Category Archives: climate crisis

Earth To Toronto: Stop Driving So Much

climate crisis, toronto,

James Lovelock is a scientist famous for advancing the Gaia hypothesis, which basically states that the Earth is one giant self-regulating organism. Some (most notably Agent Smith in The Matrix) have looked at the destructive force we’ve chosen to inflict on the Earth through this lens and compared the human race to a virus. Of course, when our bodies become infected with a virus, we raise our core temperature in an effort to burn it off.

From today’s Globe and Mail:

The heat and humidity yesterday may have played a role in the collapse of an express lane on Highway 401 near Islington Avenue just after 3:30 p.m., police say. It remained closed last night.

B-Sides and False Starts

climate crisis, conservative party, democracy and good government, economy, green party, polls

I’ve started to accumulate a back-log of things I wanted to write about, or started to write about but couldn’t make work. Here, then, are a handful of brief observations and links from the past few weeks.

I Am Rubber. You, Are Glue.

Angus Reid finds that, while Conservative attack ads do hurt Dion, they hurt Harper even more. For me this reveals that attack ads against the personal character or patriotism of another politician (the Liberals are guilty of this too) are actually attacks on democracy itself, as they turn everyone off of the process and do damage to the level of debate in this country. Unfortunately, they seem to also help rally donations.

Four Myths on Senate Reform

An interesting piece by Thomas Hall in The Hill Times [pdf]. A good backgrounder on how and why most politicians are misleading us on senate reform.

More Support for Carbon Tax

Put a price on emissions now or else, report says. The economic impacts of not introducing a carbon tax would be worse than introducing one, and the cost goes up with each day of inaction. And yet, the Green Party continues to be the only party in Canada to support this painfully obvious necessity. Why then do the others–chief among them the Conservatives–keep hiding and distorting the truth?

Vote Like You Mean It

An Angus Reid poll finds that 58% of Canadians “would like the Green party to have representation in the House of Commons.” If anyone can think of a realistic way to make this happen without actually voting for us, I’d like to hear it. (Though voting for MMP in Ontario would help too.)

Buying Good Headlines

While the Greens were getting good headlines, the Conservatives were buying theirs. Like, wow.

Oh Come On!

climate crisis, liberal party

From the Star:

TORONTO – Ontario’s environment minister is under attack from neighbours over plans to build a two-storey garage.

A complaint was filed with the Ontario Municipal Board arguing the garage would dwarf neighbouring properties and could damage a large tree.

But Laurel Broten says the plans call for the garage to be built without harming that tree.

Broten says her family has four cars – a hybrid, a fuel-efficient SUV and two sports cars belonging to her husband.

I’m holding Broten personally responsible for the red palm-shaped mark on my forehead. Feel free to add your own snaky comment/punch line to the comments section. Of all the possibilities, I can’t decide which one’s my favourite.

Also, I’ m pretty sure we can safely add “fuel-efficient SUV” to the oxymoron list.

Steep carbon tax could actually stimulate economy: report

climate crisis, economy, green party,

It’s not every day you read a glowing news report about the Green Party in the National Post, but we live in interesting times. The story in yesterday’s paper has the same headline as this blog entry, and begins as follows:

OTTAWA — It was denounced by Environment Minister John Baird as “the mother of all taxes,” but a new report for the federal government says a $50-per-tonne carbon tax to reduce greenhouse gas pollution would do little harm to the Canadian economy.

The study – titled “Cost Curves for Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction in Canada: The Kyoto Period and Beyond” – was submitted to the government in January.

Green party Leader Elizabeth May said it proves the Conservatives knew the top experts were urging them to accept her proposal of a $50-per-tonne carbon tax as the most effective tool to fight global warming.

“The Canadian public can conclude that the Harper government is deliberately misleading them when they claim that a carbon tax does serious damage to the economy, because they know it’s not true,” May said at a news conference.

In an analysis of carbon taxes ranging from $10 per tonne up to $250 per tonne, the report, obtained by May through an Access to Information request, concluded that the $50-per-tonne carbon tax could even have a positive effect on the economy by 2015. The Green party has proposed a tax shift by transferring revenues from the new carbon tax to reductions in payroll taxes for companies and in income taxes for individuals.

Mark Jaccard, whose consulting firm produced the study and who has been recognized by senior government officials as “one of Canada’s top climate policy experts,” went on to say, “if we’re serious about reducing greenhouse gases, we have to have a carbon tax or its equivalent. So in fact, Elizabeth May is the only politician who’s being honest to Canadians right now.”

In summary, our government has had a report in their hands since January, from one of their own trusted experts, that says they’re wrong and we’re right. They tried to keep this report secret, and we only now know about it because Elizabeth May obtained it through the Access to Information Act.

They know it’s not true that action on climate change would cripple the economy. They know that a carbon tax is needed to avoid the worst effects of climate change. They know that the Green Party’s “tax shift” idea (reduce income and payroll taxes, add carbon and pollution taxes) could actually stimulate the economy.

Faced with those facts, they decided the best thing to do would be to try and keep this information from Canadians. Honestly, what kind of mind works like that?