Round up the usual suspects

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Macleanโ€™s magazine, which has a fresh, new right-winginess about it since the takeover by Conrad Blackโ€™s protege Kenneth White, offers โ€œThree smarter ways to save the worldโ€ in its latest edition. The writer, Steve Maich, has rounded up some standard-issue โ€œclimate skeptics,โ€ including the self-styled โ€œSkeptical Environmentalist,โ€ Bjรธrn Lomborg, but most of the article is about economics, not climate science.

There are basically two arguments: First, North America could get better and more immediate environmental value from spending money fightingย noxious pollutants like sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, rather than working to reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide.This may well be true โ€“ย it always makes sense to treat bleeding wounds before you tackle cancer โ€“ but itโ€™s not a very good argument for ignoring a more serious condition that is building strength in the background.

The second argument is that Canada and the United States are being asked to bear an โ€œunfairโ€ burden in a climate changing world. Why, goes the refrain, should Canada and the U.S. do anything noble when China and India arenโ€™t signatories to the Kyoto accord?

So, what would be fair? Canadians enjoyย a per capitaย GDP (calculated by the CIAโ€™s new โ€œpurchasing power parityโ€ method) of $31,500, behind the U.S. at $41,000, but well ahead of Indiaโ€™s per capita GDP of $3,100. (All numbers fromย www.wikipedia.com.) At the same time,ย according to the UN Statistics Division, as of 2002, Canadians were producingย carbon dioxide emissions at the rate of 16.5 metric tonnes per capita per year, less than the Americans at 20.1 tonnes, but well ahead of Indiaโ€™s production of 1.2 tonnes per capita.

If Canada and the U.S. โ€“ two of the worldโ€™s worst offenders, and bothย well placedย economically โ€“ take no action to address climate change, why would India or China ever come on board.

Ifย Macleanโ€™s is sincere about finding smarter ways to save the planet, it might better address itself to the question of whether Canada or the U.S. have any moral authorityย in world debates, when their consumptive policies appear to be based exclusively on selfishness.

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