Canada's New Green Plan: Not Very
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.28.07
I have spent some time trying to find words to describe Environment Minister John Baird's performance in an interview on CBC with Avi Lewis on Friday morning, but can think of few suitable for a family friendly site. (painful listening here) He had 22 minutes to defend the new Green Plan, and used it all to blame the previous government for not doing anything, three times saying "I can't turn back the hands of time", never answering a direct question and just saying over and over "its the best green plan in the world".
Which it isn't. We applaud the ban of incandescent bulbs, which has become the target of abuse from the right wing media, (how many times can I cancel my subscription to the National Post?) but our biggest problem, the tar sands, essentially gets a free pass with "intensity limits"- they have to reduce the amount of GHG emitted for each barrel of oil produced, but can produce as much oil as they can, without caps.
Other opinions on the plan:
David Suzuki: " it's not a strategy, it's a sham."
Elizabeth May: "a tragic day for Canada"
Jack Layton: "We're not going to get the job done"
Julia Langer of the World Wildlife Fund:
"They way they have put it -- 20 per cent reduction by 2020 - they're counting according to a baseline that nobody uses," she told CTV Newsnet.
If you calculate that based on the internationally recognized baseline, we're still going to be above 1990 levels in 2020. That's nowhere near our Kyoto target."
She also added that asking industry for an 18 per cent reduction in emission by 2010 is also misleading.
"That's an emission intensity figure. So in other words, they're going to ask industry to reduce their intensity -- not their emissions - of how fast they pollute. So they'll slow that down, and it will be business as usual."
DeSmog Blog: "Canada, as one of the richest countries in the world, has the capacity to be a leader, to get out front in figuring out how to conserve energy and develop new clean energy technologies. And Canadians are stating with increasing clarity that they want that leadership.
No luck. Instead of coaxing us toward the front of the international pack, our leaders have chosen to stick to their tired old horses, leaving some modern-day Henry Ford to invent the replacement technology in some other jurisdiction.
It is an important opportunity - lost.
At least Canada has SOME green plan. Your backwards neighbors to the south have to wait another two years before we even can hope for even a flawed policy.
"We applaud the ban of incandescent bulbs" -- a small nit: Canada is setting minimum efficiency standards for lighting, which is the right way to do it. Banning a specific technology is wrong-headed; if someone can make an incandescent bulb with the same lumens/watt as a CF or LED, we should hug them, not say "sorry, your product is banned."
This is like a remedial class... "Let me get this straight.. We are going to catch up to everyone by going slower? Cuckoo!"
I have to say, listening to this guy is a futile exercise in political patience. When he was plopped into the spotlight, his first interview on the CBC program "Sunday" portrayed him as a guy with a big mouth, not much to say, and a vocabulary specifically designed to bash "the other guys".
Throughout the past 4 months, his actions and responses to inquiry have only made more clear that the Conservatives are only playing green on T.V. just so when the election comes on short notice (most likely this fall), all the green fanatics don't vote them out by default for failure to look outside their neatly trimmed front yard and see a bigger problem.
This is a time for action, but as anyone who is really concerned in Canada should already realize: You can't wait for the Government to catch up to reality; you're going to have to step forward first.
Hopefully, by the time they catch on that they need a real plan, Canadians will have examples set for them to legislate.
Emil, right on!
Totally agree. John Baird is Harper's new monkey, on the heels of the previous idiot - Ambrosa. It always makes me laugh when environmentalist groups online wants me to sign an online petition destined to "Honorable" Harper, or "Honorable Ambrosa"...what the heck is so honorable about being a lying, corrupt, weasely politician? In my book, to be honourable, you have to "earn it" first!
This government is an absolute disgrace to anything that has "Canadian" attached to it, and if, in the upcoming elections, Canadians vote them back into power, I won't want to call myself Canadian anymore.