Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2007 14:18:33 -0800
From: Scott Frederick <scott451@gmx.net>
Subject: [KCUTS] BC Liberal actions contradict rhetoric on climate change
Hello Kootenaycuts,
FYI, the article below is from this week's Monday Magazine
http://web.bcnewsgroup.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=117&cat=48&id=&more=
By CHRIS GENOVALI
Feb 28 2007
The government’s actions contradict its rhetoric on climate change
In their recent throne speech the Liberal government of British
Columbia finally addressed the issue of climate change. However, the
Liberals obviously haven’t connected the dots between their push for
offshore oil and gas development and their putative climate action
plan.
While the provincial government should win praise for breaking through
their climate change denial phase, the Liberals’ climate action plan
will stand in contradiction to their actions unless and until the
provincial government abandons their intention to open up B.C.’s
coastal waters to oil and gas drilling.
Premier Gordon Campbell has previously stated his desire to see the
current moratoria on oil and gas exploration and extraction lifted in
B.C.’s coastal waters. This stance is cause for concern on many
levels. More than a decade after the Exxon Valdez disaster, scientists
continue to uncover new evidence of the accident’s ongoing impact on
marine life. Lifting the moratoria would not only put our coastal
environment at risk, but would clearly have negative climate impacts.
One offshore oil rig alone emits the same quantity of air pollution as
7,000 cars driving 80 kilometres a day.
As David Suzuki points out, offshore oil and gas drilling will not
only compromise Canada’s commitment to the Kyoto Protocol, but
expanding the oil and gas industry will only perpetuate our current
dependence on fossil fuels, which is contrary to the aims of the Kyoto
Protocol (to which the federal government committed Canada) to cut
greenhouse gas emissions.
According to Suzuki, the amount of carbon dioxide released into the
atmosphere from burning the crude oil and natural gas drilled from
B.C.’s coast would be the equivalent of putting 13 million cars on the
road for 20 years (the life of the offshore project). Greenhouse gas
emissions from the production of oil and gas are growing faster than
any other source in the province.
Liberal forestry policies also show evidence of a major disconnect
between the government’s actions and their throne speech rhetoric on
climate change. The province has designated over four million hectares
of the Great Bear Rainforest, the largest intact network of temperate
rainforest left on earth, as an “Ecosystem Based Management” zone in
which commercial logging will take precedence.
The Campbell government’s plans to allow logging in nearly 70 percent
of the Great Bear Rainforest flies in the face of their stated concern
about climate change, particularly given the important role the Great
Bear Rainforest likely plays in sequestering carbon.
Forests play a major part in Earth’s carbon cycle. Trees convert
atmospheric carbon from CO2 into organic woody biomass as part of a
respiratory process called photosynthesis. Trees then store the carbon
until the woody biomass is destroyed; this carbon storage is called
sequestration.
The Union of Concerned Scientists states, “as globally important
storehouses of carbon, forests play a critical role in influencing the
Earth's climate. Mature forests and other forest areas with recognized
high conservation value should be fully protected. Even careful
commercial forestry operations in high conservation value forests
impose substantial costs to other forest ecosystem services. . .these
forests should not be managed for timber.”
In a recent speech, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
pointedly blamed wealthy industrialized countries for global warming
and said they should stop telling Brazil what to do with the Amazon
rainforest, highlighting the double standard northern governments
apply to their own forests.
As BBC News reported, Lula said wealthy countries were skilful at
drafting agreements and protocols, like the Kyoto treaty, to appear as
if they were doing something to reverse dangerous greenhouse gas
emissions. In practice, however, he said the results prove otherwise.
A blatant example of the hypocrisy Lula spoke of occurred this past
week when the BC Liberals brought down a budget that contains little
or no funding for their climate action plan. In B.C. it is governance
by public relations—make a dramatic announcement one week promoting a
chimeric plan to tackle climate change and the next week make sure
there is no money to actually carry it out. M
Chris Genovali is the executive director of the Raincoast Conservation
Society.
Get the Last Word. Monday welcomes personal and/or humorous essays,
800-1,000 words in length. E-mail submissions to
lastword@mondaymag.com or mail them with a SASE to Last Word, Monday
Magazine, 818 Broughton, Victoria B.C., V8W 1E4. Due to the volume of
submissions received, we can only respond to those being considered
for publication.
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Only 808 organising days until the next BC provincial election.
Best regards,
Scott mailto:scott451@gmx.net
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