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The amount written about the environment and what needs to be done is staggering. We’ll file this report under the heading “Oh Sh*t were screwed” column for the sake of convenience. The only limits humanity respects are those of a distinctly Malthusian nature. I’d add to his general work by saying that we, as a species, tend to do something until it comes back and bites us in the ass while kicking us in the teeth and laughing. Then and only then we might get a clue and reorder our policy with regards to not scheduling another ass-kicking session for ourselves. The problem, we live in a short-term political/economic cycle that at its very base encourages short term solutions and policy based on staying in power rather than any sort of rational stewardship the environment and ultimately our lives.
Did you know why the green movement is such a joke? It’s because we still have the bounty of the earth at our finger tips. We can not or will not connect the dots about the destruction of our biosphere aka…the conditions necessary for our species to survive. Let me assure you the day will come when the Green Parties in North America take power, right about the time when scarcity of food and potable water make basic survival a pressing concern.
Enter Malthus and his “misery and vice”. Of course, the rich will won’t give a flying fig in the beginning. The grandiose structures of their wealth will keep them intact for awhile, of course backed by the coercive apparatus of the state, but those will crumble and fall into ruin as the carrying capacity of the Earth plummets. Money just isn’t that nourishing. I’m hoping that we in Canada won’t hit the wall during my lifetime because once the poo hits the fan, the radical reorganization of our society will reflect a new set of priorities that have little to do with ‘advancement’ and ‘civilization’.
Anyhow, as we dance merrily toward oblivion the UN has decided to call out some of the more obvious signs as we trundle ever more quickly to the collapse of our current way of life.
“Two weeks before the start of a global conference on sustainable development in Rio de Janeiro, the United Nations is warning that progress has stalled on key environmental goals the world’s nations have set for themselves, like tackling climate change, combating desertification and protecting biodiversity.
“The world continues to speed down an unsustainable path despite over 500 internationally agreed goals and objectives to support the sustainable management of the environment and improve human well-being,” the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) said when it released its Global Environmental Outlook Wednesday.
The world has made progress on only four out of 90 of the most pressing environmental goals and objectives agreed upon as part of the Millennium Development Goals and other international pacts, the UNEP said.”
Well, four out of ninety isn’t that bad. I mean, someone needs to win the green participation ribbon when it comes to maintaining the Earth as a suitable place to live.
“Little to no progress was made on climate change-related goals such as limiting the increase in average global temperature to less than two degrees above pre-industrial 
levels or in areas such as revitalization of depleted fish stocks, protection of biodiversity and the combating of desertification.”
People want to live like North Americans, outside the bounds of reasonable consumption, insulated to the consequences of our gradual fouling of the nest.
“Overall, the world is failing to stem the loss of biodiversity, with about 20 per cent of vertebrate species under threat and some natural habitats shrinking by more than 20 per cent since the 1980s.
“We have failed,” said Elizabeth Thompson, executive co-ordinator for the upcoming Rio conference, dubbed Rio+20. “We have not properly mainstreamed the issue of sustainable development as a way of living, doing business. That is the overall reason why we have not made the kind of progress that we should have.”
What a nice way of saying we are a greedy parasitical species that is slowly digging the hole that civilization will fall into with our unrealistic expectations and desires. I think I want that my tombstone – My news of me and my death has not been properly mainstreamed…. Jesus-frak. Spare us the verbbing of nouns and just spell out how irresponsible we actually are.
“The report also produced regional outlooks. It singled out North America and Europe for their “unsustainable levels of consumption” and highlighted that North America lags behind other parts of the world when it comes to use of renewable energy.
The greatest threats for Asia, Africa and the Pacific are rapid urbanization and population growth coupled with increasing consumption, which are putting stress on already dwindling natural resources. Latin America and the Caribbean share similar worries.
Thompson said that the Rio conference is supposed to be a “transforming moment.”
The Rio conference will take place in Brazil from June 20 to June 22 and will mark the 20th anniversary of the first Earth Summit, or United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, held in Rio in 1992.”
I cannot wait for the wisdom that issues forth from this great summit of the minds. It won’t matter a whit. What I can guarantee though that once Mr.Malthus comes calling “misery and vice” will be all the frakking rage for a very long time.
Made for our friends down south, but really our fine Harperites are feeding from the same trough so it applies to them as well.
Democracy in Action – Look and Learn my sleeping obedient country.
The protests in Quebec are an example to the rest of Canada to what an active citizenry is like and how people can affect change in the political spectrum. At the time of this writing, 39 days of protest are on record. Thirty nine days of showing Canadians that people still do have a place Canadian politics. The real lesson though is that this political space is never given freely, it is earned by the mass momentum of people demanding and then taking their place in the debate. This is the very lifeblood of democracy; yet our elites and media however cannot seem to do much more than sneer and dismiss the people of Quebec. The next level of protest is coming as the Grand Prix is coming to Montreal, and the protesters might squeeze the cash flow of the event. Action must be taken as the business elites must have their way.
