ALBERTANS AHEAD OF THEIR LEADERS ON ENVIRONMENT
03.21.07 - Leído 76 veces. Enviar esta notaComment by David Suzuki*
Does Alberta need Ottawa? If the province is looking for guidance on how to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, it’s unlikely to get it from our nation’s capital. Ottawa is a net source of emissions on this issue — too much talk and too little action. But that doesn’t mean Alberta can’t get started on its own.
The lack of federal leadership on critical environmental issues like global warming was recently the focus of my cross-Canada If YOU were prime minister tour, which wrapped up in Ottawa on Friday.
I was lucky enough to have been very warmly received by Albertans at several sold-out shows in this province.
I believe there’s a fundamental disconnect between this nation’s leaders and the public. Polls tell us that the environment is Canada’s No. 1 concern, but little is being done to address it, and the science indicates that it is of utmost urgency to act. Instead, our federal politicians are squabbling among themselves.
What we need is leadership. Environmental problems like global warming aren’t partisan issues. They affect everyone of every political stripe. People have asked me on the tour whether I think Stephen Harper cares about the environment.
Given his track record, I’ve replied that I don’t think he has a green bone in his body, but more importantly, it doesn’t matter what I think.
Nor does it even matter if he personally is concerned about environmental issues at all. What matters is what he does about them.
If Canadians want politicians to do something about issues such as global warming, they have to demand it from their leaders.
That’s our job as citizens. Harper is a smart man. He knows that if he (like any politician of any party) wants to get re-elected, he has to address citizens’ concerns. If he doesn’t, he’s toast.
No party has a lock on the environment as an issue. Look at former Progressive Conservative leader Brian Mulroney. He was recently voted Canada’s greenest prime minister.
Was he an environmentalist? I doubt it very much, but he was responding to public demand, as any responsible politician will do.
The fact is, global warming is a problem that threatens not just Canada’s environment, but our economy and our way of life.
Recently, I held a joint news conference with Sir Nicholas Stern, the former chief economist with the World Bank.
His message was a powerful one — spending just one per cent of the world’s Gross Domestic Product on ways to substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions will pay back many times over in the future — in terms of preventing damage to the economy from unchecked global warming, but also from doing things more efficiently and effectively, and from exciting new industries and technologies.
Stern arrived at his conclusions partly by looking at the overwhelming body of scientific evidence that shows what the world will look like if we don’t get serious about reducing greenhouse gas pollution.
As he says, to avoid the worst climate change scenario — which could well plunge the world into a global economic depression — we have to start the transition towards a low-carbon economy immediately. Doing so is a sound economic investment in the future.
So what’s Alberta’s role? Well, one of the main reasons why Canada is so far above our Kyoto targets for reducing our greenhouse emissions is due to growth in these emissions in Alberta. But Alberta doesn’t have to wait for Ottawa to take the lead to reduce that pollution.
In fact, I get the sense from Albertans that they don’t really want to.
Alberta can regain the moral high ground by aggressively working to reduce those emissions right now
This doesn’t mean shutting down the oil industry. We still need fossil fuels, but we have to become more efficient and effective in how we use them in the transition to a low-carbon economy.
A smart and aggressive greenhouse action plan, using the most effective policies pioneered by jurisdictions like California and Quebec, would show real leadership and provide many benefits to Albertans.
For example, Petroleum Technology Alliance Canada, an industry group, has estimated that the oil and gas sector could reduce greenhouse emissions by 29 megatonnes at no net cost since all the investments in energy efficiency would come back to the industry in energy savings.
Those actions alone would get the industry nearly halfway to meeting its share of the Kyoto target.
Canadians across the country, including Alberta, have told me over and over that they expect Canada to be an environmental leader and that they’re tired of hearing rhetoric that isn’t backed up with action from our politicians.
In every city, I’ve responded the same way — don’t tell me, tell them. If Albertans want their province to chart a course to a more sustainable future, you have to demand it from your leaders and refuse to accept the status quo as good enough for you, your children or your future.
* The author is the Founder of the David Suzuki Foundation.
(The Calgary Herald)
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