From the Ottawa Sun, October 20, 2006
As Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Environment Minister Rona Ambrose are finding out today, the problem with trying to do something about pollution is the expectation that cleaning up the air we breathe can be done overnight.
That's hardly surprising, given some of the vague promises and "action plans" offered up by the previous federal government and the demands coming from well-intentioned advocacy groups.
But the reality is that, just as today's dirty environment has taken decades to get that way, so too will there be some time required to undo the damage that has been done.
In a perfect world, we suppose,
everybody could stop using their automobiles tomorrow.
We could all stop heating our homes and offices with oil and natural gas. We could ground airplanes and bring industry to a halt.
We could huddle together for warmth in caves that we hew out of the sides of hills.
But of course we are not going to do any of that. We're not going to bring our industrialized society to its knees or learn overnight to get by without our tools and transportation and other conveniences of a modern society.
Which means that for the foreseeable future we have to learn how to do all those things in a more responsible manner so we are spewing less and less poison into our environment.
That was the intent of yesterday's clean air agenda introduced by the Harper government. But judging by the response of critics you'd have thought the PM had suggested fogging the entire country with coal dust.
The NDP called the Tory strategy a "hot air plan."
The Sierra Club slammed the vehicle emissions plan as too little too late.
"There is really no news here," sniffed Green party Leader Elizabeth May.
But actually there is. The Conservatives resisted the urge to promise nice-sounding but largely unattainable short term targets for cutting greenhouse emissions (can you say Kyoto Accord?) and opted in favour of realistic goals that will seek to cut emissions by 45-65% between now and 2050.
Who wouldn't want to banish all our environmental pollution with the simple wave of a wand? But this is a gigantic problem that calls for a long-term solution. The Tory plan is at least a start.
That's hardly surprising, given some of the vague promises and "action plans" offered up by the previous federal government and the demands coming from well-intentioned advocacy groups.
But the reality is that, just as today's dirty environment has taken decades to get that way, so too will there be some time required to undo the damage that has been done.
In a perfect world, we suppose,
everybody could stop using their automobiles tomorrow.
We could all stop heating our homes and offices with oil and natural gas. We could ground airplanes and bring industry to a halt.
We could huddle together for warmth in caves that we hew out of the sides of hills.
But of course we are not going to do any of that. We're not going to bring our industrialized society to its knees or learn overnight to get by without our tools and transportation and other conveniences of a modern society.
Which means that for the foreseeable future we have to learn how to do all those things in a more responsible manner so we are spewing less and less poison into our environment.
That was the intent of yesterday's clean air agenda introduced by the Harper government. But judging by the response of critics you'd have thought the PM had suggested fogging the entire country with coal dust.
The NDP called the Tory strategy a "hot air plan."
The Sierra Club slammed the vehicle emissions plan as too little too late.
"There is really no news here," sniffed Green party Leader Elizabeth May.
But actually there is. The Conservatives resisted the urge to promise nice-sounding but largely unattainable short term targets for cutting greenhouse emissions (can you say Kyoto Accord?) and opted in favour of realistic goals that will seek to cut emissions by 45-65% between now and 2050.
Who wouldn't want to banish all our environmental pollution with the simple wave of a wand? But this is a gigantic problem that calls for a long-term solution. The Tory plan is at least a start.
Comment