Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Cathy Chats While Justin Mumbles


Poor Justin. He wants to do the Fossil Fuelers bidding, he really does. Whether it's walking away from his election promise to clean house at the National Energy Board or repair the damage Harper inflicted on our navigation and fisheries laws or that business about First Nations consultation and, gasp, "social licence," or championing pipelines east, west and south, our prime minister has been the Oil Barons' bum boy extraordinaire.

The last thing Justin needs is his enviro-min, Dame Cathy, getting off the script. Remember when Slick scolded Elizabeth May for linking last year's Fort Mac fires to climate change?

"There have always been fires. There have always been floods. Pointing at any one incident and saying: ‘This is because of that,’ is neither helpful, nor entirely accurate. We need to separate a pattern over time from any one event. What we are focused on right now on is giving the people of Fort McMurray and the rest of Alberta the kind of support that they need right now and in the months and indeed the years to come.”

There have always been fires, yes indeed. This year the entire west coast has been on fire from Mexico to Alaska, Junior, and now wildfires are again sweeping through Alberta. There's been so much wildfire smoke it came out to sea and blanketed Vancouver Island you dummy.

Justin got one upside the head from McKenna this week. There's this Canadian climate scientist down in Texas, a God-fearin' Born Again evangelist, Katherine Hayhoe, who has been doing her Lord's work opening the eyes of Americans in the southwest to the reality and urgency of climate change. Professor Hayhoe's comments about the recent climate catastrophes, Harvey and Irma, got minister Cathy to chime in.

"Now is exactly the time to be talking about extreme weather, climate and resilience," McKenna told Hayhoe on Twitter on Monday. "Failing to do so is irresponsible."

No, no, no, Chatty Cathy. Now is precisely the time not to talk about it. We don't do that until it's all but forgotten, maybe when the news reports come out next year on the anniversary. Just not now. That's  "not helpful."

UPDATE:

Sydney Morning Herald columnist, Paul McGeough, adds his commentary on this "Shhh, not now" dodge of our political leadership.

It's as bizarre as it is American – the immediate aftermath of a crisis is never the time to debate what might have caused it.

Big losses in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? No – to question the wisdom or management of the wars was to disrespect the memory of soldiers who had died. 

Gun violence? No, no – talking about gun control after yet another massacre is insensitive to the grief of the victims' families.

And so it was in the weekend, when a reporter was rude enough to ask US Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt​ about the impact of climate change on monster hurricanes that have been smashing southern states, he responded: "To have any kind of focus on the cause and effect of the storm; versus helping people, or actually facing the effect of the storm, is misplaced…very, very insensitive to this people in Florida."

...

As comic commentator Seth Meyers put it on Monday, not talking about climate change as Florida recovers, "is like crashing your car into a telephone pole and telling the cops, 'This is not the time to talk about my drinking problem.'"

It's not that our leaders are adverse to hammering away at disasters when that's convenient. They are. The stuff they admonish us for bringing up is the stuff that might call into question their own policies and gross negligence. That stuff is for another day - a long way off - preferably after they've left office.



6 comments:

Lorne said...

There is no doubt about it that Justi wants to be all things to all people, Mound, but the truth people have to recognize is his first allegiance is to the neoliberal powers-that-be.

The Mound of Sound said...


Very much so, Lorne. In a more objective/less hyper-partisan Canada even Liberals might see reality. We don't seem to be in that Canada any longer.

the salamander said...

.. its always 'aboit the votes' seems to be the pervasive 'mentality' of the political animal.. and yet again, I will mention these folks are only elected to be - gasp - our public servants ! To protect, reflect & enact.. our dreams needs and wishes, from all across the land.. ie the citizens of the country named Canada..

There now.. that should be reasonably straight forward.. non ? That's the 'job description' - indeed, the 'scope of work' - the PRIME DIRECTIVE ! Yet just the other day, an appointed Senator (aka Public Servant) plunged off her task whilst uttering her personal opinion regarding defense of ones culture identity is A-ok.. but not on 'our dime' ie taxpayers I presume.. Now certainly, she with her head stuck up the wrong anatomical passage.. is being paid in grand style.. On Our Dime.. to lecture us.. vis a vis her shrill Little Bo Peep 'perspective' and opinion.

Without ragging on this eminently useless Senator.. we can move on to young middle aged 'just too young' Justin The Bold of the Wondrous Hair.. and ask where the f__k is the redress of Harper's decimating Navigable Waters asshattery.. restoration.. or at lease lip service recognition of SARA.. ie species, habitat & protection ? That reknowned legal firm Harper Novak Oliver Kent Flaherty et al INC of course specialized in litigating AGAINST the mandate the various courts told them was in fact required by LAW (& apologies re all the caps, Mound)

The bottom line is this.. We will not 'lose' the keychain species.. we will extirpate them.. that is, extinctify them.. we will allow their destruction.. and set in motion the collapse of all inter-related species.. which of course includes US .. our children, our children's children.. Yes.. Those warm n fuzzy polar bears too, loveable harbour seals, the bald eagle, bobcat, orca, otter, wolf, .. anything found on a totem pole eh..! Anything found in a marshland, waterway or marine coast.. or boreal forest - so goodbye woodland caribou, wolverine.. arctic fox or ptarmigan.. bye bye baby beluga.. so sad.. too bad..

All this to protect foreign owned Big Energy - plus subsidize them.. to get our tar sands Dilbit and LNG off to Asia to fuel their 'economies' and provide us via mainstream media - with the mythology of 'Energy Security for Canadians' .. the fountain of youth neverending economic jackoff message of the beanstalk.. and hordes of temporary foreign workes to make it so.. eh ..

Can we count on your vote? And say there.. can you send us 20 bucks RIGHT NOW to defend against the russians & muslims ?

The Mound of Sound said...

Yeah, the senator for northwest Ontario is a piece of work, to be sure. She's balanced out by the other party's leader who enacts a corporate agenda while smiling just assuringly enough to please his party faithful. It recalls for me that period of just a few years when I felt the Liberals abandoning their progressives, leaving me behind.

Anonymous said...

Anyong...one of the fires in Alberta began at CFB Suffield and the British Military stood by for an hour before doing anything about it.

Anonymous said...

By that time it was too late.