Conservatives celebrate first anniversary of Canada’s withdrawal from Kyoto Protocol

By LUIS MIRANDA | THE REAL AGENDA | DECEMBER 18, 2012

The Canadian government confirmed today with a one sentence declaration that the country is no longer part of the Kyoto Protocol, a move labeled by the opposition as a “disgrace”.

Canada’s withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol took place on Saturday, December 15th, just one year after Canada communicated its decision to the United Nations.

But the Canadian government did not issue a press release or statement confirming its withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol even though it is the first time that Canada withdraws from an international agreement.

Peter Kent, a spokesman for the Environment Minister of Canada, confirmed that “Canada has pulled out of Kyoto”. No further details were provided about the reasons why the conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, decided to be the first country to withdraw from the treaty after ratification, or whether the measure will damage the international image of Canada.

But the Green Party of Canada told issued a statement condemning the withdrawal as an “embarrassment” to the country. Stéphane Vigneault, communications coordinator for the Green Party, stressed that it is the first time in Canadian history that Canada ratifies and then rejects an international treaty.

The leader of the Green Party, Elizabeth May, said in a statement that the measure is a “black eye” on Canada’s international reputation. “This decision threatens Canada’s image in the world and, more importantly, the future of our children,” said May. Statements condemning the withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol also came from the the social democratic New Democratic Party (NDP), that expressed bewilderment by the withdrawal of Canada from Kyoto.

“Unfortunately, one year ago Canada became the first party to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol,” said the statement issued by the NPD. “While the rest of the world is making progress in the fight against climate change, Canada is falling behind”.

A year ago, Kent said during a press conference in which he announced the withdrawal from Kyoto, that the treaty was not working. Kyoto is the past for Canada. That is why we “invoke the legal right to withdraw from it.” Kent added that since Canada was not going to meet its Kyoto commitments, which were imposed not by the government itself, but from the United Nations, the North American country would have had to “transfer 14,000 million dollars of Canadian taxpayers money to other countries; the Canadian equivalent of $ 1,600 per family.”

This is the concept of “transfer of wealth” supported by the United Nations, where money from the poor and middle classes in developed countries is transferred to the rich and powerful in third world nations. The transfer of wealth that has at its core the goal to make most people equally poor, while the elite becomes wealthier and stronger was admitted by a member of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. During an interview with Germany’s NZZ Online Sunday, UN official  Ottmar Edenhofer declared, “We redistribute de facto the world’s wealth by climate policy.”

In 2002, when he was leader of the Canadian Alliance, Harper wrote in a letter that the Kyoto Protocol “is a socialist conspiracy to suck money out of wealth-producing nations.” Harper’s decision to withdraw from Kyoto has a lot of supporters in Canada.

Today Stephen Taylor, a member of the National Citizens Coalition, a conservative organization of which harper was President, created a Facebook page to celebrate the first “Kyoto Independence Day in Canada.”

“A year ago, Canada stated that it was out of the Kyoto Protocol. We are starting our first year out of this money sinkhole. Today we complete our first year of freedom from Kyoto,” said Taylor.

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Big Brother gets Bigger in Canada

Breitbart.com
February 14, 2012

(Via AFP) Canada’s government Tuesday introduced a bill to give law enforcement authorities sweeping powers to probe online communications, but the move sparked criticism about threats to privacy.

“New technologies provide new ways of committing crimes, making them more difficult to investigate,” Justice Minister Rob Nicholsontold a press conference in unveiling the measure.

“This legislation will enable authorities to keep pace with rapidly changing technology.”

 Opposition parties and civil liberties groups, however, said new police powers contained in the bill could result in unreasonable searches and seizures.

Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart, whose office is independent from the government, said in a letter to Public Safety Minister Vic Toews last October she had “deep concerns” about the proposed changes, which she said could have “serious repercussions for privacy rights.”

“I recognize that rapid developments in communication technologies are creating new challenges for law enforcement and national security authorities and that the Internet cannot be a lawless zone,” Stoddart said.

