Found Wanting

"Canada's emissions level is very high due to its energy intensive economy and due to a very high energy consumption per capita in comparison to the other index countries", was the conclusion of Germanwatch and Climate Action Network Europe, representing a coalition of environmental groups. In their evaluation of 57 countries with high energy emissions the conclusion was that "none of the countries analysed is contributing sufficiently on a practical level to the goal to avoid dangerous climate change and keep global warming notably below the two degrees limit".

Canada, lest the wide, wide world forget, is the frozen north of North America. It is a country with a quite brief growing season. A country which is cold for five to six months of the year. A country which experiences lots of snow, high winds and icy cold. And where the inhabitants appreciate being able to keep warm and toasty. True, it's also a developed country whose population has long been accustomed to a view that energy is cheap and wastage is high, with all manner of electronic gadgetry available for consumers. And at the very coldest time of year, seasonal celebrations ensure high-energy usage as well.

It's well to remember that the population of the country is steadily growing, with an additional quarter-million people added through immigration on a yearly basis. That may explain to some degree why it is that energy usage increases, since the population increase is quite remarkable. More people, more need for energy consumption. And it is also well to remember that Canada accounts for roughly 2% of the energy used world wide. While its population represents a mere 0.5% of the world's population, that's true. We are, admittedly profligate.

And the country hugely exports electricity and fossil fuels to its North American partner, and energy extraction is CO2-intensive. Construction and manufacturing account for a goodly amount of emissions. What sticks in the craw of the network of global environmentalists is the Conservative-led government's attitude which is seen as nonconstructive by their standards. Canada's caution in signing on to hard commitments for CO2 emissions decreases with the current government, unlike that of its predecessor Liberal-led government which signed on to Kyoto and then ignored its promissory note, reflects two things.

One, that the current government has no intention of signing any commitment that it cannot see itself adequately honouring. Two, for Canada to sign a decreased-energy-output agreement while her major trading partner with whom it shares a bilateral electrical energy grid hangs back from signing on itself, would unfairly constrain and limit Canada's trade and production future. It would lack the kind of balance that Canada is looking for. A balance that the government insists should also include to some notable degree, emerging economies like China, India and Brazil.

China, the United States, Russia, India and Japan between them generate 55% of total greenhouse gas emissions. Australia remains the largest emitter of greenhouse gases per capita, as a matter of fact, so why is it that Canada has been singled out as the world's carbon emissions neanderthal? Energy technologies are changing, and Canada has signed on to various new types thought to be helpful, such as wind turbines (not a popular option with the public) and solar power, along with cleaning up current fossil-fuel extraction methodology.

A country like Brazil that was given a high ranking for its attempts to reduce emissions, developing alternate energy sources, has a skeleton in its CO2 closet, which Canada has not; the destruction of rain forests. Great swaths of forests are being mowed down in Brazil and other countries to make way for agricultural land and the process results in a huge increase of CO2 emissions. Carbon dioxide is being released to the atmosphere with deforestation. Canada, on the other hand, possesses the largest, undisturbed tract of the world's boreal forests, a valuable carbon sink.

That the provinces of Ontario and Quebec are now pointing accusatory fingers at Alberta and Saskatchewan, the two energy-producing giants largely responsible for the nation's largest emissions, claiming that they have no intention of paying for those provinces' emissions sins, and righteously claiming to be able to reduce their emissions substantially is absurd. Ontario is largely dependent on nuclear power, and Quebec on electricity derived from James Bay, both clean energy sources. Yet they eagerly snap up the energy giants' equalization handouts.

Sudan, a social-political pariah for its genocidal atrocities committed and continuing to be committed against a large proportion of the population that is black, not Arab - dispossessing Darfurians - raping and murdering at will, leads the 77-nation condemnation of the impoverished countries of the world in outrage at the mere $7-billion amelioration offer from the developed world to offset carbon emissions and help developing nations' infrastructure. Sudan, vastly enriched by its huge oilfields, insists on no less than $200-billion to help it and its neighbours deal with environmental problems.

And Canada is held up to ridicule on the world stage of absurdity unleashed by self-interested ideologues and tyrannical governments who have never invested an iota of their national incomes derived from exploiting their natural resources, along with international aid to the betterment of their peoples' living conditions?