climate change – Page 25

Friday, November 14, 2014

November 13, 2014 by Graeme MacKay

November 14, 2014

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday, November 14, 2014

U.S.-China climate change deal already facing challenges

A landmark agreement on climate change between the U.S. and China, the world’s top two polluting nations, faced immediate challenges from experts who warned that it would require an overhaul of China’s economy and from Republicans in Congress who vowed to undermine the deal.

President Obama’s ramped-up push on environmental issues set up a clash with GOP leaders, who blasted the far-reaching agreement with China as bad for business and promised to try to block the regulations necessary to meet its targets for curbing carbon emissions. Administration officials asserted that they would not be deterred.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell spoke out about an agreement President Barack Obama reached in China on climate change.

The standoff was the clearest sign yet that Obama plans to prioritize his agenda — and his legacy — over hope of sowing goodwill with the incoming Republican-controlled Congress. Even as both parties promised to heed voters’ calls to find common ground after last week’s midterm election, the White House and Republican leaders have since drawn lines in the sand over immigration as well as environmental policy.

The China pact signaled that the president “has no intention of moving towards the middle,” Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky told reporters Wednesday.

Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, likely to succeed Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) as chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee in the Republican-led Senate next year, called the deal a “nonbinding charade.”

“I will do everything in my power to rein in and shed light on the EPA’s unchecked regulations,” he said. Inhofe, perhaps Congress’ most prominent climate change skeptic, has long criticized the Environmental Protection Agency.

Administration officials touting the deal appeared unfazed by Republican promises to throw up roadblocks, describing congressional support as a bonus but not a necessity.

“It would be nice if we had some help and support from the Congress,” said a senior administration official, who requested anonymity in discussing strategy. “But we think we have the ability under laws that have already been passed by Congress — principally the Clean Air Act, but other laws as well — to get these reductions … with authorities we already have.” (Source: Los Angeles Times)

Tuesday September 23, 2014

September 23, 2014 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday September 23, 2014

Stephen Harper to skip UN Climate Summit, attend dinner instead

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is hosting a major climate summit in New York on September 23, “to mobilize political will” towards reducing global emissions.

U.S. President Barack Obama will be attending, as will U.K. Prime Minster David Cameron.

In fact, 125 heads of state will be there.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, however, will not.

In a statement released by the Prime Minister’s office on Wednesday afternoon, spokesperson Jason MacDonald said that Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq will attend the summit in his stead.

“The Prime Minister will take part in the related dinner with the Secretary-General to discuss climate issues,” noted the statement.

Incidentally, Harper will be in New York that week to attend the Every Woman, Every Child event hosted by the Secretary-General on September 25th and to address the UN General Assembly.

The climate summit is not an official negotiating summit but comes one year ahead of a 2015 meeting in Paris where world leaders are aiming to a achieve a new legally binding and universal agreement on climate change — the first one since Kyoto.

Ban Ki-Moon hopes the summit on September 23 will be a catalyst towards that deal.

“Time is running out. The more we delay, the more we will pay,” he wrote in an op-ed for the Huffington Post last week.

“Climate change is accelerating and human activities are the principal cause, as documented in a series of authoritative scientific reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The effects are already widespread, costly and consequential — to agriculture, water resources, human health, and ecosystems on land and in the oceans. Climate change poses sweeping risks for economic stability and the security of nations.” (Source: Yahoo News Canada)

Friday July 18, 2014

July 18, 2014 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday July 18, 2014

Australia’s carbon tax repealed after 2 years

Australia’s Conservative government repealed a much-maligned carbon tax on the nation’s worst greenhouse gas polluters on Thursday, ending years of contention over a measure that became political poison for the lawmakers who imposed it.

The Senate voted 39 to 32 to axe the $24.34 Cdn tax per metric tonne of carbon dioxide that was introduced by the centre-left Labour government in July 2012. Conservative lawmakers burst into applause as the final tally was announced.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s conservative coalition government rose to power last year on the promise of getting rid of the tax, assuring voters that removing it would reduce household electricity bills. He plans to replace the measure with a taxpayer-financed $2.57 billion fund to pay industry incentives to use cleaner energy.

“Today, the tax that you voted to get rid of is finally gone: a useless, destructive tax which damaged jobs, which hurt families’ cost of living and which didn’t actually help the environment,” Abbott told reporters in Canberra.

Australia is one of the world’s worst greenhouse gas emitters per capita, largely because of its heavy reliance on the nation’s vast reserves of cheap coal for electricity.

