Late Thursday afternoon the Tory government confirmed it is killing off over a dozen research programs related to the Kyoto protocol. On the eve of a long weekend when governments traditionally dump bad news for the least possible public exposure, Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn issued a news release saying 15 programs were being eliminated.
Lunn said the programs had run their course.
"The new government under Prime Minister Stephen Harper is committed to putting an end to the massive increase in (greenhouse gas) emissions that Canada has seen over the past decade,'' said the release.
"To do that, we need a new approach to addressing climate change that is effective and realistic for Canada.''
Meanwhile that same day a scientist with Environment Canada was ordered not to launch his global warming-themed novel,Hotter than Hell. The novel imagines a world where global warming has made parts of the world too hot to live in, prompting a war between Canada and the U.S. over water resources.
Apparently Mark Tushingham, whose day job is as an Environment Canada scientist, was ordered not to appear at the National Press Club to give a speech discussing his science fiction story about global warming in the not-too-distant future.
PM Harper said the Conservative governing platform "will include measures we're going to develop over the next year or so to deal with both pollution and greenhouse gases.''
But the Globe and Mail reported that cabinet documents they had obtained suggest the cuts won't stop at 15 programs. The newspaper reported that the Conservatives will cut 80 per cent of programs aimed at curbing global warming at Environment Canada. Budgets in other government departments aimed at climate change will be slashed by 40 per cent.
Clearly the Conservative government is abandoning Canada's commitment to the Kyoto Protocol while pretending otherwise. Environmental groups are calling on the Opposition parties to defeat the government if it proceeds to cut Canada's climate change programs.
2006/04/14
Harper government eliminates 15 programs dedicated to Kyoto research
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Stephen, we voted for you in January to get rid of Liberal corruption. Pursue this negative environmental agenda and we'll be voting differently next time.
Well -- I hope he's getting rid of the research program looking into way to stop cows from farting (I'm not kidding -- cows farting are a significant contributor to CO2). I suspect that a number of the other programs being cancelled were equally "useful". Doubters should really check out: http://www.friendsofscience.org/ and an interesting essay by Michael Crichton at http://www.crichton-official.com/fear/index.html.
I read Crichton book. It's an anti-environmentalists polemic. He paints environmentalists who are cardboard caricatures.Debate on Climate change has shifted to issue of irreparable change. For example, see article "Some Experts on Global Warming Foresee 'Tipping Point' When It Is Too Late to Act" at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/28/AR2006012801021_pf.html
I read the Chrichton book too -- thought it a bit shallow . . . but the essay at the end about the politicization of science is very informative, and Chrichton's research very thorough.
Here's what I think about Kyoto -- courtesy of http://eteam.ncpa.org/commentaries/kyoto-no-go
We also know that the Kyoto Treaty will do little to solve the carbon-dioxide problem. Masquerading as a global environmental policy, Kyoto exempts half of the world's population and nine of the top 20 emitters of carbon dioxide--including China and India--from its emissions reduction requirements. It is in fact an effort to replace the world's markets with an internationally regulated (think U.N.) global economy, perhaps better described as a predatory trade strategy to level the world's economic playing field by penalizing the economic growth of energy efficient nations and rewarding those emitting much greater quantities of noxious gasses.
Post a Comment