Monday, April 21, 2014

Another slow news day - so let's stoke the climate scare

Vancouver Sun, front page, above the fold:
VANCOUVER — British Columbia Environment Ministry staff have warned their minister that the province’s dreamed-of liquefied natural gas industry poses some big challenges with greenhouse gas emissions.
... Internal briefing notes prepared for Environment Minister Mary Polak ... single out methane emissions for concern.
... emissions remain a hurdle for the provinces, which has legislated targets for reductions. Legislation dictates that emissions are to be reduced by at least a third below 2007 levels by 2020. ...
 
 
 
 Okay, I know that politics demands that Ms Polak at least nod in the direction of the climate hysterics, but it's long past time to be realistic.

Even IF there's a chance that "warming" is a problem, and it's a mighty big IF, nothing that BC (or Canada) does to limit GHGs (even limiting them to absolute zero) will have any measurable effect on global climate.  The mere increase in China's annual emissions is enough to swamp Canada's (and 10 times BC's) entire annual output.  Then there's India.  Then there's the rest of the developing world.  Then ...

Polak's (or her eco-bureaucrats') apparent concerns are a drop in Canada's bucket and the world's ocean of emissions.   It is not worth the sacrifice of one BC job to pursue what are at best symbolic gestures towards avoiding that big, remote IF.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

don't you just love the line "legislation dictates" that emissions must be one third below 2007 levels. what kind of brain does it take to understand that CO2 is not a pollutant.