Canadians Give Harper, Tories An F On Environment, Pollution - 74% Negative

[hatrack]

OTTAWA - Nearly two-thirds of Canadians believe the federal government is doing a poor job at reducing air pollution and fighting climate change, according to a survey conducted last month by a firm that does polling for the Conservative party of Canada. While 38 per cent of the respondents believed the Liberals would be no different, 21 per cent said the Grits could do a better job, and six per cent said the Opposition party would be worse, according to the poll that was commissioned by Canadian Renewable Fuels Association and released to CanWest News Service.

''There is an undeniable focus right now on the environment in public opinion,'' said Dimitri Pantazopoulos, president of Praxicus Public Strategies, which conducted the poll of 1,000 people from Dec. 14 to Dec. 17. ''People are detecting that there is a problem and they have yet to have it demonstrated to them that either of the two parties (Conservatives and Liberals) have a solution.''

The poll had similar findings to a recent Decima Research survey that found 74 per cent of Canadians felt the government was doing a bad job on the environment. Both polls also concluded Canadians see the environment as the most important issue facing the country.

Although Harper said his government would do more to fight air pollution and climate change when he named John Baird as his new environment minister last week, Liberal Leader Stephane Dion is skeptical about the prime minister's new attitude, noting climate change was not mentioned in the government's last fiscal update in November. ''Now, all of a sudden, it's a priority,'' Dion told a news conference in Halifax. ''He saw polls, he saw the kind of official Opposition he's facing and he (claimed) that he saw the light, but we'll see the kind of changes that he will make.''

EDIT

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=530a381a-7f35-49c6-b484-6bfe336eee97&k=27433

[GliderGuider]

1. The environmental priority for the Harper government...

...is to get enough "stakeholder consultations" going to provide adequate cover for his positive intention to do nothing whatever about it.

"This country is headed to be 50 percent over its Kyoto target in 2012. We can't tell the Canadian population to heat their home one-third less of the time."

In a later interview with CTV Newsnet, Dion noted that Harper cancelled the Liberals' climate change plan but didn't replace it with anything.

And Harper's PR handmaiden, the NRSP, is out there front and center explaining why foot dragging is the right thing to do:

The verbal change in the Conservatives' attitudes toward greenhouse gases deeply concerns Tom Harris, executive director of the Natural Resources Stewardship Project (NRSP). The Ottawa-based non-profit group challenges the scientific majority which has coalesced around the idea that man-made carbon dioxide (CO2) is probably warming up the world. While NRSP enthusiastically endorses greater energy efficiency as beneficial to both the economy and the environment, its scientific advisory board argues two fundamental points regarding climate change:

• The research into this extremely complex phenomenon remains frustratingly uncertain. Still in doubt are the degree of global warming in the future, as well as the role played by man-made carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions as opposed to natural forces like changes in solar radiation.
  
  
• Some analysts conclude that adapting to slightly higher temperatures makes far more economic sense than trying to suppress climate variations (which NRSP scientists maintain is likely impossible). The leading advocate for an adaptive strategy is Danish statistician Bjorn Lomborg, who chairs the Copenhagen Consensus Center. (His basic theme is that other world problems, like hunger and AIDS, are far more serious threats to human well-being.)

[hatrack]

2. So basically this is the Canadian government's version of "further study"?

Really, REALLY looking forward to the collapse of your current government - nothing personal, mind you! :hi:

[GliderGuider]

3. So am I. And it is personal.

John Baird is my MP, and I can't wait to get campaigning. Bastids aren't going to destroy my country without a fight. :grr: