It is stories like this that really irritate me. (Hat tip to Political Staples) Mainly because it is, by and large, pointless. Let’s look at some of the statements by this environment commissioner.
Not only is Ottawa doing a lousy job cutting the greenhouse gas emissions that are the key contributor to global warming, it also gets a failing grade when it comes to preparing for the impacts of climate change, says an independent federal government auditor.
“Canadians are facing risks such as the spread of disease, more drought in the Prairies, melting permafrost in the North, longer and more intense heat waves and smog, and rising coastal waters,” said Johanne Gelinas, the federal Environment Commissioner.
The spread of disease… hmm. The only diseases I know of spreading epidemically across this country are STDs and they have NOTHING to do with the weather. More drought in the prairies? Well, I haven’t seen the second great depression or even a reasonable facsimile so far, so I call that fearmongering. Melting permafrost? Is it happening? What can a GOVERNMENT do about it? get everyone north of the 60th parallel to leave their fridge doors open? And lastly, rising oceans? I don’t know where she lives, but I live near the ocean and I can see ZERO sign of sea levels rising.
“It is disturbing that despite $6.3 billion in announced funding since 1997, there is still no government-wide consolidated monitoring and reporting of climate change performance and spending.”
It is interesting that this report creates bad optics for the current minority Conservative government, despite the fact that they have been in charge what… less than a year still? And this makes them responsible for all the mismanagement that has taken place since 1997?
She notes, for example, that over 28 per cent of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions can be attributed to exports of oil and gas, exports that are swelling the coffers of Alberta and Saskatchewan as well as the federal government.
Let us ponder this for a second. We are releasing greenhouse gases in the process of exporting oil and gas. These exports make money, to pay for social programs, she admits, not just in Alberta and Saskatchewan, but for the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. It is a bad thing, she is suggesting, that we have money to pay for the massive social programs that lobby groups across the country are constantly screaming for. All these groups like the feminist groups, the homosexual lobby, the people who get the vast bulk of their operating funds from governmental programs, would face massive cuts to their funding and hence, “progress” if the money from the oil and gas industry were cut. Do we really want the footsteps of social progress to slow just for the sake of greenhouse gas emissions which are dwarfed by natural processes like volcanoes?
But more than that, what really is she proposing? Let’s say that the Conservative government makes this a priority. What can be done? Cut off all global access to Canadian oil reserves? Massive layoffs? Stockpiling? Unemployment? Or maybe, just close all the refineries and ship the raw product elsewhere to be refined? All that will do is transfer the environmental problem to another spot on the globe, allowing another country to benefit, but not alleviating the global problem.
This kind of asinine reasoning is the same one that prevents Canadians from manufacturing asphalt shingles! Seriously! I worked a couple days with a roofing company a few years ago, and the roofer took me to buy some shingles, and I asked him why all the shingles were made in the USA. He said there were no Canadian companies who manufactured them, because there is currently no process that can make an asphalt shingle in a cost effective manner that would adhere to the regulations instituted by Environment Canada. So instead, we buy all our asphalt shingles from the States, supporting them in polluting their own environment, so we can benefit from shingles on our roofs. I find it pathetic that we will support another country in polluting, yet hold ourselves up as environmentally sound while buying their product of such pollution. I find it disgusting that we have deliberately handicapped our economy by banning certain types of production that would provide jobs for Canadians, yet must be had from somewhere, so we pay another country to import them.
