A turnabout speech for Stephen Harper -- by Geoff Garver

Geoff Garver co-authored Right Relationship: Building a Whole Earth Economy (Berret-Koehler, 2009). This is his imaginary turnabout speech for Canada's PM, who has so far opposed all action to meet the environmental crisis. Keith Helmuth wrote a similar speech for Pres. Obama.

"We Canadians must recognize that the economic and financial crisis we are facing is coupled with an ecological crisis that has been longer in the making and is ultimately more serious. If we do not address the ecological crisis with urgency, even as we face economic difficulties, the growing cost to ecosystems, through global warming, loss of firefighters and other global ecological threats, will be overwhelming. The time for foresight and action to prevent catastrophe is now. And in acting, we must recognize that much of the consumption in countries like Canada in the last century is driven by fossil fuels. Therefore the government of Canada commits itself to the Earth Charter, and to a drastic reduction in Canada's per capita and collective ecological footprint. The government will do its utmost to show the world that Canada can indeed live within its ecological means."

If only it were true...

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Additional references:
Prof. David Boyd's 40 unanswered questions to Harper -- still unanswered two years later.
GBO3 (10 May 2010) scientific report shows catastrophic decline in world biodiversity.
Canada's tarsands policy.
James Hoggan and Richard Littlemore, Climate Cover-Up: The Crusade to Deny Global Warming.