Study Dumps on Canada's Environmental Record

[Mad_Hatter]

(For the actual news report, go to CBC News. http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/10/18/environment-can051018.html)

A study was released today by the David Suzuki Foundation, in conjunction with Simon Frasier University ranking Canada 28 out of 30 OECD nations in terms of their environmental record. This is particularly interesting in light of recent opinion polls which show that Canadians think of themselves among the most environmentally friendly countries in the world.

The study was based on 29 OECD environmental indicators. Some food for thought: 28th in energy consumption, 26th in greenhouse gas emissions, 29th in water consumption, 27th in sulfur oxides pollution, and dead last in nuclear waste and carbon monoxide.

Perhaps more alarming is the fact that the last study was conducted in 1992 and we were again 3rd last. We have not improved our environmental record in over a decade.

No longer can we sit on our high horses and point guilty fingers at the Americans for their environmental sins while commiting the same ones ourselves. Clearly, Canada is no better and needs to make some serious changes to our sustainability practices.

We should be ashamed of ourselves.

 

[Vanni Fucci]

Clearly...

 

[Reverend Blair]

RE: Study Dumps on Canada

The scariest part is that the Liberals have a better plan than the Conservatives do. I really don't know why anybody votes for these guys.

 

[MMMike]

Re: RE: Study Dumps on Canada

The scariest part is that the Liberals have a better plan than the Conservatives do. I really don't know why anybody votes for these guys.

:lol: :lol: The liberals "plan"???? What plan is that? Yeah great, they sign Kyoto but have no strategy for implementation. Oh, I forgot, there is the "one-tonne challenge". What a joke.

 

[Tresson]

Re: RE: Study Dumps on Canada

The scariest part is that the Liberals have a better plan than the Conservatives do. I really don't know why anybody votes for these guys.

:lol: :lol: The liberals "plan"???? What plan is that? Yeah great, they sign Kyoto but have no strategy for implementation. Oh, I forgot, there is the "one-tonne challenge". What a joke.

Compared to the conservative "Made in Canada" plan that would weaken our already weak enviroment laws?

 

[MMMike]

Re: RE: Study Dumps on Canada

The scariest part is that the Liberals have a better plan than the Conservatives do. I really don't know why anybody votes for these guys.

:lol: :lol: The liberals "plan"???? What plan is that? Yeah great, they sign Kyoto but have no strategy for implementation. Oh, I forgot, there is the "one-tonne challenge". What a joke.

Compared to the conservative "Made in Canada" plan that would weaken our already weak enviroment laws?

I'm not saying the conservatives plan is better. What I am saying is what should be self-evident: the Liberals have no plan for addressing Kyoto, let alone the other pressing environmental issues. All they can do is talk talk talk - meanwhile we have made no headway at all after all these years.

 

[Tresson]

Re: RE: Study Dumps on Canada

The scariest part is that the Liberals have a better plan than the Conservatives do. I really don't know why anybody votes for these guys.

:lol: :lol: The liberals "plan"???? What plan is that? Yeah great, they sign Kyoto but have no strategy for implementation. Oh, I forgot, there is the "one-tonne challenge". What a joke.

Compared to the conservative "Made in Canada" plan that would weaken our already weak enviroment laws?

I'm not saying the conservatives plan is better. What I am saying is what should be self-evident: the Liberals have no plan for addressing Kyoto, let alone the other pressing environmental issues. All they can do is talk talk talk - meanwhile we have made no headway at all after all these years.

Standing still is still better then going backwards.

The only parties that have actual plans are the NDP and Greens, (and maybe CAP. I haven't read much of thier platform yet.)

Edit: Moving what I had to say out of the quote brackets.

 

[Reverend Blair]

The liberals "plan"???? What plan is that? Yeah great, they sign Kyoto but have no strategy for implementation. Oh, I forgot, there is the "one-tonne challenge". What a joke.

I didn't say the Liberals had a good plan, I said the Conservative plan was worse. I repeat, I don't know why anybody votes for these guys.

 

[#juan]

I think this study was done the year before before Bush approved the building of ninety four new coal-fired generating plants.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0226/p01s04-sten.html

Bush has also eased up environmental issues in the automotive field.

I will do a bit more looking.

 

[MMMike]

I think this study was done the year before before Bush approved the building of ninety four new coal-fired generating plants.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0226/p01s04-sten.html

Bush has also eased up environmental issues in the automotive field.

I will do a bit more looking.

Study ranks us #28th out of 30 and instead of talking about how bad a job we are doing, you want to point the finger at #29 to make us feel better? Why don't you do some more "looking" at why the Liberals are all talk no action on the environment file?

 

[#juan]

I can't believe we are worse than these guys,

If we are, we should damn well be cleaning up our act.

http://www.nrdc.org/bushrecord/

 

[Reverend Blair]

Study ranks us #28th out of 30 and instead of talking about how bad a job we are doing, you want to point the finger at #29 to make us feel better? Why don't you do some more "looking" at why the Liberals are all talk no action on the environment file?

Actually, that's valid because the US has a lot of influence over Canadian environmental policy. Every new initiave is met with screams of how it will hurt trade, and how we must all sink to the lowest common denominator on the planet in order to compete. Pollution in the US also drifts up into Canada.

#29 needs to be pointed at because until we acknowledge their negative influence on our own policies, we are unlikely to change our policies.

 

[Tresson]

I think this study was done the year before before Bush approved the building of ninety four new coal-fired generating plants.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0226/p01s04-sten.html

Bush has also eased up environmental issues in the automotive field.

I will do a bit more looking.

