Speaking of Undemocratic

I went to a talk by Maude Barlow (among others) in Kamloops last night.  One of the items in her speech caught my attention:   the impacts of the Canada-China Foreign Investment Protection Protection and Promotion Agreement   on the citizens of Canada.  And it's not just the left that is wondering why there's no public scrutiny and discussion on the impacts of this deal.

In one week’s time, unless something strange happens, a far-reaching Canada-China investment agreement will take effect. It’s one of the most important commercial agreements Canada has signed since NAFTA. But whereas NAFTA could be terminated on six months’ notice, this deal locks in the signatories for a minimum of 15 years.It’s tantamount, you might say, to a commercial bill of rights for China in this country – an economic meshing on our part with the authoritarian Asian giant, giving it potentially considerable weight in the pace and scale of our resource development.
The problem is, few know much about the deal. It’s being rammed through the parliamentary system without scrutiny, foisted on the business community, the opposition parties and the country with hardly a word of debate or a vote. Our role is to accept it on faith – to take the government’s word for it. But how are we to know if the pluses outweigh the negatives without public examination? This agreement didn’t even make it into one of those democracy-shredding omnibus bills the Conservatives have become so fond of.    

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/why-arent-we-debating-the-canada-china-investment-pact/article4629358/

 Lawrence Martin and Maude Barlow aren't the only people worried about this deal.  Gus Van Harten is urging the premier of BC  to stop this deal.
 

 I wrote to Premier Clark by email on Oct. 10, 2012 urging her to take action to stop the federal government from ratifying the Canada-China Investment Treaty (aka FIPA) on or about Oct. 31, as planned, until the treaty's constitutional and other implications could be assessed properly and resolved.  Under the Canadian constitution, the federal government is incapable of unilaterally implementing international treaty obligations in areas that fall within provincial jurisdiction. Nor is it acceptable for the federal government to use its treaty-making powers to do an end run around the federal-provincial division of powers or in a way that diminishes Canadian federalism and democracy.      http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2012/10/24/BC-FIPA-Response/

Andrew Nikiforuk, the author of The energy of Slaves reviewed in my previous post, says:

Appallingly, the treaty would give Sinopec, one of the big Chinese backers of the Northern Gateway pipeline, the right to sue the government of British Columbia if it blocks the project. Sinopec could also demand that only Chinese labour and materials be used on the pipeline. Moreover the treaty gives Chinese state owned companies "the right to full protection and security from public opposition."The agreement, like all bad deals, comes wrapped in totalitarian paper. The deal does not require provincial consent. It comes without any risk-benefit analysis. And it can be ratified into law without parliamentary debate.  http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2012/10/11/Chairman-Harper/
 

I'd suggest we all contact Terry Lake and Christy Clark asking that they seek an injunction to stop this deal from passing as the federal government seems to be implementing a treaty obligation that trespasses on provincial jurisdictions.   If you're worried about the pipelines proposed by Kinder Morgan and Enbridge, please write!    If you're worrid about democracy, please write!

Moreover, please write to the Conservative members of the federal committee demanding that Parliament seek a debate and vote in the House of Commons before this deal becomes law on November 1, 2012 .  That's NEXT week, for Pete's sakes! 

Extreme Weather

Unlike northern China, Queensland, Australia has no shortage of precipiation.  Are flooding and violent cyclones connected to climate change?  Cliamte change models predict extreme weather events ......

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2011/feb/16/climate-change-extreme-weather

....we begin to see trends which suggest that rising temperatures are making a particular kind of weather more likely to occur. One such trend has now become clearer. Two new papers, published by Nature, should make us sit up, as they suggest for the first time a clear link between global warming and extreme precipitation (precipitation means water falling out of the sky in any form: rain, hail or snow.)

Maybe we should worry ......

This Is What Drought Looks Like in China

Baby, It's Weird Outside

Remember the heat wave in Russia laast summer?  The forest fires?  The loss of their wheat crop due to drought?   How about the floods in Pakistan and the loss of their cotton crops? 

