A coalition of activists, politicians and environmentalists has called for Canada to be exiled from the Commonwealth because of our abysmal record on climate change. From The Guardian:
The coalition's demand came before this weekend's Commonwealth heads of government summit in Trinidad and Tobago, at which global warming will top the agenda, and next month's UN climate conference in Copenhagen. Despite criticism of Canada's environmental policies, the prime minister, Stephen Harper, is to attend the Copenhagen summit. His spokesman said today: "We will be attending the Copenhagen meeting … a critical mass of world leaders will be attending."
Canada's per capita greenhouse gas emissions are among the world's highest and it will not meet the cut required under the Kyoto protocol: by 2007 its emissions were 34% above its reduction target. It is exploiting its vast tar sands reserves to produce oil, a process said to cause at least three times the emissions of conventional oil extraction.
The coalition claims Canada is contributing to droughts, floods and sea level rises in Commonwealth countries such as Bangladesh, the Maldives and Mozambique. Clare Short, the former international development secretary, said: "Countries that fail to help [tackle global warming] should be suspended from membership, as are those that breach human rights."
The World Development Movement, the Polaris Institute in Canada and Greenpeace are among the organisations supporting the plan. Saleemul Huq, a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said: "If the Commonwealth is serious about holding its members to account, then threatening the lives of millions of people in developing countries should lead to the suspension of Canada's membership immediately."
Well, our laughingstock of a prime monster vowed to raise Canada's profile on the international stage and, between this and prisoner torture, he's certainly succeeded in putting Canada in the limelight, er crosshairs.
2 comments:
"A coalition of activists, politicians and environmentalists has called for Canada to be exiled from the Commonwealth..."
MoS, Do you know which politicians from what countries? Read the article but it doesn't give any details.
What Canada needs is to reacquaint itself with its core values of human rights, civil liberties and peacekeeping.
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