For the first (and perhaps only) time, I am currently on the side of the Conservative government in Canada. The Economist’s article on the new Canadian plan for lowering emissions is a good summary of what is going on.
David Suzuki isn’t happy. Al Gore, who is in Toronto this week, is very disappointed. The liberal government is calling it a fraud.
And I’m thinking - liberal government, shuttup. For 13 years after signing the Kyoto Protocol you took no steps toward meeting our targets. The current government has inherited from you a difficult situation of an unreachable signed agreement, plus emissions which have been increasing steadly for 13 years.
Environmentalists…I know, I know. It isn’t good enough. It won’t meet the Kyoto protocol. It is putting the economy first. I am with you on being annoyed by these things. HOWEVER–it is actually putting the environment on the priority list, and that is new. It is a commitment to change, and that is new. It is a step in the right direction and you should be grateful that the population actually cares a bit now.
This government’s support comes out of oil-based Alberta, Canada’s little Texas. I can’t believe anyone was expecting anything more than what they got with this deal. A minority government cannot risk cutting out it’s only support base by alienating them on an issue its opposition is pushing for. This is a brilliant compromise.
April 29th, 2007
A while ago Matthew Good expanded his blog to include a number of authors. This has allowed for more perspective and more variance in topics (my cousin’s blog Bifsniff has taken a similar turn). As of today matthewgood.org has a new author, Meg Fowler who is going to be focused on Environmentalism and Sustainable living. Her first post was excellent. Below are some excerpts but I recommend reading the whole thing through.
When you walk down the aisles of markets and drugstores in our First World nation, you’d think that living in a Land of Plenty really means living in a Land of Product and Packaging. It’s ‘marketing’ and ‘convenience’ and ’safety’ and ‘freshness’ and ‘innovation’, but mostly?
It’s a mess…
At the most committed end of the scale, sustainable choices can dictate every single aspect of how we live our lives…
Realistically speaking, however, most people just aren’t prepared to give it that much thought…
Environmentalism and sustainable living are not “all or nothing propositions” — you don’t have to chain yourself to a tree to help prevent the destruction of forests, or live in a biodome in order to minimize the impact you have on the world around you.
You just have to ask more questions. Give your actions a couple minutes more consideration. Reevaluate a few of your needs. Make different choices where better options exist. Even spend a couple of extra bucks now and then to buy from responsible companies (though you’ll invariably save in the long run.)
I’ll be looking forward to more posts from Meg.
Edit:I have just been informed that Bifsniff is actually just my cousin Frank and my good friend Eoin. Whoops. Ah well. …apparently you guys are doing a great job and appear to be blogging in much greater numbers… *coughcough*
April 5th, 2007
So I was at my parents house watching television and this ad came on. At first I thought it was the most brilliant peice of environmental television I had seen in a long time. Was there really an ad out there focusing on the ridiculous nature of having perfectly clean drinking water in our toilets? Who was funding this? Was someone actually putting money toward a long overdue plan to use grey water for such things?
No no. Quite the opposite actually.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRQls4ot3l4]
March 28th, 2007