Some good news, finally, on the environmental front. A report is due out later this month prepared by the former chief economist to the World Bank and the British treasury. In it, economist Nick Stern is said to demonstrate that the cost of slashing greenhouse gas emissions will be far cheaper than the price we'll pay for the ensuing devastation if global warming continues.
Stern is said to have spent a year going through the science and economics of climate change in the course of preparing his British government-funded study. It seems his conclusions depict this to be a "no brainer".
The Stern report follows on the heels of a PriceWaterhouse Coopers study that showed it is possible to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 60% from today's levels at a cost of just one year's economic output - but only if the developed world takes the initiative and acts aggressively, now.
A Greenpeace spokesman said of the Stern report, "Now we know there's a moral imperative, an environmental imperative and an economic imperative." This should give the critics something to chew on. Let's hope it does.
Harper is in charge and you may be able to tell his (and I use the term loosely) foreign policy by the body bags piling up for a return trip to Canada.
ReplyDeleteFollowing wrong way Bush too closely is expensive in more ways than one.
On the greening of Canada, Harper proposes smoke and mirrors, declaring he will scrap all attempts to clean things up and establish another committee to study what to do next...again!
Harper is spending money faster than Canadians can pay their taxes, and you know what's going to happen later (tax, tax, tax).
The prime directive of the first public servant of the people of Canada is to trim and cut and pay down the national debt until there is no debt.
This requires no public form of consent, because that's his mission statement to the tax payer, but everything in the way of spending does.
Unfortunately, people in power behave like little dictators and require guidance in the form of new regulations that will curb their lavish taste for spending other people's money by requiring a public vote on spending issues of all types.
Once these little dictators have been properly cowed into accepting the fact that they are there to serve the Canadian people and not the other way around, Canadians may begin to take some pride in being a Canadian instead of feeling embarrassed and ashamed. Canadians need to fix Canadian politics, fast. Harper is a loose cannon in a long line of loose cannons in public office.
In the future, we should require political candidates to go to a school of leadership under the watchful eye of public scrutiny so they can not deny what is expected of them in office and their record of achievement will follow them or expunge them long before they can do harm to our public purse.
Canadians face a long hard uphill battle against the entrenched demands of big money vested interests that really control the Canadian leaders of today. Just look at the gun registry fiasco. How can you loose a billion dollars unless organized crime is built into the current system.
Our Conservatives provides monosyllabic governance only. "Imperative", is outside their realm of comprehension. We'll have to try something else.
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