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    Media's hot air on Kyoto

    Media's hot air on Kyoto
    Conservatives get killed for inaction on global warming ... the Liberals got a pass
    By LORRIE GOLDSTEIN

    I've been doing some research into global warming and the Kyoto accord and boy, have I found some interesting stuff that the Liberal Party of Canada and its media shills don't like to talk about.

    Ready? Here we go. Remember that big Kyoto conference held in Montreal last December, the one hosted by then Liberal environment minister, now Liberal leader, Stephane Dion?

    Remember how the Liberals and their media shills breathlessly told us when it ended how Dion had provided the leadership that helped hold the conference together when it was in danger of falling apart, before emerging with a series of new Kyoto deals that some environmentalists proclaimed just might save the planet?

    Dion's website (stephane dion.ca) boasts that "at the follow-up to the Kyoto Conference on Climate Change in Montreal in December 2005, he won international agreement to extend the Kyoto protocol beyond 2012."

    Right. Well, here's a more realistic assessment of what actually went on in Montreal, written by Kyoto expert Robert Henson in his new book, The Rough Guide to Climate Change, The Symptoms, The Science, The Solutions.

    Henson, no global warming sceptic -- his book has been praised as "superb ... even-handed and accessible" by the Pew Center on Global Climate Change -- assesses that meeting in this way:

    "In the end, the diplomats managed to eke out an agreement for a two-year round of non-binding talks under the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) that 'will not open any negotiations leading to new commitments' (as the official wording says) but could set the stage for future talks. In this light, it's not at all certain that Kyoto-like targets will prevail after 2012."

    Gee. Guess Dion and Co. didn't save the world, eh?

    And Canada's record on greenhouse gas emissions -- mainly carbon dioxide and methane, identified as the key culprits in global warming -- during all those Liberal governments from 1993 to 2005?

    Well, if you're a supporter of Kyoto, terrible. Just terrible.

    While the Liberals signed the Kyoto accord in 1998 and ratified it in 2002, not only did our emissions go up by 24.2% compared to 13.3% for the U.S. from 1990 to 2003 -- which the media did report -- but that left us with the sixth worst record among the world's key industrialized nations.

    The "evil" U.S., which never ratified Kyoto, finished five places better than we did.

    And while the U.S. is the world's biggest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions (20.6% in 2000, compared to our 2.1% , which put us in ninth place) when you break the numbers down on a comparative basis, we, uh, stink.

    Based on emissions per capita in 2000, we were the seventh-worst offender, at 6.3 tonnes of carbon equivalent per person, barely one place better than the U.S., at 6.8.

    On the basis of carbon intensity, we were the 10th worst offender at 172 tonnes of carbon emitted per million dollars in GDP, one position worse than the U.S., at 162.

    Indeed, you have to wonder what former Liberal PM Paul Martin was smoking when he raced to that Montreal conference last year during the federal election and scolded the U.S. for lacking a "global conscience" on climate change.

    Now, remember, we have a Conservative government that has been in power for less than a year. So think back.

    How many critical stories and columns do you recall seeing over the last two months in our media, ever since Environment Minister Rona Ambrose released the Tories' proposed Clean Air Act, their response to Kyoto, global warming and other environmental issues? Recall, as well, the unrelentingly dismissive and contemptuous tone of most of that criticism.

    Any criticism?

    Now, how many critical media stories and columns do you recall, and how many of them were equally dismissive and contemptuous of the Liberals and their record over the previous 12 years that they were in power, while doing almost nothing to control greenhouse gases?

    Welcome, again, to liberal (and Liberal) media bias.

    #2
    Liberal crisis junkies
    By LORRIE GOLDSTEIN

    I always look forward to having the Liberal Party of Canada tell me what this year's big crisis is.

    This year, Liberal Leader Stephane Dion tells me it's global warming.

    Last year, then Liberal PM Paul Martin told me it was medical wait times.

    More on that in a bit, but first, back to global warming.

    While the Tory government is doing nothing about it now, the Liberals did, uh, nothing, about it for 12 years.

    But I know global warming is important because Dion named his dog "Kyoto" and gave out green scarves at the Liberal leadership convention.

    I also know Tory MP Rona Ambrose is a terrible environment minister, who should be fired because she has done nothing about reducing greenhouse gas emissions in her 10 months on the job.

    That's as opposed to Dion, who was a great environment minister because he did, uh, nothing, about reducing greenhouse gas emissions during his 17 months on the job, before the Grits were tossed out last January.

    Oh, but wait. The Liberals, and even some environmentalists, say the difference is that Dion was about to do something, even though the Grits signed the Kyoto accord in 1998, ratified it in 2002 and then forgot about it.

    But hey, the Liberals were about to act. Honest.

    Sure, greenhouse gas emissions skyrocketed while they were in power -- at almost double the growth rate of the U.S. which, unlike Canada, never signed Kyoto.

    But I know, because it says on Dion's web site that "as environment minister (he) prepared Canada for the challenges of a sustainable economy." That he "played a key role in developing the greenest budget since Confederation." And that "at the follow-up to the Kyoto Conference on Climate Change in Montreal in December 2005, he won international agreement to extend the Kyoto protocol beyond 2012."

    I guess we'll never know when all this stuff (the Liberals said they had set aside $10 billion to reduce greenhouse gases) was actually going to, uh, reduce them.

    But rest assured, it would have happened if the Liberals had only won the last election. Because, seriously, when have they ever misled us?

