Monday, December 30, 2002

Kyoto Petition

I’ve started a petition against the Canadian signing of the Kyoto protocol.  Anyone wanting to pile on, feel free to sign it.

Wednesday, December 18, 2002

Fight Kyoto Book

Looks like there’s a new book out - Fight Kyoto by Ezra Levant. 

It looks like it’s self published, so I believe you have to order directly. 

Looks like a good read.

First losses in

Reports are in for some of the first victims of the ill-conceived Kyoto disaster.

CALGARY - Fallout from the freshly ratified Kyoto Protocol hit home in the oilpatch yesterday when a major U.S. brokerage listed the climate treaty as a reason for downgrading one of Canada’s largest oil companies.
Uncertainty about the cost of complying with Kyoto, signed by Jean Chrétien on Monday, led Lehman Bros. analyst Thomas Driscoll to cast doubt on the outlook for Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. and its massive $8-billion oilsands project in northern Alberta.

Now that people are already starting to lose money, maybe we’ll see a groundswell to cancel this foolish treaty.

Monday, December 16, 2002

Coal for Canadians

Kenneth Green on the government’s gift of coal for every Canadian.  Green cards will trade for quite the premium in a few years if the government dares to follow through with actual legislation.

Thanks to the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change, which the government is expected to ratify today, Canadians are going to get a huge lump of coal for Christmas this year, and for many years to come.

Saturday, December 7, 2002

Kyotospeak

A great article by Margaret Wente on the 1984
like propaganda that is the Kyoto debate in Canada today. 

But the real eye opener is their account of how the politics of global warming has produced a doctrine of certainty in public discourse. It starts with pressure from environmentalists and the public, who convince policymakers that something should be done, who appoint sympathetic experts to head up massive studies, who hire like-minded people to carry them out, which are then synthesized by bureaucrats into executive summaries from which all doubt and uncertainty have been stripped away. These summaries are said to be the “consensus view,” and are used as the ultimate authority invoked by politicians to justify their calls for urgent action.

Dr. Essex and Dr. McKitrick call this phenomenon “the convection of certainty.” This certainty is then amplified by the media, which search out stories that appear to further prove the doctrine. Is the ice melting early in the Arctic? Must be global warming.

Go buy their book, Taken By Storm: The Troubled Science,..., if you want to get a real idea of what is going in.

The first casualty here is truth...and believe me, this is a war on the Canadian citizen…

GM warning

GM, after sending out pink slips in London this week, is warning Kyoto will hurt Canadian auto sector.

“It’s one integrated industry,” Grimaldi said.
“As soon as the government potentially starts separating markets by putting in place different regulations, you tear at the very heart of the basic strategy that underlines how all the manufacturers do business here in Canada as well as across North America.”

Email the MP for Oshawa and tell him what you think of this accord.  Especially you autoworkers at the Big Plant.

King Jean

As usual, some of the best commentary is found on Letters to the Editor pages across this country.

SO KING Jean has decreed all will be well if each Canadian reduces his/her “greenhouse gas” emissions by one tonne per year.

Where would I make the cuts, Jean?

I don’t own a car any more (relative income has fallen over the years), I don’t have an air conditioner sopping up kilowatts (I simply sweat and suffer), I rarely cook at home or use my oven, and when I do cook, I use my microwave. I only watch about four hours of TV per week, and I read using a 25-watt bedside lamp.

I run my dishwasher once a week. I never put my laundry in a dryer - I hang-dry it in my apartment. I don’t use dry-cleaning services.

I don’t smoke.

I don’t fly around for vacations. I paddle a canoe, instead of using a power boat (but I’d love to be able to roar around the lakes ... ).

How much farther down the lifestyle rungs must I descend, to find my share of the cut?

Per UN data, Canada produces approximately 2% of the world’s total greenhouse gases. But “Mr. Legacy” feels the requirements of Kyoto are “worth the costs.”

Will he personally be willing to tell the holders of the 244,000 jobs to be lost (Liberal figures) that they must lose their jobs so Canada can cut 6% or 10% of the 2% we put into the atmosphere?

