Blog

Blog posts by Seth Klein

Photo credit: Erin Flegg

Photo credit: Erin Flegg

For a full listing of Seth’s past CCPA-BC blog posts visit Policy Note.


Posts in climate policy
Canada must adopt an emergency mindset to climate change

Since releasing my book, I have frequently been asked, “How do you know when a government gets the emergency?” Here are my four markers for when you know that a government has shifted into emergency mode:

1) It spends what it takes to win;

2) It creates new economic institutions to get the job done;

3) It shifts from voluntary and incentive-based policies to mandatory measures;

4) It tells the truth about the severity of the crisis and communicates a sense of urgency about the measures necessary to combat it.

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As we emerge from one crisis and confront the next, let youth lead, serve and vote

As the young people in our society come to the end of a school year unlike any before, and those in their teens and early 20s in particular wrestle with what the coming year or two will look like, Canada’s Second World War story has some useful guidance to offer. In the Second World War, over one million Canadians enlisted for military service, a remarkable level of participation, particularly given what those who signed up were prepared to sacrifice. Of the hundreds of thousands of Canadians who went to fight overseas, from all corners of the country and many ethnic backgrounds, the overriding characteristic most had in common was their youth. The good news for today is that the crises we must confront call upon us to help and to heal – both society and the planet – rather than to fight and kill.

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