Climate change models predict unusual and extreme weather events.   Like severe droughts.  Hmmnnnn... we seem to be happenign another drought.  This one is in northern China.  From Forbes ....
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/02/14/business-health-care-providers-us-business-highlights_8308227.html

BEIJING (AP) - Provinces in China's severely parched northeast have been ordered to step up emergency irrigation as part of a $1 billion effort to minimize the loss of crucial wheat crops. China is the world's largest wheat-growing nation but its wheat belt has gotten virtually no precipitation since October. Expected shortages of the crop in China have already pushed up global prices for the commodity. The government's Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said in an online statement late Sunday that the drought situation remained "grim" and urged local officials to dig more wells and carry out other emergency irrigation measures. The U.N.'s food agency has warned the drought is driving up China's wheat prices, and now the focus is on whether China will buy more from the global market, where prices have risen about 35 percent since mid-November.

China doesn't usually import wheat.  If it is forced to import, wheat prices are going to increase again.  This is going to affect you, dear reader.   Your bread and pasta is going to get pricey.  Unhappily, higher food prices probably aren't enough to wake up the middle classes in North America and get them to riot in the streets demanding action on climate change.  

Denial Still Exists

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/climate-scientists-forecast-more-heat-fires-and-floods/article1671364/

Floods, fires, melting ice and feverish heat: From smoke-choked Moscow to water-soaked Pakistan and the High Arctic, the planet seems to be having a midsummer breakdown. It’s not just a portent of things to come, scientists say, but a sign of troubling climate change already under way.
The weather-related cataclysms of July and August fit patterns predicted by climate scientists, the Geneva-based World Meteorological Organization says – although those scientists always shy from tying individual disasters directly to global warming.

If you read the news, you will know Russia is suffering through the hottest summer ever, Pakistan has had the heaviest monsoon rains ever, China is flooding, and the Arctic glaciers are calving.  Not to mention that the Arctic was /is scarily warm.

What did the much maligned 2007  IPCC predict?  

The 2007 IPCC report predicted a doubling of disastrous droughts in Russia this century and cited studies foreseeing catastrophic fires during dry years. It also said Russia would suffer large crop losses.

The 2007 IPCC report said rains have grown heavier for 40 years over northern Pakistan and predicted greater flooding this century in southern Asia’s monsoon region.

The IPCC reported in 2007 that rains had increased in northwest China by up to 33 per cent since 1961, and floods nationwide had increased sevenfold since the 1950s. It predicted still more frequent flooding this century.

Hmmmnnnn - could it be ?  Naaah - those scientists with PhDs in climatatology who publish in peer reveiwed journals must be wrong.   So say the commenters on the above article.  Following is a sample:

In the past people blamed demons and witches for the weather. In our so called 'englightened age' people blame fossil fuels. I don't understand why so many people have a psychological need to believe in such claptrap.

Here come the "global warming" freaks labeled as scientists out of the wood work again.  We are getting a hot-spell in August and leave to these windbags to spin it into a crisis.  Better raise taxes and mail your paychecks to the government so they can solve the problem.  Stupid socialist/marxist windbags.

 The majority of the Anthropogenic Global Warming clymers are ignorant fools following a core of criminal elite. If they ever grow a brain, they will become dangerous.

All comments published by people who do peer reveiwed research in climatology, of course.  I'm beginning to think that science education in high school needs to be strengthened.  But more information is not going to convince deniers like those quoted above.  In fact, if you load them with too much information, they will move directly to despair from denial - and sit around apathetically saying "it is too late - what is the point of trying - we might as well keep living the way we do."   

If you are a climate change activist,  try to work through groups to faciliate lifestyle change and political activism. (Or create a  group with a positive outlook such as a Transistion Town in your community. ) Group members will support each other  - therfore, change will be easier for the entire group.  Potential groups - churches (they have an interest in social and climate justice);  universities (they have a pool of educated people and students who care about the environment);  and business groups (many win win situations exist that save money and reduce greenhouse gas emissions). (I'm sure more  potential types of groups exist that I haven't thought of.)  Don't focus on past disasters - focus on what we can do now and in the future.  Borrow from the  Transition Town ethos - concentrate on both  internal  pyschological change and external change - and keep your message positive. 

Don't let your own despair wear you down: look after yourself and keep working. You have allies - and climate change activism is a job worth doing.   