What possible difference will this make to the planet, when China, India, Venezuela, etc., are running unfettered?

Billions lost, hundreds of thousands of families impacted, so we can cut three tenths of a percent of the world total output?

Larry Grosfield

Peterborough

(Chretien’s headlong rush to embrace the Kyoto protocol could prove the biggest Liberal disaster yet. Some legacy!)

Monday, December 2, 2002

Auto Industry Condemns

The auto industry is finally speaking out against Kyoto.  Not that the industry needs another reason to leave Canada to the subsidized south.

Canada would be placed at a competitive disadvantage because our major trading partner, the United States, has rejected the environmental agreement, Mr. Power said. Southern U.S. states such as Alabama, Mississippi and others already have an economic advantage because of huge financial incentives they’re willing to dole out to attract auto makers.
Parts makers are already following those customers south, with Decoma itself a case in point. The subsidiary of Aurora, Ont.-based Magna International Inc. will construct a plant in Georgia to supply a Mercedes-Benz assembly facility in Alabama.

What’s the secret?

The truth about the actual cost of Kyoto is slowly leaking out, despite the PM.  Surely the PM and Martin would not support this foolish agreement if the ignorant public was not for it, since this government makes policy by poll.

Among U.S. investors with a particular interest in Canadian industry, 90% warned Kyoto’s ratification would hurt the energy sector and 60% said they would re-evaluate their investments if the treaty moves ahead by year-end as Mr. Chrétien has vowed.
At risk are Alberta megaproject investments by U.S. interests eager to secure a reliable energy supply for the U.S. market.

Monday, November 25, 2002

Moving Target

The Post has a good editorial on the Liberal’s latest set of phony numbers, ie. propaganda that Greenpeace of the Sierra Club would be proud of.

The federal Liberals are grasping at straws in a desperate bid to save the increasingly unpopular climate change deal they’ve promised to ram through Parliament by Christmas: Don’t like our job-loss estimates? Frightened by our calculations of lost GDP? Well, how about this set? No? Don’t fret, we’ll keep making them up until we find the estimates that get Kyoto passed.

Thursday, November 21, 2002

Kyoto cost up

This articles states that the cost of Kyoto is much more than the government states:

The federal government is underestimating the cost of implementing the Kyoto Protocol by as much as 30% in some sectors, an Industry Canada study says.

They’ve even been keeping the info quiet to suit their propaganda needs:

Although completed early in the summer, sources said the study has been kept under wraps because it contradicts the rosy economic picture painted by earlier federal government economic forecasts of the cost of implementing Kyoto.

The government is even trying to promote ethanol, which itself costs more than the government probably even calculates.

Again, the job losses will be staggering:

such as the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters organization, peg the cost of full implementation at 450,000 jobs in manufacturing alone, and a 3% decline in GDP.

Wednesday, November 13, 2002

Anti-Kyoto Website

Why Canada should not ratify Kyoto - A website that is old but still effective.

Mr. Chretien may want a grand last gesture but ratifying Kyoto will not give him the legacy he is looking for. He should wait until after the next Kyoto meeting in November, where it will be decided if the other Kyoto signatory countries will accept Canada’s clean-energy concept, before he makes any decision about ratification. To ratify before knowing this would be foolish and costly. The government of Alberta and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce have predicted a $40 billion cost to meet our obligations under Kyoto. This money could be put to better use. Allan Rock, in April, stated he believed that implementing it would lower our standard of living.

A Figure!

We finally have a figure, as reported here, of a cost for an average household if the Kyoto scam is imposed on Canadians:

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation Tuesday released a report saying that Kyoto-related costs will reduce annual net household income by $2,700 a year by 2010.

The professor says Kyoto should be rejected.

Prof. McKitrick, of the University’s economics department who specializes in environmental economics, has written previously on the topic of Kyoto.

In light of the fact that Kyoto yields no economic or environmental benefits this is obviously a bad deal for Canadian households and should be rejected,” Prof. McKitrick writes in his study.

Think your hydro bill is high?

