U.S. Now Far Outpacing Canada On Addressing Climate Change

A Brief Commentary by Doug Draper

When will Canada have a prime minister who even comes close to U.S. President Barack Obama when it comes to addressing climate change?

U.S. President Barack Obama includes call for more action on climate change in State of Union address.

More than 90 per cent of the most reputable climatologists around the world now agree that carbon emissions from human activities are contributing to atmospheric that could lead to catastrophic quality of life and economic impacts for those of us, and our children and grandchildren, still living in the last half of this century – impacts that are already causing trillions of dollars in damage to property, food crops and other vital necessities in our collective lives now.

Yet in Canada, we have a Harper government that continues to view any conclusion that human activities are impacting on climate as a joke and views taking any action to significantly reduce carbon emissions from tar sand operations and related activities as, what Stephen Harper recently called, a “job killer.”

Now it looks like the real job killers in Canada are those who continue to worship strip mining tar for oil as this country’s major economic enterprise. Other countries, including the United States and, believe it or not, China and India, are moving rapidly in the direction of developing green energy alternatives that will most likely ensure the dominance of those countries as energy producers in the years and decades ahead in a 21^st century Canada’s Harper government seems to have no interest in joining when it comes to new ways of generating energy.

At a 2014 climate change summit hosted by the United Nations, Obama spoke before a full world assembly on the need for action while Harper did not bother to attend. Instead, he sent his totally ineffective environment minister, Leona Aglukkiaq, who spoke in an almost empty side room at the U.N. rather than in the main assembly room where many other world leaders spoke. It was shameful for a country that was once a world leader in the area of environmental protection.

Canada is facing a federal election this year and let’s hope that Canadians demand a new government that takes climate change seriously.

Immediately below,  Niagara At Large is posting an excerpt from U.S. President Barack Obama’s January 20^th, 2015 State of the Union, addressing the issue of climate change.

“In the Asia Pacific, we are modernizing alliances while making sure that other nations play by the rules — in how they trade, how they resolve maritime disputes, how they participate in meeting common international challenges like nonproliferation and disaster relief. And no challenge — no challenge — poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change.

2014 was the planet’s warmest year on record. Now, one year doesn’t make a trend, but this does: 14 of the 15 warmest years on record have all fallen in the first 15 years of this century.

I’ve heard some folks try to dodge the evidence by saying they’re not scientists; that we don’t have enough information to act. Well, I’m not a scientist, either. But you know what, I know a lot of really good scientists at NASA, and at NOAA, and at our major universities. And the best scientists in the world are all telling us that our activities are changing the climate, and if we don’t act forcefully, we’ll continue to see rising oceans, longer, hotter heat waves, dangerous droughts and floods, and massive disruptions that can trigger greater migration and conflict and hunger around the globe. The Pentagon says that climate change poses immediate risks to our national security. We should act like it.

And that’s why, over the past six years, we’ve done more than ever to combat climate change, from the way we produce energy to the way we use it. That’s why we’ve set aside more public lands and waters than any administration in history. And that’s why I will not let this Congress endanger the health of our children by turning back the clock on our efforts. I am determined to make sure that American leadership drives international action.”

In Beijing, we made a historic announcement: The United States will double the pace at which we cut carbon pollution. And China committed, for the first time, to limiting their emissions. And because the world’s two largest economies came together, other nations are now stepping up, and offering hope that this year the world will finally reach an agreement to protect the one planet we’ve got.”

For a full text of Obama’s State of the Union address click on http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jan/20/obama-state-of-the-union-2015-full-text .

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