All the papers last week were abuzz about an op-ed written by now-backbench Conservative MP Maxime Bernier. Writing how climate change is an unsure thing indeed, he said his party was on the right track by playing it cool in Copenhagen.

He was roundly criticized by Canadian media and bloggers. Globe contributor Robert Silver called him Canada’s Sarah Palin. The National Post’s article on the matter began with Environment Minister Jim Prentice stating that the Harper government did not share Bernier’s skeptical position on the science. And Sun Media writer Lorrie Goldstein’s article, Mad Max makes sense on climate change, stated: “The good news is Harper is better on climate change than the opposition parties. The bad news is, that’s not saying much.”

Wait a minute. Harper not strong enough on climate change? Sounds like something we’ve been saying for a while.

Goldstein, however, thinks he hasn’t rejected climate change enough. Even believing in the evidence is too much.
But that’s okay, who reads the Sun anyway?

Oh right, lots of people.

Sun Media Corp. is Canada’s largest newspaper publisher, having eaten up dozens of mainstream dailies and hundreds of other community papers. It reaches over 10 million Canadians.

Bernier’s view was echoed by Conservative bloggers and comments in online articles. There was significant talk of Bernier setting up a future leadership run for the Conservative Party.

Move over to provincial politics and Ontario’s Conservatives have already chosen their Bernier. Leader Tim Hudak, elected last year, is a right-winger through and through. The Party’s environmental platform is perhaps yet to be hashed out for the next election, but there are rumours that the Green Energy Act—a new staple of support for renewable energy projects in the province—might be something Hudak would repeal.

This would be made politically salable by the unexpectedly strong pressure from supposed grassroots organization, Wind Concerns Ontario, which has branches in towns across the province. Hundreds come out to environmental assessment meetings to oppose wind establishment in their areas. These people are finding a friend in Tim Hudak.

Similarly, the Ontario Landowners Association is one to watch. The organization is another collection of rural groups from across the province with a membership 15,000 strong who support policies that may appear radical or American to their urban friends. And though some are good stewards of their land, they may not be interested in hearing about climate policy.

Although Randy Hillier, first president of the Association, lost soundly to Hudak in the Party’s leadership bid, its strong anti-Liberal message of rural land rights and ability to bus people to meetings may give Hudak the desire to lean on it in the next election. Having been in a room of rural Ontarians during a presentation by climate change skeptic Patrick Moore, I know that there is a widespread desire to hear and believe in the other side.

Drilling down one more level to municipal politics, Rocco Rossi, former National Director of the Liberal Party of Canada and inner-circle advisor to Michael Ignattieff has thrown his hat in the ring for Toronto Mayor, promising to ditch bike lanes and pause the city’s ambitious transit plan. After having taken Al Gore’s climate presentation training, this so-called “liberal” is looking to plan a city without the critical infrastructure necessary to support a safer method of travel for both cyclists and drivers, ditching a key urban carbon reduction measure.

But could it work for him? With commuting cyclists currently making up a very small proportion of residents, a move to make driving even appear more convenient, in a time when traffic jams clog Toronto morning streets, might be politically expedient in many Toronto neighbourhoods.

The United States is undergoing a strong movement of its far-right known as the Tea Party, described in a weekend article by Frank Rich. Rich warns to take the group seriously. The Tea Party has got people in the U.S. talking, and its mainstream conservative party getting nervous.

American writer Chris Hedges gives his answer to the movement and the weakness of Barack Obama (at Copenhagen and beyond), in a piece yesterday stating that the progressive left and the Democrats have succumbed to cowardice and have lost their energy. He urges a move back to third parties on the left, suggesting that a credible alternative to the state of the economy and society is what is most needed to bring the public onside, not liberals talking about policy all the time.

And so in the rural revolution and climate change deniers and their supportive media and blogs, Canadians may have our version of the Tea Party. While Americans, politics may be their hockey at the moment, we too may soon have an excited right which could pit itself against climate progress at a level that even Stephen Harper won’t touch. And whether that means bringing rural landowners in for climate consultation or starting a socialist revolution, it sounds like something worth planning for.