It also says changing consumption patterns could require natural gas price hikes of 90 per cent and gasoline price hikes as high as 50 per cent and the government’s assumptions of a “smoothly-functioning international emissions credit market are flawed.”

Unravelling

Slowly, surely, the Kyoto myth is falling apart, right before the Federal Government’s eyes.  Now the scientists are coming together to condemn it:

A group of Canadian and international climate science and energy specialists urged the federal government on Wednesday in Ottawa to delay ratifying the accord until further consultation is undertaken with the scientific and energy community.

“The Kyoto Accord will, without a doubt, not achieve the goals established by the federal government,” said Dr. Tim Patterson, professor of Earth Sciences (Paleoclimatology) at Carleton University in Ottawa.

It’s not just a few scientists that are against it:

“There are literally thousands of experts in the field who are strongly opposed to Kyoto but have not been consulted,” Mr. Patterson said. “The federal government has the opportunity to be responsible and extend the Kyoto debate to allow for further consultations from all interested individuals.”

When will the government give up?

Tuesday, November 12, 2002

PM’s a Chump

The Post has a great nation by nation summary of why Canadians are essentially idiots for backing such a nonsensical treaty.  The PM sure is desperate for a legacy.

Even if the whole world signed on to Kyoto, there would be many valid arguments against its implementation. But at least it might be said that a falling tide lowers all boats—and that Canada would be in no worse position than the Western nations with whom it competes for trade. But the truth is much worse: If it ratifies Kyoto, Parliament will be agreeing that Canada should sign on as the sole victim of a treaty that everyone knows will limit economic growth, and from which everyone else has been sensible enough to secure their escape route. Canada as fall guy and international chump: That’s some legacy, Prime Minister—some legacy.

Saturday, November 9, 2002

Eco mud slinging

It’s sad to see in this article that the Kyoto debate has degenerated, led exclusively by the left, into mudslinging:

Instead, Mr. Berton et al made common cause with fellow Sierra campaigner and Greenpeace co-founder Bob Hunter, who at a press conference Monday branded Mr. Klein and Ontario Premier Ernie Eves—who also opposes Kyoto—“ecological criminals.”

Slowly, Canadians are waking up to the facts of this corrupt pact and seeing the real financial consequences:

They’d also know, presumably, that Mr. Klein has a very potent political problem on his hands, which is that major Canadian corporations, such as Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. and Husky Energy Inc., are delaying billion-dollar projects in Alberta’s oil sands, because of uncertainty about Kyoto’s costs and consequences.

The most important part is that Canada, out of all signitories, will be the hardest hit, while our nearest economic competitors, to whom we are losing most of our blue collar jobs to, won’t be affected at all.

At the same time, if greenhouse gases really are making the Earth hotter, U.S., Russian, Chinese, Indian, Brazilian and Mexican emissions—none of which are limited by Kyoto—will ensure the warming continues apace. Taken together, that means smog will be virtually unaffected. Riding a bike at rush hour in Toronto, for example, won’t get any easier. Is that the kind of environmental rescue plan we want?

Saturday, November 2, 2002

Support Plummeting

It’s great to read that Canadians are finally waking up to the smog job that is Kyoto - and that they have their very livlihoods at stake.  It’s also sad to see a PM so desperate for a legacy that he’s prepared to hoodwink the population - who trust him (foolishly) as being a simple man.

Support for the Kyoto Protocol has plummeted, with the country split between ratifying the accord or forging a made-in-Canada approach to tackling global warming, a poll suggests.
The survey by Ipsos-Reid suggests that 45 per cent of respondents preferred the federal government withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol and develop a made-in-Canada plan for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, while 44 per cent wanted Ottawa to ratify the accord.

Wednesday, October 30, 2002

Opposition Piling On

The Post has an article on how the opposition from the provinces on Kyoto is piling up.  The provinces, who seem to be more realistic on the immediate losses, will make sure this deal doesn’t get implemented.

