Saturday, May 29, 2004
Letters Editor
Calgary Herald
P.O. Box 2400
Station M
Calgary Alberta T2P 0W8
Canada leads the world from the greenhouse poorhouse
Dear Editor:
Michael Byers article in today’s paper is brilliant. (Canada must once again cut its own path, Saturday, May 29, A19.)
He manages to poke savage sophisticated fun at Canada’s ratification of Kyoto, and her desire to be a leader on the world stage – before he gets halfway through his article.
First, he brings out the most outrageous forthcoming catastrophes postulated by those who believe global warming is on its way. Then he repeats the mantra that George Bush and Ralph Klein are irresponsible in their alleged neglect of the climate change issue. He praises our federal government for its hasty ratification of the Kyoto protocol.
He implies Canada should drive itself to the poor house by going well beyond Kyoto to cut its greenhouse gas emissions in half. He recommends implementing expensive and/or unworkable half measure greenhouse gas reduction solutions. These include the retrofitting of homes with better insulation and fluorescent light bulbs and harnessing the enormous energy in Alberta’s winds. He suggests these actions will provide jobs and develop world leading technology for sale.
Finally, he subtly reveals his satire with the hypocrisy that these draconian actions by Canada will have no significant effect on global greenhouse gas emissions.
I’m looking forward to more thoughtful lampooning of Canada’s role in the world, when Dr. Byers returns to Canada to take up his research position at the University of British Columbia.
Yours truly,
Duane Pendergast