It is the best of times, it is the worst of times . . . again

Searching through my old files recently to prepare a presentation on intergenerational equity and sustainable development, I found a faded copy of a short paper that I wrote back in 1992. A university student at the time, I prepared the paper for the United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro—the first international conference I had ever attended. A watershed moment in human history, the Earth Summit was the largest-ever gathering of national leaders. They had come together to sign two new international treaties, one on climate change and the other on biodiversity conservation.

Importantly, the Earth Summit addressed environment and development together, building on the momentum from the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm and the 1987 “Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future.” Under the rubric of sustainable development, the Earth Summit emphasized the links among social, economic, and environmental factors and sought to address inequalities within nations, between what is now called the Global North and the Global South, and across generations. Agenda 21, the action plan for the 21st century that was adopted at the summit, states the following:

"Humanity stands at a defining moment in history. We are confronted with a perpetuation of disparities between and within nations, a worsening of poverty, hunger, ill health and illiteracy, and the continuing deterioration of the ecosystems on which we depend for our well-being."

Now that we are well into the 21st century, the links among social, economic, and environmental considerations are even more evident. Such links are illustrated by the severe and pervasive effects of biodiversity loss and climate change on the natural world, livelihoods, economic activities, and cultures, especially for Indigenous communities around the world.

In my 1992 paper, I was clearly struggling with the optimism generated by such massive international mobilization on the one hand and the pessimism created by the scale of environmental degradation that was already evident on the other. I chose the following Dickensian title for my paper: “History of the World Chapter 20: It was the best of times, It was the worst of times.?. .?.” The title was a reference both to the century that was coming to a close and to the following underlying contradiction:

"Never before did one species have such power over the planet and such power over the other species. Homo sapiens as they called themselves were rapidly changing the landscape. Not only marginally as they had done before with small-scale agricultural practices and fire, but substantially as well. [.?.?.]

In the 20th century, came further innovation, technology, industrialization and much optimism on the part of Homo sapiens. City dwellers were spared from the soot and smoke of coal burning with the beautifully elegant smokestack. Farmers were encouraged that much of their labour would be helped out by new machines. Movement from A to B was facilitated by the automobile and the airplane. It was the best of times. [.?.?.]

Technologies which assisted one aspect of Homo sapiens’ world destroyed many other aspects. Chemicals which enabled them to hide in cooled structures from the sun’s warming rays ended up destroying the planet’s protective blanket. Vehicles which allowed Homo sapiens to move to and fro warmed the planet and destroyed the fertility of many lands. This race of Homo sapiens had trouble comprehending the “bad” in all their “good” inventions. For a while they just did not see it, next they ignored it, and finally they began to be overcome by it. It was the worst of times."

As an enthusiastic student sporting a Canadian flag on my knapsack at the 1992 Earth Summit, I was often approached by strangers who spotted my red maple leaf and thanked me (and other identifiable Canadians) for the leadership Canada was showing. Indeed, Canada was instrumental in getting climate change on the international agenda in 1988 and then convincing other industrial nations to sign the 1992 climate and biodiversity conventions. Notably, the Rio climate convention’s objective was to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous human-caused interference with the climate system. In keeping with its then position of leadership, Canada had actually committed to something similar in its own domestic policy two years earlier.

Among the other documents that I found in my old files from 1992 was Canada’s official speech at the Earth Summit, with this passage:

"We are here to commit our government to action. The prevention of global climate change and the preservation of the world’s animal and plant species is on the top of our agenda. As political leaders, our job is to force the pace and stretch out the limits of international cooperation. The nations gathered here today have the human genius to create a world free from deprivation and secure from degradation. What remains is for governments to provide the leadership the world so desperately needs. Let us find that will and marshal it to the task at hand on behalf of the five billion people we represent. Our children, the Rio generation, will be our judges and beneficiaries."

That 30-year-old reference to future generations who would judge our actions left me with an eerie feeling of déjà vu. I had definitely heard something very similar from Canada much more recently. I soon found it in Canada’s 2019 Speech from the Throne:

"Canada’s children and grandchildren will judge this generation by its action—or inaction—on the defining challenge of the time: climate change."

As the saying goes, the more things change, the more they stay the same. There is a cruel irony in the similarity of these two strong commitments spaced almost 30 years apart. For, unfortunately, the consistency between Canada’s 1992 and 2019 commitments has been accompanied by an equally consistent lack of results. While all other G7 nations currently emit greenhouse gas emissions at levels that are lower than their 1990 levels, Canada’s emissions rose by 13% from 1990 to 2020. Canada’s words have not been put into action—a fundamental flaw that is at the heart of the “Lessons Learned From Canada’s Record on Climate Change” report that I presented for tabling in Parliament in November 2021.

With its new 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan, Canada is fully committed to “powering the economy with renewable electricity” and delivering “additional emission reductions from nature-based climate solutions,” such as habitat conservation and restoration. Canada clearly recognizes that the longer we live in a fossil?fuel?dependent past, the more we mortgage the future. The question is whether we will now meet the challenge of climate change head-on or perpetuate the gap between commitment and action.

Back in 1992, I concluded my paper with this optimistic passage:

"From the late 20th century came a glimmer of hope, some Homo sapiens started to realize that they were destroying the planet, they sought ways to heal their planet, they returned to the other surviving populations of Homo sapiens and asked them for help. They wondered how they could sustain their environment as these other populations had done. In 1992, many Homo sapiens gathered together to discuss their changed world. They gathered in a country called Brazil to try to find ways to heal their world. Again there was an air of optimism. Chapter 21 is as yet unwritten."

The history of the first two decades of the 21st century has since been written. Global temperatures have risen, and biodiversity is undergoing unprecedented and accelerating losses. Truly sustainable development still eludes us both globally and here in Canada, where, for example, Indigenous communities suffer disproportionately from the adverse effects of these crises. Even though we know how to effectively address both climate change and biodiversity loss, we have not done so; we are living another famous Dickensian contradiction: “It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.?.?.?.”

I am not as naively optimistic as I was in 1992, but I still hope that wisdom will win the day and that we will uphold our profound duties to future generations and all life on Earth. Will Chapter 21 look at all like the sustainable world envisioned three decades ago in Rio’s Agenda 21? Perhaps—but only if the next few pages of Chapter 21 include a welcome plot twist where Canada’s commitments are finally accompanied by immediate and effective actions.

Jerry DeMarco, Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development