Read and Write

Today I received an email from Divya Arora, Ontario Community Organizer of the David Suzuki Foundation. Here is an excerpt. Read.

"The Independent Electricity Systems Operator currently plans to increase natural gas usage from six to 24 per cent of the province’s electricity supply. If that happens, Ontario’s emissions will increase by 500 per cent by 2040. The IESO is now soliciting feedback from Ontarians about phasing out natural gas. This is your chance to let the IESO know you want a climate-safe future for our province and the planet."

Here is what I wrote.

I am a retired science teacher. I pay attention to evidence, and I am impatient with privileged whining. Here is what I think of your plan to burn more natural gas.

We are addicted to fossil fuels and gambling that the world won't come undone. We won't break our habit by burning more natural gas. We will stop burning fossil fuels, either by choice or because of the destructive consequences of our actions. We are already up to our knees in consequences.

Your mandate is to get us off carbon, not to keep us happy while the biosphere collapses.

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According to Mark Carney in his recent book "Value(s): Building a Better World for All" * , values which inform the choices of individuals are overwhelmed by VALUE, the profit motive, in corporations and government. Those who make decisions at that level are guided by a different set of values. They earn their substantial incomes (see report for Alectra) by prioritizing immediate gains. They think what we want is more stuff cheaper now. Maybe we want a better future for the children and are willing to pay for it. We should tell them. Their performance bonuses should reflect our values.

Individually we can reduce our fossil fuel dependence, in part by going electric. If our electricity comes from burning fossil fuels, the effectiveness of those choices will be reduced. So we have to ensure that corporations and government do their part and make choices taking into account our values. Otherwise, local and immediate VALUE will win over the future viability of life on the planet. 

Letter writing can change the conversation at the corporate level. It is encouraging that the IESO wants to know what we think. I have saved the letter from the David Suzuki Foundation that invited and facilitated a response. Let me know soon if you are interested and I will forward it to you. 

If you aren't living in Ontario, or if you are reading this long after March 8 2022, I am sure that there are similar issues that would be managed better if those responsible for making choices heard your voice. 

Write.

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*This isn't a book review with a recommendation. I am finding Mark Carney's book a challenging read. Good premise. But enter at your own risk. 

Phasing out gas generation by 2030 would lead to blackouts, higher bills in Ontario: IESO: Allison Jones, The Canadian Press, Global News, October 7, 2021

Ontario's Increasing Reliance on Natural Gas: Adam Radwanski, Globe and Mail, June 11, 2021

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P.S.

I have done more reading on the future of natural gas. That doesn't make me an expert. The experts draw conclusions based on years of training, detailed knowledge of the way things are and informed guesses about the future with estimates of probability. It appears that guesses about the future have proven optimistic so far. 

Here is a review of the most recent report of the IPCC. Can We Survive: video by Dave Borlace, March 6, 2022

After we have made our best guess of what's coming, we need to plan and act. That means weighing cost to us here today against the benefit to the entire globe in an uncertain future. It is impossible to say what judgment is right because values are personal states of mind based on instinct, experience, culture and emotion. However, I suspect, human nature being what it is, that we overvalue the cost here and now to ourselves and undervalue an uncertain future global benefit to people and other species to whom we have no compelling attachment. As a result, we are going to make decisions that return the biosphere to the care of a few primitive species of bacteria and jellyfish which can adapt to changes more readily than we clever humans can do. 

I choose to value the future.