During the recent Canadian election a spokesperson for the Conservative Party said that if Justin Trudeau arrived at a key debate with his pants on he would have exceeded expectations. In fact, Mr. Trudeau not only found his pants, but impressed a great many Canadians and was elected Prime Minister on October 19th.
I recently traveled up to the Northwest of BC to help facilitate the second round of community dialogue sessions on LNG and cumulative impacts management co-hosted by West Coast Environmental Law and the Northwest Institute for Bioregional Research.
If you’re paying attention to efforts to tackle climate change through emissions trading, or “Cap and Trade”, systems, then there have been a number of recent developments worthy of note.
Last week Nobel Peace Prize winner, and one of the spiritual leaders of our time, Archbishop Desmond Tutu called on governments to make fossil fuel companies pay for the climate damages that their product is causing. In a message to global leaders attending the UN’s Climate Summit 2014 (which is starting today, 23 September, in New York City), Tutu said (in a video embedded at the bottom of this post):<
Are you excited, as I am, that Canada’s new government has promised that Canada will do “its fair share” to fight climate change? Or perhaps a little skeptical, given the failure of past governments to live up to their climate pledges?
On October 19, 2015 Canada elected our 23rd Prime Minster, Justin Trudeau on a platform of change and open and honest government. The “open letter” storm that followed that election and the subsequent transition in government may inadvertently save Canada Post’s dwindling letter mail business.
In this era of heightened concerns about national security, we invite you to read the following open letter to Prime Minister Harper that makes a simple point: Our global atmosphere is “critical infrastructure” and disruption of it “undermines the security of Canada.” If you agree, join us in calling on the Prime Minister to declare the global atmosphere to be critical infrastructure, necessary for Canada’s security.
Dear Prime Minister Harper,
The BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the Enbridge Pipeline spill into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan have both brought international attention to the dangers of transporting oil over long distances. Here in BC that’s meant increased scrutiny of Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline and the possibility of oil tankers travelling the province’s treacherous north coast and a sullied reputation for Enbridge.
In my own, perhaps biased, opinion, the most significant thing about our recent report on transnational liability for large-scale greenhouse gas polluters (Payback Time?) is that it is a contribution to a public conversation about liability and compensation.