No quick fix for 'enormous' problem of climate change: PM
'The science is clear that these charges are occurring,' Harper says in wake of major report
Last Updated: Friday, February 2, 2007 | 10:37 PM ET
CBC News
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/02/02/harper-climate.html
Climate change is an "enormous" problem, but it's "fantasy" to think greenhouse-gas emissions can be cut overnight, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said after a UN report concluded global warming is very likely man-made.
The report, released Friday by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said human activity was "very likely" the cause of global warming and that higher temperatures and rising sea levels would continue for centuries, regardless of reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
Canada would be among the countries to see disproportionately high temperatures changes ― perhaps enough to keep the Arctic ice-free in summer.
Harper, who was in Ottawa, said climate change requires a long-term solution.
"I think the science is clear that these charges are occurring, they're serious and we must act," the prime minister said.
"The first step in any such plan is to try to stabilize emissions and obviously over the longer term to reduce them.… I think realistically the only way you can get absolute reductions is through the application of new technology over time.
"We have to talk about facts, not about fantasy."
Harper said the government "has the intention to act" on climate change, but must find realistic solutions.
"I don't think realistically we can tell Canadians, 'Stop driving your car, stop going to work, stop heating your house in the winter.'"
Earlier in the day, Environment Minister John Baird acknowledged that the consequences of climate change could be particularly dire for Canada.
Opposition calls for Kyoto targets to be met
In the House of Commons, opposition critics pressed ahead with a Liberal bill that would require the government to fulfil the target of the Kyoto Protocol, a six per cent cut from 1990 levels by 2012.
'I don't know if the prime minister has even read the Kyoto Protocol.' ―Liberal environment critic David McGuinty
"I don't know if the prime minister has even read the Kyoto Protocol," Liberal environment critic David McGuinty said.
The Harper government's proposed clean air act is currently under review by a special Commons committee after opposition parties vowed to vote against it if it reached the floor.
The Tory bill would start reducing smog by 2010, but plans four years of discussions with industry on climate change.
Under the proposed plan, there would be no hard caps on greenhouse gas emissions until 2020 at the earliest, but the government would seek to cut emissions by between 45 per cent and 65 per cent by 2050.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, created by the United Nations in 1988, releases its assessments every five or six years, and is used as a major source of information for government policy makers.
The 2007 report was backed by hundreds of scientists and representatives from 113 countries.
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http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/02/02/canada-climate-070202.html
Time for 'tough environmental policies': Baird
The 21-page summary of the panel's findings released Friday represents the most authoritative science on global warming, which the experts describe as an "unequivocal" problem. The new message to world leaders is that inaction is no longer an option.
That means moving away from voluntary greenhouse gas emissions caps and enacting tough environmental policies, Baird said.
Ken Denman, a Canadian and one of eight key authors of the study, told CBC News from Paris that scientists believe the temperature increases in the Arctic will be double the average increases elsewhere.
"In other words if it says three degrees, you might think six degrees for the High Arctic," he explained.
Denman said rivers in Alberta and Saskatchewan are usually filled with glacial melt in the summers, but "with much less glaciers and earlier melting, you might expect those rivers to be much lower, [resulting in] less water for irrigation when it's needed."
In a worst-case scenario, warming could melt the Greenland ice sheets in a millennium, causing a sea-level rise of up to seven metres, Denman said.
Reconsider spending priorities: Suzuki
David Suzuki, Canadian environmentalist and host of the CBC's The Nature of Things, said from Halifax on Friday morning that scientists have done their part and the burden has now shifted to politicians.
Environmentalist David Suzuki: 'There's been a drumbeat of all kinds of weird weather events, and [Canadians] understand that something weird is happening and they really want some action.'Environmentalist David Suzuki: 'There's been a drumbeat of all kinds of weird weather events, and [Canadians] understand that something weird is happening and they really want some action.'
(CBC)
"There's been a drumbeat of all kinds of weird weather events, and [Canadians] understand that something weird is happening and they really want some action," Suzuki said.
He pointed to the destruction of B.C. forests by pine beetles surviving warmer winters and the series of freak storms that devastated Vancouver's Stanley Park this winter.
Suzuki asked why Canada doesn't reconsider its spending priorities.
"We don't hesitate to spend $16 billion a year on defence. What is the likelihood that we'll go to war or have hostility directed against us? A heck of a lot less than the 90 per cent certainty that humans are causing climate change right now."
Rather than aim for cuts of five or 10 per cent in greenhouse gas emissions, he challenged the Conservatives to aim for 60 or 70 per cent cuts by 2050.
But Suzuki also said the report is a rallying call to ordinary citizens to make simple lifestyle changes that could curb the global warming threat.
