One Blue Marble Blog

Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper claims that he’s all for saving the environment, but his government has been actively working against a comprehensive international climate change agreement since he’s been in office (see stories here, here, here, and here).

Harper and his environment ministers, this time in the guise of Jim Prentice, have consistently argued that Canada will only reduce its greenhouse gas emissions when India and China do the same. At best, this argument is specious; at worst, it’s playing to the harsh impulses in some to make judgments based on skin color.

Global warming has no borders, and it will first affect the poorest of the poor. China is now the world’s worst GHG emitter, but the Chinese have only just wrested that dubious honor from the US. But even in teeming Beijing, wracked with environmental disasters, the average person emits just one-fourth the CO2 of the average Calgarian. The average person in Surat has less than one-eighteenth the carbon footprint of the average Haligonian.

We’re exceedingly wasteful. That’s one reason why the G8 nations need to lead, why we must first make internationally binding commitments. Not only are we the worst, but we have always been so.

Historical GHG Emissions

Atmospheric carbon dioxide has increased 40 percent since the Industrial Revolution that made western nations exceedingly wealthy. To the extent that we are rich, we can thank modern production methods. To the extent that global warming has already occurred, we can blame our modern production methods. The G8 nations are responsible for a staggering 65 percent of the world’s historical GHG emissions.**

The developing world has had almost no hand in creating the global warming that has already occured. Until recently, China and India didn’t possess the economic wherewithal to create significant carbon emissions. They do now, but their culpability pales in comparison to ours, and they shouldn’t be forced to do anything while we pollute with impunity.

We need them to join us in this fight. But they won’t become full partners until we demonstrate our goodwill.

We have to go first. I can see no other solution.

Harper is ruining Canada’s Reputation

Harper is hoping that you’re not paying attention. His sly twisting of facts suggest that Canada shouldn’t have to go it alone. The whole truth is that we’re not alone. Our allies have already joined the battle. The 27-member European Union will meet its Kyoto commitments. Australia’s government, lead by Kevin Rudd, is fighting hard to have climate legislation passed by parliament this year. President Obama is making renewable energy and clean transportation the centerpiece of the new American economy. Chinese and Indian investments in renewable energy dwarf those made in the Great White North.

Canada remains alone and isolated, with Prentice promising to enact ineffective intensity targets, and playing footsie with right-wing politicians in the US, trying to get the Tar Sands exempted from cap-and-trade regulations.

But our problem goes deeper still, and it’s the reason why Atlantic Canada, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, and British Columbia should not vote Conservative in the next Canadian election (hopefully this fall). While supporting the oil and gas industries in Alberta and Saskatchewan above all else, Harper has transformed a huge surplus into a record-setting debt. As a result, the world is launching a green tech revolution, and Canada is stuck in reverse. Every day, industry is moving forward, making huge investments in clean renewable energy and mass transportation; investment that completely misses our country. Our situation is made worse because Harper has a vested interest in proving that big government doesn’t work, so he’s frittered our away our stimulus spending projects designed to lock us into a fossil fuel economy.

Harper, with his head stuck in the Tar Sands, has brought Canada to the abyss. We had the chance to lead, but that chance has evaporated.

I was raised to expect better from Canada. How is it that we ask so little of ourselves? Reporters should be writing stories about how Canada is spearheading the green energy revolution, and helping nations come to grips with their carbon problem. We shouldn’t care about the price of oil because we shouldn’t be relying upon it. We should be exporting clean energy to the United States, and using our our technological savvy to help China and India. Lord Nicholas Stern, former Chief Economist of the World Bank, estimates that investing two percent of our GDP would get most countries there.

When did we become so selfish?

Our parents were the greatest generation, sacrificing everything to win a war. We have taken that legacy of that sacrifice, and rendered it meaningless. Unless we can overcome our regional and national pettiness, our children will inherit a world that is filled with sadness and heartbreak.

I have to believe we can do better.***

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*Bruce MacKinnon cartoon, The Chronicle-Herald

** When delayers and deniers suggest that we can’t do anything unless India and China are aboard, talk to them about historical emissions. The United States in responsible for almost 30 percent of the world’s GHG emissions since the Industrial Revolution; the EU 25 must accept responsibility for 26.5 percent. Tiny little Canada, with fewer than 30 million people for most of its history, is responsible for 2.1 percent — about the same as India, with 1.2 billion people.

With our wealth comes responsibility. What is about that fact that conservatives don’t seem to understand.

*** Note to Iggy: It’s time to bring down Harper before he does any more damage. Revive the idea of a Coalition if you don’t win a majority.