What Barack Obama can teach Stephen Harper: Burman

[Oscar]

What Barack Obama can teach Stephen Harper: Burman

[ http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2014/ ... urman.html ]

Public anxiety is growing about how politicians are responding to climate change, and U.S. President Barack Obama seems to have picked up on this.

By: Tony Burman Special to the Star, Published on Sat Nov 22 2014

Generations from now, if our great-great-grandchildren here in Canada are privileged enough to inherit a safe and healthy environment (and there is no certainty of that), history may credit the unlikeliest of political champions.

His name will surely not be Stephen Harper. [ http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/ ... rman.html# ] However clever he may be in political terms, Canada’s prime minister shows indifference and contempt on the issue of climate change in virtually every substantive action.

Instead, the credit may fall on the shoulders of a besieged second-term American president, Barack Obama, who seems newly inspired to protect the environment as a central part of his legacy. And, incredibly, a key beneficiary of his bold actions may be Canada’s future generations. God bless America.

In most government and media circles in the United States and Canada, the debate about the economy vs. environment has been shaped by two knee-jerk responses: cynicism and surprise.

The cynicism is about why this issue is even taken seriously. After all, money talks, and the northern spotted owl doesn’t. In the world of politics, the energy industry matters mightily; tree-huggers don’t. So the surprise for many — and much of the media coverage reflects this bewilderment — is that this issue never seems to go away. Why is this so?

Obama seems to have picked up on the reason. In powerful ways, public anxiety is growing about how politicians are responding to climate change. And this is adding new pressure to deal with it.

If we leave our cynicism and surprise at the door, this has been a very significant 10 days for the environmental movement. To everyone’s surprise, the United States and China announced a historic breakthrough on climate change. [ http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2014/ ... goals.html ] It has the potential of creating momentum toward crafting a new global agreement at a major international conference in Paris in December 2015.

And at last weekend’s G20 meeting of leaders in Australia, the issue of climate change turned out to be one of the liveliest topics, with real progress achieved. [ http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014 ... ummit.html ] This was in spite of cynical efforts by the meeting’s host and close ally of Stephen Harper — Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott — to keep a lid on it. He failed.

Also, the U.S. Senate last Tuesday narrowly defeated a bill calling for approval of the controversial Keystone XL Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline. Even if the bill had passed, it was widely believed that Obama would have vetoed it. [ http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2014/ ... eline.html ]

In January, after the Republicans assume control of the Senate, it is certain the bill will be reintroduced, and will pass. But Republicans will likely not have the votes to override an Obama veto. And contrary to some speculation, there are increasing signs that, as the 2016 election approaches and Obama focuses more on his legacy, he is determined that the Keystone XL pipeline will not happen on his watch.

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[Oscar]

Canada’s real international shame — and it’s not Ford: Burman

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Canada has become the target of unprecedented international condemnation as one of the world’s worst polluters.

By: Tony Burman Special to the Star, Published on Sat Nov 23 2013

When will this horrid scandal end? Can someone please turn the channel? Shamed on the world stage and ridiculed by many, Canada has been exposed in recent days as a country with political leadership that is greedy, self-indulgent, incompetent and dismissive of our children, as well as woefully captive of special interests.

And I’m not referring to Rob Ford. His 15 seconds of fame — as “The Crack-smoking Mayor Who Knocked Down Granny,” as London’s tabloids described him — will end one day. Just keep breathing deeply.

I mean, in tabloid terms, another story: “The Short-Sighted Canadian Government That Robbed Our Children.” And, sadly, its legacy may never end.

What makes it worse is that this comes at a time when the government of Stephen Harper faces criticism for blackening Canada’s reputation in foreign policy in other areas as well.

Although it hasn’t received the media attention of the Ford soap opera, Canada in the past week has been the target of unprecedented international condemnation as one of the world’s worst polluters. These reports have coincided with a major UN climate change conference in Warsaw, Poland.

One after another, accusations have been directed at the Harper government for being an international deadbeat when it comes to climate change and the environment.

The Washington-based Center for Global Development ranked Canada dead last among the 27 wealthy nations it assessed in terms of environmental protection. Every other country has made progress except Canada, according to the group.

A report issued this week by the Europe-based Germanwatch and Climate Action Network placed Canada at the bottom of an international list of countries in tackling greenhouse-gas emissions, ahead of only Iran, Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia. [ http://climateactionnetwork.ca/2012/12/ ... te-change/ ]

By any measurement, this is not how most Canadians want their country to be seen internationally in an area so crucial to Canada as the environment. This challenges the conventional wisdom — often reflected in current political debate and media coverage — that Canadians have tired of the environment and climate change as public policy issues.

According to a new survey released last Monday, Canadians increasingly believe — six in 10 — that climate change is real and caused by human activity, which is the highest level since 2007. But they are losing faith in government to address the issue. [ http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/ ... hange.html ] The survey was conducted by the Environics Institute for Survey Research and the David Suzuki Foundation.

These results were broadly consistent with another national survey released in early November that showed that three out of four Canadians were concerned about climate change but many were critical of how the federal government handled the issue. The poll was sponsored by the Canada 2020 think tank and the University of Montreal, and was conducted by Leger Marketing.

The Canadian government’s handling of climate change is part of a pattern. Domestic political calculations here in Canada — rather than any high-minded sense of Canada’s international obligations — seem to drive the Harper government’s foreign policy decisions.

How else to explain Canada’s unquestioning support of the Israeli government? The price of that has been to relegate Canada to irrelevance in the Middle East.

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