Thread by @BlairKing_ca

On #ClimateStrike day some thoughts from a pragmatic environmentalist.

One of my big concerns with the climate strike is that it is being driven by people who ignore the complexity of the energy debate and instead talk about simple answers to complex problems. #bcpoli #abpoli 1/

I keep listening to the demands of the Climate Strikers and it is all about stopping all fossil fuel use now and blaming the previous generations for the conditions of the present. Well that approach ignores the realities of our era #bcpoli #abpol 2/

We currently have a transportation (and thus food supply) system that is utterly dependent on fossil fuels and will be for 20+ years. So we need to figure out how to address non-transportation uses while we innovate in transportation uses. #bcpoli #abpoli 3/

That means getting electricity from fossil fuel-free sources and getting off fossil fuels for household uses. The City of Vancouver model is a great start on that front as is an increased carbon tax to provide funds to fuel innovation. #bcpoli #abpoli 4/ vancouver.ca/files/cov/gree…

It also means not undercutting our government when it tries to enhance our fossil fuel-free energy (Site C and run- of-river) and not knee-capping sympathetic governments (like @RachelNotley in Alberta) when they try to get incremental change implemented #abpoli #bcpoli 5/

All this attack your friends approach used to date has done is stall Alberta’s Climate Leadership Plan, ensuring the next Alberta government will be massively antithetical to the cause and ensuring that we won’t see anything new from the feds. Congrats on that #BCpoli #abpoli 6/

If your intention is to hold the moral high ground as the planet burns around you, then congrats you are on the right track. If not then it is time to look at how you can bring over free enterprise conservatives to your side #bcpoli #abpoli 7/

Because the current activist of attacking free-enterprise conservatives and alienating moderates (like me) is not going to achieve your goals. You have to detach yourselves from the political activists who have latched onto your movement #bcpoli #abpoli 8/

The watermelons who insist that the only way forward is to destroy the current system and start again. Because we don't have the time, and the public does not have the appetite to follow that road. Moreover every previous attempt in that direction has failed #bcpoli #abpoli 9/

look at the environmental performance of every strictly socialist country to date? Abject failure because as described in the "Tragedy of the Commons" when individuals don't have a stake in the protection of a resource they don't protect that resource #bcpoli #abpoli 10/

The countries that have done the best are ones that combine the best of all systems, like Canada and the Scandanavians.

It is time to stop demanding impossible changes and to start looking at what is possible and that includes getting rid of historic biases. #bcpoli #abpoli 11/

It means not going for some impossible 100% wind, water and sunlight approach to energy and looking for regionally appropriate renewables combined with low-carbon, high-density supporting power like nuclear. #bcpoli #abpoli 12/

The movement has to eject the anti-scientific core of people who refuse to accept that real alternatives (like nuclear) are a necessary part of the solution. We also have to take a global look at emissions. What can we do regionally to reduce global emissions #bcpoli #abpoli 13/

If that means developing a #BCLNG industry so we can reduce the amount of carbon emitted by China well that is something we should do because this in my silo, inward-looking approach we currently use is ignoring what is happening in Asia and Africa #bcpoli #abpoli

We live in a world where 4.3 million people a year are still dying from the air quality implications of energy poverty and their governments are going to prioritize the health of today's people over those of tomorrow. #bcpoli #abpoli 15/

It is easy for climate strikers and activists warm and well-fed in Canada and Europe to tell the world we should use less energy but the governments of China and India still have deep poverty and hardship to fight and will ignore your cries #bcpoli #abpoli 16/

So get a grip. Do what we can an home. Reduce our personal emissions, work to reduce our community emissions and work to get policy change so we can develop the technologies that we can share to ultimately reduce global emissions #abpoli #bcpoli 17/

It is time to take the power of this movement and use it to implement real, incremental change because your current demand that we burn it all down and start again is surely doomed to fail because it leaves out the 5 billion who are just trying to survive #abpoli #bcpoli 18/