A Musical Crash Course In Climate Politics

This week the Paris climate change talks, also called COP21, are starting. That means that for a lot of people, climate change is an issue that they’re paying attention to for the first time in a long time. While you probably shouldn’t be ignoring an existential threat to our civilization like this, it’s ok because everything you need to know about climate politics, you can learn from pop music. Here it is.

Band-Aids Don't Fix Bullet Holes. AKA What's Going On In Paris?

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It's like T-Swift explains, the same way that "bandaids don't fix bullet holes", most of what's being put on the table in Paris won't be enough to solve climate change.

First, there is a major gap between the 2ºC limit on warming that every nation around the world has agreed to and what the science says we're headed for right now. A report released by the United Nations a few weeks ago detailed that right not commitments on the table add up to closer to a 3ºC rise in temperature. That would be really bad.

Second, whatever the outcome is in Paris, it's unlikely that emissions reductions will be legally binding. In other words the global community has no way to hold countries like Canada accountably for the fact that we're on track to blow past the climate limits we've committed to internationally.

Third, since the disastrous climate talks in Copenhagen, big polluting nations like Canada and the United States have been working to remove principles of equity and justice from the negotiating text for the potential Paris climate deal. In 2011, while railing against the UN climate agreement recognizing the historical role of some wealthy countries is creating the problem of climate change, Canada's then Environment Minister called financial support for nations in the Global South "guilt payments" which his government opposed.

That's just a taste, but you get the gist. We need bold action and transformational change, and unfortunately that doesn't seem to be on the table in Paris.

Deny-ny-ny. AKA The Real Reason That It's So Hard To Get Bold Climate Action.

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The short and simple answer is the fossil fuel industry, and how for the past three decades everytime their lips were moving, they were lying.

The biggest and worst example of this is Exxon Mobil. It recently came to light that back in the 1970's Exxon knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that climate change was real, and that their business of digging up and burning fossil fuels was the primary driver of it. Rather than use that information to commit to find alternative, clean energy sources, Exxon decided to dump millions of dollars into initiatives that would eventually become the climate denial movement. It was so bad that a recent study determined that a lot of Americans who don't believe in climate change have those beliefs because of the fossil fuel industry manufacturing doubt in the science.

Exxon also isn't the only company that's been lying and using underhanded tricks to stop climate progress. Time and time again, fossil fuel companies have undermined climate action around the globe - whether lobbying against the imposition of strict emissions targets or killing legislations to support the development of clean energy.

Why did they do all this?

It's pretty simple. To keep global temperature rise below 2ºC we have to keep the vast majority of fossil fuels in the ground. Unfortunately, the fossil fuel industry's business model requires them to burn every last drop of oil and gas, and every piece of coal that they can get their hands on. In other words, real climate action would mean the end of the fossil fuel industry, or at least a major change in business model.

Started Fighting Pipelines, Now We're Here. AKA What Now? #KeepItInTheGround

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While things may not be looking great for an ambitious deal in Paris, it's definitely not time to give up. In fact, the fight against climate change has wracked up some major wins in the past few months, including the rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline by US President Barack Obama. That rejection marks the first time a major piece of fossil fuel infrastructure was rejected for it's climate impacts.

We started fighting pipelines, now we're here.

Here, to be exact, is the growing global call to Keep It In the Ground. This isn't "new" so so speak – the call to keep fossil fuels in the ground has been coming from Indigenous and frontline communities living in extraction zones for years– but now it's fast becoming the main rallying cry of the global climate movement.

The reason why is pretty simple. Basically, the way that people have been measuring climate leadership isn't working all that well, and while emissions targets and carbon prices are great, they've also become rife with holes and become susceptible to manipulation by the same institutions responsible for the brunt of causing climate change in the first place. Instead, people are realizing that it's 2015 and that means that the measure of real climate leadership can no longer be a target for how much carbon politicians are willing to put in the air, but the action they're taking to keep it in the ground in the first place.

Now that you know what's up, click here to join in.