The Libs are about to make a major announcement on climate change. Canada will be carbon neutral by 2050 and they'll see to it.
Dare to dream but there's always the inescapable fact that this is a promise, a mighty promise, from the Trudeau Liberals and they have an extensive record of how they keep their promises. Hint: poorly.
Maybe a show of good faith to inspire a glimmer of confidence. Cancel the federal subsidies to the fossil energy giants. The government admits around 2.5 billion in annual handouts. The International Monetary Fund says it's upwards of 46 billion per annum. But how can that be? Easy.
The difference between 2.5 billion and 46 billion depends on what costs you report and what you bury. The ones you omit are called 'externalities.' That's a term for costs and damage you foist on the public. Out of sight/out of mind. It includes not just direct subsidies, the tip of the iceberg, but the whole damned iceberg - taxes not collected, royalty deferrals, failure to price natural capital consumed by the fossil producers and a big one, unallocated reclamation costs.
A leaked Alberta government report suggests cleaning up the province's orphan wells and the more troublesome Tar Sands tailing ponds could cost upwards of $260 billion. That there is serious money. And what are these governments, federal and provincial, doing to protect the public? Sweet Fanny Adams, that's what.
The gross negligence shown in their dealings with the Alberta oil patch is mirrored in the government's plans for an armada of lumbering supertankers plying the BC coast with hazmat bitumen.
There are many petro-states - Russia, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, all pretty scuzzy regimes. One thing they have collectively established is, when they make grand environmental promises, they're lying. That's not the business they're in.
Does that mean Justin Trudeau is lying - again? Who knows? He may even believe it himself, for now. He might have believed in his promises when he spoke of electoral reform, First Nations reconciliation, and so many other failed commitments. It's not what he believes that counts. It's what he delivers and that's where he keeps coming up short. He even flouted the Supreme Court of Canada's per curiam decision on our Charter right to assisted dying, whittling it down and thereby condemning Canadians enduring 'intolerable suffering' from incurable conditions the right to die with dignity on their own terms. Even to the most morally vacuous Liberal that ought to be inexcusable.
Why do I think of Canada as Charlie Brown and Justin as Lucy holding that football?
It's all BS, Mound. How can anyone expect to be taken seriously on zero by '50 when they're already way behind schedule on the Paris commitments, when they plan to expand bitumen production, and when their "plan" contains no hard interim targets or any indication of how they intend to meet them.
ReplyDeleteAs a dunce once said, "There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."
Cap
Promises kept? Apparently the Trudeau Liberals are on track to keep about 70% of them - similar to the Harper Conservatives and the Chretien Liberals. On top of that, they made more promises than Harper & Chretien combined. So, not a bad track record. Unfortunately, there are a few promises that were special to some people that have not been kept. And, those keep getting brought to the forefront.
ReplyDeleteUU
ReplyDeleteAnd deservedly so, UU. "A few promises" - such as the Charter right to assisted dying, electoral reform, First Nations reconciliation, social licence, follow the science - a few promises indeed.
With respect, can you please stop including Venezuela in your ´ despicable regimes ´ références? I know yoûve written before that you aren’t that familiar with that part of the world, but if that’s the case, why continue to advance the empirés narrative about the country?
ReplyDeleteThat said, I still enjoy reading daily (for probably the last decade), and I really appreciate the climate/environment focus...though I miss the occasional military articles.
ReplyDeleteI almost did a military post yesterday. It seems the USAF wants to fly its successor to the F-35 within six years. They know it's flawed. They know they're vulnerable.
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteWith respect, can you please stop including Venezuela in your ´ despicable regimes ´ références?
Venezuela is one of Trump's shithole countries that include most of central America.
I was in El Salvador this last April , another of the shithole countries, and saw , as Venezuelans do, the effect of being cut off from world credit.
The world bank and the international monetary fund are controlled by the USA.
Without their consent to the USA ( and the UK) for access to natural resources they have no chance of building an economy.
TB