PlaceThe world’s oil, gas, and coal companies would incur what the Financial Times recently described as “breathtaking” losses if they’re not allowed to extract and burn their enormous reserves. In total, fossil fuel CO2 emissions contained in untapped reserves are estimated at 2910 gigatonnes or nearly three trillion metric tons.

Canada needs its own Green New Deal to enable a rapid transition away from fossil fuels that benefits every working class Canadian by guaranteeing them good jobs, improving their public services, and investing in their communities instead of letting ‘the market’ decide who prospers and who falls into poverty. But that will require political vision ready to challenge the oil industry and the executives reaping the benefits of Kenney’s tax cuts and Trudeau’s public subsidies.

At a time when corporate behemoths are destroying the planet, “greening” programs like those envisioned by Klein and the Dems–no matter how urgently conceived–cannot offer durable solutions to climate change. No amount of policy, market, or technological measures can deter the headlong march toward global disaster. At present humanity has no choice but to find a path toward a post-capitalist ecological society.

The cryptocurrency Bitcoin has become a difficult topic of conversation among Canadians. With no known founder, no set headquarters, and little regulation, this relatively new, mysterious form of money has managed to both entice and confuse us all. The environmental impact of Bitcoin, however, is only just being understood. This summer, a report released by the scientific journal Joule, revealed that the mining of Bitcoin produces levels of CO2 equal to a small nation—and these emissions are increasing every year.

The Liberals spent $4.5 billion on the Trans Mountain pipeline and related infrastructure. This important government intervention is designed to expand extraction of heavy carbon emitting tar sands oil. Overwhelmingly, scientists argue that these fossil fuels must stay in the ground if we are to avoid catastrophic climate disturbances. While some might consider it hyperbolic, the case for labeling Trudeau a climate criminal is overwhelming.

Protests are not without limits. They can move one forward on the path to seriously confronting concentrated wealth and power, but they can also serve as pressure-reducing safety valves, providing emotionally potent illusions of popular power and functioning as strange vehicles of incorporation and co-optation. The deadly system marches on, without serious disruption of its inner workings.

On September 27, at the request of the young people who have been staging school strikes around the world, we’re walking out of our workplaces and homes to spend the day demanding action on the climate crisis, the greatest existential threat that all of us face. It’s a one-day climate strike, if you will – and it will not be the last. This is going to be the beginning of a week of action all over the world. And we hope to make it a turning point in history.

I know all too well that my son will probably read this one day. I hope that he will see the positive results of our actions. Depending on our choices and decisions in the coming years, he can learn about this chapter in human history, one in which we made real sacrifices and stopped a serious catastrophic event. Or, he can learn about how we failed to rise to the occasion and left his generation to deal with the consequences of our inaction.

Climate change is by far the most serious crisis facing the world today. At stake is the future of civilization as we know it. Yet, both public awareness and government action lag way behind what’s needed to avert a climate change catastrophe. In the interview below, Noam Chomsky and Robert Pollin discuss the challenges ahead and what needs to be done.

A year ago, inspired by Greta Thunberg, young people around the world began ‘climate-striking’ — walking out of school for a few hours on Fridays to demand action against global warming. In March, when 1.4 million kids around the world walked out of school, they asked for adults to join them next time. That next time is Sept. 20 (in Canada and a few other countries on Sept. 27) and it is shaping up to be the biggest day of climate action in the planet’s history.