Harper’s environmental performance: cuts, denial and devastation

In less than a week, MPs will head back to Parliament after spending the summer working in their constituencies, and so it is a good time to review the government’s record on the environment over the past year. Perhaps the best words to sum up its 2011-12 environmental performance are cuts, denial and devastation.

In 2011, a new, unexpected, two million square kilometre hole was discovered in the protective, life-giving ozone layer over the Arctic. The hole was found because Canada has been the eyes and ears of the world when it comes to ozone monitoring.

After its discovery, the government negligently announced cuts to ozone science, which came on top of a previous announcement of cuts of over 700 positions at Environment Canada. Monitoring is desperately needed because new chemicals and climate change might affect the ozone layer, which protects us from harmful ultra-violet radiation from the sun.

After the researchers published their internationally recognised research, they were then banned from speaking with the media. Nature magazine, one of the world’s leading journals, has repeatedly condemned the government’s lack of appreciation of science and the importance of the sharing of scientific knowledge, saying, “The way forward is clear: it is time for the Canadian government to set its scientists free”.

Canadians grew weary of the government’s muzzling of scientists and critics, and on June 4th, 2012, more than 500 organizations across Canada dimmed their websites in solidarity for BLACKOUTSPEAKOUT. The campaign was to highlight the government’s persistent assault on the environment and democracy, and to ask “who will next be under attack by the government for voicing opposition”?

Despite concerted efforts by civil society and the scientific community, Canada’s most northerly civilian research station, the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory (PEARL), located at Eureka, Nunavut, ceased full-time year-round operation. Also, potentially on the government chopping block are Canada’s world-renowned Experimental Lakes Area and the legendary Kluane Lake Research Station.

The persistent attack on science for the public good reached a boiling point on July 10th, 2012, when Canadian scientists rallied on Parliament Hill to protest the closure of federal science programs, the muzzling of scientists, and the “untimely death of scientific evidence” and evidence-based decision-making in Canada.

Last December, the issue was the blatant denial of scientific evidence when the government shamefully withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol, a seminal agreement in modern environmental diplomacy, and the only legally binding framework for greenhouse-gas emissions. Long-term repercussions on the environment, the economy, and Canada’s role in international negotiations will result. While the government is quick to point out that the original agreement did not include major emitters, it fails to recognize that the accord struck in Copenhagen in 2009 and affirmed in Cancún in 2010 created a system for registering commitments from all of the major emitting nations.

Despite the government’s claims, Kyoto has been far more a success than failure. Most of the parties that were subject to binding emission targets either met or exceeded their goals. Canada is among a relatively small number of countries that failed to do so.

The Environment Commissioner’s spring report reaffirmed the government’s failings on climate change. Environment Canada’s own forecast shows that in 2020, Canada’s emissions will be seven percent above the 2005 level, not the promised 17 percent below. The problem is the government’s sector-by-sector approach, which is a delay tactic; only three sets of regulations had been written by May, 2012, with each set taking up to five years to develop. The government has yet to make public regulations for the oil and gas sector, the fastest-growing emitter.

Also in the spring, the government tabled its devastating, omnibus budget implementation bill, which devoted an astonishing 150 of 400 pages to destroying 50 years of environmental protection and oversight. The bill repealed the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and the Kyoto protocol Implementation Act, eliminated the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy, and weakened several environmental laws, including protection for species at risk and water, and nearly eliminated fish habitat in the Fisheries Act, putting species from coast to coast to coast at risk.

The government also cut $29 million from Parks Canada; and in so doing, is undermining the health and integrity of Canada’s world-renowned parks, risking some of our world heritage sites, significantly reducing the number of scientists and technical staff, hurting relationships with Aboriginal peoples, and attacking rural economies.

And just this last week, the government once again failed the health and safety of Canadians by its finalized and drastically weakened climate change regulations for the coal-fired power sector; coal-fired electricity plants account for seven of Canada’s top ten polluters. Over the first two decades, the regulations will be only two-thirds as effective compared to what the government originally proposed.

The year 2011-12 tragically continued a trend of conservative “bottom-of-the-barrel” environmental performances: the 2008 Climate Change Performance Index ranked Canada 56th of 57 countries in terms of tackling emissions. In 2009, the Conference Board of Canada ranked Canada 15th of 17 wealthy industrialized nations on environmental performance. In 2010, Simon Fraser University and the David Suzuki Foundation ranked Canada 24th of 25 OECD nations on environmental performance.

Original Article
Source: ipolitics
Author: Kirsty Duncan, M.P.