‘We will need to find a new possible.’ Ken Dryden on the biggest question young Canadians face: Climate change
Ken Dryden is an author and former NHL goaltender who served as an MP from 2004 until 2011, and as a cabinet minister. The following is adapted from the inaugural lecture he delivered at McGill University on Sept. 12, for its new course Climate Crisis and Climate Action, which he helped create and design.
Climate change is starting to seem very personal to you. And it should. It is about the future, and the future belongs to you in a way it doesn’t to me, or to your professors or teachers, or your parents, or to government or industry decision makers, becausehave more skin in this game than we do because you will live longer. And you, we, all of us, won’t find a solution unless you, we, all of us, make it personal.
A humpback whale rises out of the Pacific off Colombia's coast in 2018. The giant creatures, which can weigh up to 36 tonnes, are endangered, though environmental laws have allowed them to bounce back somewhat after 19th- and 20th-century whaling brought their population to critical lows.
The story Mr. Bryson tells and the Bible doesn’t tell is that existence isn’t all about us as human beings. Two hundred years ago there were only about a billion of us, now there’s almost eight billion. We as human beings have done a pretty good job making a lot more human beings a lot better off. We live longer, are healthier, better educated and have more things. We’ve done the job the Bible gave us. We’ve gone forth and multiplied, we’ve exercised our dominion. And we’ve gotten it wrong.
So again, if we know all this, why aren’t we doing better? I think the biggest obstacle is that our decision makers hope that climate change really isn’t that big a problem. Because it’s a tough one to solve. Because people live in different circumstances, have different needs and priorities, and see the world in different ways. Because our decision makers can’t see the common ground that all great tasks, and all great missions, require.
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