International Day for Climate Action

A polar bear advocates for Canada's participation in the Kyoto Protocol at a rally in Dundas Square.

I don't quite understand why the protesters are still stuck on Kyoto. Kyoto was a weak first step that Canada DID sign, and then failed massively at implementing. Kyoto is the past.

It's time to look forward beyond Kyoto. I don't have a problem if the Prime Minister wants to go with a made in Canada solution, but then, it better be a solution that goes further, is more effective, and shows more leadership than what the international community is asking for. Canadians are contributing close to the most per capita to our global climate change problem. We need to go first in transforming our economy to a sustainable one.

OH, but China produces more CO2 than we do so we should just wait for them to join in the plan. Right. I guess we could reintroduce CFCs, lead and asbestos into our daily consumption again. Why are so many Canadians eager to follow China's lead on the environment? It is so confounding. You can't lump together a billion low CO2 intensive citizens to 30 million Canadian energy hogs. This is one facet of the national border myth that infects global efforts at solving global environmental problems.

I feel so hopeless when I see a feeble crowd of a couple hundred (purportedly was going to be thousands) protesters chanting stale slogans about Kyoto. Let's have some vision and suggest where we can go next. How about catching up to Europe on mass transit networks at least in the GTA. How about banning chemicals until they are proven to be safe instead of keeping them on the market until it's proven that they are deadly. How about solar panels on every roof.

I look forward to being a Science teacher and hopefully I can shape the attitudes towards the environment of the next generation so that they will be prepared to meet the challenge once our global environmental crisis is in full swing.