The electoral campaign is gradually approaching the home stretch. And, if we are to believe the opinion polls, a majority of Quebecers are considering turning to “climate-wait-and-see” parties on October 3. However, in the face of climate change, nothing justifies subscribing to half-measures which only prolong the climate-skepticism of yesterday’s incredulous people and the climate-negationism of today’s extremists.
The recommendations of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are nevertheless final. For more than 30 years, scientists have taken turns to reaffirm the urgency of intervening. We know that global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are going to have to stop rising by 2025 and then halve by 2030 from 2019 levels such that the average rise in temperature n does not exceed 1.5°C. It is therefore urgent to act, but a CAQ government renewed for four years will not make it possible to participate in the achievement of these targets.
Now, environmental disorders are upon us and, even if the impacts will be very unequal, we now see that no one will be spared. It is no longer a question, as certain cynics could still believe recently, of minimizing the consequences of climate upheavals by believing them to be confined to a few poor countries of the South. Our European “neighbours” have indeed experienced a summer season of unprecedented droughts and fires. In short, reality is catching up with us: we belong to interrelated ecosystems, from which we cannot extract ourselves, and cannot believe ourselves immune.
Need we remind you again, Quebec will be hit by more heat waves and intense precipitation (like what the metropolitan region has recently experienced), by the erosion of the banks, by the melting of the permafrost, etc. Even if the Paris Agreement were respected (which seems less and less likely), the sea level will rise by several tens of centimeters and will impact the shores of the St. Lawrence all the way inland. Climate change is underway, only its strength is still uncertain, and therefore no community will be spared.
Quebec must provide its share of efforts
We cannot give up and resign ourselves to despair and inaction, because the sites before us are colossal. Canada, dependent on Western fossil fuels, cannot be the vehicle for our transition. However, Quebec is not entirely blameless: presented as the good students of North America, Quebecers nevertheless have a per capita carbon footprint much higher than the vast majority of the inhabitants of other countries. This is why we call for major political changes.
In addition to having to engage in the fight against climate change and reduce greenhouse gases, Quebec will indeed have to develop a massive plan to ensure the adaptation and resilience of its populations. It is urgent to re-endow ourselves with a strong, ambitious welfare state that will be able to trigger the ecological transition. To do this, the solutions are known. We must, without delay, stop engaging in senseless projects such as the third link, because, even if the car of tomorrow were 100% electric, the environmental costs of urban sprawl are well known.
Above all, the Quebec state has the responsibility of directing all the production chains, all the services, all the living forces, and this, for the benefit of the invention of a collective future in which growth as we understand it today can no longer be our horizon. It will certainly not be easy, but it is imperative.
The climate issue is an additional challenge for the Quebec nation. Half a century ago, the Quebec of the Quiet Revolution was able to meet major challenges to regain control of certain levers of its economic, social and cultural development. Our history has shown us that we can meet major challenges by using our gray matter, the most renewable of our raw materials.
Made up of national, individual and collective emancipation, a new revolution, ecological this one, is essential. This revolution is not a question of ideological preference, it is a necessity for the preservation of Quebec and nations in the world. The separatist parties are those that have best taken on the scale of the climate challenge. So let’s rise to the occasion. We call on the people of Quebec to support them in order to initiate the necessary ecological transition, to ensure that our past cultural battles have not been in vain.