"It's the economy, stupid"

A well titled post from "Trusty Tory", reminding every sensible person who will listen (die-hard Kyoto fanatics need not apply) that an attempt to implement Kyoto in accordance with the original timelines will ONLY serve scuttle our economy... and put tens of thousands of Canadians out of work. (are you listening Buzz?)

I'm not saying we shouldn't be reducing our emissions... but let's do so in a reasonable timeframe folks!

Mr. Baird said it well... “If you believe the science, we can’t do it alone in Canada. We need all the big economies, all the big emitters, all the big polluters — China, industry, the United States — all on board. We don’t want to see companies shut down operations in Canada because of our tough regulations and move to China where there’s no requirements.”

Killing our economy by reducing our 0.2% share of global emissions doesn't make much sense when the big boys like China are only increasing their output. Buzz & Co. keep saying we need to stem the flow of jobs to places like China... Kyoto is a sure-fire way to INCREASE the flow, not stem it.

Besides... with the growing number of coal-fired plants that are coming online every month in China, any reductions we make are immediately increased ten-fold by China.

To be clear, I'm NOT saying we shouldn't bother... as a Christian who answers to the Most Holy and Almighty God who created this world, I firmly believe we need to be careful stewards of this planet we've been given. Therefore, we need to be reducing ALL FORMS of pollution, and start making the moves to better sources of energy. And the technological improvements are starting to be realized... my friend and his dad own an alternative energy company, and newer things are coming online all the time which make alternative sources a reasonable option. However, the best way to decrease our carbon output is still reduction of energy use, and all of us still have a long way to go on that front.

And there's still the problem of emissions trading schemes... on-paper reductions of emissions are not reductions in emissions folks. It's just an excuse for a new "green economy", that does nothing but exchange "green" between various parties, while making millions for a new breed of capitalist... the eco-credit trader. (think of your typical high-powered, high-priced stock broker, but trading only paper-based "carbon reductions"... I'm surprised the left hasn't clued into this one yet...)