"Authoritarianism, Oil, Gas, Death, Wildfires and War"

Could Conviviality, Craic, and Regenerative Art and Science help us bring out our collective creativity, find safe havens, calm our emotional storms, and co-create an ecological civilization?

I think many of us can agree that addiction to alcohol, opiates, cocaine, and other chemicals tears families and friends apart. Many chemicals fuel all kinds of brutal, cruel, deviant and sadistic behaviours. As a clinical hematologist, the body and the physical world matter to me. I know that life is complex, fragile, and human life is short, at least compared to some of our tree friends.

For decades, my concern about our collective deep addiction to plastic, fast food, fast fashion, unreal “ reality” shows, soap operas, Facebook, Twitter, now called X, video games, and now ChatGPT and Temu has increased. Yesterday, former Canadian Minister for Health, Mark Holland, spoke with empathy and wisdom in an interview about the current decline in the lifespans of men in Canada and how suicide is rising.

This is a crucial and sensitive topic to discuss and address. Loneliness and inactivity are increasingly recognized as significant risk factors for poor health, and grief is a real killer. Yet we humans are resilient and can heal from heartbreak with warm and wise support. Now, tragically, just when Western scientific medicine is beginning to open to the ancient idea that our heart rules our heads, vaccine science is under massive attack.

So, where is all this increase in cruelty, destructiveness and sadism originating from? How does our lack of appreciation of the power of our emotions and feelings link to our addiction to consumption, convenience and online shopping? What fools us and tricks us into thinking we must destroy our Canadian and Swedish boreal forests, lakes, rivers, prairies, and oceans to maintain our high standard of living?

When the heroic Ukrainian Svitlana Kaskova addressed members of “The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change” from her home in Kyiv in late February 2022, she was forced to withdraw from the approval session of the latest report. Midway through her presentation, Svetlana was forced to run to hide in her basement with her family members because the invasion of Ukraine, planned by President Vladimir Putin, meant that bombs were dropping near her home.

In my humble opinion, she hit the nail on the head when she said that “Human-induced climate change and the war in Ukraine have the same roots: fossil fuels and our dependence on them”. I would put addiction to the idea that we need to export energy to thrive, high on the list of the most life-threatening misinformation floating around Canadian airways lately. Russia is one of the world’s biggest oil and gas producers.

The vast amount of money generated from the sale of these fossil fuels has likely made Putin one of the wealthiest people alive. It has funded all his military attacks on his neighbours, followed by his invasion of Ukraine. Putin is not concerned about the idea of global warming, as it enables his navy to have access to water throughout the year. Truth be told, a majority of world leaders prefer to overlook our now irreversible climate emergency.

2024 was the hottest year on record. We have already breezed past the hoped-for core rise of 1.5 degrees. Canadians never took that number seriously because much wilder temperature fluctuations occur in Canada. Until now, no truly charismatic and popular Canadian has figured out how to speak truthfully to Canadians about our collective ecological illiteracy. Until 2021, I had no idea that environmental literacy was a thing.

Like many modern, educated professionals, I never focused on nature or the weather. Even now, my capacity to recognize our friends, the trees, is, to say the least, fair, although I am now at least trying. I was not always so incapacitated. As a child, I loved playing and wandering around the beautiful Howth Head, taking in the glorious views. In 1985, when I arrived as an Irish trainee in pediatric Hematology/Oncology at the Hospital for Sick Children, I was amazed at the livability and beauty of Toronto.

Unlike my peers, I excitedly signed up twice to work in Sioux Lookout and wished to meet First Nations Canadians. There, I was appalled by the conditions in which First Nations peoples lived on reserves. Upon returning to train further at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, I sought advice from Canadians on books to read about Canada.

In 1985, however, the lovely people I met who hailed from diverse backgrounds all laughed and told me that Canada was “a new country”, and all I needed to know was that Canadians are polite and say Ah often. I was mystified to be told that I came from “an old country” and that Canada was “a new country.” I thought that we all live on one planet, so how could one region have a different age than another?

I found it especially odd as people who hailed from diverse Asian, British, Caribbean and European backgrounds all smiled cheerfully when I looked bemused and assured me that discussing religion and politics was rude and that Canada was a new country, barely more than a hundred years old and that all that mattered was the economy. In 1985, I found Toronto to be a stunningly beautiful, clean, safe, high-functioning city.

Now, as I read Charlie Angus’s book called “ Dangerous Memories, “ I am amazed. He seems to have come from a different planet than most of the people I met while working on staff at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. I found most people were outstandingly dedicated and hard-working. I met few, if any, duds or slackers. Most people were kind and helpful, and also had sky-high standards of professional practice.

I met a few creeps, but only a few. When I asked people to suggest books to read about Canada, no one ever came through with a suggestion. Fortunately, although neoliberalism now recommends that everyone check out Canadian writers who write from a First Nation, Métis, Inuit, French Canadian, or any other hybrid or two-eyed seeing perspective, as well as the talks and books created to accompany the amazing CBC Massey Lectures.

Now, in contrast to when I first arrived, I can no longer keep track of all the great books written in Canada that I so wish to read. This year’s Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Canada Reads was extraordinary, so it seems to me that the challenges that were hidden when I first arrived are now rightfully on full display, and this is wonderful. I hope these will soon be added to high school book lists.