5/8/13, "Jack Mintz: Canada unfairly Gored," Financial Post opinion
"Al Gore likened Alberta’s oil sands to an “open sewer” that
contributes “to the reckless spewing of pollution into the Earth’s
atmosphere.”
The proof, however, is in the statistics rather than political
conjecture. Compiled by the U.S. Energy Information Administration,
energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, accounting for almost 85%
of greenhouse gas emissions, have grown worldwide by 15% from 2005 to
2011. This must surely be depressing to many climatologists who wish to
see concerted global action to reduce carbon emissions. It is so far off
reduction targets, it is almost laughable....
Carbon emissions coming from the emerging countries swamp trends from
advanced countries in North America and Europe. China alone has
increased carbon emissions by almost 60% from 2005 to 2011. The absolute
increase in metric tons is three times more than all the reduction that
has taken place in all of Canada, Europe, Japan and the United States.
Add India and Russia to China and CO2 emissions have increased by four
billion metric tons in six years time....
Despite the efforts in the advance countries to reduce GHG emissions,
their efforts are swamped by the huge increase of such emissions in
emerging economies. If climate policies have any effect, they must be
achievable at the global level. It makes little sense for advanced
countries to take on policies that hurt their own economic growth if
environmental benefits are unattainable.
Such failure seems to be the case with China, Russia and others where
carbon emissions are sharply on the rise. It is almost as if the
Western countries are digging ditches, only to see them filled up by
emerging countries following up from behind." via Tom Nelson
.
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