“The prospect of continued protests following this week’s breakdown of talks to end the Quebec student crisis has Premier Jean Charest and Montreal Mayor Gérald Tremblay worried about the financial impact as Montreal preps for its lucrative Grand Prix race.
Both politicians appealed Friday for “responsibility” on the part of demonstrators, saying protesters should leave Formula One fans alone and not harm stores, hotels and restaurants during the tourist-heavy event next weekend.
Charest accused student groups of “hurting Quebecers” as they take to the streets and expressed concern they would disrupt the Grand Prix, which brings millions of dollars to the province each year.”
Hurting Quebec business is what he should have said. An interesting angle as this story would be where the local chamber of commerce political opinion’s are in terms of support of the demonstrators.
“Tremblay [the mayor of Montreal] told journalists he was “very disappointed, very, very, very disappointed” in the collapse of negotiations between students and the province. With the Grand Prix about to rev up and Montreal’s summer-long series of festivals getting into high gear, the mayor called for a smooth running of a “very important season.”
“I appeal to the maturity and sense of responsibility” of protesters to demonstrate without “causing harm to merchants, hotels and restaurateurs,” Tremblay said.
“I’ll do everything I can to ensure these events are a success, but also to ensure the safety of Montrealers.”
The Mayor’s statement could mean so many things. The doublespeak that has been issuing from the various levels of government has been flowing furiously as of late. I’m guessing that “safety of Montrealers” means more stringent security measures against the demonstrators. I hope Mr.Trembley realized the pardoxical nature of political protest – the tighter you clamp down on people the more people see the injustice of the situation and join in, creating even bigger problems for the forces of law and order. It is happening even now…
“Matthew Larose, a 32-year-old construction foreman, said he’ll probably be going to the big demonstration planned for Saturday afternoon like he has seven of the nighttime marches. He’s against the tuition increases but also against Bill 78.
“If they can do it in Quebec, they can do it everywhere else. It sets a bad precedent for freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of everything. They’re going completely against the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and it’s disgraceful,” he said.”
Bill 78 is a tipping point, hopefully the political class in Montreal will wake up and start helping, rather than harming their cause.
The move is over. Let the unpacking begin. Thank you, my committed readership, for staying with us here at DWR during the transition to our new home. It has been a wild and hectic couple of weeks. I should be able to commit a little more time to blogging and finding the information I find interesting and sharing it with you. With that in mind I’d like to share and and comment on the recent furor about Tom Mulcair’s comments about the “Dutch Disease” in Canada.
The noise generated by his comments are out of proportion to what his observation was:
“Mulcair claims that “Dutch disease” has hit the country, blaming energy exports from the Alberta oilsands for artificially raising the Canadian dollar and hollowing out the manufacturing industry.
Coined in an article in The Economist in 1977, the concept refers to the adverse economic effects that the discovery of large natural gas fields off of the coast of the Netherlands in the 1960s had on the country’s manufacturing sector.
The theory goes that a boom in a natural resource sector can lead to an appreciation of a country’s real exchange rate. That increase in the dollar value makes exports more expensive, and has an adverse effect on the manufacturing sector by making it less competitive.”
Okay, so it sounds reasonable so far. Our dollar goes up and makes our manufacturing industry less competitive. But what has got the defenders of corporatism all up in arms? Mulcair takes his statement one step further…
“Mulcair said the problem is the government is not enforcing legislation that would include the environmental costs of exploiting natural resources.
“Those statistics with regard to the overall losses of jobs in Canada are irrefutable,” he said this week. “And they are directly related to the fact that we’re not enforcing federal [environmental] legislation.”
Oh snap. How dare you mention that pillaging the land in the hog-wild foo-fur-ah that is Fort McMurray might be anything less than a calm nuanced approach to 
resource management is beyond the pale. Fainting couches were needed *stat* across much of the Canadian media and parliament.
“I am wondering when the leader of the Opposition will apologize to western Canadians for suggesting the strength of the western Canadian economy is a disease on Canada,” Heritage Minister James Moore said in the House of Commons.
“He attacks western Canada, he attacks our energy industry, he attacks all of the West and the great work that is being done by western Canadians to contribute to Canada’s national unity. He should be ashamed of himself,” he said.
Yes, he should be ashamed for trying to keep the government accountable to for environmental legislation that is currently on the books, oh the villainy. The tar sands have gained a love-halo that is growing in magnitude. Speaking out against them is sacrosanct,with reasonable debate being drummed out by “it’s good for the economy!!!1!” and other nonsense.
Good On Mulcair for pointing out some of the problems with the oil-sands vis-a-vis the rest of Canada, the man is doing his job as leader of the Opposition.
