First, here is Mr. Dumont’s thoughtful article published today in the Journal de Montréal.
https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2020/05/20/le-succes-climatique
Second, here is an English translation:
“Québec will (almost) reach its target for reducing its carbon emissions for the year 2020. This will happen even if it seemed absolutely impossible on January 1st, 2020. Some see this as a beneficial effect of the current health crisis. I especially see it as a warning.
The most radicals, who demanded swift and binding measures to speed up the hitting of targets, must realize the enormity of the sacrifices they were talking about without knowing it. To meet our targets in a short period of time, we had to stop living. This is the “miracle” of the past two months.
No more traffic because half the people are no longer working. We no longer go out, neither to movie theatres, nor to restaurants, nor to visit friends. People no longer take the highway to visit their parents, as it is prohibited.
Travel has stalled. The vast majority of aircraft remain grounded. Thousands of travel plans are cancelled. The tourism industry is dying.
A flat economy
The majority of businesses and shops have either been closed or slowed down. We are in the worst recession in a century. It means factories that will remain closed. Unemployed people in the tens of thousands will mean fewer car trips each morning.
Unemployment, impoverishment, lackluster living, depression, this is the sample of what it took to live the great success in terms of climate change. We will always be told that this was not the goal and that things would have been done differently if ruling ecologists had imposed these measures rather than a pandemic.
The events of the past few weeks, however, give us an idea of the magnitude. To get the current reduction, carnage had to be done in just about every aspect of life.
Really aware?
As the topic of climate change is very fashionable, many voters said they made it their top priority in last October’s election. I remember hearing constituents say they wanted “governments” to do more for the environment.
Were they really aware of the order of magnitude of the sacrifices that those who advocated rushing headlong into achieving the goals spoke about without delay? Were they ready for such renunciations? I am not sure, really not sure.
I always believed that action on climate change should be gradual, taking into account the economy. I always believed that people would not want to stop living. Science and technology will have to be given time to develop options for fossil fuels. In the case of automobile, electric cars are slowly but surely making their way.
I would like to point out that the hardcore fighters against climate change will now have to be careful before quoting “the Science” from the top of a pedestal. The coronavirus reminded us that science evolves, observes, revises its theses when faced with a new and complex phenomenon”.
