MikePaterson
Another Inglorious Canadian "First"
Posted on: 12/13/2011 15:09
Canada has scored a “first”: the first country to withdraw from the the only legally binding international agreement with firm targets to reduce global warming pollution.
And Canadian officials have been accused of trying to pressure other countries into abandoning the Kyoto Protocol as well.
The Kyoto Protocol was signed in 1997 and ratified by most major countries except the United States. It committed industrialized nations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to below 1990 levels and pro-vide financial help to developing countries to accomplish the task. Canada ratified the accord but is not on track to meet its targets.
"The Kyoto Protocol does not represent the path forward for Canada,", Environment Minister Peter Kent told a press conference on his return from the recent international climate-change summit in Durban, South Africa.
Harper's Conservative government has opposed an extension of the Kyoto accord to future inter-national agreements, arguing that other large emitting countries in the developing world, such as China and India, should have to meet targets.
But even China has indicated it WILL commit to cutting greenhouse gases — and it's making ambitious progress on the issue.
But: "It's now clear Kyoto is not the path forward for a global solution to climate change,” said Peter Kent. “If anything, it's an impediment. We are invoking Canada's legal right to formally withdraw."
Kent blamed the former Liberal government for being "incompetent" in signing the accord — as a result, he said, the Harper government, which took office six years ago, now faces "radical and irresponsible" choices to avoid the $14 billion in international penalties he said it would have to pay for failing to meet those targets as a signatory to the accord.
Kent said to comply with Kyoto, “dramatic action” would need to be taken to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
(Silly me, I thought that was the whole idea.)
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MikePaterson
Posted on: 12/13/2011 15:11
SORRY: I thought I was posting this in "politics"... there's a difference, I know, even if I was confused for a few moments there...
RitaTG
Posted on: 12/13/2011 16:06
LOL ..... a freudian slip????
Sadly rather apt.........
Regards
Rita
seeler
Posted on: 12/14/2011 08:49
Mike - this is the season of hope, peace and joy - but we have to look elsewhere for our joy than to our government leaders. I don't see much peace or hope either when I look ahead to the next few years.
RitaTG
Posted on: 12/14/2011 10:32
MikePaterson ...... I too am outraged at what has happened.
I am contacting my MP and I will be emailing the Prime Minister and Environment Minister as well. I do realize that this will make virtually no difference at all but I feel that it is proper that I do so. From there I am going to be exploring other ways that I can help voice opposition to this move.
I listened to some of the coverage on CBC Radio and I was appalled at how this was done and the spin put on it all by the Environment Minister.
.... a sad day for Canada indeed.....
Regards
Rita
kaythecurler
Posted on: 12/14/2011 11:48
I too am appalled. I'm appalled in general by the direction this government is forcing our nation to take.
I want democracy back with a government that represents the hopes of the majority of our citizens.
I want our country to travel along a path that doesn't turn us into another version of the US.
I want support services funding replaced so we can take care of our neighbors - those faced with physical/developmental/mental/poverty related difficulties.
I want teachers freed from 'teaching for the test' so they can help each child learn and grow using all their talents, my grandkids don't have access to a music program or one for art. The available Phys Ed periods don't help non athletic kids to discover fun, affordable ways to use their bodies.
I want honesty and a high ethical standard from politicians (not lies, not spin doctoring, inaccurate financial records etc).
I want to see less spending on politicians and more spending on health care, education, cleaner energy resources and incentives to stop driving everywhere. Every city should have a practical public transport system (not really practical for small communities and villages though). All rural residents should have access to buses and/or trains to get them to appointments in the closest city.
I want more resources going to our kids and less to punitive punishments (our crime rate has been steadily going down - quite dramatically in my town). When kids have access to positive activities they aren't out on the streets - bored, aimless and thoughtlessly getting into trouble.
I want government to listen to our First Nations and find ways for them to live as equal members of the Canadain society. Step one would likely be to continue with the healing process around the residential school fiasco. At the moment it is just being made more damaging.
Basically I want to feel proud to be Canadian instead of hearing other people, other countries telling me that my country is a dirty blot on the planet.
chansen
Posted on: 12/14/2011 11:58
A sad day indeed, but certainly not surprising.
BetteTheRed
Posted on: 12/14/2011 14:54
A shameful day to be a Canadian. How sad to realize that we were once a leader in environmental issues.
kaythecurler
Posted on: 12/14/2011 17:35
Also in peace initiatives.
We used to be respected by much of the rest of the world.
Alex
Posted on: 12/14/2011 18:25
Justin Trudeau broke his cool and called Peter Kent a "piece of shit" after Peter kent questioned the NDP's Environment critic committment to the environment, for not attending the Durbain conference. This after the governement froze opposition membrs out of the Canadian delegation.
Imagine the gall the Tories have.
kaythecurler
Posted on: 12/14/2011 22:20
I don't need to imagine - they make it all too obvious!
qwerty
Posted on: 12/15/2011 01:02
This is a shameful blot on Canada's reputation. A majority of Canadians voted for this government and gave the Conservative Party a majority even though its antipathy toward Kyoto and the environment was well known. I suppose, then, that the citizens of the world could be excused for thinking that the intransigence and insensitivity of the government reflects the insensitivity and intransigence of Canada's people.
I am ashamed today to have to say that I am a Canadian. Perhaps, worse even than the pullout from Kyoto was that , we went to Brussells as a Kyoto signatory purporting to be exploring how to move forward from Kyoto while working to sabotage and water down the initiatives advanced by other countries in the full knowledge that we would be pulling out of Kyoto and would not be participating in any Brussells initiatives whatever they turned out to be.. It was an ignoble tour de force of twisted bad faith negotiation that ought to earn Canada opprobrium worldwide.
Justin Trudeau's characterization of Environment (hah!) Minister, Peter Kent as a "piece of shit" may have been "unparliamentary language" but it may well have been one of the more accurate, candid and truthful statements to be uttered in Ottawa in quite some time.
LBmuskoka
Posted on: 12/17/2011 09:38
Amen Qwerty
From the Globe and Mail
The Harper government’s decision to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol tarnishes Canada before the world. Liberal and Conservative incompetence and mendacity are to blame. You and I are to blame.
[...]
Ipsos regularly tracks and ranks voter priorities. Concern about the environment peaked at 27 per cent in late 2007. By last summer it had plummeted to 13 per cent.
Kyoto withdrawal shames us all
It is not what we say but what we do that defines what we are.
Why had such a promising world been crucified on the tree of obligation, thorned by duties, hanged by hypocrisy, smothered by customs?”
Richard Bach, The Bridge Across Forever: A True Love Story