Amazing.....

It didn't cost big business a dime to pollute the atmosphere. In fact, if you think about it they made money if you use their creative financial means. By that I mean that if for instance they don't install scrubbers in smokestacks then they didn't spend money, they made money.
Now all that money they made combined with the tax incentives, from pro-big-business governments, they would donate to the campaigns of these parties. Just so they could make more money by keeping them in power. And of course then they would use them as puppets to do their bidding. Then to top it off the gifts are tax deductable.
Now there is a big paper on the state of global warming. But just before it came out there were a few leaks. So these businesses got busy trying to find ways to make money on cleaning up the environment. Only because they will get paid for it. It's win,win for them. First they make money polluting now they make money for cleaning up the mess.
I say screw them. They should be taking those obscene profits they make and pay for the god damn cleanup themselves. Damn the economy impact. (Which by the way they will spin on us like wildfire). This economy they are talking about is not putting money in my pocket. In fact in the three years I've been retired it has been taking it out. You only have to see the artificially inflated gas prices to realize it.

Gateway: Emmsions Impossible

Without question it is well past time for the Province to get serious about greenhouse gases.

You know, The Sun artcle (Sat Feb. 10) refered too in this piece seemed to focus or prioritize emmissions cuts through pressing car makers to produce even more efficient and cleaner cars.

Now thats fine, but I fear the weight emmisions cuts will be shouldered by just plain folks. Has anyone looked at the price of the Smart Kar for example.

Our very own GVRD has been working toward a California standard of sulphur emmisions of 1.5% with a view to go as low as 0.5% for marine grade bunker fuel. You know that thick toxic stew that hits the valley every July.

Well guess what. The international marine community led by the BC Chamber of Shipping likely with consent from the Port of Vancouver has also been increasingly concerned about their "global environmental footprint". Yup those good old honest shipowners want to do their bit for the environment, to help Environment Canada and Transport Canada get their sustainable development transport policy right.

So what did they request from the government? They have requested Canada go out and finally ratify an international emmision treaty called MARPOL, Annex VI. Wow, what a great bunch of corporate citizens, willingly wanting a standard to live and earn by.

Trouble is this standard is 4.5% sulphur content as opposed to the 1.5% and 0.5 targets for the GVRD.

Now I'm not a lawyer, but I do know that when Canada ratifies any international convention they must give it affect in legislation. So what happens to the GVRD's laudable goal of 1.5%? Does this set up a conflict in law? A conflict in jurisdiction? Certainly it does set up a confusing distortion.

As citizens we had better have our eye on this complicated balance of responsibilites or we will be not only paying the frieght as usual, but choking in its spew of emmissions.

This is all about Gateway friends.

Environment: The Latest Bandwagon

And so good at diverting one's attention.....

IAMC

I don't know if Mr.Beers knew about the new Govt. initiative to create a new 1.4B fund for provinces to use, if matched by the Province, to invest in green programs of all sort.
PM Harper explained that it will be divided amongst the provinces by a per ca pita basis.
I wonder, if Carol Taylor was given advance notice of this initiative? If not, why not? If so, then it would be a natural political move to commit to matching the federal contribution, and getting on with it.
I think we should figure out a responsible cleaver way of selling our Boreal forest for emission credits. We don't seem to get any kind of credit for all of our plus points on the atmosphere.
I know we are getting a con job sold to us.
It would be truly unfortunate if we end up losing 5% of our GDP for nothing.
I have been printing out every article, posting, opinion, or any single piece of information I can get my hands on.
I know that there is a huge body of experts that don't agree with this Apocalypse.
China has 500 coal burning power plants coming in the next 10 tears. They are presently bringing one online every week.
And these aren't the type of power plant we would have to painstakingly build in North America. You know, the ones that can actually burn almost pollution free.
China somehow earned one billion dollars in cash, for carbon credits, that the west took offline in China, only for them to start up the very next day, down the street.
This is dangerous times we are in with the new religious zealots being some environmentalists with a lot of power right now.
I hope we can all become extreme-enviro athiests.

As long as we have a government

Canada's reputation is in tatters and the world community is scratching its head at our attitude and our lack of character.

Almost as much as the international community is scratching its head at the notion of our prime minister that the animal symbol of the United States should be the bear.

He can call Canada a wolverine all he likes, if he knew anything about their manners and how bad they smell he might make a different choice about that too.

And he proposes the bear as a symbol for the US. What a laugh, the bear has been the icon and symbol of Russia for generations. Stevo manages to insult both Americans and Russians with his ignorance and he thinks he's clever into the bargain. Incapable of understanding Trudeau’s use of metaphor he tries to update the concept and falls on his face.

We produce some citizens of international stature like Stephen Lewis and Louise Arbour and then elect a string of national politicians who lack character, integrity and a sense of history and who insist upon displaying their ignorance on the international stage.

What an embarrassment.

PeteL

Uh, I thought the California emission standard was 50 ppm or 0.0000005% Or isn't it? Also, I remember when the news came out about the 100 or so ship movements every day in Georgia Strait causing all this pollution, the figures didn't seem to add up for me. So I went looking for some but didn't find any. Do you have some on the pollution caused by them? Something about the whole ship thing smelled like a red herring to me, I don't know....

yeah right

That mountain of evidence is more like a mole-hill I'll bet.

There simply isn't a huge body of experts denying global warming. What few there are are drowned out by the voluminous peer-reviewed studies that HAVE determined humans are instrumental in the current climate change. You sir, are either a liar or an easily swayed fool.

Re: Zalm's question

Zalm,the percentages I mentioned are the sulpher content allowable in the bunker fuel as it is pumped into the ship. Not the emissions that go up into the air.

What Canada should have done instead of moving to ratify a redundant international standard, and one that will very likely stay on the books for a long time yet, is to put pressure on the oil companies to provide a lower sulphur emitting fuel.

Bunker is the place of last disposal for all kinds of Nox & Sox in the refining process. In fact there are strong rumours that China likely allows refiners to spike up the fuel with all kinds of carcinogens as a disposal method.

Essentially the government of Canada is knowingly allowing all of us to be poisoned at the request of commercial maritime interests and with consent of the provincial government who, as far as I can tell, did not oppose ratification of MARPOL Aneex VI.

It should also be noted that the Intl. Chamber of Shipping (shipowners) is pressing national governments (Canada) to enact a whole range of redundant International Maritme Organization environmental standards in light of the high profile sinkings that ruin a nice day at the beach. This is to control the costs when shit happens. Minister Falcon is pretty comfortable with this mob.

If one wants to know more about what Canadian shipowners are asking for; go to the BCFMWU website and open a document called Opportunities and Challenges and Managing Trade.

All these arguments will be

All these arguments will be litigated by the Corporations when TILMA is forced on us April 1 2007!
Gordo and Ralphy's dream of riches and a seat at the devils table?

PeteL

Scary stuff....

the sky is falling?

It certainly has Canadian citizen's full attention - I dated a fellow who is an environmentalist and personally he has no new finding to report on - so why the scare(tactics) Taking care of the environment has always been important to Canadians along with taking care of the planet. We left it in the hands of our governments to be the watchdogs on our environments and our planet. We should all be singing "Is it any wonder", ha ha more serious side
What did you mean by governments not having any worth while morales?