Opposition leader Bill Shorten lashed out at Abbott after the vote, dubbing him an “environmental vandal.” (Source: CBC News)

In June, Harper praised Abbott, who was visiting Ottawa, for his work as chair of the G20, as well as for ending Australia’s carbon tax.

“You’ve used this international platform to encourage our counterparts in the major economies and beyond to boost economic growth, to lower taxes when possible and to eliminate harmful ones, most notably the job-killing carbon tax,” Harper said.

Harper also took an indirect shot at Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, saying Harper and Abbott know that budgets don’t balance themselves. Canadian Conservative MPs jumped on Trudeau last February after Trudeau said economic growth would mean “the budget will balance itself.”

Abbott and Harper praised each other, with Abbott telling reporters that Harper has been a guide to centre-right politicians around the world. (Source: CBC News)

OTHER MEDIA

Posted at iPolitics.

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

January 8, 2014 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Harper still confident Keystone XL will be built, says Obama ‘punted’ decision

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says United States President Barack Obama has “punted” a decision on the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline, but he’s still confident the long-delayed $5.4-billion project will eventually be built.

Harper made his remarks during a question-and-answer session with Vancouver Board of Trade CEO Iain Black. When Black launched into one question by saying Obama had rejected the pipeline, Harper interjected.

“No, he’s punted,” the prime minister said of Obama. “He said ‘maybe.'”
“It is my hope that the administration will in due course see its way to take the appropriate decision, but that’s obviously a political process in the United States,” Harper continued.

TransCanada Corp. (TSX:TRP) first applied to build the 830,000-barrel-per-day pipeline more than five years ago. The Obama administration rejected an earlier iteration of it, but encouraged the company to re-apply with a tweaked route through Nebraska to address environmental concerns.

The $2.3-billion, 700,000-barrel-per-day southern portion of the pipeline between Cushing, Okla., and the U.S. Gulf Coast — which TransCanada could build without U.S. State Department approval because it doesn’t cross an international border — is in the process of starting up.

In an interview last month, TransCanada CEO Russ Girling said he’s optimistic a final decision on the more contentious northern portion of the pipeline will come during the first quarter of 2014.

Sean Devlin, a climate change protester, holds a sign reading “Climate justice now” during an event with Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the Vancouver Board of Trade on Monday Jan. 6, 2013. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)

Marc Spitzer, a former commissioner with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission who is now a partner with law firm Steptoe & Johnson LLP, said the Keystone XL has become “collateral damage” in an increasingly polarized U.S. political scene.

Those wondering why Keystone XL has become a “poster child” for the U.S. environmental movement might as well ask “why do people care about Miley Cyrus now?” he said.

“It’s one of those accidents of history and the White House made it worse.” (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Featured on NPR’s Double Take ‘Toons: Oil Sans-Pipeline?

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

January 7, 2014 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Add polar vortex — or ‘polar pig’ — to our winter lexicon

The so-called “polar vortex,” a pipeline of cold Arctic air pummeling the central part of the continent, is dominating headlines as it plunges various areas into record-low temperatures.

The vortex is a whirlpool of cold air making its way from Nunavut down through Manitoba and Saskatchewan and into the United States, setting many record temperatures along the way. States as far south as Georgia and Florida are being hit.

It’s also affecting Ontario, where there are widespread wind chill warnings in effect. Powerful snow squall activity around Georgian Bay and Lake Huron has resulted in blizzard warnings.

“With the depth of cold air that we’re looking at, it is a possibility that a number of cold-temperature records could be broken in southwestern Ontario,” said Geoff Coulson, meteorologist with Environment Canada.
“In Toronto, we’re going to be in the depth of cold through until Wednesday . . . The polar vortex will no longer be an issue as we head into the weekend.”

Although Canadians are not strangers to these blasts of frigid air and rapid temperature drops, the term polar vortex isn’t commonly used here, said Coulson. Rather, it’s being used in earnest by Americans to explain the cold Canadian air that’s currently invading the U.S.
The vortex has even garnered the nickname “polar pig” after the term was used to describe a bulge of cold air, during an interview last week.
“It definitely looks like one heck of a ‘polar pig’ shot,” Kyle Cooper, director of research with IAF Advisors in Houston, told Bloomberg News on Friday.

Other wacky terms being coined include “Chiberia,” to describe record-low temperatures in Chicago. (On Monday morning, temperatures there dropped to a record -27C. The wind chill makes it feel like -50C.) (Source: Toronto Star)

Cartoon inspired by the reverse of the one drawn last July: