Zach LarkinsKYOTO VII (c)(cont'd)
Liberal MP Pablo Rodriguez from Quebec, has had a private member's bill pass through the House of Commons that, unfortunately, has the backing of all three opposition parties. The bill passed by a vote of 161 to 113 on Wednesday, but must now pass the Senate before becoming law.
Canadians should be afraid, very afraid. This bill would require Ottawa to honour Canada's Kyoto commitments and reduce the country's greenhouse gas emissions by more than a third over just the next five years. There are only two ways to achieve this goal by 2012. The federal government could force a radical change in Canadians' lifestyles, restricting automobile use, limiting electrical consumption and shutting down industries employing hundreds of thousands of workers, thereby sending our economy into a tailspin, or it could send tens of billions of tax dollars abroad to buy "carbon credits" from developing and underdeveloped nations. Mr. Rodriguez, his Liberal caucus mates and environmentalists are reassuring Canadians that the emissions targets imposed by the new bill could be achieved with very little pain for ordinary Canadians. This is hogwash.
There is no technology yet that would enable a nation of 32 million to cut hundreds of millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide output in five short years. There are no hydrogen cars, no emissions-free smelters, no solar-powered 18- wheelers. In order to reach our Kyoto targets by this date, Canada would have to shutter all its coal-fired power plants, plus all its auto plants and Alberta's oilsands. You don't think this won't have an effect on the economy? Even the Liberals, in the late 1990's, through their own economic forecasts projected 450,000 lost jobs from such reductions. That's a major reason why they did nothing to enforce Kyoto restraints for the 13 years they were in power. Rodriguez's bill would consign us all to freezing together in the unemployed darkness. And it wouldn't even do any good against global warming. The Kyoto accords are more about symbolism than substance. None of the large developing nations, China, India, Indonesia or Brazil, is covered by its rules. Not only do they not have to scale back their emissions under Kyoto, they are not even required to hold them constant. Their emissions may grow without penalty. Russia and the former Soviet bloc states, which were covered by Kyoto, have since been exempted from its emission targets. How does all this add up to reducing greenhouse gasses? In simple language, it doesn't.
The only countries to which the reductions apply are Western industrial nations. And whatever they remove, at great cost, from the environment will simply be replaced by the pollutants produced from the aforementioned countries. The other option is for Ottawa to buy emissions credits from other countries. This wouldn't result in preventing a single molecule of carbon dioxide from being emitted. Canada has already spend about $1-billion buying up Russia's unused emissions room. To meet Rodriguez's targets, it would have to spend another $20-billion to $60-billion. That's a lot of money spent for absolutely no results.
And think of where that money went. To Putin's Russia. Russia which is helping to protect Iran's nuclear program at the UN, turning Chechnya into scorched earth, bullying its European neighbours and rolling back domestic civil liberties to the Czarist era. It would become Canada's biggest foreign aid recipient, larger than all others combined.
The Liberals were in charge of the Kyoto file for over eight years and during that time, our greenhouse gas emissions went from 12% above 1990 levels to more than 30% above. They knew couldn't bring forward legislation when they were in government because it can't be done without devastating the national economy. But now for purely political gain, the opposition parties seem set to saddle the Tories with Pablo Rodriguez's pie-in-the-sky bill, and perhaps start a recession in the process. God help us.
Sources: - The Folly Of Kyoto - The National Post
Canadians should be afraid, very afraid. This bill would require Ottawa to honour Canada's Kyoto commitments and reduce the country's greenhouse gas emissions by more than a third over just the next five years. There are only two ways to achieve this goal by 2012. The federal government could force a radical change in Canadians' lifestyles, restricting automobile use, limiting electrical consumption and shutting down industries employing hundreds of thousands of workers, thereby sending our economy into a tailspin, or it could send tens of billions of tax dollars abroad to buy "carbon credits" from developing and underdeveloped nations. Mr. Rodriguez, his Liberal caucus mates and environmentalists are reassuring Canadians that the emissions targets imposed by the new bill could be achieved with very little pain for ordinary Canadians. This is hogwash.
And think of where that money went. To Putin's Russia. Russia which is helping to protect Iran's nuclear program at the UN, turning Chechnya into scorched earth, bullying its European neighbours and rolling back domestic civil liberties to the Czarist era. It would become Canada's biggest foreign aid recipient, larger than all others combined.
The Liberals were in charge of the Kyoto file for over eight years and during that time, our greenhouse gas emissions went from 12% above 1990 levels to more than 30% above. They knew couldn't bring forward legislation when they were in government because it can't be done without devastating the national economy. But now for purely political gain, the opposition parties seem set to saddle the Tories with Pablo Rodriguez's pie-in-the-sky bill, and perhaps start a recession in the process. God help us.
Sources: - The Folly Of Kyoto - The National Post
