Ugh! Oi! And, Onward!
I wonder if scientists ever succumb to saying, “I told you so!” when there is irrefutable evidence that they were right.
Ugh.
July 2nd, 2026
Dear Prime Minister Carney,
Well! That was a Canada Day for the books! As a former Ottawan, I was obsessively watching the unprecedented storms destroy our Capital’s beloved Canada Day celebrations. What a coincidence that these biblical level storms hit the day that you announced that you were reneging on our climate goals and that Canada’s emissions will be going up rather than down.
Storms like that make you wonder. If you're religiously inclined, you might think that God was sending you a direct message about neglecting your responsibility to direct our country in a greener direction. Or, perhaps some people might consider it instant karma for choosing to pursue the path of planetary destruction. Of course, the most obvious conclusion would be that yesterday’s epic storms are the logical outcome of our decades-long science experiment of the effects of extracting and burning fossil fuels. I wonder if scientists ever succumb to saying, “I told you so!” when there is irrefutable evidence that they were right. Yesterday’s storms definitely warranted a gloating “I told you so!” from the climate science community. Maybe it’s time we started to pay attention to them.
I doubt you will read my letters, and I also doubt they will have any effect on your decisions to burn our planet down while 'building up the economy', but I am going to keep writing to you. As a mother and as a responsible citizen, I consider it my duty to speak up against dangerous policies. I want to be able to look my children in the eye and let them know that I did everything I could to save the planet for them, even when my efforts feel futile.
Ever hopeful, Jessica Duncan (she/her)
Federal investments in housing, transit, and health projects sure sound great, but at what price? At the price of another fucking pipeline snaking through Indigenous communities and spewing bitumen (or whatever) onto ships that will cross our beloved oceans (and hope they don't spill). Another fucking pipeline to transport the oil (or is it bitumen?) that Danielle Smith is desperate to pump out of the tar sands oil patch until she's capitalized on every last drop. Another fucking pipeline that is a 100% commitment to and investment in guaranteed climate collapse. Another fucking pipeline that our planet simply cannot afford.
Oh! And LNG! LNG for days. LNG like there's no tomorrow (which they are fervently manifesting with their fossil fuel addictions). These dudes drank the LNG Kool-Aid, fell for the lies, succumbed to the oil & gas lobby who seem to have convinced them that LNG is clean energy when all science points to the opposite conclusion. LNG is deadly.
Between the Weather Gods throwing a tornado-strength storm at Carney's Canada Day celebrations and sabotaging Trump's hijacking of America's 250th birthday bash with heat domes, hail storms, thunder & lightning like we've not seen before, you'd think one of these knuckleheads might start getting the message: LEAVE IT IN THE GROUND. I'm not holding my breath for a change of directions from those in power, but I'm also not going to stop fighting for it.
Oi!
Oi! What a mess! For far too long we have allowed the world to be ruled by dicks and that is how we have ended up here where millions of people suffer through poverty, live unhoused, and struggle just to survive, while our governments spend billions upon billions of dollars to prop up the war machine and subsidize the gazillion dollar extraction industries. More and more of us understand that it doesn't have to be this way, that war and destruction are not inevitable, but are choices made by a small, select demographic that profits off these systems.
This mess we're in is the result of bad choices. And, a lack of imagination. In this week's planetary round up, my fave astrologer Chani Nicholas basically explains that July is going to be a battle of imaginations, and she asks, "Whose imagination is going to win?" We have the techbros imagining total domination through total destruction. We have the various global political leaders whose imagination, when it comes to dealing with Captain Demento, is limited to more of the same shit that got us here.
And we have a growing swell of folk like you and me who recognize that these systems suck and we are hard at work, collectively imagining something so much better. We are imagining a world where we know how to care for each other, for the planet and for all its inhabitants. We are imagining a world that chooses peace over violence. We are imagining a more equitable and just world. Personally, I imagine that it's the artists - the musicians, the painters, the poets, the poster makers - who are helping us envision the world we want to live in, but it's up to all of us to make it reality. It's up to all of us to make sure our imagination wins this battle. Time to dream big.
Onward!
Because, what else can we do, but keep trying to save this world for future generations? We cannot possibly know what the results of our efforts will look like, and we can probably assume that they won't be exactly what we want, but we can know for certain that if we do nothing to stop the oligarchs and techbros and tyrants, the results will definitely be disastrous. And, so we march onward, building community, protesting idiocy, supporting the people and things we care about, loving our world.
Look up. Look down. The messages we need are everywhere.
I mean, you don't have to scale the Empire State Building to get your message across. Sidewalk chalking is a much more accessible way to effectively share inspiration. Or you can do something like what my friend Marianne does with her letters to her neighbourhood (you can still pre-order her book that is a collection of her letters and recipes and is such a beautiful example of community building!). In the immortal words from this Indivisible Sonoma County quilt: Start where you are. Rest often. Keep going.
Nothing is impossible. Things are not hopeless. They are tough as all get out, exhausting beyond belief, and truly heartbreaking, but not hopeless. We keep doing whatever we can to make this world safer, kinder, fairer, and more loving. Onward!
Ever hopeful and full of love,
Jessica (she/her)