A visitor looks at Darren Almond's art installation entitled 'Tide, 2008' comprising of 567 digital wall clocks is displayed at the Royal Academy of Arts 'Earth: Art of a Changing World' exhibition on December 1, 2009 in London. New and recent work from 35 artists and a selection of commissions from emerging artists is on display at the Royal Academy from December 3, 2009 to January 31, 2010. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

The results from a recent study seems to perfectly illustrate Canada’s increasing confusion on climate change. While Canadians agreed that “climate change is the planet’s defining crisis”, when given a list of arguments used on either side of the climate change debate, there was a surprising amount of belief that both arguments held some truth.

How can we agree that it is such a global, widespread and important issue to label it our “defining crisis,” yet still debate whether or not it exists? Our fight-or-flight instincts seem a little slow to react. Generally speaking, the appropriate response to crisis is action.

The more information we get about climate change, the more confusion seems to swirl around it. Copenhagen was supposed to be the Climate Change Conference that would bring an international agreement before it was written off as scarcely more than a sit down between government administrators, incapable of producing any international treaty. Stephen Harper was assumed to be attending, then said he wouldn’t go, and now will attend at least for one day. And then there’s “Climategate.” After over 1,000 emails of international climatologists were hacked into, a few statements found that ought to only discredit a few specific scientists is instead being used to discredit the whole body of climate change research.

Always suckers for a scandal, it’s been easy for people to get caught up in such nonsense without acknowledging that the source who hacked into the email database to begin with likely had worse motivations than the scientists trying to emphasize the importance of climate change to a generally confused public.

What’s unfortunate is that the confusion is accomplishing what it set out to: distract from the substance of the climate change debate instead of focusing on issues that were generally agreed upon by the scientific community years ago. The fact of the matter is, while people don’t seem to know or agree what our carbon reduction targets are or ought to be, and maybe can’t say what they expect to come out of Copenhagen, they do believe in climate change. We’re getting down to the wire and it’s time to cut through the bullshit and make some decisions.

All of us who believe in and worry about climate change are going to have to make that much more noise to drown out the email hackers and conspiracy theorists who would like to paint the picture that all of those concerned about our future are part of a “Big Green” scam and funnel our money to Al Gore. Instead of wasting our time acknowledging the transparent attempts to discredit climate change, it’s time we leave this nonsense behind and focus on action. Luckily, it seems that at the heart of it, Canadians really do realize that climate change is a crisis. It’s long past time for the “action” piece of the puzzle.

Canada has been a hotspot for international climate activists this week. We’ve got Al Gore in Toronto, warning among other things that using tar sands oil takes away any advantages of greening our vehicle fleet. Then there’s Britain’s George Monbiot speaking this Saturday at the University of Toronto (2-4PM) on the “Countdown to Copenhagen: Who in Canada is Killing the International Climate Treaty?” Possibly even more interesting will be Tuesday night’s Munk Debate with Monbiot, Elizabeth May, and on the pro-climate change side, Bjorn Lomborg and Lord Nigel Lawson.

Lots of potential inspiration to elicit further action.

With the announcement that Barack Obama will be attending the Copenhagen talks and bringing hard carbon reduction targets with him, and that Canada’s Parliament passed a resolution that we too must bring strong targets, allow me to provide two more suggestions for action this week, in hopes of putting the political pressure on Harper to make him do it.

Rebecca noted Tuesday that Prime Ministerial phone lines were blocked by Mississauga students calling for climate action. They politely refrained when someone from the office apparently asked them to stop calling, but by then the point was made.

To add to actions to be taken by supporters of the Canadian Youth Delegation and others, how about we all do the same? Organize an event and call: (613) 992-4211. Already hosting a talk? Get everyone’s cell phones out. How about a school democracy project like the one in Mississauga?

My last columns have suggested action by getting religious, rural and other groups on board to achieve climate results in the political realm. There are many high-profile folks who could be encouraged to write open letters to the Prime Minister or to newspapers for action. Since religious organizations are good places to get support, how about starting with the United Church of Canada and move right from there? Their national leader has called for climate action before.

