Go Lean…Caribbean

Go Lean Commentary

It is good to have friends …

… people who share comradery with you, empathize with your challenges and are willing to collaborate with you on solutions.

For the Caribbean, when it comes to Climate Change concerns, we have that friend … Canada. Yippee!

But that was not always the case. This is now only possible because of new leadership. Back in 2015, Canada elected a new government and Prime Minister – Justin Trudeau. Out with the old, in with the new; see 2015 news article in Appendix below. Rather than “sticking their head in the sand” – this means you United States of America – Canada is “taking the reins” to forge attitudinal change among the world’s Great Powers.

But Canada’s motivation is more than just being the “leader of the pack”, they have real concerns, risks and threats:

Canada, the second largest country in the world by total area, is comprised by ten provinces and three territories. Canada also has the longest total coastline among all of the countries of the world, at 125,567 miles.
Countries With The Most Coastline – World Atlas 

If Climate Change is to continue unabated, this country has a lot to lose – catastrophic storms, melting ice caps, thawing permafrost and rising sea level.

Ditto for the Caribbean. (We similarly have lots of coastlines).

Truly, Canada can look at their Caribbean brethren – Canada’s shares the same British Colonial heritage with 18 of the 30 Caribbean member-states – and pronounce: Follow Me!

This declaration was truly the theme of the presentation by Catherine McKenna, Minister of Environment and Climate Change as she visited the US cities of Miami, Florida and Houston, Texas. Listen to the full AUDIO-Podcast news story here:

Newswire Title: Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Catherine McKenna, promotes NAFTA, climate action, and ocean protection, in Houston and Miami

Canada NewsWire – MIAMI, Jan. 24, 2018 – Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Catherine McKenna, travelled to Houston, Texas; and Miami, Florida, to promote NAFTA, increased collaboration on ocean health, coastal solutions, clean technology, and renewable energy opportunities.

In Houston, Minister McKenna met with the Mayor of Houston, Sylvester Turner. Mayor Turner is Co-Chair of US Climate Mayors, a coalition of 391 US mayors working together to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. They discussed NAFTA and the importance of the Canada-US trade relationship to the economy of Houston and of Texas. Texas sells $24.1 billion in goods and services to Canada, and 459 700 jobs depend on trade and investment with Canada. The Mayor noted that the city remains a global oil-and-gas centre while diversifying and taking advantage of the opportunity of clean growth and renewable energy.

During her visit to Houston, the Minister visited BP’s Wind Energy Remote Operations Center, where logistics and conditions for 16 wind farms across the US are monitored. Today, Texas produces more wind energy than any US state, and power generated by wind is expected to exceed coal-generated power in the state, in 2018.

As part of the Climate Campus tour, Minister McKenna visited the University of Houston, where she met with professors and students working on energy and environment law. She also met with researchers at the new Hurricane Resilience Research Institute created after Hurricane Harvey. The Institute is focused on issues including flood-mitigation management during severe storms and the building of resilient communities. Minister McKenna hosted a town hall at Texas A&M University at Galveston and met with ocean scientists looking at ocean health, energy, and maritime complex and visited one of the University’s ocean research vessels.

In Miami, Minister McKenna emphasized the importance of NAFTA to the Florida economy at a round table with Florida businesses and trade associations and in discussions with the Mayor of South Miami, Philip Stoddard. Canada is Florida’s most important economic partner. Each year, Canada and Florida trade $8 billion worth of goods, and 620 000 jobs in Florida depend on trade with Canada.

Minister McKenna met with representatives of NextEra Energy, Inc., North America’s largest generator of energy from wind and sun and the third-largest utility in the US. They discussed opportunities for further investment by NextEra Energy in Canada’s North as well as in provinces such as Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario.

The Minister visited the Brickell City Centre Climate Ribbon and the City of Miami Beach Convention Center. These two sites showcase how the city is adapting to sea-level rise and more frequent, intense, and prolonged tidal flooding exacerbated by climate change. The Climate Ribbon, which was designed in part by Guelph-based company RWDI, spans the length of three city blocks and acts as an architectural air conditioner in the summer and umbrella when it rains.

The City of Miami Beach Convention Center has the world’s single-largest pumping station, which removes displaced groundwater that is surging due to rising sea levels. The Convention Center is home to a living sea wall and natural mangroves, which help to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of flooding caused by climate change.

The Minister also convened a round table of ocean and environmental experts to discuss Canada’s G7 presidency focus on ocean protection and marine litter.

Quotes
“My meetings in Houston and Miami reinforced the strong ties between Canada and these important Canadian partners on trade and the environment. I was heartened to see the shared commitment by local governments and business to NAFTA and the good middle-class jobs it creates in both countries. It was also incredible to see the transition of the economies of both Houston and Miami toward clean growth and to meet with innovative clean-energy and clean-technology companies, many of which are looking at investment opportunities in Canada. I was also impressed by the leadership from the mayors of both Houston and Miami on climate change as well as the efforts to build more communities more resilient to extreme weather events.” – Catherine McKenna, Minister of Environment and Climate Change

View original content: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/January2018/24/c5640.html

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AUDIO-Podcast – Canadian Minister Of Environment And Climate Change Visits Miami – https://soundcloud.com/wlrn/444pm-canadian-minister-of-environment-and-climate-change-visits-miami

Published on February 5, 2018 – The Canadian Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Catherine McKenna, promotes Climate Action and ocean protection in Miami.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean and accompanying blogs have asserted that the threat of Climate Change is real. There is no scientific doubt of this reality – just consider the destructive realities of this past hurricane season – the only doubt is political. If the US wants to deny this reality, they do so at their own peril – remember the American territory of Puerto Rico. Canada is prepared to take the lead, to put the Western Hemisphere on its shoulders and carry the load for arresting Climate Change.

