{"id":1788,"date":"2025-10-27T12:45:19","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T16:45:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mydamnac.com\/wp\/?p=1788"},"modified":"2025-10-27T12:45:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T16:45:21","slug":"the-clear-and-present-danger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mydamnac.com\/wp\/2025\/10\/27\/the-clear-and-present-danger\/","title":{"rendered":"The Clear and Present Danger"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n

The stories in this week\u2019s climate news reveal a single, uncomfortable truth: we are far more vulnerable to the effects of climate change than most of us care to admit. Our world is burning, flooding, drying, and breaking in ways that are no longer abstract or far away \u2014 we are in the midst of a clear and present danger, and a failure to act will have repercussions that are terrible to imagine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a book launch I attended this week<\/a>, former Canadian environment minister Catherine McKenna put it this way: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Imagine this: your child is standing in the middle of the road, and a Mack truck is barreling toward them. Wouldn\u2019t you do everything in your power to save them? Of course you would. There\u2019d be no hesitation \u2014 you\u2019d run into the street, scoop them up, and get them to safety.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Crossing the boundaries<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you have any doubt about the reality of that Mack truck, consider some of the stories that made the news this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A newly released scientific report warned this week that humanity has now crossed seven of the nine planetary boundaries<\/a> \u2014 the environmental limits that define a safe operating space<\/em> for life on Earth. Each boundary represents a system that keeps the planet stable \u2014 from biodiversity and freshwater cycles to the ozone layer and the climate itself. Crossing them means we are destabilizing the natural foundations that have supported human civilization for millennia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest breach came as scientists confirmed that ocean acidification has reached dangerous new levels<\/a>. Acidity in the oceans has increased by 30 to 40 percent since the start of the industrial era, pushing countless marine ecosystems beyond safe limits and weakening one of Earth\u2019s great stabilizers: the ocean\u2019s ability to absorb carbon dioxide. For generations, the seas have buffered us, drawing down roughly a third of the CO\u2082 we release. That capacity is now breaking down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, the World Meteorological Organization just reported that atmospheric CO\u2082 levels have hit a record 425 parts per million<\/a> \u2014 the highest in 800,000 years, and far above the 350 ppm scientists consider safe. Even more troubling, the rate of increase is accelerating: last year\u2019s rise was the largest ever recorded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the past 11,700 years \u2014 essentially the whole span of human civilization \u2014 the Earth system has been remarkably stable. That stability is ending. Fossil fuel burning, deforestation, and industrial agriculture have pushed us beyond the limits of safety, undermining the very systems on which all life depends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feeling the consequences<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If that\u2019s how we are destabilizing the planet, this week also showed what that damage now looks like on the ground. The impacts of climate change are no longer distant or theoretical \u2014 they\u2019re measurable, devastating, and accelerating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the United States, a new analysis by Climate Central<\/a> found that in just the first six months of this year, 14 separate weather disasters<\/strong> each caused more than $1 billion<\/strong> in damages<\/a>. Together, they cost $101 billion \u2014 more than in any other first half of a year since records began in 1980. Homes, businesses, highways, and livelihoods wiped away in a matter of months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Canada, the picture is equally sobering. Following the third consecutive year of record-setting wildfires<\/a>, six national organizations have urged the federal government to boost wildfire-defence funding by $4.1 billion over five years, beginning with $820 million in 2026. That\u2019s on top of the $1 billion Canada already spends annually fighting fires \u2014 and another $500 million in indirect costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wildfire experts report that the frequency and severity of fires have quadrupled since the 1970s<\/a>, with nearly 8 percent of Canada\u2019s forests<\/strong> burned since 2023. A Corporate Knights analysis<\/a> estimates that wildfires have caused more than $30 billion in economic losses over the past five years \u2014 not just in destroyed property, but in lost business and health-system costs. During the record-breaking 2023 season, 98 percent of Canadians were exposed to hazardous smoke. In Ontario alone, wildfire-related health damages topped $1 billion in a single week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And while some regions burn, others dry out. This week, well-drilling companies in New Brunswick warned that prolonged droughts are leaving wells empty<\/a>, forcing residents to drill deeper or haul water. Officials urged conservation, noting that groundwater recovery could take months or even years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Together, these stories paint a single picture: the harm we\u2019ve inflicted on the planet is circling back to us \u2014 in the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the stability of the world we once took for granted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leaders without care<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019d think that those elected to lead us would show the same instinct to protect their citizens that any parent would for their child. Yet week after week, we hear from people in power whose words and actions do the opposite \u2014 downplaying danger, deflecting responsibility, and perpetuating harm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Appearing before a parliamentary committee this week, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith was asked a simple question: Does she believe human activity is the main driver of climate change? Her answer: \u201cI\u2019m not a scientist.