But “by expanding the legal tools of the state to conduct surveillance and access private information, and by reducing the depth of judicial scrutiny… (the bill would allow the) government to subject more individuals to surveillance and scrutiny.”

Further more it goes “far beyond simply maintaining investigative capacity or modernizing search powers. Rather, (it) added significant new capabilities for investigators to track, and search and seize digital information about individuals.”

The legislation would require telecommunications service providers to set up systems that allow police or Canada’sspy service to intercept communications as part of their investigations.

As well, they would be required to provide subscriber information to authorities and other data that would allow police to track suspects using a cell phone or a computer.

Toews in parliament insisted the newest draft of the bill balances law enforcement needs and privacy rights, but Stoddart’s office told AFPher concerns remain.

 

Canada out of Kyoto Protocol

The Canadian environment minister, Peter Kent, said Canada was invoking its legal right to withdraw. Kyoto did not represent the way forward for Canada or the world, he said.

UK Guardian
December 13, 2011

has pulled out of the Kyoto protocol on climate change,  one day after an update was agreed on, saying the accord won’t work.

The Canadian environment minister, Peter Kent, said Canada was invoking its legal right to withdraw. Kyoto did not represent the way forward for Canada or the world, he said.

Canada, Japan and Russia said last year they would not accept new Kyoto commitments, but Canada is the only country to repudiate it altogether.

The protocol, initially adopted in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997, is aimed at fighting global warming. Canada’s previous Liberal government signed the accord but did little to implement it and current prime minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government never embraced it.

“The Kyoto protocol does not cover the world’s largest two emitters, the United States and China, and therefore cannot work,” Kent said. “It’s now clear that Kyoto is not the path forward to a global solution to climate change. If anything it’s an impediment.”

Kent’s announcement came a day after marathon climate talks wrapped up in the South African port city of Durban.

Negotiators from nearly 200 countries agreed on a deal that sets the world on a path to sign a new climate treaty by 2015 to replace the first Kyoto protocol, which expires at the end of next year.

Durban’s accord envisions a new treaty with binding targets for all countries to take effect in 2020.

“[Withdrawing] allows us to continue to create jobs and growth in Canada,” Kent said.

Canada had been expected to pull out and as a result faced international criticism at the Durban talks. Kent had said previously that signing Kyoto was one of the previous government’s biggest blunders.

Kent said it would save Canada $14bn in penalties for not achieving its Kyoto targets. “To meet the targets under Kyoto for 2012 would be the equivalent of either removing every car, truck, ATV, tractor, ambulance, police car and vehicle of every kind from Canadian roads or closing down the entire farming and agriculture sector and cutting heat to every home, office, hospital, factory and building in Canada,” Kent said.

Mike Hudema of Greenpeace Canada said in a statement it was a further signal that the Harper government is more concerned about protecting polluters than people.

Hannah McKinnon of Climate Action Network Canada said formally withdrawing was a slap in the face of the international community and “a total abdication of our responsibilities”.

An opposition New Democrat MP, Megan Leslie, disputed the figures involved and said there were no penalties under Kyoto. Pulling out saved the Conservatives having to report that Canada was falling short of its targets, she said.

“It’s like we’re the kid in school who knows they’re going to fail the class, so we have to drop it before that actually happens,” Leslie said.

Canada’s Conservative government is reluctant to hurt Canada’s booming oil sands sector, the country’s fastest growing source of greenhouse gases. Canada has the world’s third-largest oil reserves, more than 170bn barrels. Daily production of 1.5m barrels from the oil sands is expected to increase to 3.7mn in 2025. Only Saudi Arabia and Venezuela have more reserves. But the enormous amount of energy and water needed in the extraction process increases greenhouse gas emissions.

Kent said Canada produced “barely 2%” of global emissions. The previous Liberal government had signed on to Kyoto in 1997 without any intention of meeting its targets, he said. Kyoto originally covered countries generating less than 30% of global emissions and that had fallen to 13%. Canada wanted a fair agreement covering all nations.