Study ranks us #28th out of 30 and instead of talking about how bad a job we are doing, you want to point the finger at #29 to make us feel better? Why don't you do some more "looking" at why the Liberals are all talk no action on the environment file?

Actually the US was ranked 30th place out of 30 nations in this study. Anyone that would wants us to become more like US would then also want us to destroy what weak protections already we have.

We need to do better. Sweden, Norway and Denmark are the nations that we should be copying not the US. They've the same climate as us but have better enviromental laws and still have strong economies.

 

[#juan]

No Mike, I'm not trying to make anyone feel better

I haven't been able to find the details of the study. Our ranking is certainly dissappointing. I know that Bush has been getting flak from the American EPA for the last three or four years about his environmental policies. I also knew about the 94 new coal-fired plants that will be coming on line soon that Bush had relaxed the emission standards on. I would like to see the details of the study.

 

[MMMike]

Study ranks us #28th out of 30 and instead of talking about how bad a job we are doing, you want to point the finger at #29 to make us feel better? Why don't you do some more "looking" at why the Liberals are all talk no action on the environment file?

Actually, that's valid because the US has a lot of influence over Canadian environmental policy. Every new initiave is met with screams of how it will hurt trade, and how we must all sink to the lowest common denominator on the planet in order to compete. Pollution in the US also drifts up into Canada.

#29 needs to be pointed at because until we acknowledge their negative influence on our own policies, we are unlikely to change our policies.

Our pollution also affects the US and people in other countries let alone future generations. We are one of the worst polluters in the entire world! We have no moral authority to preach to anybody about the environment.

 

[Mad_Hatter]

Agreed. While I appreciate certain poster's needs to bash the American government at every given opportunity pointing the finger at the US while absolving ourselves of our numerous environmental sins only hurts the cause furter in this case.

It is time Canada and its citizens stop merely giving lip service to environmental sustainability and start backing up beliefs with actions.

 

[GL Schmitt]

In the city where I live, everybody who bothered to find out, has known for thirty years that our air was heavily polluted, but they were with “transparent” pollutants. Our equivalent to that dirty brown cloud which hangs over Toronto, was invisible.

Whenever anyone made suggestions about dealing with the situation, comparisons between out clear sky and Toronto’s brown nimbus was drawn, which made everybody feel good in comparison to Toronto, the Bad, and they would promptly forget about it.

You might wonder what one city can do all by itself, but it was also known for thirty years that those “transparent” pollutants where coming from local industry.

This last summer our “transparent” pollutants made themselves felt through the number of patients with respiratory problems reporting to our hospitals.

My point is, it seems that conditions have to get so bad that no one can ignore the problem any more, before enough people get behind working seriously on improvements.

Perhaps now, finally, at long last . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..

 

[Reverend Blair]

I'm not absolving us though, Hatter and MMMike. I am pointing out what our politicians and business leaders tell us. If we do not work for change in both countries at the same time, they will always have that excuse.

That's part of the reason why I mentioned RFK Jr. in that other thread, Mike. The Canadian government certainly needs to take responsibility, but they also have to work with people like him to change American policy.

I haven't been able to find the details of the study.

The PDF file of the report is available here.
It is peer reviewed (twice) and footnoted if you want to check sources.

 

[Mad_Hatter]

I took an environmental law course last year and heard all the arguments about how if the US doesn't improve Canada cannot. I can understand how industry would simply move the the States if the Canadian government imposes tough environmental standards which will cost the business a loss in revenue to meet.

But to make this an excuse for our embarassingly poor performance is unacceptable. It is far too easy to point the finger at others that are worse than us and absolve ourselves of the crime in the process. This accomplishes nothing. We should start working towards improved environmental sustainability NOW rather than wait until the US gets its ass in gear. We should look towards countries like Denmark and Switzerland as our examples, not the United States.

Though on that note, we can take some cues from the United States. Their environmental laws are far, far tougher both in their standards and their implementation.

 

[I think not]

U.S. ahead of Canada in tackling air pollution: activists
Last Updated Thu, 13 Oct 2005 09:19:42 EDT

CBC News
Canada lags behind the United States when it comes to clamping down on air pollution, says an environmental watchdog.

Pollution Watch says the United States reduced air pollution emissions by 45 per cent between 1995 and 2003, while Canada reduced air pollution emissions by 1.8 per cent over the same period.

"There is evidence that U.S. facilities are outperforming Canadian facilities," said Paul Muldoon, with the Canadian Environmental Law Association, a partner with Pollution Watch.

The organization compared the output of the same chemicals from the same type of facilities in the two countries to reach that conclusion, he said.

Ottawa fails to follow through on its environmental promises and Canadians fail to hold it accountable, says the group.

"Canadians have been letting the government off the hook on environmental requirements ... and not focusing enough on holding government to tangible measures of performance," said Muldoon.

"In many parts of our country, smog days are the new normal," said Rick Smith, executive director of Pollution Watch.

The group also released a list of what it calls the "Dirty Dozen Air Polluters," the 12 companies that release the most pollutants into the air. They are:

Inco Ltd. (Ont.)
Alcan Inc. (Que.)
Ontario Power Generation (Ont.)
Nova Scotia Power Inc. (N.S.)
Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Company Inc. (Man.)
SaskPower (Sask.)
Syncrude Canada Ltd. (Alta.)
Transalta Utilities Corporation (Alta.)
New Brunswick Power Corp. (N.B.)
Noranda Inc. (Ont.)
Aluminerie de Becancour Inc. (Que.)
EnCana Corp. (Alta.)

Link CBC News