Although Mark Jaccard attempts to present a picture of sober and hard-nosed assessment, his reasonable tone does not obscure the fact that he has missed the boat entirely with his claims about Canada having done nothing about its Kyoto targets and our climate change challenge in general. From start to finish, he tempers what otherwise would sound like reasonable advice.
Having served on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, been an advisor to the Chinese government and even been consulted by our very own Cross-Country Checkup, he is clearly an acknowledged expert on climate change. However, he discusses “our country’s policy catastrophe” but ignores the real catastrophe, which is that he, along with those whom it benefits in the short term, does not entirely buy into the real threat of climate change. I quote: “Canadians should be demanding of their politicians if they wish to see their country make a contribution to the global effort to address this potentially grave threat to the planet” [my italics]. “Potentially” means he hasn’t accepted this threat completely.
He speaks of how the United States and Australia, as examples of countries in situations similar to Canada, have “aggressively and successfully negotiated less ambitious targets” [my italics]. Successfully? Mr. Jaccard does not get it. Laughably, he applauds the federal Conservatives and Alberta’s enthusiasm to “move beyond the tight Kyoto timeframe to discuss policies that will cause significant reductions in greenhouse gases over a period of several decades” [my italics].
We don’t have decades to build policies and take action. This is like listening to one of Sir Humphrey Appleby’s speeches in a Yes, Minister episode: We take this very seriously and will devote our full attention to it (which means: if we wait long enough, the problem will go away or the government will change). So why does Mr. Jaccard take this position?
Mr. Jaccard never bought in; what a waste of paper. None of this changes the real need for countries like Canada to face these challenges squarely instead of practising and perpetuating stalling tactics. I pose a simple question to everyone who still sits on the fence or buries his head in the sand: If the greens have it wrong, what are the consequences? We shift our economy from oil (oil companies could even take the lead?) and potentially gain the competitive advantage over those that haven’t done so yet. We have a cleaner planet. We survive.
If, on the other hand, those like Mr. Jaccard get it wrong, what are the consequences? He will survive; I will survive; but what of our children? (I cannot begin to imagine what our grandchildren will inherit.) It is irresponsible of Mr. Jaccard to talk about policy while not being completely forthright about his real opinion of the threat from climate change and the challenges facing all of us. He cannot afford to be wrong about this.
Lawrence Wardroper
Ottawa, Ontario
A response from Mark Jaccard
I found it both amusing and irritating to read Lawrence Wardroper telling your readers what I really think after he read my article on climate change (“Canada’s Kyoto Delusion,” January/ February 2007). He has to work hard to make unfounded assumptions, twist my words and ignore other things I say in order to make his case that I do not believe climate change is a serious risk that calls for immediate policy action. People who know me and have followed my research, writing and policy advice these past 20 years know he is completely wrong.
According to Wardroper, because I refer to climate change as a “potentially grave threat to the planet,” I have not accepted this threat completely. But scientist colleagues (such as those on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) have taught me to use qualified language when talking about a risk that has great uncertainty— especially in terms of what changes to the climate might actually occur. To do otherwise reflects arrogance or the bluster of the insecure. The scientists tell us there is a very serious risk and that is enough for me to champion the need for immediate strong policies, as I have been doing relentlessly.
I say this several times in the article, and have been writing it in public documents for almost two decades. But Wardroper knows what I really think. He knows this because at one point in the article I note that significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions will occur only over several decades. Wardroper then explains that “we don’t have decades to build policies.” These are his words, not mine. I am referring to actions, not policies; the latter must be immediate, the former take decades as we renew our infrastructure, buildings and equipment. As someone who models the energy-economy system, I recognize that it takes decades of concerted action to turn the ship around, and these only start to happen if we immediately implement strong policies, as I keep arguing in the article. We cannot just bulldoze Wardroper’s house or apartment tomorrow in order to make it a zero-emission dwelling, much as I might wish to.
It is interesting that those of us who try to find honest language that increases the chances of getting immediate policy action—by not denying people the right to feel the science is still uncertain, by not seeking to kill people’s livelihood if that is really not necessary to achieve our climate objective—should be critiqued for not using the language of religious zealots in having absolute certainty and in wanting the sinners in Alberta and elsewhere to pay huge albeit unnecessary costs. I wonder whose approach has a better chance of saving the planet.
Mark Jaccard
Vancouver, British Columbia
