Blog # 3 The Two Most Bitter Pills To Swallow! 
                adapting to the climate crisis long emergency.
            
I had no idea how to start this blog until reading the Examiner local newspaper of July 16th, 2021  LETTERS TO THE EDITOR by Fiona Campbell titled Nothing is more Important than empathy.  Fiona’s article expressed her gratitude for receiving her second vaccine shot against the corona virus. 
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Reading Fiona’s article came after I had set aside two previous troubling articles from the same newspaper. The first in the July 14th publication titled Taking the next steps to a better world written by Shaelyn Wabegijng representing KWIC and the local Green Up sustainability organization, which is funded partially and indirectly by the City of Peterborough working together on a project funded by the United Nations. This article carried the subtitle Sustainable Development Goals are key to improving our future. The third article published July 15th was written by Andy Mitchell, Mayor of Selwyn Township, one of the four local townships that make up the Peterborough Community CMA along with our two local First Nations and the City of Peterborough itself. The title of his article was  Canada can build back better with the COVID pandemic under control. This article contained a whole series of political posturing ideas on E for equity issues with no new plans to accomplish and certainly no assessment of where the money would come from or how these ideas would help bend the GHG emissions curve downward. 
   
I personally liked Fiona’s article the best. It was from the heart! The other two articles overlook lots of stuff that they surely know about that we simply can’t afford to overlook much longer. I don’t know Fiona personally and have never met her or heard of her before.  She was so overwhelmed with emotion that got her thinking….”that while we were all impacted by the pandemic our experience is not universal. And how there is much to be gained by cultivating empathy during this re-emergence.”  In her article she gives many examples, one of which as quoted “Some saved thousands of dollars by not eating out or traveling: others are still struggling to get by living paycheck to paycheck. ” Her article finished with this. ” Empathy, kindness and understanding are the key to paving a way for a new … even better …normal.”
The common thread to all three articles is that they are all suggestive of something better…. if we implement Sustainable Development Goals…if Canada builds back better …if we have empathy and kindness as the key to paving a way for a new even better normal. All three sets of ideas are presented without specific plans, that are funded and implementable with a timeline suggestive of some sense of urgency with respect to the climate crisis long emergency. In my life experience all are unobtainable happiness diversions from addressing the real problems…albeit one with sincerity the other two politically driven.
The first of the bitter pills that must be swallowed very quickly by all of us is that Sustainable Development Goals have always been unobtainable because sustainable development itself has long since been hijacked and green washed by Central Banks, Big Oil, Big Tech and the global FIRE Economy (Finance Insurance and Real Estate) giving cover to the continued pursuit of economic growth which is now well documented as the root cause of rising GHG emissions. The Sustainable Development goals as alluded to are non-starters without consideration and integration with the E for Energy impact and E for Economic Impact that drive our very existence.
The United Nations is complicit with its funding coming mostly from the richest western nations that rely on economic growth for their survival. The UN keeps the Sustainable Development myth in place to pacify its funders and to at least remain as the last resort organization for global sanity on the Climate Crisis front. The G-7 and G-20 are committed to global economic growth. Both organizations are led by the USA and include Canada. The United Nations, the G-7 and G-20 are all engaged in a game of roulette against humanity setting net zero GHG emissions targets to 2050 with no recourse for non compliance and no recorded reductions in GHG emissions other than during the Great Recession of 2008/2009, and during the current corona virus pandemic when in both cases global economic growth declined. China, the #2 GHG emitter in the world after the USA, is at least honest enough to admit that it will not be able to meet its commitment for net zero carbon emissions until 2060.
  
We the people of the free world must lead our governments and swallow the pill that kills the idea of  Sustainable Development that continues to provide the cover for economic growth fired by the very fossil fuels that are driving rising GHG emissions, and that are responsible for the climate crisis long emergency. We have to get off this merry-go-round and seek viable solutions. China is telling the world precisely that.
Just as the Sustainable Development myth and oxymoron was beginning to fade with the support of some vey well established Think Tanks and persevering transitioners around the world, an even more powerful idea that we can build back better and reduce GHG emissions at the same time has emerged to replace it.
The idea was created as a campaign slogan for the Biden US presidential campaign to gain the support of the folks on the far left of the democratic party.
As I outlined in my first blog Lets Get Real! posted on my website, President Biden made it clear from the beginning that his plans backing up his Build Back Better slogan were all about increasing economic growth and creating more good paying jobs that would allow the US to meet its United  Nations commitments on the way to net zero GHG emissions by 2050.
With full knowledge of the declining availability of energy to fire the real economy, and the greater demand from Big Tech for 5G , The Internet of Things, crypto currencies and the recreational exploration of space by the billionaire class, those in the know about E for Energy and E for economy know that there will be a declining amount of available energy for 99% of us on the planet needed to secure our futures.
  
Notwithstanding these realities, the world after the Trump presidency and the pandemic is desperate for an upbeat good news story originated by a good guy like President Biden.  He had no difficulty selling the slogan to all the members of the G-7 and it has certainly migrated to Mayor Andy Mitchell, the local  KWIC and Green Up organizations, and even Fiona Campbell representing the average Josephine and Joe on the planet decidedly overcome with gratitude for their own good fortune and empathy for those who aren’t so fortunate.
This new Build Back Better slogan supporting the idea that we can keep our economy going with economic growth, switch to renewable energy and make things better for everyone is simply not possible.  We need to swallow the bitter pill that building back better will increase GHG emissions not decrease them, resulting in ever-increasing tragedies for many of us while we navigate life within the climate crisis long emergency.
To check out how we can adapt as individuals and communities and celebrate life within the Climate Crisis Long Emergency… click on to my web site at www.fredirwinauthor.com
read my Blogs #1 an#2 and purchase my book NOW IS THE TIME! 
PS Quoting Chancellor Merkel touring the “surreal”  flood devastation in Germany last week  “We must get faster in the battle against Climate Change…. to cut the greenhouse gas emissions…and nevertheless, the second lesson is that we must pay great attention to adaptation to Climate Change.”
What if we could do them both at the same time… ie reduce emissions and adapt to the new realities ..that’s the mission of Transition Towns all over the world.
“from oil dependence to local resilience ”
Fred Irwin
Founding Director
Transition Town Perterborough

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