George Monbiot slams Canadian government for thuggish ways
Heat author and environmental activist George Monbiot has what I believe is a column that accurately describes how Canada is viewed internationally as world leaders head to Copenhagen to hammer out some sort of climate agreement. The column is titled “The Urgent Threat to World Peace is … Canada.” I would argue it also accurately describes how many Canadians view the actions — or inactions — of their own government. Please read, and please pass around. It’s time to get viral.
Tags: Canada, George Monbiot
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
December 2nd, 2009 at 3:45 pm
Organizations including the World Development Movement, the Polaris Institute, and Greenpeace have suggested that Canada be suspended from the Commonwealth due to its poor climate change policies.
While there is no prospect of that happening now, the situation does make you think about just how long Canada can continue to delay mitigation at home, even in the event that other states reach an agreement to cut their emissions. It doesn’t seem impossible that Canada could be one of the last hold-outs, when most of the world has started taking serious action on the issue. If so, campaigns to suspend Canada’s participation in international organizations, sporting bans, and the like could become both effective and appropriate. Canadians like to think that they are responsible members of the international community. As time goes by, contributing to the global climate change mitigation effort with be an increasingly important yardstick by which countries judge one another.
December 3rd, 2009 at 12:18 pm
[...] as a “senior energy reporter and columnist” is at risk, which perhaps explains this strange post on his blog Clean [...]
December 3rd, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Perhaps the government will listen if we boycott the Olympics!
December 4th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Having explored the previous comments and their links… I expect journalism to be honest about the facts as they are known at the time. I do not expect journalism to be without opinion or to be balenced. I will and should seek out further info and even contrary information as my opinion evolves. I know columns and blogs to be a more personal product of the authors’ so I expect the product represents what the author seeks to accomplish. -Humour, satire, inform or sway. I have no doubt you believe business interests can exist with the interests of the enviroment. Thank you for wanting to write that opinion. I may agree, or not, but I never expected the blog (Your own blog) to talk any ones walk but your own – certainly not your employer’s As I write from my person not as a rep of my employer. Is it neil or lincvolt that has said “keep on blogging til the lights go out” I look forward to thinking on your opinions