Canadian Report Card

If Canada was a student, our marks in Environmental Studies would read: D – Canada is frequently disruptive in class.  Although Canada shows considerable potential, more effort is required to receive a passing grade.

 

The latest issue of McLean’s Magazine  commits a section to articles that illustrate how poorly Canadians are doing at improving their environmental impact.  Here are a few facts they cite: 

Canada has the highest energy consumption of all G8 nations. 

We emitted 747 Million tonnes of greenhouse gasses in 2005. 

We rank 28th out of 30 on indicators like energy and water among the countries belonging to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development. 

 We consume 1,500 cubic meters of water per person per year, more than any other industrialized nation. 

The list is considerably longer than this, but suffice it to say that we are not doing very well.

And small wonder.  How can we expect to make any significant progress toward environmental sustainability when our Federal Environment Minister, John Baird, won’t even conduct a federal review of the new Irving Oil Refinery.  According to an announcement he made in 2007, Baird declined to allow an independent panel to review the environmental impact of the new refinery.  Such an independent survey is supposed to be guaranteed by the Canadian Environmental AssessmentAct.  Baird has shown masterfully that Canadian politicians can be in the pocket of big oil just as deep as any American can.  Irving asked in the proposal for the refinery that no federal assessment be performed.  Baird has said that there is no need for both federal and provincial agencies to assess the plant.  While I haven’t been in the province for a long time, I have been here long enough to know that Graham’s Liberal’s can’t be trusted to take Irving to task.  Luckily there are those who will.  The Conservation Council of New Brunswick and the Friends of the Earth have enlisted Ecojustice (Sierra Legal Defence Fund) to file a lawsuit against Baird. 

It seems to me that the only reason this sort of treasonous behavior is tolerated is because there is a general atmosphere, not only in New Brunswick, of fear, that standing up to a powerful corporate entity like Irving Oil will mean job loss.  The terror of economic depression leads people not only to tolerate the detestable abuses of industry, but to actively defend them.  I am naive enough to think that there is another way.  We are capable of providing for ourselves without desecrating the air, water, soil and spirit of our province.  To hear the voices of some Maritimers who are not afraid to speak out check out the message board IrvingSucks.

 

Stephen harper met with with G.Wyuh. Bush and Mexican President Felipe Calderon at what is termed the Security and Prosperity Partnership Summit.  Maybe what they should be trying to negotiate is how the countries are going to disentangle themselves from one another, and re-localize their economies so that the people they were “elected” to represent are empowered to sustain themselves.