A shorter John Baird...
It looks like Stephen Harper's new environment meat puppet, John Baird, has been authorized to say that global warming is real. This is a nice change from the teleprompter put in front of outgoing Rona Ambrose, but it remains to be seen whether there will be any substantive change in policy. I'm not holding my breath for anything revolutionary, but I think that Stephen Harper knows his office may live and die on this issue, so something will happen. That Baird is allowed to aknowledge the reality of global warming is a start.
I also note that the federal Liberals and their supporters seem to see this shuffle as political posturing now that the environment has become such a hugely important issue to the electorate. As Olaf says here, so what? The purpose of the government is to do things that the citizenry feel need to be done. Not reacting to the public sentiment on this issue would be an indication either of stupidity or a deeper understanding of climate science than climatologists have. I believe the CPC are not the former and do not have the latter.
The fact is, environmental issues were low on the national radar for many years and are not anymore - if the Liberals were still in power this would have taken them by surprise as well. After watching the Liberals treat environmental issues as a way of sucking a few votes at election time only to be forgotten later, I don't believe the party has any credibility on the issue at all, at least not based on past performance.
Perhaps they too have a renewed respect for environmental issues and if so, I applaud it. But for the love of FSM, don't attack the Conservatives for the same.
I also note that the federal Liberals and their supporters seem to see this shuffle as political posturing now that the environment has become such a hugely important issue to the electorate. As Olaf says here, so what? The purpose of the government is to do things that the citizenry feel need to be done. Not reacting to the public sentiment on this issue would be an indication either of stupidity or a deeper understanding of climate science than climatologists have. I believe the CPC are not the former and do not have the latter.
The fact is, environmental issues were low on the national radar for many years and are not anymore - if the Liberals were still in power this would have taken them by surprise as well. After watching the Liberals treat environmental issues as a way of sucking a few votes at election time only to be forgotten later, I don't believe the party has any credibility on the issue at all, at least not based on past performance.
Perhaps they too have a renewed respect for environmental issues and if so, I applaud it. But for the love of FSM, don't attack the Conservatives for the same.
