Barbara Tuchman asks in the first chapter of her classic The March of Folly: “Why do holders of high office so often act contrary to the way reason points and enlightened self-interest suggests?” Fair warnings, reasonable alternatives and wooden-headedness (stupidity) are her three marks of folly.
Last month’s IPCC Report gives us fair warning of climate disaster. The rapidly falling price of green energy gives us reasonable alternatives. The wooden-headedness is easy. Start with the Conservative membership voting down the statement that climate change is real. Add in federal Climate Minister Wilkinson’s argument for expanding TMX (we need TMX receipts to fund green projects). Or maybe Mr. Singh’s refusal to disavow LNG, probably because the B.C. provincial government happens to be NDP. And in any event Mr. Singh doesn’t have a credible transition plan for oil and gas employees (neither does Mr. Horgan).
Top that off with a morally challenged prime minister who says he has a plan to meet our Paris obligations, while knowing full well the dirty secret that his plan works only if the greenhouse gases from burning Canada’s exported fossil fuels are not attributed to Canada. Wouldn’t Ms. Tuchman have fun writing a final chapter?
Kenneth Avio
Oak Bay
