GRUENDING: PM Harper a deadbeat on climate change

GRUENDING: PM Harper a deadbeat on climate change

Postby Oscar » Sat Apr 18, 2015 2:38 pm

PM Harper a deadbeat on climate change: Premiers provide the leadership

[ http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/dennis- ... ide-leader ]

By Dennis Gruending | April 15, 2015

EXCERPT:

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a blue ribbon group of climate scientists, has issued a series reports regarding climate change. They say that it is occurring as a result of human activity and that the situation is growing increasingly urgent. They believe, for example, that global warming is melting glaciers which will, in turn, cause sea levels to rise by as much as a metre by the end of this century, inundating many of the world's coastal cities.

Deny, deny, deny

The first IPCC report was issued in 1990. At the time, Stephen Harper was an executive assistant to Reform Party MP Deborah Grey. Twelve years later, in 2002, Harper became leader of the Canadian Alliance. The IPCC expertise had been available for well over a decade by then but according to a list of quotes assembled by the Climate Action Network Canada, this is what Harper was saying about climate change in 2002: "We can debate whether or not… CO2 does or does not contribute to global warming. I think the jury is out." (Interview on the Rafe Mair Show, CKNW Radio Vancouver, November 29, 2002)

[The Kyoto Accord is] based on tentative and contradictory scientific evidence about climate trends." (Stephen Harper, Canadian Alliance fundraising letter, Fall 2002)

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Deadbeat Conservatives

Canada has nothing on the table for the UN climate talks in Paris. In 2009, the Harper government committed to reducing carbon emissions to 17 per cent below 2005 levels by 2020. However, even the federal environment commissioner says current federal measures will have little effect on emissions by 2020.

The provinces and territories have, by default, been forced to provide the leadership in curbing emissions but they really cannot do it on their own. Canadians and the world are watching and soon Mr. Harper will have nowhere to hide.

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Dennis Gruending is an Ottawa-based author, blogger and a former Member of Parliament. He has worked as a print and television journalist and a CBC Radio host. He is the author of six books, including the best-selling Great Canadian Speeches. He has written biographies of Emmett Hall, whose Royal Commission recommended medicare for Canada, and of former Saskatchewan premier Allan Blakeney. In his Pulpit and Politics blog, Dennis examines the connections and collisions between religious faith and politics. Prior to serving as an MP in the late 1990s, Dennis spent four years as Director of Information for the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. Pulpit and Politics examines the connection, and frequent collisions, between religious faith and politics. His blog can be found at: http://www.dennisgruending.ca
Oscar
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