Not Very Auspicious Move - What's Next?
Nice that our provincial government has decided to act on behalf of Ontarians and finally bring into law a Clean Water Act. Which should ensure that our sources of drinking water will be guaranteed by law to be free from contamination. Don't we deserve at least that? Doesn't every community? Pity that this has come into law after a tragedy, but that's so often the case.Contaminated drinking water resulting from inadequate supervision and treatment in Walkerton led to a public enquiry after the tragedy of deaths and illness, and the commission that was set up to conduct the enquiry issued key recommendations insisting that drinking water sources be protected by the development of watershed-based source protection plans for all of Ontario's watersheds. That's one big leg up for Ontarians and finally, a bit of confidence in the government's ability to tackle important issues.
Now, if we could only transfer some of that sense of urgency to the federal government we'd be in a lot better shape. In a very real sense, a short-term problem of vital importance has been solved or is on the way to being solved, while a much larger, much more difficult problem with larger consequences on a far grander scale is being shunted aside because no one really wants to face the painful steps that will have to be taken to try to forestall what seems now to be the inevitable.
Climate change, environmental degradation, green-house gas emissions,it's all facing us in the near future. Would that it were; in fact it's here now. We've seen ample indications that weather patterns have changed, from the increasing severity and intensity of storm systems to the melting ice cap, to the too-swift warming of the earth and its inevitable consequences not the least of which is the advance of deadly diseases now making their home in areas of the globe hitherto free from them.
Polar bears' environment is degrading to the extent that there is fear they may become an endangered species at risk of losing their battle with the elements. Seabirds are abandoning their young, unable to feed them as a string of consequential changes to the atmosphere also affect the food chain. As the oceans warm they also fuel the ferocity of storms passing over them, wreaking havoc on coastal habitation whose presence in such vulnerable areas to begin with were a disaster waiting to be triggered.
This is the here and now, the beginning. Environmentalists are warning us that intense weather anomalies will continue and become more serious. They are warning that the melting ice cap will raise the level of the seas and inevitably inundate coastal areas of continents as well as populated islands within the oceans. There will be greater incidents of both cooling and warming periods and the growing of nutrient crops will be seriously compromised.
Now Canada has a Clean Air Act. Sounds good, sounds like a start, but this is a very tardy beginning and nothing on the near horizon appears to result from this which will ameliorate the conditions we're already facing, let alone those the future will without doubt bring before us. The good start includes energy-efficient standards and government regulation of volatile compounds. Why did this take so long?
And now that automobile manufacturers will face mandatory regulations for compliance once the voluntary agreement expires there's some hope for the future. But why is it that the State of California, with approximately the same population base as that of this country in its entirety, saw fit to enact far stricter regulations that will see results far sooner than this country will?
And why, for heaven's sake, are the largest polluters in the country dealing with oil extraction, energy-producers like power plants, not facing stricter guidelines, good solid caps on carbon emissions until 2050? Clearly the government shies away from running afoul of these highly-regarded, powerful elements. We need the resolve of a government that will recognize the high priority of meaningful action on this file, and we don't quite seem to have made the grade here.
Not that this current government does not seem to be pursuing the matter more energetically than its predecessors; far from it. Past governments have promised much, delivered nothing concrete. They've all been utterly useless in the recognition of the dire need to properly regulate the output of carbon emissions; powerful lobbying and the prospect of loss of support from powerful sources will do that to even the most dauntless of politicians.
The establishment of solid goals put forward by this government is great. While the mandate is theirs to pursue, the timeline given doesn't create a climate of confidence for the future. Surely they can do better; surely Canada and Canadians deserve better?
posted by Pieface @ Friday, October 20, 2006
<< Home