Peak Oil

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/markets/streetwise/where-china-sees-oil-prices/article1532555/

“In our minds, the Sinopec deal reflects the appetite and lower cost of capital of eager Chinese buyers,” said a report from energy analyst Greg Pardy at RBC Dominion Securities.
After running the numbers, with an 8.5 per cent tax discount rate, Mr. Pardy concluded the $4.65-billion price tag on this deal imples a long-term oil price of $95 a barrel.
At Peters & Co., analyst Jeff Martin used a 10 per cent tax discount rate for his projections, and concluded the Sinopec purchase is based on a $106-a-barrel expectation on oil.

Chinese purchasers seem to think that light sweet crude prices are headed up.  Think of the impacts high oil prices will have on our unsustainable way of life.  

Be Prepared

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/mar/31/china-announces-extreme-weather-measures

China will tomorrow start ramping up preparations for typhoons, dust storms and other extreme weather disasters as part of a 10-year plan to predict and prevent the worst impacts of climate change. Improved warning systems, new emergency drills and bolstered infrastructure will form the backbone of the new regulations, which are the country's most advanced measures yet to deal with natural disaster.   China has a long history of devastating floods and droughts, but officials said the problems were intensifying.  

"It is necessary to respond to the new situation under climate change to avoid and mitigate the losses caused by meteorological disasters," said Gao Fengtao, deputy director of the state council's legislative affairs office, as he unveiled the new policy. In recent years, he said, disasters were characterised by "sudden occurrence, wider variety, greater intensity and higher frequency in the context of global warming".   Officials warned this posed a threat to human life and a huge challenge to China's sustainable development.

China is taking climate change seriously: perhaps James Lovelock is correct when he states democracy is an impediment to reversing climate change. 

No - Mr Lovelock is not: we don't exactly luxuriate in democracy in Canada.  We get to vote in an election and then have absolutley no influence over provincial  and federal decisions. ( The Mike Harris government was even sued to prevent them from implementing their common sense revolution: the plaintiffs got absolutely nowhere.)  Moreover, we live in an electoral system where companies like Koch and Exxon pump millions of dollars into funding misinformation on climate change.  In a sense, Canada hasn't even tried democracy.....witness the Afghan detainee scandal. 

Conniving Canada

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/11/chinese-thinktank-copenhagen-document

Rich nations furthered their "conspiracy to divide the developing world" at December's UN climate summit in Copenhagen, while Canada "connived" and the EU acted "to please the United States", according to an internal document from a Chinese government thinktank obtained by the Guardian. .... The paper is scathing about the US-led "umbrella group", which it says adopted a position of inaction. Canada, it says, "was devoted to conniving" to convince the world that its pledge of a 3% emissions reduction between 1990 and 2020 is significant, while having no intention of meeting its Kyoto protocol target of 6%.

Our leadership drag their feet on climate change?  Spin and connive?  Jamais!

Meanwhile - tick, tock, tick, tock ... time is running out on opportunites to save money, reduce greenhouse gas emissions,   amd reverse climate change.  And Canada fiddles.....and other countries protect their turf. And argue. And debatae.

 We need a different world view.  For starters, we might  consider the impacts of our actions on all future generations.

Another Missed Opportunity

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/16/uk-green-technologies

Britain's transformation to a low-carbon society will be delayed by a lack of people trained in the right skills unless the government significantly increases its investment in the sector, a group of MPs have warned. They said that hundreds of thousands of jobs could be created if the government doubled its funding of green technologies, making the UK a world leader in a market worth £3tr worldwide.

"The government has missed a big opportunity to kick-start a green industrial revolution with its £3bn fiscal stimulus. Germany, the US, Japan and China have invested billions in their low-carbon industries," said Tim Yeo MP, chair of the House of Commons environmental audit committee (EAC).

In the US, the government has spent about £50bn to create half a million new green jobs, while Germany, Japan and Korea have also announced major plans to grow their domestic environmental sectors. China's economic stimulus plan includes £142bn for environmental measures

And what are Canada's plans for funding green technologies and clean energy?  It seems we are defending the tar sands instead .... another missed opportunity.

Perhaps our PM should read The March of Folly by Barbara Tuchman.