A response that's a whole lot more interesting than the hot air coming from Rona Ambrose

Today's NY Times highlights what large corprations are doing to move to more environmentally friendly energy here.

Vail resorts and Whole Food Market Inc recognize that global warming is a serious issue and not one that will go away by burying our head in the sand as Rona Ambrose suggests. My friend DC Grit tells me that the international community established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an expert panel formed in 1988 that reviews scientific research and offers assessments of climate change and its effects.

In 1995, the IPCC concluded that: "the balance of evidence suggests that there is a discernible human influence on global climate." This result was remarkable; more than a thousand scientists, working through a process that allowed much political input from governments concerned to deny global warming, nonetheless found the evidence so overwhelming that they were able to state that one species, ours, was now changing pretty much everything on the face of the planet. In a recent press release from the Asia – Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, even the Bush administration and the Howard government in Australia acknowledged the serious problem of climate change.

Rona Ambrose’s “Made in Canada Approach” demonstrates a lack of understanding of climate change. Greenhouse gas emissions do not respect national borders. While we must do everything we can to decrease GHG emissions in Western countries, it is also important to note that it does not matter where the emissions originate from because they rise and create a greenhouse effect in the earth’s atmosphere. If you reduce emissions in Canada or if Canada helps developing countries reduce emissions it has the same net effect on the planet.

Let's hope that the Harper government will try to exceed Bush and Howard on GHG reductions and make an about face on their unilateralist approach to climate change and work on implementing the Montreal protocol.