Tzeporah Berman on how the fossil fuel industry hijacks climate discussions

Tzeporah Berman has been working on environmental campaigns and policy for over 30 years. The longtime activist currently serves as the international program director at Stand.earth and as chair of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative.

In 2019, Berman received the Climate Breakthrough Project Award, which included US$2 million to create bold global strategies to fight the climate crisis. She spoke with Christopher White from her home in Vancouver.

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CHRISTOPHER WHITE: What I’m seeing right now is a sense of resignation about climate change. How do we move past that feeling?

TZEPORAH BERMAN: I think the simple answer is that we talk about it. If you look at the most recent global polling on public opinion on climate change, over 75 percent of people know that it is happening, and they’re concerned about it. But they think they’re alone.

What a lot of climate psychologists would tell you is that there is a kind of cognitive dissonance for us. We read the news that we’re now experiencing lethal temperatures around the planet multiple days a year and the majority of the world’s coral reefs are being bleached. And we don’t see our politicians acting like it’s an emergency. There’s this part of our brains that says, “Well, if the house was on fire, my prime minister would be acting like the house is on fire, so it must not be on fire.”

The other reason, which is part of what I deal with in my work on fossil fuels, is that for decades, the fossil fuel industry has been infiltrating climate policy conversations at a national and international level, and successfully ensuring that the way that we address climate change is by trying to look at the demand and emissions. What that means is that we’re putting the responsibility on those who consume.

There is no other problem in history where economists have not suggested that if you’re trying to get rid of something that is hurting us, you cut both the supply and the demand.

CW: In our federal election last spring, climate change all but vanished as an issue. One of the first things Mark Carney did as prime minister was to get rid of the consumer carbon tax. A majority of Canadians now support more pipelines, despite tens of thousands of square kilometres of land burning this year. How can we get the climate crisis back into the public square?

TB: There’s nothing stopping any of us as individuals from creating climate conversations, from having roundtables in our kitchens or organizing events. This is going to need all of us, because it’s not just a matter of new laws and policy. It’s also going to have to be a civil society-level engagement. As long as politicians don’t hear from us, then it will be easier for them to hope that some other country takes strong action. Everyone is passing the buck to someone else, but meanwhile our planet is literally on fire and people are gasping for air and drowning.

The human mind has a tremendous ability to normalize these horrific changes that we’re seeing on the planet. We just talk about adapting to them, rather than talk about facing fundamental structural and systemic changes in our society, because those are scary. We have to expose the fact that the fossil fuel industry has made them scary.

I think one of the most dangerous things Bay Street has done is to have stolen our ability to imagine a world that is functional beyond fossil fuels. But the problem with those cheaper alternative systems is that you don’t pay anyone rent — no one owns the sun or the wind.

CW: How do we engage people’s imaginations to help them see an alternative?

TB: Part of it is we need to do everything we can to tell the story together. Get journalists to cover the stories. There are lots of examples in Canada of communities getting it right. We are seeing the use of geothermal systems, electrified transportation, places with renewable solar panels on everyone’s roofs. I could name 100 examples across the country. We’re not seeing those in the media.

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CW: Carney has written about and is very cognizant of the climate crisis. What is your advice to this government?

TB: First of all, it should ensure that Canadian taxpayers’ money goes toward the most effective means of reducing pollution — and that is clearly investments in electrification infrastructure, electric grids, renewable energy and public transportation.

Second, create strong laws and regulations to hold those companies to account by strengthening the industrial carbon price and by putting in place strong methane standards as well as better standards on toxins and water, so that we protect our water. That’s the looming geopolitical fight. Right now, we have literally millions of litres of polluted water being pumped into unlined pits in the centre of Alberta and even more in northern British Columbia because of the fracking industry. The federal government could ban certain toxins, like naphthenic acids, and that would shut down some of those leaky oil facilities.

And then third, they need to put serious effort into adaptation. That means putting money behind forest management that will help us avoid some of the worst of these forest fires, and it means cooling centres in every major community so that fewer people die in the future from lethal heat.

CW: How do you view “decarbonized oil and gas,” a term that has become very popular in the last few months?

TB: The problem is quite straightforward. Combustion of fossil fuels releases carbon. Technologies as carbon capture and storage are failing, particularly on the scale and timeline needed for emission reductions. We may need some carbon capture and storage to get us back to a safe and livable climate. Today we are at 427 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide trapped in the atmosphere, and we need to get back to at least 350 ppm or we will continue to see the loss of lives and livelihoods from extreme heat, floods and fires.

However, using the promise of carbon capture as a way of justifying new projects and increased production is at best a fallacy and at worst, fraud. The science is very clear that meeting the Paris Agreement and net-zero goals requires an end to expansion and a fast phase-out of fossil fuels. The bottom line is that it’s not a transition if we are growing the problem. Carney knows that.

CW: The United Nations Court of Justice recently made a major ruling around liability for the consequences of climate change. How important is this?

TB: The ruling is a critical milestone in the movement to address the root cause of the issue. It clearly called out fossil fuels as the primary source of emissions and called for a phase-out. It made the connection between climate change, fossil fuels and the violation of human rights. The court also found that rich, historically high-polluting countries must act first and take responsibility for the corporations operating within their jurisdiction. Countries could potentially be held liable for fossil fuels and climate change.

This is the first time the court has ruled on climate change, and while international courts do not have jurisdiction over national governments, it does send a message and set an important precedent. For example, there are already close to 3,000 legal actions related to climate change underway around the world, and this could open the door for more.

What’s clear from the ruling is that the world needs a mechanism to ensure countries phase out fossil fuels and that wealthy countries most responsible are held accountable in particular. Few countries are willing to act alone, and that is why a fossil fuel treaty is needed to provide a legally binding mechanism to foster the type of international co-operation needed.

CW: Are there countries that Canada could learn from?

TB: Oh, there are so many. China is developing electric vehicles and renewable energy faster than any other country in the world. It is astonishing and truly exciting.

I just got back from Denmark and it was incredible — entire buildings whose heating is based on waste recovery and whole towns that are heated with 100 percent renewables. There are already more bicycles than cars on every Danish road, and people are healthier because of it.

In Norway, 90 percent of cars sold are electric. There are positive signs everywhere.

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This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Rev. Christopher White is a United Church minister in Hamilton.