1 2's List: ClimateChangeNewsCda

By only using the available oilsands, Swart said, North Americans would use up about 75 per cent of the global emissions allowable in order to stay within that 2 C increase in global temperatures.

The greenhouse effect and planet Earth

Due to Global warming and changing weather patterns, natural disasters are on the rise. The once
uncommon "100 year storm" that actuaries planned for are occurring more frequently.

 

In Canada, we have seen an increase in rain storms dropping enormous amounts of water in a short span causing serious flooding. We have had tornados, ice storms, and this year a 100km/h wind fueled fire in Slave Lake that demolished over 400 homes and caused 700 million in property damage. 2011 may be the worst year on record for individual "total losses".

A total loss is when a home cannot be salvaged and must be rebuilt. This is an emotionally difficult time for a homeowner. It is also a time when their personal insurance becomes paramount in their mind. The first thought is "Do I have enough insurance?"

 

Distortion Number two: Kyoto has failed.

 

Fact Check: Most of the countries in the industrialized world have met or exceeded their Kyoto targets. The EU as a unit has exceeded its target. Japan has reduced emissions below 1990 levels but falls short of its target. Canada is the only country within the Kyoto Protocol to have repudiated our legally binding obligations.

 

Moreover, Kyoto is not merely a set of targets to 2012. It is a very detailed set of agreements that cover monitoring, reporting, credits, adaptation, and other mechanisms that took years to negotiate.

Distortion number five: We can control greenhouse gases through another, non-Kyoto approach and get large emitters in the developing world on board, such as China, India and Brazil.

 

Fact Check: Developing nations as a block have threatened that if the industrialized world does not continue to work within the Kyoto framework, they will walk. The negotiations to control GHG run the risk of collapse - just as time is running out to get a binding reductions.

 

The situation is dire. And last night CTV reported that the Harper government has plans to withdraw as a Kyoto party, but to save the announcement until December 23. This reveals the final level of cynicism and duplicity.

The NDP leader appeared to draw links between this spring's natural disasters and climate change — and he suggested that the changing weather should spur the federal government to review its emergency policies.

"It's been predicted for quite some time that we're going to have worse weather — stronger weather," Layton said Monday as he surveyed one particularly hard-hit area.

 

"All the insurance companies have been predicting it, weather scientists have been predicting it. We're going to have to take a look at how we respond, as a society.

 

"It's not fault of these people here that suddenly their homes are under water and that's why the government has got to be there to help out."