Since humans are responsible for a tiny fraction of greenhouse gas production (nature accounts for the vast majority), what kind of a plan of action do you call this bit of liberal bunk? I mean besides a complete, total, utter, abominable waste of taxpayer money?
Answer: Phoney liberal-left political dogma disguised as “science”. Again.
A tonne of baloney
Terence Corcoran
Financial Post
December 9, 2004Since 1998, Ottawa has burned up more than $4-billion working on a climate change plan to meet the Chretien government’s impossible Kyoto commitments. It still has no plan, and Canada cannot come even close to meeting its 2012 carbon-reduction targets without plunging the country into a recession. So what does Ottawa do? Launch another advertising blitz. After blowing away $17-million on a campaign that flopped in the spring, Ottawa this week sent out celebrity state employee Rick Mercer for another kick at Canadians.
The campaign, called The One-Tonne Challenge, hit the airwaves Tuesday night, featuring Mr. Mercer’s trademark walking-talking routine to urge Canadians to do their individual bit to cut down on energy use. How can a guy who portrays himself as a tough funnyman who takes on big news events also be in the employ (at the CBC and now this) of the very state that creates most of the news in Canada?
Walking along in his bobbing street routine, Mr. Mercer urges Canadians to get on the federal climate bandwagon that is otherwise going nowhere. “Look, there are literally a ton of ways you can use less energy and lower your greenhouse-gas emissions by one tonne. There’s public transportation, there’s carpooling, using EnergyStar appliances and what else? It’s all right here in your free guide.”
A French version, “Le defi d’une tonne,” features Quebec star Pierre Lebeau and follows the same line. French or English, the campaign is more of the same from Ottawa—a tonne of baloney backed by billions in spending. It would be funny if it weren’t so pathetic and expensive.
That the One-Tonne Challenge is the only climate plan Ottawa has going so far was pretty clear Wednesday night, when Natural Resources Minister John Efford appeared before the Senate energy committee. Each time the senators—a supernatural collection of loose cannons and Elizabeth May fans—pressed the minister on Ottawa’s Kyoto plans, Mr. Efford steered the committee to the campaign that his government had launched the night before. “Honourable senators, you have pointed out that the advertising on climate change a couple of years ago had mixed results. That is one reason we have developed the One-Tonne Challenge. We believe that this new campaign will be different.”
Later, Senator David Angus returned to the theme. He wanted to know whether the government had its act together “in an earnest and serious way trying to meet its goals in Kyoto.” Mr. Efford again highlighted the One-Tonne Challenge and how he had applied it to his own life. “I started to think about what I am doing in my own household as a Canadian … I made some improvements. I turned off my hot-water heater when I left with my wife to come here to Ottawa. The house was closed up, so we do not turn it on.”
Amazing! On and on he went, about this and that, about how the climate issue had to be taken to the schools, “the elementary, high schools, getting to the youth because they are the best teachers. And they are the best people to control the parents. Other things are happening. One of the things on the highways is the use of vehicles.”
Senator Angus: “Those SUVs are everywhere. Four out of five vehicles are SUVs.”
Senator Mira Spivak: “Outlaw them.”
Needless to say, all of this, but especially the One-Tonne Challenge, is a gigantic waste. Even if every Canadian were to do something to eliminate a tonne of carbon emissions, the 32 million tonnes saved wouldn’t put a dent in an SUV, let alone the 240 million tonnes of carbon Canada is supposed to cut from its national emissions by 2012.
The One-Tonne savings, of course, will fail to materialize. Among the recommended techniques is to stop idling your car for 10 minutes day. That would allegedly save one-quarter of a tonne of carbon a year. How many of us needlessly idles 10 minutes a day? And how do we cut it down?
Another saving opportunity is to get Ottawa to pay for up to $1,000 worth of home-retrofit costs for a saving of maybe half a tonne. There are 12 million homes in Canada. So far, Ottawa has paid to retrofit 11,000. Only 11,989,000 to go—and even then the total savings will be small compared with the targets.
Like all the elements of the One-Tonne program, these are just cheap marketing tricks and propaganda. Left undone so far by Ottawa are the major decisions involving the big-cost items in transportation and industry. These will involve forcing forcing major industries to pay, imposing annual carbon taxes worth billions a year, or paying the Russians billions of dollars for emission credits to offset the fact that Canada cannot meet its targets.
Down in Buenos Aires this week and next, the international climate agency behind the Kyoto Protocol is meeting to figure out what to do next with an agreement that is nominally set for ratification. The U.S. has not signed the agreement, and Harlan Watson, the U.S. negotiator at the meeting, reportedly told a news conference that the Kyoto Protocol was a political document that is not based on sound science.
Canada, however, is sticking to its guns, even though senior government bureaucrats concede Canada cannot possibly meet its targets. Earlier this week, George Anderson, Mr. Efford’s deputy minister, said Canada’s current initiatives can only achieve two-thirds of the 240-million-tonne target. That leaves an 80-million-tonne gap. But fear not. Mr. Efford has met the challenge. “What I have done personally in my own home is amazing.” I think he should be a guest on Mr. Mercer’s next show. If Pierre Berton can demonstrate joint rolling, Mr.Efford can show off his skill at turning off the hot-water heater.
? National Post 2004
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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