Governments around the world are comparing the resolution of the COVID-19 crisis to a war. After all, it was the New Deal and World War II that launched an era of globally unprecedented economic growth, prosperity and the swelling of the middle class. Let us use this ‘war on COVID-19’ and the Green New Deal to learn from our past mistakes, and prepare us for a socially and environmentally just future.

The race to finger the animal source of COVID-19 is on. The virus’s animal origin is a critical mystery to solve. But speculation about which wild creature originally harbored the virus obscures a more fundamental source of our growing vulnerability to pandemics: the accelerating pace of habitat loss.

Teenagers are not expected to care about anything that expands further than the world of their high school. They are not expected to spend their winter holidays learning about the environment. They certainly aren’t expected to mobilize the masses. That is, unless, you’re referring to Elliott Anderson.

In an open letter to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, 42 Nobel laureates implored the federal government to “act with the moral clarity required” to tackle the global climate crisis and stop Teck Resources’ proposed Frontier tar sands mine.

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.

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.