Rona, pull us out now, we’ve had enough
UPDATE (2006-05-27) Canadian Christian Conservative has quoted and supports some of the ideas expressed in this post in one of his own, titled "Ignatieff and Kyoto". Link here. Thanks CC!
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Isn’t it just marvelous? The Harper government is doing EXACTLY what it said it would do. And that’s why I’ve really been longing for Environment minister Rona Ambrose to finally pull the plug on Kyoto, once and for all.
Now, it looks like that’s precisely what they’re aiming for and I sure can’t hide the fact that I’m totally ecstatic over it.
From my point of view, I can only congratulate and praise the present Canadian government on sticking to their guns despite the tsunami of literally blind public support for the overly-flawed Kyoto protocol, of which more than a large part sadly originates from my home province.
I have also recently read in La Presse that Stephen Harper was seeking to disable what they call the "Kyoto 2" protocol talks, and that under his stewardship, Canada would vie for the burial of Kyoto after 2012 and block any attempt from the international community to impose ambitious greenhouse gases reduction targets on the country after that deadline passes.
But what really irks me is the unfair interpretation of Harper’s environmental actions by the left-leaning media (ie: CBC Radio-Canada, Le Devoir, La Presse, etc). It looks like every major news media in Canada have decided together to treat the Harper government’s position on the matter as a "weakness on the environmental issue".
Oh really? Well let me tell you this: it all really boils down to the reporting individual’s point of view. For example, what environmentalist organizations like Greenpeace see as a "weakness" towards the environment, I see as a MAJOR STRENGTH. The strength to finally have the guts to do what we damn well think is good for us and not bow down before the insanely marxist elucubrations and the creeping shortsightedness of the international community as demonstrated by their literally religious veneration of one of the most irresponsible frauds in history. To them, Kyoto (and other bureaucratic meaningless nonsensical treaties to be are The Ultimate Truth, The Only Way and The Savior. Believe and you will be Saved.
But that does not reduce greenhouse gases. The vast majority of the countries that ratified the protocol when it all started have yet to reduce even slightly their emissions. Why, you ask? They don’t need to! Why do you think countries in Africa and Russia signed it? They produce virtually no greenhouse gases and could sell their Kyoto-given "rights to pollute" to rich Western nations (U.S., Canada, Australia, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Spain and more) who do pollute a lot (but produce accordingly). So this doesn’t call for reduction of greenhouse gases, it calls for a massive TRANSFER OF WEALTH from RICH WESTERN WORLD NATIONS (us) towards POOR THIRD-WORLD NATIONS and Russia. The main goal of Kyoto calls for nothing more than that, and nothing less. Greenhouse gas reduction is just a pretext used to demonize rich Western world nations who would not sign the protocol. But even then, only one of the nations refusing to ratify the protocol got a real scolding and a monstrous slap in the face from the "global warmers". I’ll let you guess which one it is.
I’ll voluntarily leave aside here the important notion most people have long stopped considering which consists in the fact that nobody to this day has ever been able to prove that human activities are actually causing global warming, and that despite what environmentalists would like us to believe, there are about as many scientists siding with them as there are siding with their "enemy". Hell, for all we know, a slight natural increase of the sun’s activity might be causing all of it. Or maybe, like I believe, it’s all natural temperature variations. Why would we expect Earth temperatures to be stable when they just never have been?
Finally, I’ll repeat it one last time so read carefully, you inane, stupidly blinded, dogmatist enviro-freaks: YOU DO NOT HAVE THE MONOPOLY ON IDEAS TO HELP THE ENVIRONMENT NOR DO YOU HAVE IT WHEN IT COMES TO FINDING MEANS OF APPLYING THEM. Simply because YOU call something or someone "green" or an "enemy of the environment" doesn’t freaking mean it actually is. Especially not when your only known manner of "fighting global warming" (for which we STILL can’t even know for sure whether we’re responsible, mind you) is through bureaucratic, shady wealth-transferring-to-the-poor-third-world-nations treaties like the overly skewed, impossibly flawed, covert and politically and ideologically-driven Kyoto fiasco you UNBELIEVABLY still haven’t let go of yet despite its proven total lack of efficiency!
The Kyoto circus is dead so get over it, sissies. And no, there won’t be a sequel.
We’ve had more than damn enough of this clownish, meaningless and dizzying ride.
Rona, take us out NOW.
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Sources:
"Stephen Harper prêt à faire dérailler Kyoto 2", by François CARDINAL, La Presse, Saturday May 20th, 2006, Front Page.
Just for the record, I don’t think Minister Ambrose can really “pull the plug” on Kyoto. The Kyoto treaty was ratified by a majority vote in Parliament, and even Tory ministers don’t have the power to unilaterally overrule the will of the people of Canada as expressed through a majority of Parliament. Certainly the government can ignore our international treaty obligations (the Liberals certainly did), and they can even ANNOUNCE that they’re going to ignore our treaty obligations, but actually “unratifying” the treaty would certainly require a vote in Parliament.
So, that being said, we’re certainly not going to see a vote on this, because everyone knows the Tories would lose, and if there’s anything worse than ignoring the will of Candians as expressed through Parliament, it’s ignoring the will of Canadians as expressed through Parliament TWICE.
I’m afraid all opponents of Kyoto (a minority of Canadians BTW, not that that matters to the government) can hope for on this, like so many files that conservatives dislike, is that the government will simply continue to ignore previous majority votes of Parliament with which they ideologically disagree.
Personalyy, I think it would be useful for Canadians to receive a list of ALL the democratically passed laws and treaties the Tories disagree with ideologically and will not fund or enforce, because every time I turn around there’s another announcement that the government is going to simply ignore a law they don’t like, because they don’t have the votes in Parliament to actually change it. I consider myself a law abiding citizen, but as long as the Tories are handing out free passes, I’d like to have a comprehensive list of which democratically enacted Canadian laws I can safely ignore until the next election.
Comment by Lord Kitchener's Own — May 25, 2006 @ 3:46 pm
Ambrose can’t pull the plug because she 1) doesn’t have the power; 2) doesn’t have the guts since Harper is all wishy-washy on it; 3) is actually a signatory on the Protocol and well, you just can’t go ’round erasing your signatures when things don’t go your way.
She should have done the honourable thing and excused herself and Canada from the talks.
Believe me, the world will get along without her and Harper.
At least if she’d counted herself out instead of pretending she was in, we could have saved that much more on gasses plugging up the atmosphere.
Comment by FreeWipesfor All — May 25, 2006 @ 9:13 pm
If all of Canada’s Liberal/NDP voters parked their cars and turned their lights and electricity off - then Canada might be able to meet Kyoto targets. That’s a Kyoto measure I would support.
Comment by infidel — May 26, 2006 @ 12:14 am
@Lord Kitchener’s Own:
Interesting point of view. Unfortunately, I believe you’re right. Ms. Ambrose can’t actually renege on Canada’s Kyoto signature. But Canada can sure as hell ignore the protocol and not do anything about it.
@FreeWipesfor All:
I don’t agree with you saying Harper is wishy-washy on anything. You know he HAS to be deliberately evasive and, well, covert in order to operate a smooth transformation, gradually and successfully moving Canada towards the “countries that don’t care about Kyoto” column without raising the anger of the Canadian people and jeopardizing his shot at a majority government. Now that’s a challenge and I believe he’s up to it.
@Infidel: You bet! But you forgot Bloc voters too, they’re totally obsessed by Kyoto here. I too would support that measure wholeheartedly…
Comment by Xavier R. Dubé — May 26, 2006 @ 10:58 am