{"id":5768,"date":"2018-11-02T20:44:18","date_gmt":"2018-11-03T00:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/?p=5768"},"modified":"2019-11-06T03:28:24","modified_gmt":"2019-11-06T08:28:24","slug":"finding-peace-in-a-time-of-despair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/story\/5768\/finding-peace-in-a-time-of-despair\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding peace in a time of despair"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have a confession. I\u2019ve been really <\/i><\/strong>low these past weeks.<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t been able to shake a terrible cough. There\u2019s just so much to feel sick about. The Kavanagh hearings in the US, the climate denier in the White House, Doug Ford and other provincial leaders rolling back on climate action\u2026 And then the mother of all bad news: the latest report<\/a> from 91 of the world\u2019s scientists on climate change. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

This UN report is nothing short of terrifying.<\/strong> The scientific community have pushed the panic button, revealing what 1.5 degrees of global warming (beyond pre-industrial levels) would likely mean. Widespread heatwaves and fires across the northern hemisphere. The loss of most of the ocean\u2019s coral reefs. Prolonged droughts and famines. Increased conflict. Literally millions of people losing their livelihoods, their future, their lives. <\/span><\/p>\n

And all this climate chaos will really unfold between 2030-2050. That\u2019s just around the corner. This tragic, stoppable genocide will likely unfold in our <\/strong><\/span>lifetime<\/i><\/strong>.<\/strong> The heartbreak and despair of all this presses hard on my chest. Perhaps yours too.<\/span><\/p>\n

So what\u2019s the answer to this wicked problem? There is no silver bullet. Instead we need multiple solutions\u2026<\/strong> A shift to a new economy and a new way of living not based on endless consumption. Policies to move to renewables, a price on pollution, support to workers in transition, corporate leaders to drive the shift to a circular economy, technical innovations, letting women and Indigenous people lead, new belief systems, and transformed relationships with each other and nature. <\/span><\/p>\n

As a Greenpeace supporter, I know you\u2019re not sleepwalking into climate chaos.<\/strong> We\u2019re all doing our part. Individually we\u2019re driving less, flying less, eating less meat, divesting from fossil fuels and pipelines and getting out to marches, sending letters and petitions and all the other ways to get our leaders and society to wake up. But it can\u2019t just be up to us individually \u2013 we need to tackle the root causes, together. <\/span><\/p>\n

As Greenpeace, we will intensify our efforts:<\/strong> to make the polluters pay for pollution, to phase out the tar sands as quickly as possible, to end coal in China and India, to protect the carbon rich Boreal forest, to save the Arctic from oil exploration and to build the people power needed to truly bring about systems change. <\/span><\/p>\n

One thing is clear. \u00a0We are all in this together. We are all part of a living universe. Not only are we interdependent as human societies, the fate of mother earth is our fate.<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s hang in there together.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Joanna Kerr<\/p>\n

Executive Director, Greenpeace Canada<\/p>\n

P.S.\u00a0Of course there are things that we can all do right this minute. Here are just three: <\/span><\/p>\n