Scientists say that if levels of greenhouse gases continue to rise, eventually the world’s climate will reach a tipping point, with irreversible melting of some ice sheets and sea levels rising by several metres.

Climate negotiations have been focused on preventing global temperatures rising more than 1.2C (2F) above current levels by the end of this century.

Russian-American Arctic War

Terry Macalister
UK Guardian
July 6, 2011

Heavy-hitting US politicians enter debate about the future of the far north, fuelling concerns about a new cold war.

The seventh ministerial meeting of the Arctic Council in May looked like it would be a mundane affair with its focus on signing a new search-and-rescue agreement and handover of the chairmanship to Sweden.

But the atmosphere in Nuuk, Greenland, was electrified by the first appearance at such a forum of the United States courtesy of secretary of state Hillary Clinton, secretary of the interior, Ken Salazar, and a host of other heavy-hitting politicians.

The message was loud and clear. The US is putting itself at the centre of a debate about the future of the far north at a time when a new oil and mineral “cold rush” is under way as global warming makes extraction more easy.

And being the US, the soft diplomacy was backed up with a bit of symbolic hardware. A few weeks earlier two nuclear-powered submarines were sent to patrol 150 miles north of Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.

Meanwhile the Russians – also part of the eight-nation Arctic Council – were happy to push off the agenda any look at whether countries such as China could gain observer status.

The appearance of the US navy comes as the Russians are said to have increased missile testing in the region and its neighbour Norway has moved its main military base to the far north.

Meanwhile China has started to make political and commercial overtures to countries such as Greenland which are rich in rare Earth minerals needed for mobile phones and other hi-tech equipment.

The competing commercial and other opportunities on the Arctic continental shelf are complicated by the lack of a comprehensive agreement on who owns what. Many countries are in the middle of submitting competing land claims to the United Nations as part of its Law of the Sea Convention – a treaty as yet unsigned by America.

Canada and others were also disturbed when Artur Chilingarov, a veteran Russian polar explorer, placed a flag on the Arctic seabed in 2007.

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Fluoride is a Toxic Industrial Waste Product

NaturalNews.com
April 1, 2011

Since the 1940’s fluoride is used in toothpaste and is added to drinking water in many countries around the world. The dental profession claims that fluoride is safe and necessary for good dental health.

Fluoride is actually toxic waste from the aluminium, phosphoric acid and phosphate fertilizer industries. Millions of tons of fluoride are produced each year.

Up until the 1930’s, fluoride was discharged directly into the air and waterways, causing great damage. Lawsuits were mounting as more and more victims learned that their problems were caused by fluoride poisoning. The industry’s response was to change the public’s perception of fluoride.

Many ‘scientific’ studies were presented to convince the public that fluoride was safe. Lucrative positions were created for ‘research’ and ‘education’ with the express purpose of promoting the use of fluoride in toothpaste and in drinking water. Instead of paying millions for disposal of this toxic waste, fluoride was now being sold to toothpaste and water companies!

Drinking water is now fluoridated in many countries, including the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, Turkey, Italy, India and Chile. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluoridation_by_country

Most toothpaste brands contain fluoride as the main active ingredient. Procter and Gamble, manufacturer of Colgate toothpaste, admitted in 1984 that a small tube of toothpaste contains enough fluoride to kill a child! Toothpaste now carries a warning label that if more than a pea-sized amount is swallowed, to get medical help immediately.

Up to 80 percent of young people in some U.S. cities have dental fluorosis, which is the first visible sign of excessive fluoride exposure. Fluoride also causes calcium deficiency, which can lead to osteoporosis, skeletal thinning, fractures, anemia and rickets.

Fluoride causes premature aging since it damages enzymes. This affects the immune system, digestive system, respiratory system, blood circulation, liver, kidneys, thyroid and brain function. Fluoride can also cause hyperactivity and a lower IQ in children.