Take Back The Planet Part 4:
the world is shifting, and the cracks are showing
There is something happening around the world that deserves our attention.
From France and Italy to Serbia and Israel, people are taking to the streets. Students, workers, farmers, housing advocates and ordinary citizens are questioning the direction their countries are taking.
The reasons are not identical, and neither are the political circumstances. But there are common threads: the cost of living, unaffordable housing, insecure work, corruption, public services under pressure, and a growing feeling that political leaders are not listening.
In October 2026, youth-led demonstrations spread across several European countries. In Serbia, a student-backed political movement made a significant electoral breakthrough after almost two years of protests. In Italy, large demonstrations brought together people concerned about wages, fuel costs, inflation and housing. France has also experienced major protests over living costs and declining public services.
In Israel, political divisions remain deep. Demonstrations have focused on government accountability, democratic institutions, military service, minority rights and the country's security policies. The latest election has not resolved those divisions.
These are not all the same movement. But they raise a similar question:
Who is government actually working for, and whose future is being considered?
democracy, elections and political interference
Elections are supposed to give people a voice. But that voice can be influenced, manipulated or drowned out.
Political interference is not just someone hacking a voting machine. It can involve disinformation, fake social media accounts, coordinated influence campaigns, foreign money, targeted propaganda and attempts to undermine public confidence.
France has investigated an alleged digital interference operation involving an Israeli private company called Blackcore. French authorities linked the company to online activity targeting political candidates. However, the identity of whoever commissioned the operation has not been established.
There is another distinction worth making. Foreign networks can exploit protests and amplify divisions without having caused the protests in the first place. European officials have said there is evidence of attempts to manipulate the narrative around recent unrest, but no conclusive evidence that foreign powers started the riots.
That distinction matters. We need to investigate interference without dismissing legitimate public grievances.
And we need to ask what happens when political influence, enormous wealth, media ownership and powerful technology companies begin to overlap.
the price of everything
Meanwhile, ordinary people are trying to pay their bills.
Gas prices affect more than the person standing at the pump. They affect deliveries, groceries, transportation, construction, farming and the cost of moving almost everything we use.
When fuel becomes expensive, the effects travel through the economy. Businesses pass on costs. Food becomes more expensive to transport. Workers spend more getting to work. People who were already struggling have even less room to manage.
Metro Vancouver has seen gasoline prices approach or exceed two dollars a litre during 2026. And fuel is only one part of the affordability problem.
In Metro Vancouver, Living Wage BC reported that more than half a million employees — 35 per cent of the regional workforce — earn less than the calculated living wage of $27.85 an hour.
Think about that.
People can be working, contributing, paying taxes and doing everything society tells them they should do, and still be unable to afford a secure life here.
Vancouver: the city I remember
This is where the global story becomes personal.
I grew up in Vancouver. I remember a city with neighbourhoods, small businesses, familiar faces, artists, working people and communities where people could imagine building a life.
I have watched it change.
There are people living in extraordinary wealth, and people sleeping outside. There are expensive homes and empty investment properties, while workers struggle to find somewhere they can afford to live. There are businesses looking for employees and people looking for work who cannot afford to stay in the city.
The contrast is difficult to ignore.
It is heartbreaking to watch a place you grew up in become increasingly inaccessible to the very people who helped make it a city.
This is not about blaming newcomers or ordinary people who have moved here. People come from all over the world looking for safety, opportunity and a better life. The questions belong with the systems that shape housing, wages, investment, taxation, land use and public policy.
A city is more than its property values.
It is the people who live there.
the billionaires, the technology and the future
At the same time, wealth and political influence are becoming increasingly concentrated.
Technology is being marketed as the answer to almost everything. Artificial intelligence promises efficiency, innovation and convenience. But it is also being developed for surveillance, policing, military applications, data collection and the monitoring of populations.
Who owns these systems? Who controls the information? Who decides how they are used?
And who is accountable when they cause harm?
The same technology requires physical infrastructure: land, electricity, water, minerals, construction materials and enormous investments. Data centres, pipelines, mines and energy projects all have environmental consequences that need to be examined.
We cannot talk about a digital future as though it exists somewhere outside the natural world.
and then there is the climate
As if all of this were not enough, El Niño is strengthening.
NOAA's October 2026 outlook says a strong to very strong El Niño is likely to continue through the Northern Hemisphere winter, with a historic-strength event possible. That does not tell us exactly what weather Vancouver will experience, and it does not mean every forecast disaster will happen. But it is a serious reason to pay attention.
El Niño can influence weather patterns around the world. Its effects vary by region and season. Here in British Columbia, we need to watch the forecasts rather than assume a particular outcome.
We have already seen what floods, fires, drought, heat and extreme weather can do to communities, homes, infrastructure and food systems.
And the people with the least money and fewest resources are often the ones with the least ability to recover.
who gets protected?
This is the contradiction I keep coming back to.
We live in a world capable of extraordinary technological achievements. We can communicate across continents in seconds. We can build machines that process unimaginable amounts of information. We can move money around the planet almost instantly.
Yet we still struggle to provide people with affordable housing, clean water, reliable food, healthcare and a safe place to sleep.
We can debate the future of artificial intelligence, build data centres and plan enormous energy projects, but what about the future of the people who are already here?
What about the young people protesting because they cannot see a future they can afford?
What about the workers whose wages do not keep up with the cost of living?
What about the people who have been pushed out of the cities they call home?
And what about the planet that makes every other plan possible?
Perhaps these are not separate crises at all. Perhaps they are connected consequences of decisions about power, wealth, resources and priorities.
I don't think we have seen the full consequences yet.
The question is whether we are paying attention while there is still time to make different choices.
A future should not belong only to those who can afford to buy their way out of the problems facing everyone else.
It should belong to all of us — and to the generations who come after us.
Sources and further reading
- Reuters, October 28, 2026 — youth-led protests across Europe.
- Associated Press, October 2026 — Serbia's student-backed electoral breakthrough.
- Le Monde, October 31, 2026 — demonstrations across Italy.
- Euronews, October 21, 2026 — foreign manipulation of narratives around European unrest.
- Living Wage BC — 2026 Metro Vancouver wage-gap report.
- NOAA Climate Prediction Center — October 8, 2026 El Niño diagnostic discussion.
