Thursday, September 30, 2004

Enviroloon spotted

Enviroloon spotters need not resort to field glasses to spot a particularly 'fine' example - as today's Toronto Star contains a column by a Mr. David Israelson:

U.S. policy and the environment

Those versed in spotting these birds know to look for the following characteristics:

1. Ignorance
2. Hypocrisy

Israelson's column has unmistakeable examples of these markings.

He whines: "Most audacious, of course, was the Bush administration's decision not to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on global warming". If ignorance were a green-house gas, Israelson would be a top global source. In the US system of government, it is the Senate that must ratify international treaties. The Clinton Administration did submit the Kyoto agreement to the Senate for ratification in 1997 - whereupon that legislative body rejected it by a vote of 95-0.

Kyoto was always dead on arrival in the Senate - even before today's heightened concern in the United States about cheap imports from countries (such as India and China) that would not be bound by emissions restrictions. In today's political environment, Kyoto would not simply be DOA in the Senate chamber - it would be FBA (Fossilized Before Arrival.)

Now onto hypocrisy. In typical Canadian leftist fashion, Israelson lavishes scorn on the US in general and the Bush adminstration is particular - yet somehow fails to mention that that Canada has no plan in place to achieve its agreed reductions under Kyoto.

On the Bush adminstration's proposal to allow drilling in northern Alaska, he writes that "Canada and other contend that that this would do irreparable harm to the northern ecosystem". He conveniently forgets to mention the hydrocarbon exploration that has been going on for many years in Canada's Mackenzie Delta and Beaufort Sea.

Isrealson concludes with a remarkable moment of relative lucidity. He suggest that 'we' stop preaching to the 'US'. I would suggest instead that it should be 'he' who stops preaching to 'us'.