It's a sad day when sa国际传媒 needs a leader from another country to nudge its policymakers in the direction of common sense.
Last week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel made headlines on this side of the ocean with a visit to Halifax, where she toured a display on climate change's effects on fish stocks. As was widely remarked, the side trip underscores the stark difference between Merkel's approach to the issue of global warming and our own government's.
The hard-as-nails chancellor, hardly a tree-hugging hippie, is a believer in the science of climate change and an advocate both for mitigation and adaptation. Our government, meanwhile, pays lip service to these ideas, but has made clear by its actions that the issue is nowhere on its agenda.
Where it should be working to reduce emissions and hatch a strategy to deal with the coming shift, Ottawa is instead pushing to accelerate development of the oilsands and muzzle or fire the scientists who might question the wisdom of doing so.
This attitude is economic folly. A glance south shows why.
As with any weather event, crippling drought in the U.S. can't be tied to a long-term trend, but it does illustrate the impact that global warming's predicted effects, left unchecked, would have on our country's bottom line. Agriculture, fisheries, forestry, health care - all stand to suffer in the face of rising global temperatures.
Our government, especially given its promise to care for our economy, should take a page out of Germany's book and start taking this issue seriously.
