From the DeSmogBlog
It was deeply disappointing in the last week to see the contrast between the state of climate science in the world and the state of climate policy in Canada.
While the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was telling the world that global warming is undeniable and that the implications for humankind may be severe, indeed, new Canadian Environment Minister John Baird, inset, was telling Canadians that any effort to meet Canada’s international Kyoto commitments would devastate the Canadian economy.
It is dangerously late in the game to start defending or criticizing the Kyoto agreement – flawed though it may be. It is also disingenuous to try to blame Canada’s current economic challenge in that regard on clever Europeans who outsmarted us at the negotiating table. The truth of the European position is that they have taken climate change seriously, while we have not. Per a report recently prepared by researchers at the University of Toronto, they have been implementing social and tax policies for more than a decade while Canada still has no plan whatsoever. In fact, the Harper government has only just begun to admit that climate change is a reality.
Now the government has moved to a more realistic position on the science, Minister Baird is counselling hopelessness and despair.