Thank you Canada for this model. Now, we – the Caribbean – need to step up to carry our own load for better mitigation of Climate Change threats; we need to do our part in lowering our own carbon footprint. We can make a difference. Canada can make a difference. As related in a previous blog-commentary, the same as the threat of Acid Rain was subjugated, so too, curative measures can be put in place to lower the greenhouse gases in the environment. This is why Canada has a Champion for the Environment – Catherine McKenna – at the Cabinet level.

Good model …

The book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free – prepares the Caribbean region for the heavy-lifting of monitoring, managing and mitigating the acute risks of Climate Change to the environment from a Caribbean perspective. These Climate Change threats are real for us: Global Warming and rising sea-levels. We must act now! Though no Caribbean country is among the BIG polluters, we must still act, just so that we are not hypocritical … and provide a good model ourselves.

Then there are the economic issues. Catherine McKenna, in the foregoing presentation to Miami officials, related that there is no need for a trade-off between environment and economics. No, it can be economically sound, and even advantageous, to cater to environmental needs. Imagine the fuel cost savings from alternative energy options, new industrial expressions for transportation solutions and construction jobs for retrofitting previous structures.

The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the elevation of Caribbean society – for all member-states. This CU/Go Lean roadmap has these 3 prime directives:

• Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs.
• Establishment of a security apparatus to ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines.
• Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies.

The effort to reform and transform the Caribbean societal engines as a regional pursuit has always been among the motivations of this Go Lean roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 13):

i. Whereas the earth’s climate has undeniably changed resulting in more severe tropical weather storms, it is necessary to prepare to insure the safety and security of life, property and systems of commerce in our geographical region. As nature recognizes no borders in the target of its destruction, we also must set aside border considerations in the preparation and response to these weather challenges.

iii. Whereas the natural formation of the landmass for our society is that of an archipelago of islands, inherent to this nature is the limitation of terrain and the natural resources there in. We must therefore provide “new guards” and protections to ensure the efficient and effective management of these resources.

iv. Whereas the natural formation of the landmass is in a tropical region, the flora and fauna allows for an inherent beauty that is enviable to peoples near and far. The structures must be strenuously guarded to protect and promote sustainable systems of commerce paramount to this reality.

xi. Whereas all men are entitled to the benefits of good governance in a free society, “new guards” must be enacted to dissuade the emergence of incompetence, corruption, nepotism and cronyism at the peril of the people’s best interest. The Federation must guarantee the executions of a social contract between government and the governed.

xvi. Whereas security of our homeland is inextricably linked to prosperity of the homeland, the economic and security interest of the region needs to be aligned under the same governance. Since economic crimes … can imperil the functioning of the wheels of commerce for all the citizenry, the accedence of this Federation must equip the security apparatus with the tools and techniques for predictive and proactive interdictions.

xxiv. Whereas a free market economy can be induced and spurred for continuous progress, the Federation must install the controls to better manage aspects of the economy: jobs, inflation, savings rate, investments and other economic principles. Thereby attracting direct foreign investment because of the stability and vibrancy of our economy.

The Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to monitor, manage and mitigate the challenges of Climate Change. The book also present lessons from Canada. One advocacy specifically focuses on the path of wisdom Canada undertook during the course of its 150-year history. That advocacy (Page 146) is entitled: 10 Lessons from Canada’s History; consider some specific plans, excerpts and headlines from that advocacy in the book:

In addition, the book presents these Appendices that details more examples of prudence in Canada’s history:

• Appendix UA – St. Lawrence Waterway (Page 308)
• Appendix UB – Canadian Pacific Railway (Page 309)

Lastly, these previous blog-commentaries detail a lot of the issues and developments in the quest for the Caribbean to lower our own carbon footprint and mitigate for Climate Change. See this sample:

We must learn from Canada and prepare for new governmental leadership to shepherd our homeland. We have the heavy-lifting task of championing Climate Change, to minimize further damage to our region. We have no further excuse! We know that the US will not take the lead in this regards; we must look elsewhere and within!

Now is the time for all of the Caribbean – the people, businesses, institutions and governments – to lean-in for the optimizations and opportunities to abate Climate Change and to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap. This emulates Canada.

We must stand-up for ourselves; and while “things are bad” environmentally; the Caribbean disposition will only get worse if nothing is done. We must start this quest ourselves! While this quest is easier said than done, and takes a lot of heavy-lifting, it is conceivable, believable and achievable to make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

Download the free e-book of Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

Sign the petition to lean-in for this roadmap for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation.

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Appendix – Climate change ‘important priority,’ Canada’s new environment minister says

The international community is “really excited” to see Canada back at the table for climate change talks in Paris, Canada’s new environment and climate change minister said Tuesday.

Catherine McKenna, who is in Paris meeting with environment and energy ministers from around the world in advance of the UN climate change conference, said the Canadian delegation has received a “huge reception” and she has made it clear that climate change will be a “very important priority” for the new Liberal government.

“We haven’t been at these types of climate negotiations and what I’ve learned is that there’s a real appetite to get a global framework, a new global framework to tackle climate change,” McKenna said Tuesday. “But there’s still a lot of work to do.”

Former prime minister Stephen Harper skipped the UN climate change summit in New York last year, but he did send his environment minister. Under the Conservative government, Canada withdrew from the Kyoto agreement that required developed countries to reduce their emissions by 2012.

See the rest of the article at this link here:
Source: Posted November 10, 2015; retrieved February 6, 2018 from: https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/climate-change-important-priority-canada-s-new-environment-minister-says-1.2651321

Related 2015 VIDEO:

Published November 10, 2015 – Minister of Environment and Climate Change Catherine McKenna says she “will do whatever she can” to help the climate talks.