I know it is Canada Day. This is the time for pancake breakfasts, picnics, beer, BBQ’s and fireworks with family and friends. But it is also a time for reflection about our pride and our country.
I am reflecting today on where we are going as Canadians in the global context and what the hell is really going on in our nation these days...especially in terms of our environment, our economy and our society.
With all that churning in my cranium, I open my morning newspaper and here before me is a sweet voice of reason and wisdom from the MSM. This piece is some sound advice for engaged citizens who are thinking for a change. (sic)
Gary Mason’s column in the Globe and Mail today adds perspective to what is happening on the carbon-tax/green-shift/climate change political pranks that we are witnessing. This is a great column and well worth a reflective and careful read.
Let’s not let those misguiding politicians who are telling us everything is alright. They are telling us the only thing going wrong is bad policies that lead to higher gasoline prices. They are from the Don’t Worry Be Happy short-sighted school of government. But in our heart of hearts, we know those politicians are, in Gary Mason’s words “… playing politics with the planet.”
The increasing carbon and other GHG emissions are the enemy and taxing carbon is a way to get us to start adapting our behaviours and using our enormous human inventiveness and creativity to resolve the carbon crisis.
Ken,
ReplyDeleteHAPPY CANADA DAY
greengirl
Reading your comments and some of the MSM headlines.... I have to agree that most people with profile (you are not excluded !!!) resort to old school politic style discussion.
To be fair Ken you are not totally stuck there as some are, but IT IS tempting to slip into what we know, no? SOP (= standard operating proceedure)
Also, we need to get beyond that type of discussion and the thinking that underlies and how to get beyond ...IT IS A PUZZEL to me.
Whether we like it or not we are in a period of huge economic transition...
(oil prices may hugely fluctuate.... but given the different cost of gas at the pump around the world this isn't the key issue)
....to me this economic transition challenge is BIGGER than the environmental challenges (and heaven knows THEY are big enough!.)
In such a time it is expected that the current "winners" will want to protect their positions....
[...might I suggest a REAL "winner" will be proactive and look to how to secure future economies while protecting as best as possible themselves and whatever they most value during the transition....]
Fundamentally I am optimistic as I can see, via the internet, that tons of great thinkers and big business minds are IN FACT acting as I think "winners" would... it is a darn shame that few to NONE of them appear to be in CANADA.
Dion's green sweep is optimistic but as far as I can see it does not yet give enough recognition to the very REAL PAIN that many CANADIANS are starting to suffer... a situation that without addressing will only get worse....
transitional PAIN may look like: "natural disasters"; or like economic downturns; or intensified social stratification, or movement of jobs out of some regions and into others..... or working homeless....
Is anyone talking of new ways to address these supposedly classic political problems? Because if we do not get NEW solutions that look to a new future .... Canada is tanked....
....even as some folks ride into the sunset on their old school finances and investments...
So looking to the future what do we envision CANADA look like and be like 20, 50, 100, 150 years out?
What changes are we willing to DISCUSS?
'cause if we can't even handle new forms of discussion, we are in NO WAY ready to handle with success the changes coming our way.
HAPPY CANADA DAY
greengirl
You presume that global warming is anything but a socialist income redistribution plot. There's no evidence.
ReplyDeleteRead "The Deniers".
A socialist income redistribution plot??? That is a funny take on the consequence of global warming.
ReplyDeleteWhy would I read the Deniers? What would it teach me about prudence and taking precautions? Give me a summary of the book and some background on the author to consider before I waste my time.
Dion's carbon tax does not have any solid carbon reduction targets. We don't really know whether or not a carbon tax would actually decrease consumption. For example, if the carbon tax increases the heating cost of a home by $100 (it may be more), an individual is unlikely to retrofit their house (change windows, new furnance, insulation, etc.) because is immensely expensive.
ReplyDeleteThe carbon tax plan also does not include the increase in the costs of everyday goods that are at the stores due to increased transportation costs as well as overhead such as heat and electricity in the manufacturing and distrubution centre.
How come those types of "costs" are not in Dion's educational materials? They are real costs to real consumers. Maybe it's Dion that is playing a political prank? If so, the CPC and the other parties have an obligation to educate Canadians as to the consequences of the carbon tax plan.
Dion's carbon tax does not have any solid carbon reduction targets. We don't really know whether or not a carbon tax would actually decrease consumption. For example, if the carbon tax increases the heating cost of a home by $100 (it may be more), an individual is unlikely to retrofit their house (change windows, new furnance, insulation, etc.) because is immensely expensive.
ReplyDeleteThe carbon tax plan also does not include the increase in the costs of everyday goods that are at the stores due to increased transportation costs as well as overhead such as heat and electricity in the manufacturing and distrubution centre.
How come those types of "costs" are not in Dion's educational materials? They are real costs to real consumers. Maybe it's Dion that is playing a political prank? If so, the CPC and the other parties have an obligation to educate Canadians as to the consequences of the carbon tax plan.
eric - we all wish the world were as simple as the Cons perceive it. Embracing ambiguity and uncertainty is the real world today - but that is NOT the strong suit of the radical Conservative right. Pity you are so out of touch!
ReplyDeleteGet serious - if this were a simple minded problem with a simple minded solution you guys would have come up with it by now -after all you are the source of the 2% GST cut touted as forward thinking Conservative economic policy.
Climate change demands real leadership and serious policy engagement - not the attack ads, bumper sticker policies and name-calling we get from Harper's radical Cons.
There's no proof for global warming. It's all a scam, particularly Kyoto.
ReplyDelete