Ep. 316: Is there such a thing as a good war?

Guest: Seth Klein, author

Is there such a thing as a good war?

According to Seth Klein, there is, especially when the enemy poses an existential threat to not just human life but the world as we know it. For Klein, that enemy is anthropogenic climate change and he says we need to rally the Canadian government and its citizens in a war on CO2 emissions.

Klein dug into the strategies used during the Second World War and discovered how wartime propaganda and community efforts can be repurposed today for a Green New Deal. He contends that a rapid transition to a carbon neutral or even a carbon-zero future is possible and that transition “will create jobs and reduce inequality while tackling climate change.”

Is Klein’s belief that we can come together to mobilize in a wartime fashion misguided? He says no – “The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates something powerful because we named the crisis and responded in a wartime-scale action. That creates a new sense of shared purpose, a renewed unity, and liberates a level of political action that seemed previously impossible.” In other words, Klein says we can do this.

We invited Seth Klein, the author of “A Good War,” to join us for a Conversation That Matters about why he says it's time to mobilize the intellectual, financial and natural resources of this country to defeat climate change.