December 8, 2017: Hydro & “Power”
Today Canadians across the country are reading about the approval of the Site C Hydroelectric Dam in B.C. “The project will flood over 12,500 hectares of fertile farmland and sacred Indigenous territory in the Peace River valley.” In an article out of Vancouver, reporter Gary Mason writes “While there were myriad reasons trotted out by the NDP on Monday for reluctantly moving ahead with the dam, the biggest one was not mentioned: electoral politics.” This approval does beg the question, as do so many decisions around climate change, about whether current electoral politics are up to the challenge of climate change. Will our current forms of government survive energy transition? Do we want them to? If it is a choice between the survival of a multitude of species or the political parties as they currently exist, I know which I’ll choose. Climate change is changing everything. And, if in those changes we can see our way to great justice through the climate justice movement, then another think that could quite possibly (hopefully) shift will be the dynamics of power and power differentials locally around the world. Electoral politics are only one institution that will need to bend to the new rules of a changing ecosystem. I’d advise we start seriously discussing the political implication of climate change. It is not doubt wise to start planning for this change, rather than being swept along by it. This would be one action to take as part of a politics of deep energy literacy.