Finding a way out of the the seemingly permanent global economic crisis is going to require looking at the factors that got us there. Noam Chomsky opines that the downfall really started in the 1970’s and has been on an ever increasing spiral of ruin ever since. One of the interesting parts of his article has to do with the division of the people into the Plutocrats and the Precariat.
“Plutonomy refers to the rich, those who buy luxury goods and so on, and that’s where the action is. They claimed that their plutonomy index was way outperforming the stock market. As for the rest, we set them adrift. We don’t really care about them. We don’t really need them. They have to be around to provide a powerful state, which will protect us and bail us out when we get into trouble, but other than that they essentially have no function. These days they’re sometimes called the “precariat” – people who live a precarious existence at the periphery of society. Only it’s not the periphery anymore. It’s becoming a very substantial part of society in the United States and indeed elsewhere. And this is considered a good thing.
So, for example, Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, at the time when he was still “Saint Alan” – hailed by the economics profession as one of the greatest economists of all time (this was before the crash for which he was substantially responsible) – was testifying to Congress in the Clinton years, and he explained the wonders of the great economy that he was supervising. He said a lot of its success was based substantially on what he called “growing worker insecurity”. If working people are insecure, if they’re part of the precariat, living precarious existences, they’re not going to make demands, they’re not going to try to get better wages, they won’t get improved benefits. We can kick ’em out, if we don’t need ’em. And that’s what’s called a “healthy” economy, technically speaking. And he was highly praised for this, greatly admired.
So the world is now indeed splitting into a plutonomy and a precariat – in the imagery of the Occupy movement, the 1 per cent and the 99 per cent. Not literal numbers, but the right picture. Now, the plutonomy is where the action is and it could continue like this.
If it does, the historic reversal that began in the 1970s could become irreversible. That’s where we’re heading. And the Occupy movement is the first real, major, popular reaction that could avert this. But it’s going to be necessary to face the fact that it’s a long, hard struggle. You don’t win victories tomorrow. You have to form the structures that will be sustained, that will go on through hard times and can win major victories. And there are a lot of things that can be done.”
Can we stem the tide? We must, otherwise our struggle will become the struggle of our children.
The burning legion of stupid, led by Harper and his Conservative clown government balefully plods on toward making Canada’s prison system a mirror image of the failed system present in the United States. Do we really need to frack things up Canada-Harper style to get the message that this is a gigantic mistake?
The next election Canadians had better wake up and get this farcical excuse of a governing party out of power.
Can you imagine if we had the sort of hand grenade type budgeting for the social services of Canada? It would be like OH!, nationalized day care??? we thought it was like only 5 billion, but it turned out to be 7 billion, damn I guess that’s just ‘mission creep’. Or, hey we are not going to rely on wisdom from the dark ages and build more prisons but rather, front-load the services that keep people above water and obeying the law instead. OH no, oh no no no.! The only area where we have the flexible budgets and creative accounting seems to be military, and all they seem to do is buy shiny new murder vehicles designed to kill poor coloured people in far away lands.
Woo! Canada F-Yeah!
Our job, fostering democracy and stability in the Middle East, doesn’t come cheap, or even measurable when it comes to budgeting.
“Defence Minister Peter MacKay is defending the government’s accounting of the costs of Canada’s military mission in Libya, following the release of new figures by the Department of National Defence that lay out the final cost of the deployment.
And the total cost of the operation — a figure that includes everything from jet fuel to pilot salaries, including the salaries of military personnel — comes in at $347 million.
Last October, MacKay told CBC Radio’s The House the Libyan mission had cost taxpayers less than $50 million.
“As of Oct. 13, the figures that I’ve received have us well below that, somewhere under $50 million,” MacKay said.
“And that’s the all-up costs of the equipment that we have in the theatre, the transportation to get there, those that have been carrying out this critical mission.”
Well thanks Peter, you missed it only by about 300 million. In the war department, that must be what they call a “slight oversight” or an accounting irregularity. 
“The director of the military’s strategic joint staff was called on to explain duelling figures at a hastily-assembled news conference at National Defence headquarters on Friday afternoon.
Maj.-Gen. Jon Vance said MacKay did not mislead the public and pointed out senior military leaders referenced the figures publicly during Senate committee hearings.
But he concedes the minister would have known the estimated cost at the time and did not speculate on why MacKay chose to go with the lower figures exclusively.”
What? Conservatives lying to the Canadian public? I am completely shocked, especially over war spending and democracy promotion.
“Peter’s got problems with his math yet again and this government’s got problems with trying to figure out how to cost things,” said NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar. “I suppose he just thinks that if he can lowball it, people won’t be concerned about the costs. But, you know, in the end, the costs add up and it caught up to Mr. MacKay.”
The solution is just to get Mackay into the right portfolio. With his math skillz we should be able to rejuvenate the social democratic fabric that makes Canada such a fantastic place to live.
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
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