Climate Change Summit, Premier McGuinty’s legacy, Ontario a 'have not' province

Ontario Enviro Min. tells Schwarzenegger climate change “deniers” no longer listened to

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 By Judi McLeod  Thursday, November 20, 2008

At a time of worldwide financial crisis and the economy of his own province in decline, Ontario Minister of the Environment John Gerretsen was attacking “climate change deniers” in sunny California this week.

“The climate change deniers are no longer listened to,” Gerretsen told California Governor Arnold Schwarzrnegger’s first of its kind Climate Change Summit.

Since the scientific facts now show that the earth’s temperature may in fact be cooling slightly rather than warming, Gerretsen puts himself in competition with bossman Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, who has the dubious distinction of having told more lies in office than any other Canadian politician.

Politicians ridiculing climate change “deniers” has been on the increase since Sept. 19, 2006 when in a now-infamous post on the blog run by Grist, an ultra-left radical environmentalist magazine, armchair autocrat David Roberts wrote of global warming “deniers”: “When we’ve finally gotten serious abut global warming, when the impacts are really hitting us and we’re in a full worldwide scramble to minimize the damage, we should have war crimes trials for these b*****ds—some sort of climate Nuremberg.” (The New American Thinker, March 5, 2007).

Now we’re in “a full scramble” to minimize a worldwide recession, and the Canadian UAW is looking for a bailout to avoid bankruptcy which would claim tens of thousands of Ontario jobs.

But Gerretsen showed no concern for lost jobs at Arnie’s summit this week.

“The summit’s lofty idealism may have to be more grounded in economic reality, however.  Among the targets in efforts to curb greenhouse gases are principal economic drivers—power plants, industry, vehicles and agriculture—at a time of worldwide financial crisis.” (signonsandiego.com, Nov. 17. 2008).

“Even though Schwarzenegger faces a record budget deficit, he opposes holding off on measures to combat global warming.

“The truth is that there is far more economic opportunity in fighting global warming than there is economic risk,” said the Republican governor, who supports a series of initiatives to reduce emissions and signing agreements with other states, provinces and countries.

“Some participants say investments in green technology will invigorate the economy.”

On that train of thought, Gerretsen may be “The Terminator’s” biggest booster. “It is no longer the environment versus the economy.  It’s all about the greening of the economy,” he said.

But even though provincial Liberals are denying it, Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty says Ontario is set to become a `have-not’ province.

Flaherty told a Sun Media editorial board last March that Canada’s most populous province is on track to become a `have-not’ province in two or three years if its weakening economy is not turned around.

“If this continues—this is not hyperbole, this is a fact—Ontario will become a have-not province in Confederation,” Mr. Flaherty said. “And it will be Premier McGuinty’s legacy that he in two terms took Ontario from being the strongest economic province in the federation to a have-not province.”

Nor is Flaherty the first to point out that the Province of Ontario is headed toward economic decline.

Back in the summer of 2005, the Ontario Chamber of Commerce released a report saying Ontario faced that risk as a result of the funding shortfall between what it contributes to the federal treasury and what it receives from Ottawa.

On behalf of all Ontarians, Gerretsen signed a global declaration in California at the close of the two-day Summit.

“This declaration is a significant step in advancing a shared global vision in working together to mitigate climate change,” said Gerretsen.  “Through input from our own industries and other jurisdictions, Ontario will build a cap-and-trade system that significantly reduces greenhouse gases and is compatible with existing and emerging systems around the world.”

Gerretsen and his traveling contingent returned home to the province’s first snowstorm in an early winter that weather experts predict will be brutal.

EUROPE TELLS OBAMA: NO WE CAN’T!

EurActiv, 19 November 2008
EU countries may agree before the end of the year on the basic principles and structure of an agreement on the European Commission’s energy and climate package, but it is unlikely that a deal will be finalised, an ambassador of one of the bloc’s 27 member states told EurActiv.

Efforts to forge an agreement on the package have run into opposition from a group of ‘new’ member states, led by Poland, who say the plans could wreck their industries and lead to massive job losses, particularly in the context of economic recession.

Many countries from the former Soviet bloc claim they are being punished rather than rewarded for emitting less CO2 during the transition from Communism in the 1990s than more developed EU member states during the same period. At issue is a proposal by the Commission to base emissions reductions calculations for 2020 on the base year of 2005 rather than 1990. Brussels says this is necessary, since 2005 is the first year for which reliable data is available.

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