2019: The Year We'll Turn Things Around!

After feasting, socializing and merry making during the festive season, the giant puppets were finally taking it easy.

With 2019 only days away, they kicked back in the living room and wondered about how the new year would unfold.

Strong coffee and holiday leftovers fuelled their discussion.

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image courtesy of Pixabay

GOOD TIME (brooding, and sipping on coffee): I need a good year ahead. This one has had a few too many rough spots -- a smoky summer, and so many climate disasters all over the world. And they're getting worse all the time.

NOWCA: I agree, Good Time. Things need to turn around -- or, to be more accurate, we need to turn things around.

GOOD TIME: I get what you mean, NOWCA. The year won't just happen to us; we'll all contribute to what it becomes, so we need to be intentional about what we do in the new year.

NOWCA (eating a forkful of yams): That's exactly what I mean, Good Time. Gee, these leftover yams with pecans are good.

PER (nibbling on a rum ball): It's high time we seized not just the day, but the upcoming year and our future. What do we want and how are we going to achieve it?

These leftover rum balls are delicious! Who'd have guessed that you can make them vegan and so healthy?

image courtesy of Pixabay

NOWCA: I want the world to seriously reduce global carbon emissions.

PER: Me too, and I want it done in a way that provides well-paid, secure jobs.

GOOD TIME: I want to be able to relax, and not worry about smoky summers and natural disasters caused by climate change.

MR. PIPELINE: Hey, Good Time, you're jumping to conclusions. Don't believe everything you read: it's important to be skeptical about climate change.

GOOD TIME: Fat chance, Mr. Pipeline! You and your crowd have been urging climate denial for decades and we're not drinking that Kool-Aid anymore.

PER: The jig's up, Mr. Pipeline. We know better. When climate scientists are giving us dire warnings, we're not listening to the oil lobby. This is a matter of life and death. We're not getting suckered -- we want a liveable future.

MR. PIPELINE: But the industry's been changing. It's getting greener all the time. And, besides, what about the economy and the workers employed by the fossil fuel industry?

NOWCA: Too little too late, Mr. Pipeline. We need to switch to green, non-polluting technologies and transition workers to those. You and your friends know that fossil fuels are a sunset industry.

MR. PIPELINE: But we --

PER: Enough, Mr. Pipeline. We don't want to listen to you anymore. We need to plan for a better future. What tools do we have at our disposal?

NOWCA: Well, Naomi Klein and some of her friends have just launched a new podcast. I always learn something amazing from her, and I respect her sense of where we can best put our energies.

GOOD TIME: Here's another great podcast called Balancing Act by Catherine McGrath on our local radio station, Kootenay Co-op Radio. And don't forget the first seven days of protest with the Extinction Rebellion. Sounds like a great way to build community with our friends, and let the world know that we're serious.

MR. PIPELINE: What?! Now you're trying to start a riot?

NOWCA: You know better, Mr. Pipeline. This is a non-violent action. We'll be rising up together to

image courtesy of Pixabay

let our leaders know that the just transition to a green future is happening whether they like it or not.

MR. PIPELINE: Your political leaders represent you, and are there to look out for your interests.

PER: Then why do they look out for the interests of the fracking and oil and gas industries and big money? Most politicians at the federal and provincial levels are not looking out for the public good, and that's putting all of us in grave danger.

NOWCA: I'll still vote as always, but I realize that it's going to take people power to change things. Our politicians say one thing to get elected, and then stick up for corporate interests afterwards. This is not OK.

MR. PIPELINE: Oh ya? Like who?

PER: Well, there's our federal leader who campaigned as a climate champion but then bought a $4.5 billion dollar pipeline on our behalf and with our tax dollars once he became Prime Minister. Then there's our MLA who spoke out against Site C before being elected, but then supported it once she got into office, even though it made no economic sense to do so.

MR. PIPELINE: Ya, well hydro is clean power.

NOWCA: No, it's not. Not when it's from a mega dam that destroys high quality agricultural land and vital wilderness corridors and is in violation of Indigenous rights.

MR. PIPELINE: You're all just anti-progress.

image courtesy of Pixabay

GOOD TIME: You know better, Mr. Pipeline. The longer we take to transition to clean energy, the more behind we'll be. The whole world is adopting clean technologies, and we're still subsidizing fossil fuels. Every time we invest in fossil fuels instead of what's new and green, we fall behind.

The industry is being phased out, but it still has way too much influence on our politicians.

PER: No one believes you anymore, Mr. Pipeline. It's time for you to get with the future. 2019 is the year people are going to make sure they keep the oil in the soil.

MR. PIPELINE: Oh ya?

NOWCA (taking a drink of coffee): Oh ya. Just watch us.

image courtesy of Pixabay