ClimateGate news

Friday, April 20, 2007

Baird: Kyoto would lead to economic collapse

Canada's Environment Minister, John Baird to the Senate environmental committee:

Baird told the committee that analysis from economists shows implementing the Kyoto Protocol would mean the following:

* Gasoline will cost more than $1.60 a litre over the 2008-to-2012 period
* 275,000 Canadians working today will lose their jobs by 2009
* Job loss will cause unemployment rates to rise 25 per cent by 2009
* The decline of economic activity in the range of $51 billion
Baird also had this to say:
"Rather than go to reckless extremes just to make up for lost time, we want a more realistic plan, which we will introduce soon," Baird said.

During his presentation to the committee, he said that meeting the Kyoto carbon emissions targets would "manufacture a recession" for Canada.

He said the government needs to strike a balance between acting boldly on behalf of the environment, and protecting Canada's economy "so Canadians can keep their jobs and build a promising future," Baird said in French.
I looks more and more like the government is preparing to take a stand against the unrealistic and economically crippling Kyoto Protocol - even if if means having to fight an election on the issue.

With all the opposition parties taking a hard stand in favour of Kyoto, Stephen Harper's Conservatives are the only party offering a practical alternative. With Bill C-288 on the books making it mandatory for the government to meet Kyoto targets, this is going to get very interesting.

As Prime Minister Stephen Harper said:
"The real issue here is whether any of the opposition parties have the guts to face reality," Harper said.

"The reality is this Mr. Speaker; you cannot reduce greenhouse gas emission by one-third in less than four years and have a positive effect for the Canadian economy."
Canadians have shown that they support Kyoto - as long as it doesn't hurt them in the pocket books. The next election may depend upon the parties' ability to convince Canadians just how costly Kyoto really will be.

2 comments:

Pontiac 1940 said...

Baird's comments yesterday were a breath of fresh air. I think we should have an elction on this while that idiot Dion is floundering and doing the two-step with May. Layton is a puppet and for a smart person does not act like it. End of rant. :)

Our local eco terrorism group says we have to reduce fossil fuels by 80 percent!! Right. We'll get right on that. They also flippantly say we need "this and that" reduction and we need wind and solar. It all SOUNDS very "warm and fuzzy," but their comments (ad nauseum) have no practical basis whatsoever. And they act like we live in Califoria too--as IF we don't get winter. I digress.

Keep up the blog Bill.

Thanks,

Clive

John Nicklin said...

Oh don't be so glum chum. We can cut emissions by 80% by 2009, but only if we start today.

First, we have to ban all use of gasoline, deisel and propane for transportation. Then we have to shut down all thermo-electric generation, including nuclear just because we don't think its proper. Then we need to pass strict laws prohibiting burning anything for heating or cooking. The good news is we only need to do this in two or three provinces, perhaps Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia since they are the most vocal about Kyoto. We need to make sure that Alberta and Saskatchewan are unfettered in their oil and gas production so we can sell those products to the USA, someone in Canada has to make money to pay for all the unemployment this plan will create.

Now you may skoff at this plan, but just think how proud we can be as a nation to meet our obligations. Just because a few people will freeze to death next winter is no reason to delay. Algore says we are at the tipping point, or is that tipper point, either way, it is vital that we avert that 0.04 to 0.08 degrees of warming by 2050, or is it 2100, or last week?

The next phase in this plan is to ban carbon entirely, have it removed from the table of elements and eradicated, every last atom, there is just no other way to acheive climate stability. The carbon has to go, period.

Assuming that we can acheive all of this, the next thing that must be done is to ban science entirely, its their fault for inventing all of this. It was scientists who discovered CO2, they must pay for their sins against humanity and Gaia.