by Canada in Copenhagen
Taking a break now and then from posting pretty frost pictures and writing Christmas letters, I’ve been checking into reality: the news on the Copenhagen Climate Summit. Others have been far more eloquent than I could ever be, so here are the most powerful links I’ve viewed most recently about the shame and about the anger against Harper that many Canadians feel:
1. Just before the conference, George Monbiot wrote: ‘The real villain is Canada’. Or just view this video.
2. Why am I not at all surprised that Canada takes Fossil “award” on first day?
3. This is a great editorial run by 56 newspapers around the world.
4. Today my Finnish-Canadian blog friend has posted this: Canada, history is calling.
5. And the best, I think, by my “neighbour” on Bowen Island: A call to ignore our prime minister in Copenhagen “for he does not speak for most of us”. Reading this one most inspired this post, thanks Chris!
December 8, 2009 in Canada and BC, Current Events, Environment by Marja-Leena
Yep. Disgrace the man. Ugh.
We’re all being sold down the river. When will it stop?
Oh wow. I was wondering whether I should draw your attention to the Monbiot article which appeared in The Guardian, the paper I take. But then I worried you’d think I was being puckish. There is a happier side to this article: if everyone thinks Canada has betrayed the world then it’s because prior to that everyone had a warm cuddly feeling about Canada. Just a minor slip-up. Just concrete over the Athabasca Tar Sands and turn it into a parking lot.
Chris, yep!
Hattie, I fear it will not stop. Business does not want to change. Yet look at how successfully Germany, Denmark and Sweden are changing over to new technologies that have improved the environment and helped, not hindered their economies.
BB, Monbiot’s article was all over the blogs and news so we couldn’t miss it. In fact, I cheered for we need more of these to embarrass and discredit Herr Harper! He and the environment minister are Albertan and just too cozy with the oil interests there and in the US to ever care about the environment. The waters north of the tar sands are so polluted that First Nations are seeing huge increases in cases of cancer, not to mention the loss of birds and wildlife. Concreting it all over won’t reduce the damage that’s already been done across the vast swath of toxic wasteland.
Have you been following the coverage on Democracy Now? Naomi Klein says corporate logos are everywhere.
Hattie, thanks for the reminder. I do read Democracy Now occasionally but have now put its summit page on my reader. I’m not surprised by the corporate presence, not just the logos but the representatives there. I just read in our local newspaper that our environment minister’s team of advisors in Copenhagen come mostly from the corporate world, totally ignoring Canada’s many environmental NGOs!
Anthropocene is an interesting new term for the current age on the planet that most people haven’t heard but the Holocene may have ended 100 years ago when we started burning massive amounts of fossil fuels – enough to effect the kind of gentle climate that’s sustained us and all the life we know on the planet for thousands of years. I’m not alone in thinking the climate crisis is the most important thing facing humanity. The sad thing is that not enough people are aware of the coming consequences. Bill McKibben’s article on Tom Dispatch is one of the best I’ve read recently. I’d be interested to hear what you think of it.
Susan, excellent articles! I’m with you in thinking the climate crisis is the most important thing facing humanity. I agree that with McKibben and others that we are running out of time, fast! It’s maddening that “not enough people are aware of the
coming consequences” or refuse to believe it.