Obfuscation and Spin: Our Federal Government in Action
The mighty dynamic machinery that is our federal government sprung into action today in response to global climate change, and decided to take a pass. Ottawa has chosen, apparently, on an entirely new approach to climate change: study the thing 95 ways to Sunday, parse, dissect, analyse the options, strike a Royal Commission, review, review again, dissemble, and finally (it's expected) proclaim the whole business unfit for human consumption.
How else to explain this reaction?
The Nairobi Conference on Climate Change is set to begin next week. Canada is setting a delegation of 40, excluding oddly enough, environmental groups whose expertise might serve the government in a positive way. "Longer term" means, in Tory-speak, 44 years, the length of time it will take to do a comprehensive review.
That boat is already sailed, or to use a Peterborough County vulgarism, the federal government is pissing in the wind of global opinion. One of the purposes of the Nairobi conference is to kick start negotiations for designing a successor to Kyoto, to reduce further greenhouse gas emissions. A "comprehensive review" of the whole process will not be on the table. Or shouldn't be: it will be interesting to see if the federal government, in concert with other anti-Kyoto governments, attempts to sabotage further negotiations.
Meanwhile the Glorious Leader has drawn "comfort from the Stern report, noting it is frequently critical of progress under the Kyoto Protocol." A lovely sentiment, but pure unmitigated spin. Stern does argue the Kyoto Protocol doesn't go far enough. But he also says "The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol embody the core principles of a multilateral response to climate change." (p. 454) For a government repudiating the principles of Kyoto --- well, words like "cynical", "hypocrisy", "piles of manure" come to mind.
How else to explain this reaction?
The federal government will seek a "comprehensive review" of the 1997 treaty when negotiators from 165 countries meet in Nairobi, Kenya, federal officials told a background briefing Monday. Canada wants to focus on "the longer term," said officials, who cannot be identified under the rules of the briefing.
The Nairobi Conference on Climate Change is set to begin next week. Canada is setting a delegation of 40, excluding oddly enough, environmental groups whose expertise might serve the government in a positive way. "Longer term" means, in Tory-speak, 44 years, the length of time it will take to do a comprehensive review.
That boat is already sailed, or to use a Peterborough County vulgarism, the federal government is pissing in the wind of global opinion. One of the purposes of the Nairobi conference is to kick start negotiations for designing a successor to Kyoto, to reduce further greenhouse gas emissions. A "comprehensive review" of the whole process will not be on the table. Or shouldn't be: it will be interesting to see if the federal government, in concert with other anti-Kyoto governments, attempts to sabotage further negotiations.
Meanwhile the Glorious Leader has drawn "comfort from the Stern report, noting it is frequently critical of progress under the Kyoto Protocol." A lovely sentiment, but pure unmitigated spin. Stern does argue the Kyoto Protocol doesn't go far enough. But he also says "The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol embody the core principles of a multilateral response to climate change." (p. 454) For a government repudiating the principles of Kyoto --- well, words like "cynical", "hypocrisy", "piles of manure" come to mind.
posted by Michael at 1:58 p.m.|
1 Comments:
Yup, Canada is doing itself no favours on this one. Pity, always thought of Canadians as a nice bunch of people.
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