Opinion by Stephen Cohen, Special to Montreal Gazette
• Yesterday 9:13 a.m.
At last month's Earth Day rally in Montreal, this protester's message — fear for the future — reflected a common sentiment among young people, writes Vanier College professor Stephen Cohen.
At last month's Earth Day rally in Montreal, this protester's message — fear for the future — reflected a common sentiment among young people, writes Vanier College professor Stephen Cohen.
© Provided by The Gazette
The recent Synthesis Report at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change painted a grim picture, but it surprised no one who has been paying attention. Will it be possible to engineer our way out of global warming using advanced technology? Well, no.
We will not be capable of controlling our planet with science for the foreseeable future. If we wish to have a foreseeable future, we need to model our behaviour after civilizations that have lived in harmony with the sustaining features of Earth for hundreds of years: namely, Indigenous people. This does not mean we must abandon science and technology. It simply means we must refocus it.
We must rethink our socio-political and economic systems; they must have sustainability sewn into their fabric. This echoes the federal government’s April report: What We Heard: Perspectives on Climate Change and Public Health Canada. In a finite system, growth is madness. Perpetual growth is suicide.
The recent Synthesis Report at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change painted a grim picture, but it surprised no one who has been paying attention. Will it be possible to engineer our way out of global warming using advanced technology? Well, no.
We will not be capable of controlling our planet with science for the foreseeable future. If we wish to have a foreseeable future, we need to model our behaviour after civilizations that have lived in harmony with the sustaining features of Earth for hundreds of years: namely, Indigenous people. This does not mean we must abandon science and technology. It simply means we must refocus it.
We must rethink our socio-political and economic systems; they must have sustainability sewn into their fabric. This echoes the federal government’s April report: What We Heard: Perspectives on Climate Change and Public Health Canada. In a finite system, growth is madness. Perpetual growth is suicide.
Recently, a physics colleague at Vanier College taught a sustainability course. The experience left him disheartened because the students did not believe humanity had the wherewithal to change. They lacked faith in our species, and who can blame them? In their lifetimes, we have taken as many steps back as we have forward.
I understand my colleague’s sadness. As a teacher, I know the students’ morale is our morale. And frankly, if today’s young people have thrown in the towel, we are indeed a lost species.
One shining light has been our response to a very different existential crisis: COVID-19. We saw a threat, and pivoted. It was not pretty, and not without hardship, but as a species confronting a dangerous threat, we made sweeping changes to adapt to the situation, for better or worse.
Perhaps you have heard of the frog-in-the-pot analogy. In March 2020, we were frogs dropped into a pot of boiling water. Like frogs might, we managed to escape, albeit with burns.
Our current situation, where the problem of our finite resources is being exacerbated, represents a different threat. In this one, we are frogs in warm water that is getting warmer. It will eventually boil. In this scenario, a frog would likely meet its demise. It would not instinctively react and jump out of the pot.
But we have an advantage over the frog. We have tools, like thermometers, and we understand the reasons for the warming of the water. We can forecast, with limited but reasonable accuracy, the rate of warming that will occur if conditions go unchanged. Armed with this, we can be smarter than a frog. We can evolve our thinking, act responsibly, and earn the right to wield the powerful tools that science has unleashed.
It is essential that we react to our biosphere crisis with the same resolve as we did the pandemic. But a sweeping response will happen only if a critical mass of people at all levels of society truly understand the severity of the situation. The solutions to this threat are less scientifically complex than engineering a vaccine. We just need to learn to get out of the way. We need to exist within nature rather than attempt to manipulate it. It is less about new science than it is about smart design.
Perpetual growth of a species is impossible in a system with finite resources. One way or another, our population will plateau and then decline at some point this century. But how will that journey look? Will the descent entail pain and hardship? Will it end at zero? Or will we allow Earth’s natural mechanisms to stabilize before it is too late?
Will today’s children come to know a world whose balance has been restored? Countless humans today have not given up. Please be one of them.
Stephen Cohen teaches physics at Vanier College. His first book, Getting Physics: Nature’s Laws as a Guide to Life, was published this year.
I understand my colleague’s sadness. As a teacher, I know the students’ morale is our morale. And frankly, if today’s young people have thrown in the towel, we are indeed a lost species.
One shining light has been our response to a very different existential crisis: COVID-19. We saw a threat, and pivoted. It was not pretty, and not without hardship, but as a species confronting a dangerous threat, we made sweeping changes to adapt to the situation, for better or worse.
Perhaps you have heard of the frog-in-the-pot analogy. In March 2020, we were frogs dropped into a pot of boiling water. Like frogs might, we managed to escape, albeit with burns.
Our current situation, where the problem of our finite resources is being exacerbated, represents a different threat. In this one, we are frogs in warm water that is getting warmer. It will eventually boil. In this scenario, a frog would likely meet its demise. It would not instinctively react and jump out of the pot.
But we have an advantage over the frog. We have tools, like thermometers, and we understand the reasons for the warming of the water. We can forecast, with limited but reasonable accuracy, the rate of warming that will occur if conditions go unchanged. Armed with this, we can be smarter than a frog. We can evolve our thinking, act responsibly, and earn the right to wield the powerful tools that science has unleashed.
It is essential that we react to our biosphere crisis with the same resolve as we did the pandemic. But a sweeping response will happen only if a critical mass of people at all levels of society truly understand the severity of the situation. The solutions to this threat are less scientifically complex than engineering a vaccine. We just need to learn to get out of the way. We need to exist within nature rather than attempt to manipulate it. It is less about new science than it is about smart design.
Perpetual growth of a species is impossible in a system with finite resources. One way or another, our population will plateau and then decline at some point this century. But how will that journey look? Will the descent entail pain and hardship? Will it end at zero? Or will we allow Earth’s natural mechanisms to stabilize before it is too late?
Will today’s children come to know a world whose balance has been restored? Countless humans today have not given up. Please be one of them.
Stephen Cohen teaches physics at Vanier College. His first book, Getting Physics: Nature’s Laws as a Guide to Life, was published this year.
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