Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
got $3.2 billion a year in tax concessions and incentives. In the 1997 elec-
tion, Chretien continued to talk about controlling greenhouse gases but
offered nothing specific.
That November Canada signed the Kyoto Protocol committing itself to
reduce carbon emissions by 8% by the year 2010, and to aid Third World
countries with money and technical help. After the conference, the next
step was ratification, but Chretien dithered, talking of implementing the
protocol but doing little. After meeting with provincial leaders, their joint
decision was to study the problem for another 2 years. The most vigorous
opposition came from the Alberta premier, Ralph Klein.
Prime Minister Chretien was in for worse treatment when he took Team
Canada to Moscow in February 2002. This was the name of the trade and
diplomatic mission with the provincial premiers. At a news conference,
Chretien was asked about the Kyoto agreement. As he began to answer
that federal government remained totally committed, Alberta Premier
“King Ralph” pushed forward to the microphone, pulled a letter from his
suit jacket, and read it. The letter, which had secretly been signed by 9 of
the 10 premiers at a recent meeting in Vancouver, demanded a unified
North American position on global warming and told Chretien that the
federal government should not ratify the protocol. Because President Bush
had previously said the United States would not ratify it, this seemed likely
to doom the protocol from ever garnering ratification by countries emit-
ting 55% of the greenhouse gases, a provision necessary for the protocol
to enter into force. The letter listed nine provincial conditions on global
warming, including reiteration of provincial control of natural resources,
a pledge of provincial-federal consultation, and a shift from regulation to
conservation and education. Chretien left the room in anger and embar-
rassment for having been so rudely ambushed in a foreign country by his
countrymen. So much for Team Canada. Eventually, in December 2002
Canada ratified the Kyoto Protocol.
David Suzuki typifies mainstream environmental support for the Kyoto
Protocol, considering it one of the most pressing problems Canada faces.
Suzuki has been active as an ecologist and geneticist since the 1960s. Born
of Japanese descent in British Columbia in 1936, he loved hiking, fishing,
and camping with his father. In 1942 he was forced to move to an intern-
ment camp when the government expelled ethnic Japanese from the West
Coast. At the end of World War II, his family had to resettle in the east.
After earning a PhD in genetics, he began a long career at the University
of British Colombia. Suzuki became concerned that the public did not
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