Dr. Kate Ervine, The Carbon Cage
When you think of your carbon footprint, you may think of your daily commute or home energy consumption. One Saint Mary’s professor is shedding light on the other unseen ways we contribute to greenhouse gas emissions every day.
Kate Ervine is an associate professor of Global Development Studies. Last November, her short documentary, “The Carbon Cage,” was published by Scientific American.
“Perhaps we can start reimagining a world where we reprioritize things that contribute to people’s well-being” - Dr. Kate Ervine
Ervine co-created the documentary with journalist and documentary filmmaker Duy Linh Tu through a grant from the Global Reporting Centre. It highlights how wealthy countries like the United States and Canada have become trapped in a cycle of fossil fuel reliance, and how attempts to combat climate change sometimes don’t address the root of the problem.
“I set out to explore the global political economy of climate change and the centrality of carbon to our economies, our society and our lives, and why that makes climate change hard to address,” says Ervine.
“It's not that we're not doing some effective things, but there’s a lot of delay and distraction.”
Ervine traces the roots of contemporary climate change to the rise of our current economic system during the Industrial Revolution. Since then, demands for unchecked growth in production, consumption and energy use have contributed to record-high CO2 emissions.
Ervine’s documentary shows that the last time Earth experienced similar levels of atmospheric CO2 was more than four million years ago.
“Fossil fuels have become central to powering economic growth,” says Ervine. “They still provide roughly 80 per cent of global energy.”
Changing this system is no easy task. Ervine worked her way through university and graduate school with jobs at an automotive assembly plant and steel mill in her home province of Ontario. These jobs were in carbon-intensive industries, but they provided her—and other families—with a secure livelihood.
“It's a challenge when we're talking about the kinds of deep transformations that need to happen because so many people's lives are going to be impacted in profound ways,” Ervine says. “It can provoke a lot of fear because you're asking, ‘What does this mean for my job? What does it mean for my family?’”
Ervine’s research looks at how just transitions and sustainable development for all might be possible within the context of carbon dependency.
For Ervine, cutting emissions is key to combatting climate change. But as the effects of climate change have worsened, she says these reductions are not happening fast enough.
Ervine points to investments in things like carbon offsets as a way businesses and governments are delaying real, lasting change. In recent years, voluntary carbon offsetting has ballooned to a more than $2-billion industry. But research shows significant problems with carbon offsetting, which doesn’t actually lower emissions.
“Part of my research has been about saying, when we know what needs to be done and how significant the problem is, why do we design policies that are not particularly effective?” says Ervine.
As we look forward to a changing future, Ervine says more investments need to be made in phasing out fossil fuels and laying the groundwork for transformative and equitable change. Democratic green energy, accessible mass public transit and sustainable food systems are just some of our many options.
“Perhaps we can start reimagining a world where we reprioritize things that contribute to people’s well-being,” says Ervine. “It does require change, but we might actually get some pleasure and joy out of it.”