The Durban Climate Change Conference

What I think she is trying to say is that although Canada is trying to reduce its emissions, our efforts are not paying off and we are failing, so we need to drop out of the Kyoto Protocol. I think she is also trying to say that Canada is trying its best to support Kyoto, but just cannot pay the fees, so they needed to drop out. My personal feelings to this quote is that I agree with Ms. Leslie's thinking because Canada is all about commitment, so if we already know that we cannot commit to this agreement or are trying our best but not improving, we need to drop out before we have to pay unnecessary fees.

Ms. Leslie is trying to send a message to the people about Canada’s part in withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol, a protocol initiated by the UN climate change group, aimed towards fighting global warming. And she does not approve. She’s representing Canada, as a student who’s already failing, referencing Canada’s goal in the Kyoto Protocol, and then they drop out, which they did, and give up before they get back their report card to save themselves the embarrassment. I definitely agree with her comparison of Canada. Even though Canada claims to be very environmentally friendly, Prime Minister Steven Harper has not paid much attention to anything that is concerning the environment. Our land is among the best in the world, and we are doing nothing to conserve it. Yet we are among the world’s top greenhouse gas-emitting countries, taking up to 2%, and 8th place in the world’s emission. Even during the Kyoto Protocol, Canada’s energy levels did not decrease, but increased by a whopping 17% since 1997, when the Kyoto protocol was first brought up. This just shows how serious the government is on actually protecting the environment. And since these numbers aren’t good, Canada decides to drop out to save themselves from being labelled as “Failed.” But the government uses the struggling economy as the excuse for not doing anything. Canada has the second worst record of the 25 countries part of the OECD. If I was to refute, then I would put out the following reasons. One, before we get into environmental issues, we first need to tackle the struggling economy. Because if we don’t have a strong, steady economy, then how in the world are going to find the money to fund eco-friendly projects. After we’ve established a good base, we can work our way up from there. I would also say that the penalties are “radical and irresponsible” saying it would cost Canadian taxpayers $14 Billion. As Environment Minister Pete Kent said, “It is not in Canada’s interest to be a part of this. Kyoto is in Canada’s past.” My opinion of the government withdrawing from Kyoto is not very nice. I think they should not have dropped out, and continued to try to meet their goal. Canada is a very well developed country, and has always had an excellent reputation internationally, as it is looked as the “nicest and coolest” country, voted by other countries. But by withdrawing from Kyoto, it has many countries, even China looking down on us, urging us to come back. The decision to leave Kyoto behind destabilizes the promise of action on the climate crisis. This is a further signal threat the Harper Government is not concerned about the environment at all. If Prime Minister Harper is so concerned by international relationships between Canada and the rest of the world, he would not have made this decision. It seriously questions its credibility in dealing with the threat of climate change. It also sends the message that Canada is not a trustworthy nation, and “deals with bad faith,” according to Elizabeth May. I think that Canada doesn’t really think for itself. It always seem to be following whatever the U.S. does. If they go, then Canada goes. It’s like it can’t make its own decisions- it rely on other, bigger countries to make a decision, and decide to follow. Officials have admitted to this, but they say it’s because of the “integrated nature of the economies.” The government sees that if the world’s top largest carbon emitters are not part of this plan, it’s not going to work, and that’s why Canada’s decided to drop out. I think it would be reasonable to compare Canada to a teenager, desperate to fit in with the crowd, so they do whatever it takes, even if it’s not good for their own health. So in general, I think Canada’s decision to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol was certainly not the best one, and I hope that Canada can think of another way to redeem itself on an international level when it comes to environmental crisis, and we all know that our world’s climate has changed more drastically in the past 100 years than in the past 2000 years.

Megan Leslie, an NDP environment critic from Halifax, had something to say in response to the news of Canada withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol; she quoted “ It’s like we’re the kid who’s failing the class so we have to drop it before that happens” I think Ms. Leslie is trying to explain that Canada is dropping out of the Kyoto Protocol because we are failing to meet the requirements of the emissions that we couldn’t drive to a low level. And if we couldn’t do that by 2012, Canada would have to pay the penalty of $14 billion. Because we were failing, the government thought withdrawing was the right thing to do, and therefore, we wouldn’t have to pay the gigantic sum of money. I agree with Megan Leslie’s comparison because it really goes with what our government was choosing to do [withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol], and did. I think her quote goes quite well with Peter Kent’s (Canada’s environment minister) statements as well. Mr. Kent said, that since Canada is not meeting the requirements of the treaty, to reduce emissions to about five percent, by withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol before the treaty was over, Canada would not have to pay the penalty of $14 billion. I think Ms. Leslie opposes the government’s choice of having Canada withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol because to her, it was misleading and I completely agree with her choice. By withdrawing, Canada is simply trying to avoid the penalty, and the situation, rather than trying to find a solution and tackling the problem. In my opinion, I think that the government’s decision to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol was not a decent and helpful choice. I believe that if Canada, at least tried to come up with a solution to reduce emissions, they might not have had to plan their withdrawal. This decision might also affect the future government’s choices about climate change and global warming. By withdrawing, Canada will not be helping out in taking action against climate change (as the United Nations were trying to have their participants do) because our government is trying to avoid the penalty. Also if Canada withdrew from the Protocol, it would damage their reputation, because others will think of us as irresponsible for the environment. I believe that Canada should never have withdrawn from the Kyoto Protocol, but instead, should’ve tried to tackle the problem. The largest violators in Canada would be factories. I think they should use less fossil fuels and coal and more green power (or green energy). I would also like to suggest that since they are major polluters, the government should put policies and regulations on the workers, and the factory itself. For example, the government could make a rule like: if the factory emits pollution more than a certain amount, the factory would have to pay a fine. The government should also invest more money to be able to purchase more green energies or reusable energy like: solar, wind, and hydropower. All in all…we all live under the same roof; therefore let’s take good care of our Earth so that future generations can have a great place to live in.

I completely agree with this quote,Canada doesn't want to have to pay the price for failing the contract it signed up for. So it quits before it has to. But if we want a safe environment for now and in the future, we all have to work together and help each other, or pay the price. Canada needs to step up and lower its pollution levels instead of giving up on what matters.