'The science is clear that these charges are occurring,' Harper says in wake of major report
Last Updated: Friday, February 2, 2007 | 10:37 PM ET
CBC News
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/02/02/harper-climate.html
Climate change is an "enormous" problem, but it's "fantasy" to think greenhouse-gas emissions can be cut overnight, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said after a UN report concluded global warming is very likely man-made.
The report, released Friday by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said human activity was "very likely" the cause of global warming and that higher temperatures and rising sea levels would continue for centuries, regardless of reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
Canada would be among the countries to see disproportionately high temperatures changes ― perhaps enough to keep the Arctic ice-free in summer.
Harper, who was in Ottawa, said climate change requires a long-term solution.
"I think the science is clear that these charges are occurring, they're serious and we must act," the prime minister said.
"The first step in any such plan is to try to stabilize emissions and obviously over the longer term to reduce them.… I think realistically the only way you can get absolute reductions is through the application of new technology over time.
"We have to talk about facts, not about fantasy."
Harper said the government "has the intention to act" on climate change, but must find realistic solutions.
"I don't think realistically we can tell Canadians, 'Stop driving your car, stop going to work, stop heating your house in the winter.'"
Earlier in the day, Environment Minister John Baird acknowledged that the consequences of climate change could be particularly dire for Canada.
Opposition calls for Kyoto targets to be met
In the House of Commons, opposition critics pressed ahead with a Liberal bill that would require the government to fulfil the target of the Kyoto Protocol, a six per cent cut from 1990 levels by 2012.
'I don't know if the prime minister has even read the Kyoto Protocol.' ―Liberal environment critic David McGuinty
"I don't know if the prime minister has even read the Kyoto Protocol," Liberal environment critic David McGuinty said.
The Harper government's proposed clean air act is currently under review by a special Commons committee after opposition parties vowed to vote against it if it reached the floor.
The Tory bill would start reducing smog by 2010, but plans four years of discussions with industry on climate change.
Under the proposed plan, there would be no hard caps on greenhouse gas emissions until 2020 at the earliest, but the government would seek to cut emissions by between 45 per cent and 65 per cent by 2050.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, created by the United Nations in 1988, releases its assessments every five or six years, and is used as a major source of information for government policy makers.
The 2007 report was backed by hundreds of scientists and representatives from 113 countries.
--------------------------------------------------
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/02/02/canada-climate-070202.html
Time for 'tough environmental policies': Baird
The 21-page summary of the panel's findings released Friday represents the most authoritative science on global warming, which the experts describe as an "unequivocal" problem. The new message to world leaders is that inaction is no longer an option.
That means moving away from voluntary greenhouse gas emissions caps and enacting tough environmental policies, Baird said.
Ken Denman, a Canadian and one of eight key authors of the study, told CBC News from Paris that scientists believe the temperature increases in the Arctic will be double the average increases elsewhere.
"In other words if it says three degrees, you might think six degrees for the High Arctic," he explained.
Denman said rivers in Alberta and Saskatchewan are usually filled with glacial melt in the summers, but "with much less glaciers and earlier melting, you might expect those rivers to be much lower, [resulting in] less water for irrigation when it's needed."
In a worst-case scenario, warming could melt the Greenland ice sheets in a millennium, causing a sea-level rise of up to seven metres, Denman said.
Reconsider spending priorities: Suzuki
David Suzuki, Canadian environmentalist and host of the CBC's The Nature of Things, said from Halifax on Friday morning that scientists have done their part and the burden has now shifted to politicians.
Environmentalist David Suzuki: 'There's been a drumbeat of all kinds of weird weather events, and [Canadians] understand that something weird is happening and they really want some action.'Environmentalist David Suzuki: 'There's been a drumbeat of all kinds of weird weather events, and [Canadians] understand that something weird is happening and they really want some action.'
(CBC)
"There's been a drumbeat of all kinds of weird weather events, and [Canadians] understand that something weird is happening and they really want some action," Suzuki said.
He pointed to the destruction of B.C. forests by pine beetles surviving warmer winters and the series of freak storms that devastated Vancouver's Stanley Park this winter.
Suzuki asked why Canada doesn't reconsider its spending priorities.
"We don't hesitate to spend $16 billion a year on defence. What is the likelihood that we'll go to war or have hostility directed against us? A heck of a lot less than the 90 per cent certainty that humans are causing climate change right now."
Rather than aim for cuts of five or 10 per cent in greenhouse gas emissions, he challenged the Conservatives to aim for 60 or 70 per cent cuts by 2050.
But Suzuki also said the report is a rallying call to ordinary citizens to make simple lifestyle changes that could curb the global warming threat.
