Canada

The left has long admired Canada as an enclave of social democracy in North America: for its openly socialist electoral parties, its robust welfare state, and its more moderate policy profile. Recent developments, however, have thrown that reputation into question. The country is helmed by a prime minister, Stephen Harper, known for his brazenly right-wing views and executive unilateralism. Both federal and provincial governments have embraced austerity and eroded public services.

The current trajectories of Canada’s predominant political economies are increasingly dysfunctional, due in no small part to the fact that we have become, in many respects, a petro state, rather than the much vaunted “Energy Superpower” that we were promised.

. .  . commentators often put forward variations of Solomon’s theory — that it’s we ordinary people, with our self-absorption or resistance to change, who are the prime culprits in the world’s failure to act against climate disaster.

But is that really the case?

Green Party leader Elizabeth May sits down with Peter Mansbridge to talk about the politics of climate change.

Violent conflicts and threats to the territorial integrity of some of the world’s most vulnerable countries are among the more ominous risks posed by an ever-warming planet, according to the UN organization given the task of assessing the impacts of climate change.

Top scientists say the latest international report on climate change shows that Canadians must wake up to the impact of warming temperatures on land, on water and in communities across the country. They say the Intergovernmental Report on Climate Change, released Sunday in Japan, shows changes are on their way and further delays in responding to them only narrow the options. "We no longer have the option of choosing between mitigation and adaptation," Debra Davidson, a University of Alberta sociologist and lead author on the report, said Monday.

START with the term “tar sands.” In Canada only fervent opponents of oil development in northern Alberta dare to use those words; the preferred phrase is the more reassuring “oil sands.” Never mind that the “oil” in the world’s third largest petroleum reserve is in fact bitumen, a substance with the consistency of peanut butter, so viscous that another fossil fuel must be used to dilute it enough to make it flow.

A strong economic boost is coming to the Northwest with the news that Husky Energy is going ahead with two new heavy oil thermal projects in the area. The projects are the 10,000 barrels/day Edam East project and the 10,000 barrels/day Vawn project. The company said in a news release Jan.

For Stephen Harper, the intersection between foreign policy and Canada’s economic interests is usually within easy reach.

But during a six-day sojourn through three countries in the midst of a crisis in Crimea which has echoes of the worst days of the Cold War, the prime minister has carefully kept daylight between his pro-Ukrainian, anti-Russian views and potential new markets for Canadian resources.

There is much to be desired in the mainstream media's coverage of energy politics and climate change, but perhaps the single most important fact that gets consistently overlooked -- that is scarcely apprehended by the general public and yet comes to mind for me every time a new pipeline or oil field gets approved -- is that greenhouse-driven warming operates on an extremely delayed timescale.