Special to Canadian Dimension, April 16, 2007

Saskatchewan Premier Lorne Calvert has invited Al Gore to speak in Regina on April 23 on global warming and climate change. Calvert states that Gore’s lecture and slide show, An Inconvenient Truth, released in 2006, has become “a significant moment” in his understanding of this issue. Tickets for the performance at the Brandt Centre can be obtained from Ticketmaster for between $50 and $75; students, bleacher and standing room tickets are only $20. But, given Saskatchewan’s environmental record, a lot more than one talk is needed to change the tide.

In the 1970s scientists began to report the impact of greenhouse gases on climate. In 1979 the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) held a World Climate Conference and called on all nations to seriously address this question. The WMO held a joint conference with the UN Environment Programme in1985 which again called attention to climate changes being introduced by human behaviour. In 1987 the WMO and the UNEP urged the creation of a body to assess the scientific data on climate change, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was created in 1988. The following year the UN General Assembly called for special reports on climate change for the UN Conference on Environment and Development to be held in Rio in June1992.

Government evading challenges

In 1990 the IPCC issued its first report in which the scientists concluded that they were “certain” that human activities and greenhouse gas emissions were a cause of many climate changes. At the UN meeting in Rio member states, including Canada, signed an international convention where they agreed to stabilize greenhouse gas emissions at 1990 levels by 2000. This convention was ratified (including Canada) and came into effect in 1994.

Thousands of scientists have participated in the periodic surveys of scientific studies conducted by the IPCC. They have concluded that to stabilize the climate we need a 70% reduction in the burning of fossil fuels below 1990 levels. This is necessary to avoid “dangerous anthropogenic interference” (DAI), the tipping point where the global warming process would begin to feed off itself and become irreversible. This is often estimated at between 450 or 500 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, up from the 380 ppmv at the present. In recent years annual increases have been around 2.5 ppmv.

Despite the threat which appears to be quite serious, governments and major emitters are everywhere trying hard to avoid facing this challenge and instead are opting to pretend that they are doing something. Many have criticized the environmental movement for focusing on back yard issues and overlooking the bigger picture.

Impact on Saskatchewan severe

For some years now scientists have been reporting on the major effects that climate change will have on Saskatchewan. We can expect a significant decline in stream flow, higher winter runoff and lower summer flows in rivers, declining aquifers, higher pollution concentrations in water, and a drop in hydroelectric power. There will be an increased likelihood of severe drought. Higher temperatures will increase evapotranspiration and adversely affect crops. Disease and grasshopper problems will intensify. Pastures will be adversely affected. Livestock will experience heat stress during summer months. The Boreal forests will experience more fires as well as serious insect and disease problems.

So what has the Saskatchewan government been doing since 1992? Grant Devine’s Tory government created the Saskatchewan Energy Conservation and Development Authority (SEDCA) which produced a series of excellent reports detailing the abundant alternative energy potential we have: conservation, demand management, solar, wind, biomass, small hydro and geothermal. In 1995 Roy Romanow’s NDP government abolished SEDCA, and their reports have been ignored.

Fiddling while coal burns

In 1997 the UN Conference on Environment and Development met in Kyoto to reassess the commitment that members had made in 1992. The new Protocol actually reduced the goals set at Rio. In Saskatchewan the NDP government introduced a resolution in the legislature, which passed unanimously, denouncing the Kyoto meeting. Our political parties agreed that we would not send delegates or observers and that this province would not accept anything but voluntary guidelines for the reduction of greenhouse gases. The NDP government and the opposition denounced the pledge made by the Canadian government to reduce our greenhouse gas emission to an average of six percent below 1990 levels by 2012, a very minimum first step. When Jean Chretien’s government ratified this pledge in 2002, the NDP government proclaimed that this was “unacceptable” to Saskatchewan. The Saskatchewan Party agreed.

Lorne Calvert’s NDP government recently spent $86 million to refurbish generators at Coronach and Boundary Dam so that they can burn coal for another 25 years. They endorsed George W. Bush’s call for a new continental energy pact, and Lorne Calvert and Eric Cline have twice gone to Washington to urge the USA, which burns 25% of the world’s fossil fuels, to buy even more from Saskatchewan. At the meeting of the Western premiers at Gimli in 2006 they agreed to reject the Kyoto Protocol and adopt Stephen Harper’s “made in Canada” plan to do virtually nothing about climate change.

Saskatchewan has a well known record on this issue. The Pembina Institute gave the NDP government a failing grade for having taken the least action of any province on global warming. We have the fastest growing greenhouse gas emissions rate, the highest per capita rate, and are about 62% above the 1990 levels.

The Calvert government continues to stress that it is moving in the right direction. It is providing subsidies to promote ethanol, a strategy which is now widely criticized around the world. There is also the $2 billion committed to building a “clean coal” megaproject which is being designed to capture carbon dioxide and pump it into the ground in order to extract more petroleum. Last week the government held a hyped up press conference to announce the new “green strategy” for the province. The total amount of funds allocated to alternative energy projects will be $7.5 million. Al Gore has a lot of work to do in this province.

John W. Warnock is a Regina political economist and author and has been active in the environmental movement for over thirty years.

This article was posted on Tuesday, April 17th, 2007 and is filed under Canadian Issues and Politics, Climate Change, NDP. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.