It’s ironic that Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of California should become North America’s leading climate change activist even as the President of the United States prepares to tell the world that he will not support G8 nations who are seeking agreement for a global reduction of greenhouse gas emissions of 50% below 1990 levels by the year 2050.

Mr. Bush will join India and China in the argument that such reductions would harm the economy. America is considered the world's number one polluter.

India, one of the countries that would be significantly affected by climate change announced this week that it too would not support the targets. India’s’ environment minister, Pradipto Ghosh says "reducing greenhouse gas emissions is likely to have significant adverse impacts on GDP growth of developing countries, including India".

The Government of Canada indirectly agrees with him by substituting “intensity” targets for hard cap reduction targets.

Meanwhile, Arnold Schwarzenegger was signing an agreement with Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty to co-ordinate policies to reduce greenhouse gases emitted from cars and trucks. The next day, he signed an agreement with British Columbia to reduce emissions by 30% by 2020.

His Ottawa trip produced nothing but a promise from our Prime Minister to crack down on Hollywood film piracy. California has the world’s 8th largest economy and is leading the climate change fight with actions to fight global warming by reducing California’s dependence on fossil fuels. The State has adopted reduction targets that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels over the next ten years and 80% below 1990 levels by the year 2050.

There is a substantial and growing body of evidence that our planet is warming and that one of the principle causes of that warming is the emission of greenhouse gases that trap the heat within our atmosphere. If left unchecked, consequences could be catastrophic.

“The Earth's average temperature will almost certainly rise by 1.8-4C (3.2-7.2F) during this century, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report and could rise as much as 6.4C (11.5F).

Temperature rises even at the middle of this scale would mean catastrophe. Hundreds of millions of people would be forced from their homes by sea level rises, storms, floods and drought. And our planet's biodiversity would face the greatest extinction since the dinosaurs were wiped out 65 million years ago. Some predict this could start happening as early as 2020. If we don’t do something about it, we will all live (or die) with the consequences.

People, who agree with this scenario advocate immediate reduction programs. People, who disagree, argue the science is not bullet-proof and action would produce economic penalty.

One has to ask the question “if survival of the planet is threatened by greenhouse gas emissions, what is the economic cost of doing nothing”.

At some point, somebody has to put a value on survival. If life means a dramatic lowering of greenhouse gas emissions then we have to take steps to reduce them, no matter what the economic cost. If the status quo is more important than life then we have to prepare ourselves for disaster.

Ironically, there is money to be made from addressing the problem of climate change. The Apollo Alliance in the United States promotes rejuvenation of the U.S. economy by treating clean energy as an economic and security mandate. Jerome Ringo, President of the Alliance testified on May 22nd before the U.S. House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.

He says “avoiding catastrophic climate change will require enormous changes in the ways we harness, consume, and manage energy. But there is also opportunity. The new energy revolution will create whole new industries and millions of new jobs.

The Alliance estimates that $300 billion in U.S. federal spending over 10 years would create over 3 million jobs in a broad range of activities such as building more efficient transport, more efficient utilities, renewable energy investments, biofuels development, advanced grid technology and R&D initiatives”.

He says “we need to set in place specific policies that seize the economic growth and job creation potential of these new technologies. He cites the example of Japan in the 1990s, when that country decided that solar energy was a strategic industry and set in place long-term supports.

Today, Japan controls half the world's solar manufacturing even though the United States invented solar capture technology”.

Last week, the Government of Canada abandoned its responsibility to review the environmental impact of a new oil refinery in Saint John. I suspect this was designed to pave the way for a similar relinquishing of responsibility in Alberta where oil companies are seeking to expand development of the oil sands and coincidently increase the emission of greenhouse gases.

If the New Brunswick precedent is confirmed and the Feds do not conduct the oil refinery review, then it would follow that the Province of Alberta would be handed responsibility for conducting its own environmental impact studies for new oil sands projects.

Prime Minister Harper and his Minister of the Environment, John Baird has been reluctant to endorse meaningful reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Baird talks about building a bridge between the European Union and the United States on the matter but offers little by way of support for the G8’s reduction targets. In my view, Baird should take the lead by announcing to the world that Canada is going to do something about climate change now by introducing new and specific gas reduction targets.

David Suzuki has been sounding the climate change warning for decades.

How ironic that Arnold Schwarzenegger, former movie actor, now Governor of California should have to come to Canada to initiate climate change agreements with two Canadian provinces while our federal government does nothing but wait in the wings for directions from Washington.
W.E. (Bill) Belliveau is a Shediac resident and Moncton business consultant. He can be contacted at bill.bellstrategic@nb.aibn.com Atlantic Insight is a published Blog inventory of opinion articles published weekly in New Brunswick's print media as written by W.E. (Bill) Belliveau, who is a resident of Shediac, New Brunswick, and small business owner, operating his Moncton-based marketing consultancy, Bell Strategic. He can be reached by e-mail at bill.bellstrategic@nb.aibn.