The Climate Change Olympics

I wonder if we could, as a country, find a way to approach climate change with the same dedication we exhibited at the Vancouver Olympics. I am even trying to conjure up a slogan to match “Own the Podium” (“Own the Climate”? “Own the Environment”?), but I am obviously not a marketer. Instead, the decades go by and we pay lip service to our commitment to addressing this grave risk to the planet, but our policy makers tend to resemble a hockey player who is ragging the puck rather than trying to score.

Polls often suggest that many Canadians like the image of their country as a leader in addressing some of the major challenges facing the globe, and this leadership is sorely needed when it comes to climate policy. This lofty self-image might explain Canada’s aggressive commitments in the Kyoto Protocol of 1997, in which we promised to make substantial greenhouse gas emissions reductions by this year, 2010, even though our fossil fuel–intensive economy and rapid...