\u201d<\/em> <\/a>Pressed further, she suggested that hydroelectric dams, not fossil fuels, might be the real problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This, from the leader of Canada\u2019s most carbon-intensive province, who has pledged to reach \u201cnet zero by 2050\u201d while simultaneously doubling Alberta\u2019s oil and gas production over that same period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a goal that seems to align uncomfortably with the message from Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s own appointee, Dawn Farrell, head of Canada\u2019s new Major Projects Office<\/em>. Farrell \u2014 the former President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Trans Mountain Corporation, the federal Crown corporation that owns and operates the Trans Mountain Pipeline- told the House of Commons environment committee<\/a> that the pipeline has actually helped<\/em> in the fight against climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her reasoning? \u201cMost of the oil,\u201d she claimed, \u201cis cracked to make naphtha, which goes into petrochemicals, which goes into making electric cars, to electrify the grid in Asia.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The statement, offered without evidence, is absurd. But the deeper issue is what it represents: a senior official, paid $700,000 a year<\/a> to oversee Canada\u2019s \u201cnation-building\u201d projects, using her platform to justify fossil-fuel expansion as climate progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When those entrusted with a duty of care \u2014 our premiers, our ministers, our public servants \u2014 use their platforms to distort reality or downplay risk, the damage isn\u2019t just political. It\u2019s personal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve grown used to it \u2014 the evasions, the false equivalencies, the \u201cI\u2019m not a scientist\u201d shrugs. We shake our heads, dismiss it as ignorance, and move on. But we shouldn\u2019t. Because these statements don\u2019t just mislead \u2014 they harm us. They delay action in the face of a clear and present danger, and every delay carries a cost measured in lives, livelihoods, and the livability of our planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Call it what it is<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a powerful op-ed published this week<\/a>, climate activist Zain Haq – who was controversially deported<\/a> from Canada earlier this year for peaceful protest \u2014 put the issue in stark moral terms. With people dying around the world from the accelerating effects of climate change, he asked:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cAt what point is the poisoning of our habitat going to be acknowledged as criminal negligence?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In most countries, the law defines criminal negligence<\/em> as the failure to exercise a duty of care that could have prevented harm. Haq offered a simple example: if someone lights a campfire during wildfire season, knowing the risks, they may not intend to cause harm, but by neglecting their duty of care, death or destruction can result, and the person can be held liable for their acts or failures to act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our governments, he argued, are guilty of a similar neglect. By failing to act decisively to protect citizens from the known dangers of climate change \u2014 and by promoting policies that deepen those dangers \u2014 they are breaching that same duty of care. \u201cAll of our governments,\u201d Haq wrote, \u201chave a duty of care to their citizens, and at the moment this duty is being neglected.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can no longer simply shake our heads when leaders make false or misleading statements about climate change. Their words cause harm. They delay action in the face of a clear and present danger. And when those in positions of public trust fail to protect us \u2014 or worse, mislead us \u2014 they must be held accountable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than a century ago, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. wrote in a landmark 1919 U.S. Supreme Court decision that even free speech has limits when it poses a \u201cclear and present danger\u201d<\/em> of harm. His example \u2014 that it is not acceptable to falsely shout \u201cFire!\u201d<\/em> in a crowded theatre \u2014 was meant to remind us that words can have real-world consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same principle applies today. Misinformation that downplays or delays climate action creates its own kind of clear and present danger. The truck is coming \u2014 and the people we have trusted to protect us are standing on the curb telling us not to worry about it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A moment to act<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In just over a week, Prime Minister Mark Carney will table his first federal budget \u2014 one expected to unveil his long-promised climate competitiveness strategy<\/a>. In a sense, Carney now stands on the sidewalk, watching that same truck hurtling toward us \u2014 fully aware of the danger, and in a position to act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The question is: will he? Will he shout the warning loud enough for the country to hear? Will he run into the street and pull us to safety? Or will he stand still, calculating the odds, as the moment passes and the damage becomes irreversible?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our country is holding its breath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are the other major climate stories from the week of October 20 to 26, 2025:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canada Policy<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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Chief Executive Officer of the Major Projects Office Dawn Farrell takes part in a press conference where Prime Minister Mark Carney (left) announced the federal government’s first five megaprojects under consideration for fast-tracking, in Edmonton Thursday Sept. 11, 2025.\u00a0Photo by David Bloom\u00a0\/Postmedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With just over a week until Prime Minister Mark Carney unveils his 2025 budget \u2014 expected to outline his \u201cclimate competitiveness\u201d strategy \u2014 Canadian climate coverage again centred on the pipeline debate and the country\u2019s conflicting goals of expanding fossil fuels while protecting the climate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n