BEYOND THE EDGE

Time for Canadians to get serious about decarbonization and protecting biodiversity, according to this luminous eco-manifesto.

Dale, a professor emerita at Royal Roads University, warns that urgent action is needed to avoid irremediable harms from global warming and species loss. She suggests that the Canadian government set wildly ambitious goals, including achieving carbon neutrality by 2030, ending all government support for fossil fuel production, and devoting half the country’s land to biodiversity protection. Individuals should do their part too, she continues, by planting lawns with indigenous plants, shopping at farmers markets, and cutting back on meat. Her ideas open out into a wider progressive vision of economic and social sustainability and equality: Society should aim for “degrowth” that steadily lightens consumption’s burden on the land; the wealth of the rich should be redistributed through high taxes; the government should guarantee everyone a basic income to cushion people against the economic disruptions of decarbonization and ensure material sufficiency for all. A major theme here is the need for better messaging to combat climate denialism and complacency and convince people to act, which she provides through a lucid, fact-filled tour of scholarship on everything from planetary limits to housing costs. Dale’s prose is limpid and down-to-earth, emphasizing practicalities while adding evocative grace notes that bring eco-consciousness to life. (“After a rainfall, take the time to move the live worm from the pavement to the grass. Add refuse to the first of the 4 Rs, recognizing the power of your consumption choices. Speak up when you see something unsustainable at your local neighbourhood store. Talk to the manager about more regenerative options, ask about more sustainable choices, and keep speaking up and out.”) The book is illustrated with color reproductions of painter Nancyanne Cowell’s landscapes, which feature still waters beneath fluttering birds and undulant mists, backgrounded by green forests or city sunsets; these images provide a haunting visual accompaniment to Dale’s reflections.

A provocative, informed, and compelling brief for the protection of a beautiful, imperiled world.