Are we dumber than a 3rd grader; according to the Gory Truth, Canada accounts for 2.9% of the world’s global warming. So roughly 1% for every 10 million Canadians. Now if Nova Scotia, with less than 1 million citizens, was able to reduce it’s contribution to global warming to zero, WHAT DIFFERENCE WOULD IT MAKE ON A GLOBAL SCALE??? The cost to even greatly reduce our contribution would result in job losses because of the expense to companies, vital tax dollars would be diverted from crucial services like HEALTH CARE. There used to be ‘blond’ jokes, but you can expect ‘greenie’ jokes in the near future as people start to use their brains for a change. Example; quantify and quality the net result of all the efforts we take to separate our garbage. It looks good on paper, but what is really happening?????
This article appears in Jan 24-30, 2008.
3% of the total may not sound like a lot, but i think the point is that we only make up about 0.5% of the planet’s population. As a whole, Canada is doing about 600% more damage than we should be and that number sounds like a lot. The real point is that Canadians need to start rethinking how we do things, because it does have an impact. I do think that sometimes putting the focus on the individuals can be a bit misleading and sometimes a waste of time and economic resources though. Getting rid of coal burning power plants would make a much bigger impact than a lifetime of me sorting trash. But it may be that the only way to get government to respond to what people want rather than what business wants is to turn everybody green so that the peoples’ lobby is stronger than the businesses’. And also, when crunching numbers about Canada’s impact on global warming, it may be that we do more than our share because we contribute a disproportionate amount of manufacturing (i.e. polluting industry) to the world through our exported goods. Not to say that entitles us to more carbon emmissions, but more reson we should change our business practices. But again, these numbers make the individuals shoulder the burden for what our industries are doing.
Why should a decision like this be detirmined by size of population? This whole argument in this bitch is flawed. Where do we draw the line? How many people have to be in a certain geographical area before they should start caring about the enviroment. Should half of Calgary not try to be green because there isn’t enough people. It is not only global warming that is effected. Peoples’ health would also be improved by these changes therefore putting less stress on the healthcare system. Your view of this topic is very narrowed and skewed. If we (NS) don’t care why should anyone else? How do you think charities work? They get small donations from lots of people. The same works for the fight against global warming. If we all do our share we can make a change on the whole. Your’s is the type of thinking that has kept us trapped in the mess.
I just read that we are going to be shipping coal to China to help with their energy production issues….
If I hear ‘global warming’ one more time I’m going to forcefeed that person to my pellet stove. Its just a new way to sell shit to people. Yes, we should be less wasteful, duh, but get real people. I know. Lets not buy anything that is made in India, China, or the Asian belt. Yeah, thats right, being the biggest source of pollutents lets shut them down. Oh wait, business in NA love importing cheap crap that they couldn’t get away with making here due to ‘laws’ and ‘the enviroment’. Gawd.
Hey, there’s a great idea. Now we can burn fossil fuels to send coal to China so they can burn it to generate electricity to run thier factories to build us lead-contaminated toys to ship back to us on fossil-fuel consuming boats. Circle of life. Depressing.
Let’s all just give up. Why bother trying. We are all going to be dead in 75 yrs anyway. Who cares if the Earth is destroyed. We are not going to be here. That’s the spirit.
Fucking A-Right. I don’t have kids so what the fuck do I care?
I’m on board Michael. Just because I find actions like shipping coal to China depressing, I also find it enraging that we would do stuff like that. Enraged enough to take action and recycle my pop bottles and remove those plastic windows from my tissue boxes. And maybe even write a strongly worded letter to my MP. I also get frustrated about this issue because I believe we all need to do our part and we need to start thinking about the world and the environment a little differently. The frustrating part is that while I compost and sort through trash and turn off lights and bike to work our country is still doing nothing to curb the use of fossil fuels and invest in green energy. I resent that the public is made to feel guilty for “killing the earth” when government doesn’t do its part and put some green regulations on the businesses out there that are polluting like mad.