Sunday, December 30, 2007

Do Canadians really care about global warming?

Yes and No.

Yes.

We are concerned that the environment is changing. We are worried about the increase in pollution that may be contributing to a rise in global temperature. We’ve all noticed the change in the weather over the years and we have all commented on how out of “whack” it is now compared to when we were young. We are upset that our government hasn’t taken action to reduce harmful emissions from the large corporate polluters. In fact our government has decided to allow the largest polluters to increase their emissions output while at the same time telling us that we must reduce our harmful emissions.

No.

We are also concerned that making choices that may or may not make a difference in reducing harmful emissions will burden our already hectic and difficult lives. As it is now, most Canadians work well beyond 40hrs a week just to keep their heads above water. The majority of family’s include two working parents as a necessity. Most people wouldn’t be able to make a substantial change in their daily habits without compromising their way of life, and that’s something we aren’t willing to do.

The debate about whether global warming is man made or not is unimportant. What ever the cause, be it natural or man made, something has to be done. The contributions of 1 000 households cutting a tonne of CO2 emissions is miniscule when compared to a large scale CO2 emitter reducing it’s emissions by just 1 percent during the same time period.
The bottom line is that we know there is a problem, however; we are not willing or able to fix it on our own.

Things are changing, as they always have and will continue to do so. The only difference now is the rate of change.

Who will survive and who will not?

Deciding not to take action is deciding to be inactive.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Bali hubbub.

Well what can one say about the recent U.N. climate conference in Bali?

Not much.

The entire conference occurred just as most of us might have expected. The Americans, Japanese, Chinese and of course our useless lapdog environment minister John Baird, did their utmost to de-fang any attempt to provide a meaningful start to the negotiations. Negotiations that will continue long after some of these idiots have left the scene. Once again some of the largest emitters have gone out of their way, sometimes even defying sanity, to maintain the status quo in an attempt to continue on their destructive path.

It still amazes me that our idiotic environment minister as well as his moronic boss Stephen Harper, believe that using 2006 as the base year from which to make emission reductions is in any way meaningful. It has already been agreed to by all of the signatories of the Kyoto accord that 1990 is the base year. The reasoning that nothing existed before he became Prime Minister is asinine. Does he really believe that basing all of his “achievements” on his performance from 2006 and on will make him the best environmental Prime Minister Canada has ever had?

Probably not.

It is more likely that the rantings of a government full of lunatics is actually an attempt to cover-up the embarrassing fact that they have done nothing, and in fact have actually allowed emissions to increase during their time in office, something they have constantly criticized the previous government for doing.

These same lunatics base all of their emission reduction targets on the base year of 2006 instead of the 1990 base year. Thereby erasing any embarrassing half ass attempts to reduce emissions that Canada had agreed to reduce and then proceeded to increase. It also reduces the amount of real reductions that will be necessary to maintain the appearance of taking action on climate change. With a slight rise of only a few percent in the past year to worry about, the old days of double digit increases are now erased from memory. Even the implementation of an intensity based reduction scheme will keep emission increases low.

It’s unfortunate that we, as a nation, represented by a Prime Minister who receives his orders from Washington, have become such an impediment to progress, a thorn in the side of meaningful negotiations and in general, an embarrassment on the international stage.

We can only hope that the next Prime Minister of Canada will actually take an interest in remaking Canada into one of the most respected countries in the world, instead of sucking up to a moronic war mongering President.

These are certainly dark days for all Canadians.