Life in the Kootenays during the first week of October was full of hopeful news and disappointment. With very local implications, but on a global scale, there was a paper from the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate that was strongly in support of serious carbon pricing in order to save the global economy.
Last week in Lima the International Monetary Fund and World Bank had their annual meeting in advance of the December climate conference in Paris. Out of that meeting were comments relating to the economic damage caused by systems that support fossil fuels.
There was also a forum sponsored by Selkirk College’s Mir Centre for Peace, West Kootenay EcoSociety, the local chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby and the Nelson United Church. Using Skype, the forum received observations from Tom Rand (in Toronto) that there are high-level economic drivers moving away from fossil fuels. Also via Skype, Ken Locklin (in Washington DC) of Impax Asset Management noted that four independent studies arrived at the same conclusion: removing fossil fuels from an investment portfolio made no difference in that portfolio’s performance.
At no point in these reports and discussions did the term “niqab” appear. They obviously did not have their collective finger on the pulse of Canadian politics.
Ron Robinson
Nelson