‘Ego-driven’ Chrétien dismisses call for first ministers meeting on climate treaty

Chretien doesn’t like working with others:

“What we’re being told is, ‘It doesn’t matter what you say, we’re doing this anyway,’” he said. “I don’t think that is the way to treat this issue. It’s too serious for that. ... The federal government is thumbing its nose at the federal and territorial leadership.”

Even fellow plain talker Klein can’t get through to him:

In a speech to Calgary’s Chamber of Commerce on Monday, Mr. Klein said he can’t have an intelligent conversation with Mr. Chrétien about climate change, describing how the Prime Minister talked about how workers at pulp mills in his hometown of Shawinigan learned to drive lumber trucks instead of floating logs on the river.

“I said, ‘Well, this has got nothing to do with Kyoto,” Mr. Klein said. “[Chrétien] said ‘Well they managed.’ So you can sort of get, from that, the kind of conversation I have.”

I am not sure why the feds think so many Canadians support Kyoto - and if they do, surely they cannot know the numbers.  That’s our job to help educate them.

Saturday, October 26, 2002

Plain folk talk

Plain folk talk on Kyoto, in today’s Globe:

“Climate change is a global challenge, except that most countries aren’t participating in the Kyoto Protocol.”
“They why did we sign on?”
“Because we got bamboozled into thinking the Americans would. We accepted a target only because it was close to the now-abandoned U.S. one.”
“You mean people over in the U.S. Gulf Islands don’t have to do anything we’re being asked to do?”
“Nope.”
“Well, maybe we’ll scrap that idea about buying land in Saskatchewan and move over there, instead.”

This is the bottom line.  With NAFTA soon to be expanded to labor, people will leave this country in droves.

Why is this government trying to cut off our nose to spite our face?

Why can’t this government realise we need to work with the US on this issue, and not with the rest of the world (at this point, anyway).

Thursday, October 24, 2002

Ontario sort of opposes

The Toronto Sun reports that our wishy-washy Premier is on the against side of the Kyoto fence, at least a little bit.  That’s a good thing, considering Ontario will voluntarily give up almost as many jobs as Alberta if Kyoto goes through.

Ontario will come up with its own plan to combat greenhouse gases, Ontario Premier Ernie Eves said yesterday.

The vow came following a Toronto meeting with Alberta Premier Ralph Klein, who said the odds of killing Canada’s ratification of the Kyoto Protocol are “slim to none.”

“I think every province should come up with their own solution to their own problems,” said Eves, who told reporters that Ontario will come up with a plan once it can “assemble all the facts” and discuss the issue with industry and other provincial interests.

Wednesday, October 23, 2002

More Kyoto Blues

The latest study by another country even indicates that again, Kyoto will cost Canada untold billions in lost GDP. 

The Australian study estimated the cost of ratification under the current circumstances would be $13-billion (U.S.) by 2015.

As usual, the environmentalists dismiss facts and tell everyone to hope for the best:

The Sierra Club of Canada dismissed the Australian study, saying it’s not credible and that it’s almost impossible to predict what will happen 13 years down the road.

Their club says that the government will save a releatively tiny amount in health care costs...except the fact that they forget that the cost of suicide, family disintegration - in other words, state sponsored economic terrorism.

Federal government estimates say the country could save as much as $200-million a year in health-care costs because of a cleaner environment.

That would have a negative effect on the economy because fewer people getting sick means less demand for health services and fewer jobs.

“Because less people are going into the hospital and dying, there’ll be less economic activity in health care,” said Mr. Bennett. “So our health-care costs will go down. If we need less nurses and doctors, would that be a bad thing?”

