of course, we can. It\u2019s entirely possible, you just have to have the will and we have to have a will in Parliament,\u201d said Miller, who admittedly is not from the riding. He\u2019s building a house in Bracebridge and said he’s applying for the job to become this area’s Member of Parliament because he has the will and experience.<\/p>\n

Greens need a voice at the table<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Parliament that sits between 2019 and 2023 has to change the way this country is operating or there is no hope for us in 2050, and we will just have to sit back and ride this one out to the catastrophic end.\u201d He said working together to solve the crisis is achievable. “But it’s only achievable if we change the composition of Parliament and we put Green members who know how Parliament works in Parliament to make sure this change begins to happen.”<\/p>\n

You can find out more about Miller at this link.<\/span> Below: Miller talking to those gathered at the Active Living Centre on Sunday.<\/p>\n