    Which brings us back to wait times, a problem the Liberals say Prime Minister Stephen Harper isn't doing anything about, even though it was one of his five key election promises. True.

    But you may recall, Martin, as finance minister, contributing to wait times in the early 1990s, by reducing health care transfers to the provinces.

    Then Martin promised as PM to "fix health care for a generation" in 2004, when he pledged an extra $41 billion to the provinces over 10 years, including $4.5 billion over six years to reduce wait times for MRI and CT scans, cancer treatment, hip and knee replacement, cardiac care and cataract surgery.

    Unfortunately, two years later, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled it was unconstitutional for the federal and provincial governments to require Quebecers (and by implication, Canadians) to obtain medically necessary services through medicare, and then deny them timely treatment. It said governments had to provide timely care, or allow people to purchase treatment privately, through such things as medical insurance.

    Ever since, until they were tossed out, the federal Grits and the provinces assured us that they were making progress on wait times.

    Then the Ontario auditor general reported earlier this month that Ontario's method of reporting wait times was a bit, uh, "misleading" and should be taken with, uh, "a grain of salt."

    Advertising Standards Canada dinged Ontario for, uh, inaccurately reporting on wait times in its tax-funded television ads.

    Then again, wait times are so last year's crisis.

    Global warming is this year's crisis.

    I can't wait for the Liberals to tell us what next year's crisis is. Can you?

    Comment


      #3
      IMHO the Kyoto Accord is a total failure and Canada should abandon it. We have a cold climate and our emissions are bound to reflect this fact.

      This whole mumbo jumbo BS about emission credits and debits is total crap designed by idiots who don't live in the real world.

      IF we want to reduce emissions of the gasses responsible for "global warming', then a "made in Canada" plan would be my choice in this matter, with liason with other countries to effect proper solutions..

      Others make disagree...and they probably will do so.

      Comment


        #4
        Looks like there`s problems with all this global warming in California today...stock up on your salad bar goodies....

        Comment


          #5
          Probably good advice cropduster. Only problem is that you can only get so much ahead before it starts becoming some sort of science experiment. ;-)

          The one thing that I would really like to see the Conservatives do is to not sit there and "crow" about what hasn't been done. Enough of that already - tell me what you're going to do and how you're going to achieve it. Anyone can point out what someone else hasn't done and this new Conservative government wasn't going to do that, remember? Pointing fingers never accomplishes anything constructive.

          Wilagro, you are quite right, we need to do something as it is becoming ever more apparent and evident that things are a changing out there.

          Comment


            #6
            Some how I doubt that my Grand parents sat around during the dirty dusty thirties with their friends wringing their hands in alarm about global warming and then went on to move the discussion to "climate change"!! When the weather changed!!

            The climate has always bin a changing...the only difference today is that the media has given a stage to the modern day "ecochondriacs"!! And "the west" loves to be scared.

            Actually cakado if you would read the Western Standard you might have noticed (oh darn...missed another good "copy and paste") an article about the (our conservative) government and the USA exploring some regulation changes in the protectionist trucking industry that could result in a much reduced demand and un-productive consumption of fuel.

            But don't expect to read about this in MacLean’s.

            The way the world works now a Canadian trucking firm hauling freight to a US destination (say Phoenix) is required to haul his NEXT load back to a Canadian destination. However his only load back may be from L.A... Meaning he has to drive empty to L.A. to get a load that will bring him close to home, or close to where his next load might be...IN CANADA!!

            These regulations apply to both countries. US firm unloads in Calgary...goes empty and picks up load in Edmonton...heads back to Denver. Makes no sense.

            If this change is welcomed by the trucking industry and becomes law and a calculable impact would be made on exhaust emissions...you will not hear about it from the liberals the greens or the NDP or the left press...unless of course they want to claim credit.

            Comment


              #7
              The backhanded comment in your post is not really justified Ivbin and I should think that as adults we are past that. Same with the name calling and stereotyping. I have said it many times - healthy debate is a good thing and most of us welcome it. Let's keep it at a respectable level for all to enjoy.

              I would really appreciate it if you could get my name right - after all this time and the number of times I have pointed it out - it is cakadu. Thanks.

              Remember mom's old (and very true) adage. If you can't say anything nice...

              Comment


                #8
                I haven't read the "Clean Air Act" but I thought that was supposed to be the response from the Conservatives, to Kyoto?
                I fail to one lick of sense in promoting the Kyoto Accord...if you have absolutely no intention of implementing it?
                Mr. Dion makes some pretty bold statements about what he intends to do if elected primeminister? Will he carry through? The past would say no, the future would say he will devastate the country!

                Comment


                  #9
                  cakadu, no one has missused a handle on here more than willagrow has mine!
                  I do not remember you lecturing him about getting my name right!! But I don't realy care

                  But your point is well taken.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Cakadu...what backhanded comment?

                    Comment


                      #11
                      ivbinconned: While we are straghtening things out...my handle is wilagro and not wilagrow.

                      Further more...relax a little and don't be too anxious about taking offence. A little give and take is part of discourse. Sometimes though, WE all show our fallabilty and lose our tempers and post things that we may regret later.

                      Regards...

                      Comment


                        #12
                        The one about the cutting & pasting.

                        I have pointed out on several occasions we should all be playing nice.

                        It is harder when one is posting like this because 93% of communication is non-verbal and without those cues, it makes it more difficult to sometimes get the true intent of a person's words.

                        Comment

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