Municipal leaders in Tory ridings, agricultural organizations and service clubs like Rotary could go a long way in lending their hand—but they likely need a nudge from you. I challenge some folks to start writing and posting their letters here, giving each other a hand in getting the work done.

Further action in the West may be starting, as both Environment Minister Jim Prentice and former Environment Minister Rona Ambrose both had their offices occupied this week by climate activists, including by a 70-something professor emeritus.

And contrary to some recent comments I’ve received to my column — I don’t worship the alter of former American President uh, Vice-President Al Gore. But I do think, if we don’t succeed in getting the Conservatives on board, we might do ourselves a favour and try acting a little crazy.

Lauryn Drainie: advocating for small island nations whose voices have been lost in the climate fight

[Editor’s note: Every month, Eco-Chamber profiles an environmental activist from Canada or abroad, called “Eco-Warriors.” These profiles are a collection of stories Emily is working on for a book called The Next Eco-Warriors.]

In a matter of 10 months, she went from eco-nobody to climate justice crusader. Attempting to put island nations back on the map of our climate future. She shows that it’s not just the scientists, politicians and eco-celebs like Al Gore who are making waves.

As a new activist in the ‘eco-warrior’ world, Lauryn Drainie, a 21-year-old Japanese-Canadian, fell into climate justice work unexpectedly. Though she had no in-depth knowledge or background in the climate cause, she was chosen to be a Canadian youth delegate at the Poznan, Poland climate conference last December . What happened there changed her life.

“At the negotiations, I was shocked at the extent to which Small Island Developing States (SIDS) were marginalized,” says Drainie.

It was in Poznan that she realized the problem with the 2°C-degree global temperature rise target that is deemed “acceptable” by many climate experts. That target, while it would help save many inland ecologies, would leave many of the SIDS uninhabitable as the sea level rises. These already marginalized groups are on the brink of literally losing their homelands, their livelihoods, their cultures and languages as climate refugees.

This is what economists call an “opportunity cost.” The opportunity: for us in the well-to-do West to leave some margin of error and gradually reduce our emissions over the next few decades. The cost: up to 130 million people becoming climate refuges in the next 50 years. The scientific consensus, numerous environmental groups and wealthy governments around the world have all decided this is a cost worth paying – but most of those people won’t be affected nearly as quickly as SIDS.

Drainie says this 2°C degree target is mostly deemed acceptable because the SIDS and other developing countries have little clout at these climate talks. In her accounts of Poznan, she discovered that SIDS leaders were provided cheap accommodations with no telephones, TVs or even e-mail access, while the higher-ups were given penthouses with all the amenities. The SIDS were almost literally in the dark, unable to communicate the threat they face.

Lauryn Drainie and other Youth Delegates offers a placard to the Environment Minister of Nepal, while blocking the entrance to the negotiations room. Photo Credit: Robert van Waarden

To make the voiceless heard at the conference, the Youth Coalition, which included Drainie, blocked the doors of the conference house on day five, forcing country representatives to talk with them. In that moment, they negotiated with these representatives to sign on to a Survival Principle in the Post-2012 climate treaty, a principle that safeguards the survival of all countries and all peoples.

Ninety countries signed on and the Youth Coalition received supporters from such prominent individuals as Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai. The next morning, they found that the newly released Ministerial Summary Document on Shared Vision had the Survival Principle included. They had single-handedly put the marginalized back at the discussion table.

Today, Drainie is coordinating a climate justice speaking tour across Canada with SIDS community leaders, giving countless speeches herself on the plight of SIDS and is helping put together a book celebrating these vibrant cultures that may be forever lost due to climate change. The fight is still far from being won for SIDS and other marginalized groups, but this newbie eco-warrior is helping climate leaders hear those who need it most urgently.

Emily Hunter is an environmental journalist and This Magazine’s resident eco-blogger. She is currently working on a book about young environmental activism, The Next Eco-Warriors, and is the eco-correspondent to MTV News Canada.