The Globe and Mail is late to the game and a few megatonnes short, but finally providing a few facts beyond those pulled from CBC Fruit Fly Guy press releases;
The opposition parties, led by the Liberals, have pushed legislation through the House of Commons to force the government to meet Canada’s obligations under the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse-gas emissions. No responsible government could come even close to reaching those targets without bankrupting the treasury. But in an effort to score political points, Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion has stubbornly plodded ahead, smearing the gloss of virtue on this economic and political folly.
[…]
It’s the impossible nightmare. Last May, after years of Liberal inaction, the Conservative government conceded that the level of emissions in 2004 was 34.6 per cent above Canada’s Kyoto target of an average of 563 million tonnes annually between 2008 and 2012. Canada’s emissions have since sailed even higher, probably reaching 780 million tonnes a year.
Suppose Alberta eliminated all tar-sands development. That’s a saving of 30 million tonnes a year. Suppose Ontario shut down all of its coal-fired power plants. That’s 24 million tonnes. To cover the shortfall, Canada would have to go abroad to buy emission credits or sponsor carbon-reduction initiatives in other countries. Most experts put the price tag for that splurge at a minimum of $10-billion. It could go far higher as the market gets tighter, squeezing federal funds for everything from health care to retraining programs.
It’s a start. One wonders though, how much the informative quality of their editorials might improve if the G&M yanked a few of those parliamentary press gallery foot soldiers from the “green beat” in Ottawa and assigned them to Google.
Mary T
I got my Koyota education from Mr. Bob Mills, MP for Red Deer when he filibustered the HOC for two days – informing the Canadian people all about what was ‘on the table’ if the gov’t signed the agreement. He talked for two days and did not repeat himself!
The Liberanos?Dippers were not listening, of course, because, IMO, it was never about the environment or greenhouse gases – it was to bankrupt the nation, to get a new pipeline for $$(carbon credits) smack Alta into poverty, grab control of the country and make us all state slaves living in ‘huts for humanity’. Mo tse Strong, was the big slug running the ‘plan’ and the Liberanos were all working for the bloodsucker in brown – IMP.