I’m embarrassed to admit that I’m sick and tired of the argument about Kyoto. To meet Kyoto or not, I’m really starting to not care. Kyoto is such a minor drop in the bucket compared to what we actually have to do.
Yes, the protocol is legally binding and yes, the penalites for not meeting it are huge, but the penalties only come into affect if we stay within a post-Kyoto treaty. Not meeting the Kyoto targets or staying within a post-Kyoto treaty will make Canada the social pariah that the US has become in much of the world but hey, that’s a decision we can make I guess. We will have to decide how we want our country to be viewed by the rest of the world. As a country who cares about the future? Or as a country that selfishly sacrifices future generations for the short term benefit of this one?
But back on point, there is only one important thing to know about climate change, and that is that we must reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And I mean as an absolute number, not as some function of efficiency or how our economy is doing. Those measurements are OK if you need them, so long as the actual number goes down. The atmosphere has no ego or higher intelligence. It has no personality. It does not care about the source of our emissions or even our survival.
And what year you use as a base line doesn’t really matter either. The rest of the world has chosen to use 1990 as the base line. Minister Baird wants to use 2006, to distance himself from the Liberals do-nothing policy. It makes his plan look better to those who don’t check the math. OK, John, just adjust your percentages accordingly and I really don’t care!
So let’s call the argument, here and in the US, what it actually is: a disagreement on the part of Harper-Bush-Baird that we have a greater responsibility to reduce first, further and faster since we in the western world are primarily responsible for the stock of CO2 built up in the atmosphere AND, at least for now, we still emit far more per capita per year than other countries in the world.
I disagree with them.
I believe that we have no greater right to use the atmosphere as a dumping ground than any other nation, that the total amount of worldwide emissions must be capped and then reduced, that the portion that Canada must agree to should be measured on a per capita basis, and that we have a responsibility for our contribution to our emissions from the past 100 years.
This is the basis of the calculations in George Monbiot’s book, Heat, and is based on the principle of fairness. It’s based on the the concept that all human beings are equal, and have an equal right to exist and pursue their own happiness. In Monbiot’s calculations, Canada’s portion of GHG reductions, based on our population, should be 94% below 1990 levels.
Yes, this is a large number. And yes, it will be difficult. And anyone still operating under the illusion (or delusion) that we get even half way there without changing how we live is either uninformed at best, or deliberately ignoring the facts.
So there you go. Why argue about Kyoto when we have so much further to go, and no time left to get started?
