Climate Change? I'm Confused....

Certainly, even the most hardheaded of us have had times in their life when they thought, “what would someone think of me if I did/said this?” There isn’t one person in the world that could argue the thought has never crossed their minds. If you cared about what that person would think of you....well, that’s a different matter altogether.

It’s with that in mind that I come to the current debate (read: mud-slinging) over climate change. Either you believe in it or you don’t, there’s no real in-between on the issue. What causes it- again, a different topic.

Green Party Czar Elizabeth May mused openly this weekend about a number of things, all to do with, surprise, climate change. First, the “informed” leader of the one-trick party compared the Conservative’s plan for tackling climate change to Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of the Nazi’s in the second world war. NAZI’s!!!!!!!!!!! (for a more indepth and comical look at why we should never compare ANYTHING to the Nazi’s go here: www.macleans.ca and click on Week in Review).

Ms. May has since apologized for what she says is the Conservative Party of Canada’s “distortion of her comments.” Distorted or not, it’s what she says next in the letter of apology that strikes me strangely. May says: “...echoed the views of many people around the world when he expressed his deep distress at Canada’s abdication of responsibility in the current climate change crisis.”

Now, Elizabeth May is a rookie politician. However, she should understand that the Conservative’s in Ottawa now are not exactly concerned with how they are viewed in the rest of the world. They’re concerned with Canada- something she would be well advised to do if she has any shred of hope in the next federal election.

But it’s worth a look. Should we, as Canadians, care what people on the world stage think of us as a country based on our climate change policy? It doesn’t seem like we hear of countries lining up to be the world leader in being the cleanest or most energy efficient. Or, if they are, I haven’t heard of them. I, for one, have to agree with the Conservatives. I don’t care what people think about us on the world stage. The government has produced a strategy that will ensure a reduction of greenhouse gasses, without putting the economy on the climate change altar. Like it or lump it- this is the government you have.

Elizabeth May along with David Suzuki and other environmentalists have been predicting the sky will fall in the future if we don’t kill the economy to save the earth. Equally important scientists in Europe have produced a film in which they debunk the myths of Climate Change, most significantly the increase in greenhouse gasses cannot be blamed solely on humans. And in the past number of days, weeks and months we have heard a doom and gloom scenario out of Ottawa that the economy will be crushed if we take aggressive action on climate change.

It’s all very confusing. It seems there is no worldwide solution to what has become a worldwide problem. What's good for one country or continent isn't applicable to others. Therefore, if every country does what they can, and doesn’t worry about what any other country is doing, then we should be alright. Sometimes doing what you can has to be good enough.