14 July 2009

145 Days Until Copenhagen - Apology from an Ashamed Canadian

It seems I live in a country that has decided that money is more important than life. We (collectively ... no one that I know personally!) voted in a prime minister who has no regard for his children's future, let alone the future of all the children, of all species. He is, however, quite interested in the future of Alberta tar sands investments.

(They just don't get that we can leave the oil in the ground, as a carbon sink, and not worry about it - it's not going anywhere! It will still be there when we've worked out viable carbon sequestration technology. Call it a long-term investment!)

Although I suspect our prime minister has agreed to be the fall guy, the bad cop to Barack Obama's good cop (guess which country is getting most of our tar sands oil?), that does not excuse his behaviour on the world stage as The Great Obfuscator. It is certainly because of our prime minister and his policies that Canada keeps winning the Fossil Award at international climate meetings.

So right here, right now, I would like to apologize and say that I am sorry for my country's uncompassionate behaviour, increasing greenhouse gases, and stonewalling strategies on climate change.

And here, to say it even better, is Canada's best known environmentalist, Dr. David Suzuki, speaking at the Vancouver send-off of the Pedal for the Planet participants, who are bicycling across this vast country to take a message about the urgency of climate change to our prime minister.

Watch to the very end and you'll see our young friend, Nadia, who is one of the people cycling across the country.

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I would appreciate hearing your thoughts or questions on this post or anything else you've read here. What is your take on courage and compassion being an important part of the solution to the climate change emergency?