Almost 30 years ago, I was arrested at the logging blockades in the rainforests on Vancouver Island, in Clayoquot Sound. That began a multi-decade journey that led me from the blockades and boycotts to negotiations with some of the largest logging companies and customers of wood and paper products in the world. Along the way we formed unprecedented new alliances and agreements that protected most of the intact rainforests in Clayoquot Sound and eventually millions of hectares of the Great Bear Rainforest. We also catalyzed important conversations in the marketplace on procurement policies, conversations that led to a growing demand for certified sustainable paper and wood products.

We all share a lived experience now of what happens when we listen to the science and act quickly.

COVID-19 is not the only curve we need to flatten. Building back better means also bending and flattening the curve on greenhouse gas emissions.

Building back better means prioritizing communities, companies, industries, plans and infrastructure that protect what we have – biodiversity, stored carbon, ecosystem services – and stopping or winding down those that do not.

The focus on tree planting is a very Canadian approach – we don’t want to rock the boat on existing industries. But let’s be clear: our forest policies mirror European policies from the 1960s, while our agricultural policies look like those from the 1980s – neither of which focused on maintaining ecosystems as the foundation of resiliency. Europe is now scrambling to undo these effects – to rewild.

Tom Steyer is looking to pick a fight. Appearing in late April on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” the California billionaire issued a public challenge to Charles and David Koch – also known as the Koch Brothers.

Greenpeace has accused Koch Industries, the private company run by the brothers, of being a primary sponsor of the “climate denial machine,” with tens of millions of dollars backing lobby efforts, front groups and politicians willing to protect oil-industry interests.