Wake Up Canada!

And now for some Saturday comedy – amazing American comedian Janeane Garofolo, an American who reads that fabulous Canadian magazine “The Walrus” (not even many Canadians can claim that!) on right-wing politicians in her country, and ours. It was recorded in September, 2008:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-B4JRlkMDs&tracker=False]

Climate Change In The News

Here’s a few of the articles that I’ve been reading lately:

Global Warming Confuses Americans on CBC.ca:

According to a study by Yale University researchers, 63 per cent of U.S. citizens believe that global warming exists. However, only 57 per cent know what the greenhouse effect is and only 45 per cent recognize the impact of carbon dioxide in trapping the earth’s heat.

Seventy-five per cent of those surveyed said they would like to know more about the phenomenon and 75 per cent believe that schools should teach children about the issue.
It does make you wonder why so many of the Republicans running in the senate race are anti-science climate change deniers, and why they are doing so well. Here’s a fresh post from Grist on this topic:

The Climate Post: Psychoanalyzing the GOP’s flourishing climate skepticism

A column in the National Journal points out the GOP is the only conservative party in the developed world in which denial of basic climate science is endemic, but one of The New York Times’s token conservative commentators counters that this is only because political parties in Europe aren’t as responsive to their constituents, who tend to be no more skeptical of man-made global warming than Americans.

Climate activist Bill McKibben says it’s all about money; others believe action on climate change would be almost impossible even if the GOP were more like conservative parties elsewhere.

Read the full story on Grist.org

And my favourite read in a long time, from George Monbiot, The Values of Everything, on why Progressive causes are failing and how they could be turned around:

So here we are, forming an orderly queue at the slaughterhouse gate. The punishment of the poor for the errors of the rich, the abandonment of universalism, the dismantling of the shelter the state provides: apart from a few small protests, none of this has yet brought us out fighting.

The acceptance of policies which counteract our interests is the pervasive mystery of the 21st Century. In the United States, blue-collar workers angrily demand that they be left without healthcare, and insist that millionaires should pay less tax. In the UK we appear ready to abandon the social progress for which our ancestors risked their lives with barely a mutter of protest. What has happened to us?

The answer, I think, is provided by the most interesting report I have read this year. Common Cause, written by Tom Crompton of the environment group WWF, examines a series of fascinating recent advances in the field of psychology. It offers, I believe, a remedy to the blight which now afflicts every good cause from welfare to climate change.

Read the full article on Monbiot.com

And last but not least, some good news out of Montreal via The Happy Wanderer blog:

In Montreal the mayor Gerald Tremblay has put out his new green plan for the city. In Montreal we are going way beyond our provinces GHG emission reduction. Reducing 30% of the GHG by 2020 rather than the Quebec 20% by 2020. Both these targets are great, and are very ambitious. With more cycling opportunities renovating buildings to be more energy-efficient and much more. Quebec is moving forward while Harper is taking us back with his so-called “Eco plan”…

Click here to read more on The Happy Wanderer

Now I’m off to the all-candidates meeting for our municipal election, which is coming up on October 25th. Think global, act local, right?