Canada: An Ecological Scofflaw?
Canada: An Ecological Scofflaw?
Oct. 17, 2006. 01:00 AM
DAVID R. BOYD
These are troubled times for Canadians clinging to the myth that Canada is an environmental leader. Our dismal domestic record on issues ranging from climate change to endangered species has been comprehensively criticized by many commentators, ranging from David Suzuki to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
However, Canada’s role in sabotaging and opposing international environmental agreements has, until now, largely escaped notice.
The many areas in which Canada is deliberately undermining international efforts to protect the environment include critical issues such as climate change, bottom trawling in the oceans, trade in toxic substances, and the human right to clean water.
Other examples include Canada’s opposition to a meaningful global treaty on forest conservation and our cheerleading for genetically modified organisms despite the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety.
Climate change is the most profound environmental challenge facing humankind. Back in the late 1980s, Canada was at the forefront of raising alarms about the impact of skyrocketing greenhouse gas emissions on the planet. We quickly ratified the UN Convention on Climate Change in 1992. Since then, Canada has been more obstructive than constructive.
Under Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, the federal government made a big deal about ratifying the Kyoto Protocol. However, Liberal governments did little to live up to our commitment, resulting in Canadian emissions rising by 30 per cent over a period of time when we had promised they would fall.
There is now a strong possibility that Canada will be the only nation that fails to fulfill its obligations under Kyoto, as we are by far the furthest from our 2012 target.
Worse yet, Canada has blocked international efforts to take stronger action to address climate change.
For example, in the negotiations prior to last year’s G-8 Summit in Scotland, Canada opposed proposals to establish international minimum standards for the fuel efficiency of vehicles and the energy efficiency of buildings. Canada also opposed European proposals to place a special tax on air travel.
On the marine front, decades ago Canada was one of the instigators of the landmark Law of the Sea Convention.
Despite this important treaty, the world’s oceans are in deep trouble, suffering from the adverse effects of climate change, pollution, and overfishing.
There are ongoing international negotiations aimed at eliminating the most destructive form of fishing, called bottom trawling. Biologists describe it as bulldozing the ocean floor, wiping out corals and sponges that, ironically, provide crucial habitat for the fish being caught.
Canada is one of a handful of nations that opposes efforts to ban bottom trawling on the high seas. Why? Because the federal government fears that a bottom trawling ban on the high seas might translate into an end to such trawling in Canadian waters, something we do with reckless abandon.
Asbestos is a hazardous substance that causes a rare form of cancer called mesothelioma, lung cancer, and a degenerative lung disease called asbestosis.
All types of asbestos have been banned by many nations including Australia and all 25 countries in the European Union. However, efforts to place limits on the export of asbestos, pursuant to an international treaty called the Rotterdam Convention, have been unsuccessful.
The major opponent to restricting trade in this hazardous substance? Canada, one of the world’s leading asbestos exporters.
More than 90 per cent of Canadian exports head for developing nations like India and the Philippines where health and safety regulations either don’t exist or aren’t enforced. In effect, Canada is exporting a product that will result in thousands of deaths in Asia, Africa, and South America — deaths from a product that we deem unsafe for use in Canada.
For more than a decade, there have been international negotiations about recognizing that people have a basic human right to clean water.
Only one nation in the world repeatedly votes against resolutions that would recognize water as a basic human right. Canada. Why? There is paranoia in some parts of the federal government that recognition of a right to water might be used somehow to force Canada to give away some of our precious water.
Who should Canadians blame for this litany of debacles that erodes our formerly proud environmental reputation?
The usual cliché trotted out by environmentalists points the finger at a lack of political will. This is an intellectually lazy response. Canadians elect the politicians who approve these policies, pay the salaries of the bureaucrats who implement them, and work for or purchase products from the corporations whose lobbyists push these irresponsible policies.
In a free and democratic society, the buck stops with the people. As Dr. Seuss wrote in his timeless book The Lorax, “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”
Unless Canadians change our voting, consumption, and behaviour patterns to make our actions consistent with our values, Canada’s dismal environmental record is exactly what we deserve.