Rex on Kyoto

Rex Murphy on the CBC National show had a good piece on the government’s smoggy thinking on Kyoto (CBC Archives...search for Oct 22)

I can’t be certain but I think Kyoto is Japanese for inexplicable. Why did we sign on to Kyoto? Until the moment the Prime Minister did, it was to most people uncertain whether we were going to or not. There was certainly nothing like a national debate. There was the odd parliamentary exchange but there may not have been even a cabinet consensus. Kyoto, despite the government’s rhetoric now was not logically arrived at after a long discussion. It was global policy for Canada on the fly so we didn’t buy into it because we thought about it and debated it properly. Or did we sign on because of the science? But the science is only half science. Any one scientist or layman who says climate change is a finished discipline, that it has the reliability or experimental grounding of the real sciences is either dreaming or ignorant. A quarter century ago, the consensus of the world’s climate experts, a phrase that should always be in quotation marks told us we were heading for an ice age. They have not explained their massive turn around, nor how their certainty then is any more to be trusted than their certainty now. So we didn’t sign on to it because of the signs because in any real meaning of the term, the science isn’t ready yet. Did we sign on to it because we knew what it would mean? How we would achieve his goals? Well we still don’t know what it will mean because the choices we have to make to meet its goals either haven’t been figured out or they’re based on presumptions no one has tested. Will we get carbon credits for reducing our greenhouse gases, not because we actually reduced them, it’s a finesse, but because we enable another country to do so. Well, the Prime Minister thinks so but the Europeans don’t, nor does most of the rest of world that has signed on to Kyoto. Do we know how much it will cost? Of course not. If we don’t know how we’re going to implement the protocols, if we don’t have a plan, we can’t have a cost for the plan we don’t have. Did we sign on to it because we knew the provinces would be on board. The provinces are not only not on board, but considering the cloudiness of what Kyoto means, they couldn’t get on board if they wanted to. They can’t find the ship, for god’s sake. So we didn’t sign on to Kyoto because we knew what we were going to do after we signed on. Did we sign on because we knew that if Canada met its Kyoto targets, there would really be a significant reduction in greenhouse gases. In other words, that it would make a real difference. No. Even if, and this if is as big as an iceberg and just as shifty, we achieved our goals, Canada’s help in saving the world from a steamy future and beach front properties off Labrador would be, by the best estimates of that dubious science I talked about miniscule. The countries exempted from Kyoto would knock an equivalent amount back into the atmosphere in a flash. In other words, after all our good efforts, mother nature will be left indifferent or unimpressed. The science, politics, means and value of Kyoto are a basket of uncertainties or insignificance. We signed on mainly because of environmental boy scoutery. It’s Canada putting out its blue box for the rest of the world, a decision taken for its symbolism, not its substance. We’re in free Willy territory here. Our Kyoto policies and the decision to implement Kyoto are more the smog than the one that presumably they want to cure. For The National, I’m Rex Murphy.

Every now and then the CBC actually has views that make sense...same for Rex.  Good stuff.

Tuesday, October 22, 2002

Kyoto Self-Emasculation

Why Canada is so eager to be European (and distance itself from its natural brother, the US), and in the process emasculate itself, is beyond me.  It also scares me.  Although I am sure that Kyoto will never and can never go through, as long as we are the major trading partner with the US, the insane talk about cutting our energy and driving our economy into the ground makes it difficult to plan for the future.

Canada’s economic growth depends on population, and therefore energy, growth.

Even if Canada reaches Kyoto targets by 2012, our growing population means energy use would have to decrease each year after that to maintain those levels

This article spells it out. 

This death wish plan the PMO has Canada should be the most worrisome issue of the day, for all Canadians.

The debate should not be merely over how many jobs will be lost between now and 2010. It should not be just about how much our economy will be slowed getting to the Kyoto target. We have to consider what will happen to Canada after we reach the Kyoto targets. There seem to be just a few approaches: Subject Canadians to relatively disproportionate quality of life sacrifices, restrict immigration and curtail economic growth, or modify Kyoto to allow for population shifts between countries. Our children will be drastically impacted by either of the first two possibilities. The government owes us an answer.

Saturday, October 12, 2002

60,000 jobs lost

This article shows the feds admit that they job losses start at 60K.  What kind of government is interested in economic suicide for the country?  A liberal government...

The Kyoto Protocol will likely cost Canada more than 60,000 jobs over eight years, according to economic projections released by Ottawa Friday, but opponents of the accord believe the federal government is low-balling the true impact of the treaty.
Still, Nancy Hughes Anthony, president of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, says the admission that Kyoto will cost jobs confirms the fears of treaty critics.