There are three ways that Globe and Mail columnist Lawrence Martin tries to convince us to accept new pipelines and consequently a world in which we are worse off.

First, he insists we choose between our heart and our head, implying that a healthy economy is contingent on being heartless. Certainly a bleak proposition.

Second, he insists on the choice between environmental protection and economic development, implying that we need to sacrifice our environment in order to create jobs.

The third way Martin asks readers to lower their expectations, and this one is by omission, is that he does not say how he imagines we will reach the climate targets set out in Paris. Since we can’t hope to reach our targets if we continue to build new pipelines and extract more tar sands crude, this implies that we should not be tackling climate change, or maybe even that climate change is not real.

If all of these arguments were true, we’d be living in an awful world, a place where a few are better off than most, where inequality continues to thrive and where our heads remain planted firmly in the sand. We cannot hope to build a healthy economy for the future without our environment.

Fossil economics

While Martin was busy admonishing Trudeau, he ably pinpointed one of the major weaknesses of our economy: our over-reliance on resource extraction. This has simultaneously driven profits outside of Canada, increased inequality and precarious employment, and exposed our economy to wavering global oil prices, plunging it into crisis after crisis. As Martin points out, Alberta was indeed “brought to its knees,” but for this we’ve got low oil prices and corporate interests pushing a one-track resource economy to blame.

The status quo on pipelines and resource extraction only benefits industry CEOs and shareholders.

Forgive me then if I conclude that doubling down on our biggest economic weakness is not a rational option. Head and heart should dictate that we need to find ways to alleviate this economic weakness, not reinforce it.

While Martin perhaps dreams of going back to the climate-denying days of pipeline-cheerleader-in-chief Harper, action on climate offers us both solutions and opportunities. This is what Trudeau needs to embrace. He needs to take on the project of building a healthy economy that provides jobs that really protect the environment, leaving a promising future for our children and generations to come, while making sure nobody is left behind.

The status quo on pipelines and resource extraction only benefits industry CEOs and shareholders. Most of us have already lost too much and stand to win much more from a healthier economy based on real climate solutions rooted in justice.

A new, climate-friendly economy

Why settle and compromise for a few jobs, some extra oil, and some devastated landscapes and livelihoods, when we can tap into a greater collective project that fights climate change?

Renewable energy offers us the opportunity to democratize the way we produce and manage our energy, blowing away the age-old corporate driven, top-down fossil fuel energy reality. The bonus? We can get more jobs out of it, better jobs, jobs that are closer to home for many.

“We need to embrace a real climate strategy that includes an industrial transition strategy.”

Climate-friendly mass public transit projects within and between cities also have the potential to employ many people, and transform the way we move people and transport goods across Canada and North America.

Furthermore, residential and commercial construction and renovation, and the very design of our neighbourhoods, can be revolutionized to lead the way towards climate solutions and energy efficiency.

Finally, these propositions also offer us the opportunity to transfer professional and industrial skills that are already being used in the current fossil fuel economy to serve a new, climate-friendly economy. To tap into this, we need to embrace a real climate strategy that includes an industrial transition strategy, that supports fossil fuel workers already suffering from job losses, and their families, to find a place in this new economy.

And these are only a few examples. Many people and communities across Canada and the world are already making this happen. We’ve got the technology, we’ve got the imagination, but we’ve got to come together and flex our muscles to replicate and diversify these solutions.

A justice-based economy

If we give any value to justice and equity in our society, the only logical conclusion is that the economy should be about both the head and the heart. Ultimately the economy should be a tool for everyone, not just those who are best at gaming the system to their advantage. Not all are born equal, and a majority are kept in a state of poverty while a few get rich.

There is a large appetite for better jobs that aren’t destroying the planet.

Inevitably the fossil fuel economy reinforces narratives of wealth accumulation and dispossession of Indigenous lands. Trudeau has been pushing narratives of a “stronger middle class” and “nation-to-nation relationships.” Unfortunately, building more pipelines and digging up more oil will lead us away from any and all of that.

It’s high time we move away from the trap Big Oil is laying for us. Pipelines will not save us; they will only lead us to suffering and hardship. As the fossil fuel economy inevitably starts crumbling, we need to open up our imagination to what comes next.

Government needs to join up with people from across Canada who are building a healthy economy, developing resilient communities, and taking on climate change. There is a big appetite for better jobs that aren’t destroying the planet. For Trudeau, this is what leading with his head and his heart can look like.