From Mother Nature’s perspective, the results of next week’s election are largely irrelevant — and that should worry us. The two main contenders, as well as the NDP, are just proposing slightly different variants of business as usual. Their focus is on more economic growth, more resource extraction and consumption and — although not formally part of their platforms — more resultant pollution. All they really differ on is how the spoils will be divided between public and private sectors. In fact, the environment, including climate change, has pretty much fallen off the public and political agenda. …So we have lost an effective tool to reduce fossil-fuel consumption, at the expense of the wellbeing of future generations and myriad other species. …But even though it may not be not top of mind in terms of current electoral concerns, there is a great deal of “eco-anxiety” out there.