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BOOKS Author advocates hard-edged realism with the climate crisis by Charlie Smith
Smoke from wildfires, like this one near Roseburg, Oregon, has at times made life more difficult When almost 200 countries came together to negotiate the Paris Agreement in December 2015, it generated wide“Are we going to divert money even from fossil-fuel industries into growing forests so we can burn them and pump the carbon dioxide underground?” the for British Columbians with respiratory illnesses. Photo by U.S. Bureau of Land Management. spread hope for addressing the climate crisis. Metchosin-based author continued. “And e agreement aimed to limit increases yet there it is, in the ne print of all of these in global temperature. Its ideal was 1.5° C— models. And it’s something that hasn’t rewith a rm cap below a 2° C increase—since ceived even a fraction of the attention that the start of the Industrial Revolution. But it should receive.” many don’t realize that these ambitious goals Homer-Dixon has devoted his academic may require a massive amount of carbon se- career to examining how a multitude of questration, based on computer projections. variables come together in complex ways is is detailed in a new book, Com- to a ect our security. manding Hope: e Power We Have to Re- His previous bestsellers— e Upside of new a World in Peril, by political scientist Down and e Ingenuity Gap—laid out the omas Homer-Dixon, director of the Cas- magnitude of the world’s predicament. In cade Institute at Royal Roads University. Commanding Hope, Homer-Dixon o ers
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“Keeping temperatures from rising above a road map for responding to the growthe 1.5-degree target in 2100, for instance, ing ecological crisis. And it’s anchored by would require removal from the atmosphere radical honesty. “I think one of the things of at least a half-trillion tonnes of carbon di- that’s really corrupting our public conversaoxide, in a global e ort starting almost im- tions about our future as societies—and as a mediately and extending beyond the end of species—is where we’re lying to ourselves,” the century,” Homer-Dixon writes. Homer-Dixon said.
“ at amount would ll sixty- ve Grand According to him, there’s no “new Canyons or a balloon lled with pure CO2 normal” as long as more carbon keeps measuring about eighty kilometres in being released into in our ocean-atmosdiameter (at sea-level atmospheric pres- pheric systems. sure), and removing it would entail the lar- “It’s not going to settle down into a new gest industrial project in history by far, one equilibrium—not for centuries,” he dethat would absorb a large fraction of the clared. “And so the disruption we’re seeing world’s economic output for decades.” now is just the very beginning of what we
In a phone interview with the Straight, can expect to see in the future. It’s not going Homer-Dixon cited this as an example of the to get better. It’s going to get way, way worse. hard-edged realism necessary to minimize “ at’s going to have a mobilizing e ect the magnitude of climate-induced harm. on people,” the author continued. “It’s not
In his book, he mentions that one way whether we are going to see this transition to achieve this carbon sequestration could in technologies and economies and investcome from planting fast-growing trees ments and the way we generate wealth and across huge amounts of land. A er they ab- what our attitudes are toward consumpsorbed carbon as they grew, they would be tion. All of that is going to happen. e real cut down to produce energy. e carbon dioxide would then be pumped underground. question is whether it’s going to be soon enough or not.” g
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October 29 – November 5 / 2020 9 COVER In advance of Halloween, we recall some of the most gruesome horror films ever made, including, of course, The Exorcist. By Steve Newton Cover illustration by Jake Collinge
5 CANNABIS The U.S. presidential election could have a big impact on a B.C.-based company that markets harvesting devices to cannabis producers. By Charlie Smith
8 ESPORTS The Spooky Season is upon us, and ESports fans will have plenty of opportunities to indulge their macabre gaming tastes. By Mike Usinger
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Here’s what people are reading this week on Straight.com.
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