A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency

by Seth Klein

Overview

The World has Just Ten Years to at least halve our green-house gas emissions if we are to have a hope of holding global warming to a 1.5°C increase. Currently, Canada is not on a path to meet its greenhouse gas reduction targets, and radical systemic change to the way we live and work must happen at high speed, but how are we ever to do this? We can do it. We've actually done it before. During the Second World War, Canadians and their governments completely remade the economy - retooling factories, transforming the workforce and creating common cause among Canadians for the war effort. In A Good War, author and activist Seth Klein looks at the Second World War strategies and shows how they can be repurposed today for a rapid transition. He demonstrates that this change can create jobs and reduce inequality while tackling our climate obligations and shows us a bold, practical policy plan for a zero-carbon Canada. In this unusually hopeful book, Klein explores how we can align our politics and economy with what the science says we must do. Inspiring and realizable, his book is an invitation to both the public and our political leaders to reflect on the people who saw us through the war, and to consider who we want to be, as we face down the defining task of our lives. The COVID-19 pandemic crisis has brought change upon our world that would have been unthinkable a few months ago, change very like what Klein has proposed. It turns out the world can turn on a dime if necessary. The blueprint is in your hands.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781770415454
Publisher:	ECW Press
Publication date:	09/01/2020
Pages:	464
Sales rank:	293,466
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Seth Klein was the founding British Columbia director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives for over two decades and has been immersed in climate change and inequality issues for his working life. He is currently an adjunct professor in urban studies at Simon Fraser University and remains a research associate with the CCPA. He lives in Vancouver, B.C.

Read an Excerpt

This is not another book about climate science. It takes the urgent science and the impacts of climate breakdown as a given. It is a book about politics, history and policy innovation. More specifically, it’s a book about what it takes to align our politics with the imperative the science demands of us. It takes as inspiration Canada’s Second World War experience and also draws encouragement from other countries that, are starting to treat this crisis as the emergency that it is.

Effectively tackling the climate crisis is not a technical or policy problem – we know what is needed to transition to a zero-carbon society, and the technology needed is largely ready to go.  Rather, the challenge we face is a political one. Climate solutions persistently encounter a political wall; the prevailing assumption within the leadership of our political parties appears to be that if our political leaders were to articulate (let alone undertake) what the climate science tells us is necessary, it would be political suicide. And so they don’t.

This book explores whether we can successfully align our politics with climate science, and the conditions under which it may be possible to pursue a bold policy plan that is well-received by Canadians. It outlines what a meaningful and hopeful climate program can look like and makes the case for why our political leaders should embrace this generational mission.

Like many of you, I’m afraid. In particular, I feel deep anxiety for my children, and the state of the world we are leaving to those who will live after us. The simple truth is that we don’t know if we will rise to this challenge in time. But it is worth appreciating that those who rallied in the face of fascism 80 years didn’t know if they would win either.  We forget that there was a good chunk of the war during which the outcome was far from certain. Yet that generation rallied regardless, and in the process, surprised themselves with what they were capable of achieving. That’s the spirit we need today.

Table of Contents

Preface xv

Part 1 Again at the Crossroads Of History 1

Chapter 1 Introduction: Confronting Existential Threats, Then and Now 3

Chapter 2 What We're Up Against: The New Climate Denialism in Canada 25

Part 2 Galvanizing Public Support and Social Solidarity 57

Chapter 3 Ready to Rally: Marshalling Public Opinion, Then and Now 59

Chapter 4 Making Common Cause: Inequality, Then and Now 59

Chapter 5 Confederation Quagmire: Regional Differences, Then and Now 117

Part 3 Mobilizing All Our Resources 141

Chapter 6 Remaking the Economy, Then and Now 143

Chapter 7 Mobilizing Labour: Just Transition, Then and Now 207

Chapter 8 Paying for Mobilization, Then and Now 243

Part 4 Bold Leadership - From the Grassroots and in Our Politics 265

Chapter 9 Indigenous Leadership 267

Chapter 10 Civil Society Leadership 295

Chapter 11 Cautionary Tales: What Not to Do 311

Chapter 12 Transforming Our Politics: Bold Leadership, Then, There and Now 333

Conclusion: Forward to Victory! Or Making Peace With Our Planet 361

Epilogue: The Covid-19 Pandemic and How a Recognized Emergency Makes the Impossible Possible 375

Endnotes 383

Acknowledgements 409

Index 413

Online Appendices

Appendix I Climate Attacks on Canadian Soil

Appendix II How the Oil and Gas Industry in Canada Practices the New Climate Denialism

Editorial Reviews

The COVID-19 crisis and Seth Klein’s timely book demonstrate heroic measures that become possible in times of crisis. The coronavirus crisis is not yet assessable by historians. World War II presented the West with an existential crisis for which government institutions, corporations and civil society were utterly unprepared. Yet in astonishingly rapid order, society, government and industry were united in resolve and enabled unprecedented government action and leadership. Read this inspiring book to realize giving up is not an option and ‘can’t be done’ is not an excuse.” — David Suzuki

“One of the great privileges of my life is having Seth Klein as a brother. Here you will see why. This is the roadmap out of climate crisis that Canadians have been waiting for. Serious, specific and madly inspiring, A Good War will fill you with the confidence and courage required to fight like hell for the future we all deserve.” — Naomi Klein, activist, journalist and author of This Changes Everything and The Shock Doctrine

“Seth Klein’s critically important book tells the climate truth: our climate emergency needs a WW2-style mobilization. In this strategic call to action we learn about Canada’s impressive war production, and how we can join the war against climate devastation. Your children’s futures are on every page. Read, organize, act!” — Raffi Cavoukian, singer, author and founder of Raffi Foundation for Child Honouring 

“This is an important book, exactly what we need right now. Seth does more than set out the urgency of our climate challenge, he draws a careful study of Canada’s extraordinary and rapid transformation during WW2 to give us a battle plan to address it. Big change is possible, he reminds us. We have done it before. Seth’s book combines urgency and optimism, ambition and clear-eyed understanding of the obstacles to change. It should become an essential resource for policy makers but also for all of us who want to be part of the solution. It is also an excellent and inspiring read.” — Alex Himelfarb, former clerk of the Privy Council and professor of sociology

“Pacifists are not known for evoking war-like rhetoric, so it is one of life’s quirks that I first met an 18-year-old Seth Klein as he toured Canada calling for nuclear disarmament. But, like me, he sees that the only way for human civilization to survive the climate emergency is through an ‘all hands on deck’ approach that has only been seen in times of war — or recently in pandemic. Saving ourselves is a huge challenge. Marshaling the facts, the hope and the path forward is essential work for which writer and policy wonk Seth Klein is ideally suited.” — Elizabeth May, MP and former leader of the Green Party of Canada

From the Publisher