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While some of the electorate gets all primed to receive the bauble of tax breaks next year, responding as intended to the carefully orchestrated neo-liberal siren call to worry only about oneself and one's own, others who can see beyond the the next paycheck and their own backyard are concerned about our collective well-being.
The Globe and Mail has a story detailing a report by the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development of the Harper regime's abysmal failure in its environmental responsibilities.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government is not doing enough to reduce carbon emissions, fight climate change and regulate oil and gas emissions, a series of audits from a federal watchdog have found.The report is really a document of the absolute contempt shown by the regime for anything that could be construed as an impediment to commerce. The specific indictments include the following:
- Canada is not on pace to meet its emissions reductions targets.When we go to the polls next year, I know that at least some of us will remember these inconvenient truths that puncture the sanctimonious and dishonest government rhetoric that we are constantly being fed.
- Oil sands monitoring has met delays – including on a key pollutant (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.” PAHs, as they’re known, are a key pollutant linked to fish deformities.)
- The federal government has no firm plan to monitor the oil sands beyond next year.
- An emissions-reduction committee hasn’t met in three years
- The rules around a key environmental protection are murky, i.e. the federal government has no clear guidelines about which projects require an environmental assessment.
Harper has persistently thwarted any meaningful action on climate change or environmental protection. He sees such things as a fetter on the economy and a direct threat to his dream of transforming the country into a fossil fuel energy superpower.
ReplyDeleteIf navigating a heavily laden supertanker through treacherous waters is a problem then gut the navigation regulations. If running pipelines through a seismically active wilderness is a severe environmental risk then gut the review process to fix the findings. If tests show the groundwater in Athabasca to be contaminated, suppress the tests and ignore them. Promise the public whatever they need to hear and then do nothing.
As a leader, Harper is deplorable. Those who vote for him are either like-minded or just easily duped.
As I read your posts, Mound, especially the ones dealing with environmental and climate change issues, more and more I think there is little basis to hope for a way of averting our impending catastrophes. Harper, unfortunately, is only one of far too many who have invested almost everything in ensuring that the status quo does not change in any meaningful way.
DeleteThe most frightening thing, Lorne, is that he has not just managed to maintain the status quo but in fact PUSH BACK environmental legislation to pre 1975 levels via the omnibus bills. All the while mealy-mouthing about "world class" regulations. I would say that what he has accomplished is criminal, as far as civil society in Canada is concerned.
ReplyDeleteI agree completely with your assessment here, ARQ. Unfortunately, he seems to know that whatever lies he tells will be accepted by a significant segment of the population.
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