Policy

Federal Party Climate Plans Graded

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Chatelaine magazine recently published this article that also appeared in MacLean’s on Friday. Written jointly by the well known and highly respected Canadian climate scientist, Katherine Hayhoe and economist Andrew Leach, the article compares the major parties’ plans for dealing with climate change in terms of their ambition and their feasibility. You should read the … Read more

Kill the Messengers!

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Kill the Messengers  is an invaluable, thoroughly researched book written by Marc Bourrie, an expert on censorship and an award-winning  journalist with decades of exposure to politics and our parliamentary system. He documents the erosion of the values and trust so many of us take for granted in Canada in our democracy. Bourrie illustrates the astonishing … Read more

Canada continues to be an outlier on GHG emissions!

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The world’s two largest GHG emitters, the US and China, are going one way, and Canada is going another. Fact: Tar sands emissions have doubled since 1990 and are projected to double again by 2020. Fact: The proposed energy pipelines, Keystone XL and Energy East, are infrastructure for export of tar sands oil. Fact: Because of … Read more

No stopping the exploitation of the tar sands!

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Andrew Gage, Staff Lawyer, West Coast Environmental Law, penned an article with the title “Dear President Obama: In Canada climate change affects none of our decisions!”

His article is a good analysis of the recent State Department Review of the Keystone XL Pipeline.  He compares the process followed by the State Department in conducting that Review with similar decisions of Canadian Government agencies.

We know that the State Department accepted that the tar sands bitumen would get to international markets whether or not the cross-border Keystone XL link was built.   Gage disputes this conclusion.

Regardless, he is right on the key issue!

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Limiting GHG emissions in the North West Territories

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The Diavik Mine ought to be a model for mining operations in the North West Territories.  This mine has large wind turbines to provide electric power for mine operations.  The result is that GHG emissions from the Mine have fallen by 6%, reducing the need for diesel fuel (the source of these emissions) by 5 million litres.

For Our Grandchildren (4RG) has been told that the Mine owners will amortize the large costs of this wind farm in a matter of years.  So shouldn’t this be the standard demanded from all other new mines that are to be opened in the NWT?  And shouldn’t it be a matter of policy to see that wind becomes the source of power for all aboriginal and northern communities and resource operations?

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A Tragic Paradox

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In 1974 the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development sponsored the formation of the Paris-based International Energy Agency to develop policy and solutions in the face of events such as the 1973 oil crisis.   Canada has been a member since 1974.

The IEA’s mandate has expanded to include the environment as well as energy policy and economic development. In part this expansion is a result of the growing recognition of the risks of global warming.  For the same reason the IEA has become more active in the development of renewable energy, and is now a trusted advisor on this source.

Some sceptics criticize international bodies whose mandate includes climate change on the ground they are staffed by socialist-tainted bureaucrats, whose jobs are secure as long as the so-called global warming continues.  The IEA is one organization that has escaped such criticism, perhaps because its reports and recommendations demonstrate a high-degree of political sensitivity.  Whether the IEA will now attract the cricitism from such sources in the face of its hard-hitting analysis of the climate crisis remains to be seen.

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“We don’t go along to get along”!

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“We don’t go along to get along”! Those were the words used by Canada’s Prime Minister to explain why Canada took the bold step of withdrawing from the Kyoto Treaty on Climate Change. Canada took a calculated risk in departing from  the  policy of “nice guy” diplomacy practiced ever since the United Nations was founded … Read more

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