Dion stripped of his environmental edge

Chantel Hebert: Liberal leader will pay dearly if he wins next election and can't deliver on costly, divisive promises.

Over a period of little less than three months, Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion has turned his green armour into a straitjacket.

Now that he has led the opposition parties into passing a bill forcing the Conservatives to implement the Kyoto Protocol, the worst thing that could happen to him would be to win a snap election this spring and then be forced to live by the terms of Bill C-288.

Ottawa Citizen: Green Gimmick:

As a political issue, the environment is the government's soft, vulnerable underbelly, but the Liberals' latest attempt to exploit it is gimmicky, cynical and in the end self-defeating.

Global Warming Real, but not a priority:

Most Americans believe global warming is real but a moderate and distant risk. While they strongly support policies like investing in renewable energy, higher fuel economy standards and international treaties, they strongly oppose carbon taxes on energy sources that put carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

These results were reported by Anthony Leiserowitz, a courtesy professor of environmental studies at the University of Oregon, in a talk during the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco. His conclusions, based on a national survey conducted in 2003 are detailed in a new book, "Creating a Climate for Change: Communicating Climate Change – Facilitating Social Change," that he and other contributors discussed in an 8:30 a.m., PST, session devoted to communication strategies.