Lincoln, Churchill, JFK and Reagan on Canada's Clean Air Act
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 10.22.06
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper with Environment Minister Rona Ambrose
Canada's new Clean Air Act is an embarrassment of Orwellian Newspeak, committing to a series of targeted pollution and greenhouse gases that start in 2010 and don't really kick in until, get this, 2050. Kyoto is but a distant memory. After all, one of our biggest source of greenhouse gases is the Alberta oil sands- it takes a lot of natural gas to squeeze a barrel of oil out of this muck, but at sixty bucks, with America buying, who is going to complain? David Suzuki's foundation is appalled, and says: "What targets it does set will "allow greenhouse gas emissions to increase for years to come," said foundation policy analyst Dale Marshall. Added [director Morag] Carter: "What this means is that we have the illusion of something concrete, when in actual fact they could just move ahead right now and do all that they have talked about doing."What this adds up to is delay, when there could be action." A blogger we follow says:" the fact that nothing has to be done for ages is the most impressive; the law sets targets for 2050, but very little before then. More laws should be put into place in that manner. Think of the great moments of political history, if only preceding leaders had thought of this great idea!
Think of JFK. "We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in six to eight decades and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they will be easy then, [...] because that challenge is one that we are going to hypothetically be willing to accept, one we are infinitely willing to postpone, and one which we intend to win."
Think of Reagan: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall in thirty to fifty years, or at your convenience.!"
Or Lincoln: "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that 'within a hundred years, all men will potentially be created equal'" (Although that would be closer to being accurate.)
Winston Churchill: "This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it may, perhaps, be approaching the start of a hypothetical future end of the impending beginning, which will be determined in retrospect." ::Rage and Assuage
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
- Killer Smog Event Which Sparked US Clean Air Movement Commemorated in Pennsylvania Museum
- Phytocapping To Rehabilitate Landfills, Reduce Greenhouse Emissions
- California Coughing Up $28 Billion a Year in Pollution Costs
- Why the Next President Should Use the Clean Air Act to Administer a National Carbon Cap-and-Trade Program
I hate the job this turkey (Harper) is doing. Once again, we are "led" by a PM whose only guiding principle seems to be keeping Industry happy.
On this specific issue, it's impossible that anyone who helped write this Act will have to answer for any of the problems it will create (is creating).
The timeline for review/oversight is so long, they will be retired, dead or safely ensconced in the Senate by the time the Act's failure reaches official channels.
This program is even less "implementable" than the (Liberals) National Gun Registry, and has much more important consequences, since it courts environmental catastrophe and economic/societal collapse for the sake of political expedience.
Keep those sponsors happy, Mr. Harper, even if the world winds up in the toilet.
Harper is like Bush, with less intelligence, wisdom and charm.
As an American, hearing Crosius mention the words "Bush," "intelligence," "wisdom" and "charm" in the same sentence is quite funny, really.
Us Americans have become quite used to this type of Orwellian double talk for years on many issues - especially the environment, since Bush took office.
It is not surprising to me to see that your new very conservative PM is going in this direction.
Say it with me now, everyone: "THE PRICE OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION IS ETERNAL VILIGANCE."
with all of the hype leading up to the final anouncement i have to admit i was excited. Could the conservatives actually plan a better solution than kyoto? Will it actually be better and more comprehensive? The day it was released and i heard the first anouncement, "stiff regulations", i thought, "wow, this is sounding good!" next they said they planed to reduce emitions by 50%, i was like "WOW, thats awesome!"
it all went down hill from there. they started on the timeline... I was thinking 2012, 2015 for the 50% thing. then it came out...2050... They might as well have said they planned to do nothing. Then i thought to myself, this is the conservative government how could i have been so foolish to have thought they would have done something that benefitted canadians.
Nothing has changed, same lame old conservative party.
Truly depressing. I hope that environmentally responsible Canadian activists and politicians react to this with ten times the measures that irresponsible Canadian economic special interests have used to 'convince' this guy that global warming is such a big problem that we need to do something about it 25 years after it is too late.